*****************************************************
Movers and Shakers
*****************************************************
President George W. Bush appointed Rosemary Ramirez Barbour of Jackson to serve as a Member of the Advisory Committee on the Arts, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Mrs. Barbour leads the Mississippi Hispanic Republican Alliance and her husband Charles serves as President of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors.

Governor Ronnie Musgrove recently made two judicial appointments. Hinds County Judge Bobby DeLaughter was appointed to fill the unexpired term of retired Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Breland Hillburn. DeLaughter is running unopposed for this seat in November. Musgrove filled DeLaughter's post with Jackson attorney William A. Gowan, counsel to the Hinds County Sheriff's Department. Gowan is not seeking this office during November's election. John Breland of Clinton, George Holmes of Jackson and Mike Parker of Clinton are running to occupy this seat for the full term.

Congressman Ronnie Shows has brought on board Reverend Stan Wachtstetter to his Congressional Staff in Jackson to handle Faith-Based Initiatives and to work with Faith-Based Organizations across the district. A minister of 40 years, Wachtstetter has pastored for more than 25 years and worked most recently in Mississippi's former Governor Kirk Fordice's Office of Literacy in addition to several years working for Republican Administrations.

Republican Senate Leader Trent Lott headlined a fundraising event in Jackson on May 28 for Arkansas freshman Senator Tim Hutchinson who is being challenged by Arkansas Democratic Attorney General Mark Pryor. The next day, Lott traveled to North Carolina to help raise funds for Elizabeth Dole, who is the front-runner for the seat of retiring North Carolina Senator Jesse Helmes.

DeSoto County Supervisor John Caldwell (R) continues traveling the 33 counties of Mississippi's Northern Transportation District in preparation for his anticipated challenge to Zack Stewart in 2003. Caldwell tells the DeSoto Appeal that the election "is so far out that it's not technically official, but there are no doubts that I'll run." Caldwell is serving in his second term as supervisor. This is Stewart's fifth term and has not yet said whether he will seek a sixth term. He was unopposed in his past two campaigns.

*****************************************************
E-Bytes
*****************************************************
Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering Jr. (R-Miss.), whose father's federal judicial nomination was blocked by Senate Democrats, hopes to use the controversy to link his Democratic opponent -- Rep. Ronnie Shows -- to prominent liberals. "My father's confirmation is one of those defining moments in politics, in the way it defined the national Democratic Party for the average Mississippian," said Pickering, who is favored to win the new GOP-leaning district. But Shows -- who opposes abortion, favors gun rights and introduced a constitutional amendment this month defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman -- said his conservative voting record refutes such charges. "They're going to try to talk about the liberal Democratic Party," he said. "That's not me."....Sitting on the Capitol steps one night, Shows acknowledged he might lose to Pickering. Noting that he won his first upset victory at age 29, however, he vowed to fight to the end. "It's taken me 26 years to get here," Shows said. "I've worked hard to get here. I'm not about to give it up." - Washington Post: 5/26/2002

"It's a difference of blue blood and blue jeans, it's the big guy against the small guy," [Shows] said, pointing a finger at Pickering's connections in the state capital, including his father, District Judge Charles Pickering, who was recently refused an appointment to a federal appeals circuit bench seat by Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats.... "My background, my experience, my roots, go very deep in Mississippi," said Pickering. "In my first campaign, people tried to use the same issue [of connections] because I worked in the [first] Bush administration and in Congress. But people back home rejected those claims by the other side and saw my experience as being a very positive reason to support me." - FoxNews: 5/28/2002

"It's still 18 months before Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D) must stand for re-election, but politically connected insiders in the delta, and throughout the state, are already whispering about the 2003 governor's race....While Republicans inside the Washington Beltway wonder whether [Haley] Barbour will run, GOPers in Mississippi note that the former RNC chairman has already invested plenty of time on the phone to line up support for a race. They believe that Barbour, who can metamorphize from rural good ol' boy to a polished businessman in the blink of an eye, has all but decided to run....While Barbour would give state Republicans a credible candidate, he'd start off as a clear underdog. That's because local observers stress Musgrove's strong campaigning style, his success in bringing jobs into the state and his ability to hold onto a political base that includes "the courthouse crowd," African-Americans and those working in the legal profession. In presidential politics, Mississippi has become a Republican bastion. But when state and local offices are at stake, the Democratic Party remains a formidable force. That's a reality that Barbour, or any other GOP statewide hopeful, cannot afford to ignore." - Stuart Rothenberg, Roll Call: 5/30/2002

