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Congressional
Races Fourth District Congressman Gene Taylor has the most serious challenger in Petal legislator Mike Lott (no relation to Trent Lott). Lott hails from the northern part of the new Fourth Congressional District. Prior to redistricting after the 2000 Census, the Fourth was dominated by the Gulf Coast, a stronghold for Taylor. The population is fairly evenly split now between the Coast and the northern half of the district. In his 15 years in Congress, Taylor has consistently been a maverick. When the House leadership was dominated by Democrats, Taylor often sided with Republicans. Taylor didn’t get along well with the Clinton Administration. Once the Republicans took the House majority, Taylor frequently took to the House floor to launch verbal barbs at the GOP leadership. The maverick politician hasn’t spared the Bush Administration criticism. He opposed Bush’s tax cut and voted against the prescription drug plan, which eventually passed the House. When Democratic presidential hopeful Wes Clark visited Jackson recently, Taylor was quoted as saying, “When George Bush was chasing girls at Yale, Wesley Clark was chasing Viet Cong in Vietnam.” Taylor’s quote wasn’t well received at the White House. Afterwards, the President was rumored to have made several calls recruiting candidates to run against Taylor. Taylor’s contrarian streak might put him philosophically at odds with many of his constituents, but he’s still personally popular in much of the district, and voters respect his independence. As with any incumbent, Taylor will be exceedingly difficult to beat. It would be a huge upset. However, if there’s an upset in Mississippi congressional elections this year, this is probably the only chance. Any of the
three Republican candidates could emerge as the nominee to challenge Congressman
Bennie Thompson. Each has his or her own strengths and base of support.
Stephanie Summers-O’Neal may be a slight favorite at this point
because she’ll likely have a fundraising advantage. Whoever emerges
will have an uphill fight against Thompson. Vote
Counts J.P. Compretta of Bay St. Louis was tapped by House members to become Speaker Pro Tem. Four candidates lined up to replace, Rep. Robert Clark, who retired from the legislature last year. Three rounds of votes ultimately determined the Speaker Pro Tem. The candidate with the least votes dropped out after each round. The first out of the race was Rep. Charlie Capps of Cleveland, leaving Compretta facing Rep. George Flaggs, a member of the Legislative Black Caucus, and Republican Mark Formby. Throughout the three rounds of voting, Flaggs held on to all the members of the Black Caucus except for Rep. David Green of Gloster. Aside from the Caucus, Flaggs attracted the vote of Rep. Mae Whittington on all three votes. Rep. Cecil Brown voted for Flaggs after his first choice, Capps, was ousted in the first vote. Flaggs ousted Rep. Mark Formby of Picayune in the second round when a tie was broken by Speaker McCoy. In the two rounds of votes, Formby received the support of most of his fellow Republicans, but by no means all. Fifteen of the 46 Republicans in the House defected from their party on the vote. In the first round, Reps. Larry Baker (Senatobia), Jim Barnett (Brookhaven), Forrest Hamilton (Olive Branch), Frank Hamilton (Hurley), Chester Masterson (Vicksburg), Ted Mayhall (Southaven), John Read (Gautier), Jim Simpson (Pass Christian) and Tommy Woods (Byhalia) voted with Capps. Reps. Leonard Bentz (Biloxi), Danny Guice (Ocean Springs), Steve Horne (Meridian), Roger Ishee (Gulfport), Eric Robinson (Quitman), and Hank Zuber (Ocean Springs) voted for the eventually winner, Compretta, thought-out the voting. Rep. Jim Simpson of Pass Christian voted for Capps in the first round, Flaggs in the second and Compretta in the last. After Capps was knocked-out
of the first round, most of the Capps votes went with Formby. Gary Staples
of Laurel switched his vote form Formby to Compretta. Hamilton and Read,
who initially voted for Capps, also voted for Compretta. Simpson voted
for Flaggs, creating a tie between Flaggs and Formby which Speaker McCoy
broke with a vote for Flaggs. Mississippi’s
Moment In his inaugural address before hundreds gathered on the South front of the capitol, Barbour labeled jobs as “our most urgent need.” He tied reforms to education, the civil justice system and the state budget to the long-term prospects of job creation and greater opportunity.(TEXT OF INAGURAL SPEECH)
Former Governor Ronnie Musgrove plans to teach several political science courses this year at his alma mater, the University of Mississippi. Musgrove told the Associated Press he would teach part time while attending to “some other work.” Barbour's campaign Press Secretary, Quinton Dickerson, has opened up a PR/Marketing firm, Frontier Strategies. DiAnne Owen, Barbour's scheduler, will be an associate director in external affairs at the Republican Convention in New York. Some new
faces will also be seen around the Mississippi Republican Party. Barbour
campaign staffer Arnie Hederman took the reigns at the State GOP last
month as Executive Director. Hederman had previously served as Political
Director at the State Party before heading to a job for Mike Parker’s
1999 run for governor. Hederman also worked for Barbour at the RNC when
Barbour chaired the national committee. Sally
Birdsall, who serverd as Deputy Communications Director on the Barbour
campaign, will be the Communications Director. Ryan Annison will move
over from the campaign to be the party's the IT Director. Former Fordice communications director John Arledge will reprise his role as communications director in the Barbour administration. Arledge will wear another hat as Deputy Chief of Staff. Pete Smith comes over from State Auditor Phil Bryant’s office to server as Barbour’s press secretary. Kathryn Stewart, who worked on Barbour’s campaign, will be Smith’s deputy. Bo Kabala serves as the other deputy press secretary. Jim Perry, who ran the policy shop on Barbour’s campaign, will transition to the governor’s office as Director of Policy. Previously, Perry served as the Legislative Director of U.S. Congressman Roger Wicker. Joining Perry on the policy staff will be former Jackson City Councilman Daryl Neely, one-time Congressman Chip Pickering Deputy Chief of Staff John Rounsaville and former Assistant Dean of Student Organizations at UM, Dr. Jason Dean. Mary Alice Browning, Nicole Stofer and Lucien Smith will also assist in the policy shop. Two former
legislators will serve as legislative liaisons for Barbour. Andrew Ketchings
of Natchez left the House of Representatives to run for State Treasurer.
