PICAYUNE — Democrat Congressman Gene Taylor said on Friday that his internal polling shows he has an eight-point lead over GOP challenger Steven Palazzo, headed into the last three weeks of the campaign for Mississippi’s fourth congressional district seat.

Taylor’s comment came in the wake of Palazzo’s claim that he and Taylor are in a “statistical dead heat” after an internal poll by Palazzo’s camp showed Taylor leading with what Palazzo called a “slight lead” of four points, 45 percent for Taylor to 41 percent for Palazzo.

Both Taylor and Palazzo campaigned in Pearl River County this week, Taylor breakfasting with residents at Hardee’s on Wednesday morning, and Palazzo attending a fish fry at Jack Read Park on Goodyear Boulevard, attended by about 100 of his supporters on Thursday.

Taylor was back in Picayune on Saturday morning at Paul’s Pastry, helping that business celebrate its 40th birthday, and then he headed north to campaign during this weekend in the northern end of the fourth district which stretches all the way up to near Meridian.

Palazzo termed his poll results a “statistical tie” because the margin of error in scientifically conducted polls is plus or minus 5.8 percent. Palazzo paid for the poll, which was conducted by the Tarrance Group.

However, Taylor on Friday charged that Palazzo’s poll questions were “skewed.” Palazzo maintained his polling results by the Tarrance Group are accurate. Taylor did not say who conducted his polling.

The tit for tat is getting more contentious and heated for Nov. 2 General Election, which is only 23 days away, and it could get even more contentious as the percentages tighten even further. It has not, as yet, gotten personal.

Right now, the center of debate is who is the most conservative and who gets to wear the conservative mantle.

The fourth district is considered to be a conservative district, and Taylor has managed to represent the district for 21 years while surviving in a more liberal Democratic Party.

Palazzo says the central fact that shows he is different from Taylor is that “I would have never, never voted for Nancy Pelosi.” Palazzo at every campaign stop charges Taylor voted for the Speaker not once but twice, and that when he gets to Washington he is going “to fire her.”

Taylor, who claims he has the endorsement of prominent conservative groups such as Right to Life, the VFW and the American Rifle Assoc., explains that Pelosi came to the Gulf Coast after Katrina and promised to support Taylor’s insurance reform initiatives. Taylor charged the insurance firms colluded on resisting to pay up and he was sponsoring reform legislation in the House.

“She supported me the first year, and the legislation passed the House, but failed in the Senate,” said Taylor on Friday. “She failed to support it this year, so I will not be voting for her again.”

In addition, Taylor says the alternative to Pelosi was Ohio GOP Rep. John Boehner, (the congressman with the golden tan) who, Taylor adds, “voted against every piece of legislation favorable to South Mississippi.”

With the political atmosphere crackling with anti-President Obama, anti-Washington sentiment, Taylor may be feeling the pressure from Palazzo. Both are from the Gulf Coast, Palazzo, a CPA with offices in Biloxi, also is a state representative from Biloxi and a Gulf War veteran, a Marine.

Taylor lives in Bay St. Louis and was a state legislator before becoming a Congressman in 1989, and has served in the U.S. Coast Guard. He originally ran against Larkin Smith, former Gulfport police chief. When Smith died in a plane crash, he ran again and won in 1989. Smith was a native of Poplarville.

Both see Pearl River County as an integral piece of any winning strategy, so both are campaigning hard here.

Palazzo’s Tarrance Poll caught the attention of GOP party heads and Palazzo flew to Washington last week to meet with party bigwigs.

Asked at Thursday’s fish fry: “Did they offer you any more money?”

Palazzo said, “Let’s hope that they will be helping. They indicated they would give us some money and contribute to our campaign. But we got this far without them, depending on the people and the grassroots of the fourth district. Our campaign is home-grown, and we will continue to do what we have been doing that has pulled us neck-and-neck with Taylor.”

Palazzo said on Thursday that Taylor has decided to vote against Pelosi and to help repeal the national health care insurance reform bill “because it’s only a few weeks to voting, and he realizes that the voters are preparing to send him home.”

The Washington Examiner reported that Taylor is the first Democrat to get on-board the push to repeal the health care reform bill. Taylor on Friday said he originally voted against the health care bill so it’s not surprising he would be for repealing it.

Palazzo on Thursday told supporters, “I am a true GOP conservative, and Gene Taylor is a Democrat who talks conservative, but votes with his liberal friends.”

Taylor charged that Palazzo is in the pockets of the big insurance companies and voted three times against legislation that would have protected private property owners from eminent domain proceedings.

“I knew when I took on the big insurance companies that they would be coming after me and he is their shield,” said Taylor.

Palazzo retorted that Taylor’s funding comes mostly from out-of-state special interests, not from the district, and that he voted against the eminent domain legislation because it was weak and he wanted something stronger.

There will be no debate this election year, and Palazzo says that he wanted a debate, once proposing that the debates be held in each of the 15 counties making up the district, but Palazzo said he believes Taylor’s political advisers told him not to do it since the race is so tight.

Taylor asked about that on Friday said that a debate has not taken place because Palazzo wants too many “ground rules,” like using his blackberry during the debate to retrieve information.

Palazzo says he conferred with the head of the NRCC, U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, while in Washington, and pointed to endorsements from Dick Morris, Mike Huckabee, Right to Life and the American Rifle Assoc.

On Saturday, The Sun-Herald newspaper on the Coast editorially endorsed Taylor.

The fourth district is composed of Harrison, Hancock, Jackson, George, Greene, Pearl River, Stone, Lamar, Forrest, Perry, Wayne, Clarke, Jones, Jasper and Marion counties.

There are two other candidates on the ballot for the congressional district seat: Kenneth “Tim” Hampton, a Libertarian, and Anna Jewel Revies, Reform Party, both from Hattiesburg.

Hampton has campaigned in Picayune twice at meetings at Cafe Amore and has said he offers an alternative to both the Democrat and Republican parties, which, he says, are both to blame for the mess he says the nation is in.

He says the Libertarian Party is for small government and individual freedom.

The Item has made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Revies. The Reform Party was begun by Ross Perot.

Neither Hampton nor Revies are expected to pull enough votes to affect the race, many pundits are saying.