(Tupelo, MS) Steve Holland Ran against Everett Dutschke for Mississippi State Representative in 2007, and the campaign got rough.
It reached a head when, at a political rally in Verona, Holland’s mother, Justice Judge Sadie Holland called Dutschke out before the crowd.
”Mother followed him. I think the way the story goes, she just asked for him to apologize, make a public apology for making disparaging remarks about one of her sons and the family in general,” said Holland.
It was a very public apology, ”Yes, on stage, in front of about three hundred people.”
It gives perhaps the most probable cause as to why the FBI would investigate Dutschke when Judge Holland, Senator Roger Wicker and President Obama reportedly received letters poisoned with ricin.
Steve Holland describes Dutschke as always opinionated and pushy, ”I saw him, maybe, during that campaign, 4 to 6 times and he was always very invigorated, always attacking me, always on the defensive about everything.’
The attacks went on until, as Holland puts it, Dutschke’s election bid went “down like the Titanic.”
Despite Dutschke’s run-ins with the Holland family during the campaign, nothing ever ended up in court, either State of Federal.
Holland says his mother is widely loved and respected, a pioneer in every sense of the word, with a work ethic that would shame a 20-year-old, even though she’s 80.
He says his mother’s been put off by an abundance of media attention and would just like everything to go away, ”I’d just about as soon jump into a bed of cobra snakes as have to put up with this. I’m very tired of it”.
But as the federal ricin investigation continues, that seems a long way off
