JACKSON, Miss. -- Attorney General Bill Allain faces Republican businessman Leon Bramlett Tuesday in a Mississippi governor's race turned bitter by charges of sexual transgression against Allain.
Allain, a tall, white-haired Democrat from Natchez, said allegations that he engaged in homosexual acts with male transvestites are lies.
'I'm no sexual deviate and Leon Bramlett knows it,' said Allain, who took a lie detector test he said proved the charges were false.
Bramlett, a wealthy 60-year-old Clarksdale businessman and onetime U.S. Naval Academy boxing champion, denied any part in the sex charges.
But the Republican contender said Allain 'lacks every qualification of leadership, honesty and courage that are basic requirements for anybody who would hold the office of governor.'
Bramlett had demanded Allain take three, independent lie detector tests prior to the election and said if Allain passed all three tests, he would withdraw.
Allain, 55, said he agreed to take a polygraph test in New Orleans because the firm had no interest in the outcome of the race.
Allain also insisted he did not want Bramlett to withdraw, saying he wants Mississippi voters to show at the polls how they feel about 'this kind of mudslinging.'
Civil rights leader Charles Evers, the former mayor of Fayette, is making his second bid for governor as an independent candidate. Evers has little chance of winning, but may help Bramlett by diulting Allain's black support.
Secretary of State Ed Pittman predicts 800,000 of the state's 1.5 million voters will cast ballots.
The homosexual allegations -- released by Jackson attorney Bill Spell two weeks before the election -- changed overnight what had been a relatively quiet campaign.
Mississippi hasn't had a Republican governor since 1876, and the impact of the sex charges on this campaign has been difficult to measure.
Allain, with the endorsement of outgoing Gov. William Winter, was a solid favorite early in the race. He said a poll taken after the homosexual charges showed he still held a comfortable lead of 46 percent to 26 for Bramlett and 10 percent for Evers.
Bramlett supporters, however, contend the race has become much closer in the aftermath of the homosexual allegations.
Bramlett once served as chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, but switched to the GOP in 1976. He was a delegate at the 1980 GOP National Convention and co-chairman of Mississippi's steering committee for President Reagan.
Allain was elected attorney general four years ago and defeated former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Gandy in August for the Democratic nomination.
