The Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Miss.

Drive through parts of Jackson where Bill Waller Jr. grew up and still lives or even through parts of south Madison County and it is not unusual to see signs touting his campaign for governor.

No doubt, Waller is a known commodity in much of the Jackson metro area. He served as a justice on the Mississippi Supreme Court for 21 years, 10 years as chief justice, being elected to the position by voters from the Central District.

But in terms of statewide name recognition, Waller is at a decided disadvantage against fellow Republican – Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who has run and won four statewide campaigns and has a far superior campaign war chest.

Bobby Harrison

A third Republican gubernatorial candidate, freshman state Rep. Robert Foster of DeSoto County, is at an even larger disadvantage.

Both Waller and Foster are dutifully canvassing the state, trying to cut into Reeves’ name recognition advantage.

But politicians who have run statewide before say to do so takes money – a relatively large sum.

In 2007 Jamie Franks, a Lee County attorney, was a three term state House member who was viewed as one of the better known members of the Legislature

He chose to take that experience and run for lieutenant governor against Phil Bryant, who had won two statewide elections for auditor.

Republican candidates for governor: Former Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr., freshman Rep. Robert Foster, R-Hernando and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves

Franks ran an aggressive campaign, but never could match the name recognition of Bryant – much less get his message out on the issues.

“Just to do name ID even back 12 years was in excess of $1 million … It is going to cost more than $600,000,” Franks said, referring to the $580,000 Waller reported last week on his campaign finance reports.

“If Waller does not significantly increase his campaign fund raising, we will be looking at Tate Reeves as the Republican nominee,” Franks added.

Reeves had almost $7 million in his war chest to start the year and already is running television commercials. Waller and Foster, thus far, are trying to do it the old fashion way – retail politics, meeting people individually and trying to garner their votes. Even in a state the size of Mississippi, that is a tough row to hoe.

But Waller and Foster do have an advantage that candidates even a few election cycles ago did not have – the internet and social media. Candidates being able to get their message out via social media evens the playing field to an extent.

Of course, older voters might remember Bill Waller’s father and namesake was elected for one term as governor in 1971.

Another advantage for Waller and Foster might be the layout of the Republican primary.

In 1991, little known Vicksburg contractor Kirk Fordice shocked the state’s political observers by first winning the Republican primary against establishment candidate Pete Johnson and then by upending incumbent Democratic Gov. Ray Mabus.

Much went into Frodice’s upset of Mabus. But the victory over Johnson was pretty simple to explain. Fordice won the Republican primary against Johnson with 31,753  votes – 17,165 of which came from three counties – Rankin, Hinds and Harrison. Now winning the Republican primary is more of a statewide endeavor. In 2015, 299,368 voted in the Democratic gubernatorial primary compared to 279,427 in the Republican primary.

This year could be the first time since the 1800s where more people vote in the Republican primary (in a state, not federal election) than in the Democratic primary.

But votes on the Republican side, much more so than on the Democratic side, are still concentrated in a few large counties, such as Rankin, Madison, DeSoto, Lauderdale, Harrison, Lee and a few others.

If Waller or Foster can garner that all important name recognition in those counties, perhaps they will have a chance.

But to do so, Franks said they must create their own name recognition.

Otherwise, Reeves with his superior funds, can create a negative narrative.

“All he needs to do is find one criminal Bill Waller voted to set free” as a member of the Supreme Court and make that a campaign ad, Franks said.

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Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today Ideas editor, previously served as Mississippi Today's senior capitol reporter covering politics, government and the Mississippi State Legislature. He writes a weekly column.

A native of Laurel, Bobby joined our team June 2018 after working for the North Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo since 1984. He also worked for his hometown Laurel Leader-Call.

Bobby has a bachelor’s in American Studies from the University of Southern Mississippi and has received multiple awards from the Mississippi Press Association, including the Bill Minor Best Investigative/In-depth Reporting and Best Commentary Column. He was recognized for two consecutive years as “Advocate of the Year” for the North Mississippi Special Needs Arc.

He is president of the Mississippi Capitol Press Corps Association and works with the Mississippi State University Stennis Institute to arrange luncheons for newsmakers.