Neely Carlton retired from the State Senate after the birth of a child
early last year. Joining Ketchings
and Carlton as a legislative liaison is Preston Powell, who spent last
year working on Lt. Governor Amy Tuck’s campaign. DeWayne Thomas was certified as the winner in the closely contested election, but he wasn’t seated when other Senators were sworn-in a few weeks ago. Thomas’ election contest with Senator Richard White has been mired in controversy since Election Day because of several irregularities, including un-initialed ballots that were counted despite never having been counted before in previous state elections. The committee concluded that the Hinds County Election Commission had improperly counted un-initialed paper ballots. It noted also that totals from illegal ballots were wrongly entered into the totals, and that the mistake could not be corrected because the ballots could not be identified. The Senate committee also found that 151 voters from Precinct 93B in Senate District 28 were improperly allowed to vote in the Senate District 29 election. The results were included in the certification numbers by the Hinds County Election Commission. Only three of the five members of the commission signed the certification due to the election controversy.
In two opinions on this election, Moore changed his position 180 degrees. In their report, the committee noted that Moore’s opinion initially only applied to ballots in Precinct 94. He later issued a subsequent opinion, recommending the counting of un-initialed ballots only in Hinds County. The committee found that Moore’s opinion constituted major changes in Mississippi election law, which would run afoul of the Voting Rights Act with which requires major changes to election law to first receive pre-clearance for the U.S. Department of Justice. The committee also concluded that Moore’s opinion “established different procedures for conducting an election” in Hinds County than in the other 81 counties in the state. Their report states that this is “contrary to law and simply not fair.” Ultimately, they found Attorney General Moore’s two opinions “wrong and ill-advised,” stating they “should not be followed in any future elections….” In an interesting side bar, Thomas attorney Ben Piazza argued a case decided by the Supreme Court on September 11, 2003 in which the high court affirmed state law declaring un-initialed ballots illegal. In that case, Piazza’s client benefited form the disqualification of un-initialed ballots. In the Thomas case, Piazza took the other side and lost.
In the House, McCoy made history by appointing Percy Watson to chair the Ways and Means Committee. Watson becomes the first African-American to lead a “money” committee in the state legislature. McCoy replaced longtime Appropriations Committee Chairman Charlie Capps with Rep. Johnny Stringer. Capps will chair the Constitution Committee. Tuck, reflecting her switch to the GOP, bounced Senator Bennie Turner from his post as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Senator Alice Hardin was moved from the chair of the Education Committee to the chairmanship of the committee on Universities and Colleges. Senator Mike Chaney of Vicksburg replaces Hardin as chair of the Education Committee. Nowhere will the chasm between the Republican led Senate and the Democrat led House be more apparent than over the issue of civil justice reform. Tuck, who is a strong proponent of civil justice reform, split the Senate Judiciary into two committees. One will purportedly handle civil issues; the other, criminal. Tuck appointed conservative Republican Charlie Ross to handle Judiciary A and appointed liberal Democrat Gray Tollison to head the other. Presumably Tuck will refer tort reform bills to Ross’ committee, where they are very likely to pass. The House already had two judiciary committees. McCoy appointed one of the state’s wealthiest trial lawyers, Rep. Ed Blackmon, to chair Judiciary A and appointed moderate Rep. Jeff Smith of Columbus to lead the other. Any civil justice reform measure that is referred to Blackmon’s committee should be considered dead-on-arrival.
The recess appointment provides some closure to a two-year battle over Pickering’s nomination. The nomination was opposed by national Democrats, civil rights groups and a number of left-leaning organizations. Congressman
Bennie Thompson, who has led opposition in Mississippi to the nomination,
criticized the decision, saying, “It was quite unfortunate that
the President would choose to seat Judge Pickering as the nation prepares
to celebrate to life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” Magnolia
Report Updates
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Haley
Barbour visited every corner or the state in the run-up to his swearing
in at noon Tuesday. Barbour made stops in Yazoo City, Southaven, Tupelo
and Biloxi before ending up in Jackson for two days of festivities.
