Detractors of Democratic Senate candidate Ronnie Musgrove are pointing to press reports linking him to businessmen who were indicted yesterday for their reported connections to a botched beef-processing plant funded by the state of Mississippi.

Mr. Musgrove was not charged or implicated in the indictment handed down yesterday in the U.S. Northern District of Mississippi against three businessmen affiliated with the plant. The men are charged with mail fraud and conspiracy to corruptly influence a public official, who has been identified in a publicly-released polygraph transcript as Mr. Musgrove.

The project, which was approved while Mr. Musgrove was governor, opened in August 2004 but was shuttered three months later at a cost of $55 million to taxpayers, according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.

"It appears Ronnie Musgrove is being outed for tip-toeing around Mississippi taxpayers for political gain," said Rebecca Fisher, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the body supporting Mr. Musgrove's opponent, GOP Sen. Roger Wicker. "After leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for this fiasco, Musgrove now has the audacity to ask for their vote."

When contacted by The Washington Times, the Musgrove campaign maintained that Mr. Musgrove was not influenced by the businessmen, two of whom contributed to the then-governor's 2003 failed re-election bid.

"Ronnie Musgrove had nothing to do with the awarding of any of the contracts related to the beef processing plant and at no time did anyone try to influence him regarding the awarding of such contracts," said Musgrove campaign manager Amanda Crumley. "If anyone defrauded the taxpayers of the state of Mississippi, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

— Carrie Sheffield, Web editor, The Washington Times