Lott still hasn't forgiven Daschle for blocking Charles Pickering, a conservative judge from Lott's home state of Mississippi, from taking a seat on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last March. "Tom violated the unspoken rule that leaders don't rain on each other's nominees," he says, miffed that Daschle never even picked up the direct phone line the two men have installed in their offices to apologize. Daschle has no intention of saying he's sorry, and Lott likewise has no regrets about making Daschle the Republicans' villain. "What did he think, we were going to treat him pattycake?" Lott says. "This is politics." The hot line rings less often these days than it used to. But Lott has a target painted on his back as well. Oklahoma's conservative Senator Don Nickles, the minority whip, has been meeting privately with G.O.P. Senators to sound them out about his replacing Lott if the Republicans don't take back the Senate this fall. "If we lose seats, Lott faces a no-confidence vote," predicts one Republican Senator. To head that off, Lott is raising campaign cash for allies and pressing other Republican Senators to spread the wealth. When Senator Bill Frist, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, handed him a report in March showing that only a quarter of the G.O.P. Senators had dipped into their war chests to help other candidates in trouble, Lott stormed into a meeting of Senate G.O.P. leaders and slapped the paper on the table. "This has got to change!" he demanded. - CNN: 6/3/2002

"I sincerely believe that there is a void of leadership at this time in our state and I believe there has been a huge lack of communication among state agencies and between the executive branch and the state legislature," State Attorney General Mike Moore told the Hattiesburg American editorial board Tuesday..."If I were governor I would meet like this everyday with all government officials and legislative leadership," Moore said. - Hattiesburg American: 6/5/2002

"I'm going to make a decision pretty soon," the 50-year-old, four-term AG told The Associated Press' Jackson staff this week. "Maybe I'll surprise everybody and run for nothing," Moore said with a quick smile and a tug of his suit coat sleeve. "Maybe I'll do something completely different with my life. That would surprise everyone - but me." Still, Moore said he thinks he'd be an effective governor because of his ability to work with legislative leaders, some of whom he says have encouraged his candidacy. "I feel the responsibility to do it," he said. "I really believe there's a void of leadership in our state. I'm not picking on anybody. I just believe that. I believe it's perceived and I think it's real." - Associated Press: 6/5/2002

Lott told a visiting delegation from the Greenwood area last week about some ancient family history from Carroll County, where both he and [Senator John] McCain have deep roots. In 1899, Lott's great-great-great uncle was running for state treasurer. He was endorsed by John S. McCain, then-sheriff of Carroll County and the Arizona senator's great-great-great-uncle. Lott said he brought the information to the attention of his GOP colleague. "'You know, John,'" Lott said he joked to his fellow senator, "'the McCains have been supporting the Lotts since 1899. What the hell's your problem?'" - Greenwood Commonwealth: 6/9/2002

"Some of the delegates asked about the state of the nation after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as well as what Musgrove thought about the Pledge of Allegiance being removed from some schools. His answer drew the biggest applause of the evening. 'It should have never stopped,' Musgrove said matter-of-factly." - Delta Democrat Times: 6/11/2002

"What was Tuck's game in playing footsie with the opposition party? And what about Little and several leading Democratic cohorts such as Sens. Jack Gordon of Okolona and Bill Minor of Holly Springs? Little, Tuck's chief bankroller in the 1999 election and now Senate president pro tem, has long been suspect as to which party he's in. Tuck has displayed highly questionable leadership on several other major issues, among them the effort endorsed by all other state officials last year to remove the Confederate emblem from the state flag. It's no wonder she has become a prime target of a great many Democrats who believe she should be put out to pasture in the 2003 elections." - Bill Minor, Neshoba County Democrat: 6/12/2002

*****************************************************
*****************************************************
Now on the Magnolia Report Images Page are two new pictures. First, see Congressman Chip Pickering campaigning at the Dairy Festival in Tylertown, and milking a cow. Second, see Secretary of State Eric Clark signing papers transferring Deer Island from private ownership to the State of Mississippi.
*****************************************************
*****************************************************

*****************************************************
Final Word - Do You Know Tort?
*****************************************************
"I don't know what all the solutions are. I would say that not everyone in this room could agree on what all the problems are. But overall, I know we have a problem...Let's get something straight from the start. Absolutely, I did not kill tort reform." - Lt. Governor Amy Tuck in the Natchez Democrat: 6/12/2002

Moore, serving his fourth term as the state's top legal officer, says many people seem to favor some sort of reform - they're just not certain what they want or, in some cases, what tort reform means. "They're not sure what it is, but they know they want it fixed," he said with a chuckle. - Associated Press: 6/9/2002

****************************************
Magnolia Political Report, 2002
Brian Perry, Editor
www.magnoliareport.com
****************************************

---

© Magnolia Political Report 2002 • PO Box 24233 Jackson, Mississippi 39225
FAX 601.355.7885 • scoop@magnoliareport.com
Brian Perry, Editor

---