Flier links candidate to KKK statue

SOUTHAVEN, Miss., May 13 (UPI) -- A campaign flier distributed by Democrats on the eve of Mississippi's special House election, ties the Republican candidate in the race to the Ku Klux Klan.

Republicans immediately criticized the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for levying untrue charges, The Hill reported Tuesday.

"This is a despicable move even for the DCCC," said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. "False accusations and race-baiting politics have no place in our public discourse."

The piece states Republican candidate Greg Davis wanted to honor the founder of the KKK with a statue in Southaven, Miss., where he serves as mayor.

Davis supported moving the statue of KKK founder and first Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest from Memphis to Southaven after civil rights leaders tried to have it taken down, the fliers said.

Davis is running against Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers, a Democrat.

A report by The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal is cited in the flier for reporting in 2005 that Davis and Horn Lake Mayor Nat Baker said they would "gladly accept the statues here in DeSoto (County) if Memphis didn't want them."