Category: Elections
[JFP] Jesus Rode a Donkey: Interview with John Arthur Eaves
The JFP interview this week this week is with Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Arthur Eaves.
Eaves is the symbolic trial lawyer Barbour made war on for years. When Barbour refers to jackpot justice, he might well have in mind an image of someone like Eaves, standing in a courtroom with his fist in the air.
Eaves, though, says he is proud of the characterization.
Posted by ladd at 04:59 PM on 04/04/07. Discuss (0)
[AP] State Dems Want Trial Over Primary Voters to Continue
The Associated Press is reporting:
Attorneys for plaintiffs wanting to keep non-Democrats from voting in Democratic Party primaries have asked a federal judge to let a trial go on as scheduled.
There is disagreement within the Democratic Party about the lawsuit, which seeks to restrict primary voting only to people who plan to support the party’s nominee in a general election.
U.S. District Judge Allen Pepper has set the case for trial July 30 in Greenville.
The attorney general’s office, on behalf of the three-member State Board of Election Commissioners, asked Pepper in January to dismiss the lawsuit. On March 12, the Democratic Party asked Pepper to deny the state’s request.
Posted by ladd at 07:48 PM on 04/03/07. Discuss (0)
[Release] David Blount to Challenge Sen. Richard White
David Blount, communications director for Secretary of State Eric Clark, announced his intentions today in the following press release (which actually contains substance?a departure for many of the announcements we’ve seen so far this season).
He also just e-mailed around the following letter/verbatim:
January 24, 2007
Dear Friends:
Today, I filed qualifying papers to run for the State Senate (District 29 ? Hinds County).
Also, today I have given Secretary Clark notice that I will no longer be serving as Communications Director for the Secretary of State?s Office. I expect my last day in the office to be Wednesday, January 31, 2007. After more than 12 years in my job, I hope to make a smooth transition and then devote all my energies to the campaign.
The issues of the campaign will be basic: fair taxes (including cutting the grocery tax), full funding for our local schools, strong support for law enforcement, quality health care (including Medicaid and access for those with disabilities), and giving the people of Hinds County hard work based on strong values.
Posted by ladd at 01:30 PM on 01/24/07. Discuss (5)
[Desk] Repubs Ross and Bryant Announce; Launch Dueling Web sites
Two Republicans, Sen. Charlie Ross of Brandon and State Auditor Phil Bryant, have both officially announced their campaigns to succeed Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck. On Charlie Ross’ campaign site, you quickly get the feeling that he is a one-issue kinda guy: stop lawsuit abuse, stop lawsuit abuse, stop lawsuit abuse, baby. He also admits, er, states on his site that he is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council. More soon from the desk on ALEC?an organization that pushes for extremely right-wing legislation in statehouses across the country (and would summarily eject Ross were he ever to support public-education funding, we suspect). Ross, we are happy to report, does not have the Confederate part of the Mississippi flag flapping strategically over his shoulder as we’ve grown way too accustomed to seeing on Mississippi conservatives’ sites. That’s a plus.
For Phil Bryant’s part, hhis site is a less of a U.S. Chamber ad and more about the fact that he is running FOR THE RIGHT REASONS. (Get the pun?) In the announcement itself, we hear a lot more about the “right” values, but we don’t really learn what they are. Maybe that is to come in his blog that, so far, is a bunch of pictures. (So far, no blog on Ross’ site that we can find.) And no Rebel emblems here, either. Whew.
Posted by ladd at 11:18 PM on 01/23/07. Discuss (0)
[News] Barbour Has $3.54 Million Campaign Cash on Hand
Gov. Haley Barbour’s war chest is already bulging. The Clarion-Ledger is reporting that the governor filed his campaign finance report today, which showed:
Barbour’s major donor was the Republican Governors Association at $1 million.
The RGA gave Barbour a total of $6.25 million in his 2003 race. Other major contributions that will be listed will include $200,000 from Ohio business magnate Carl Lindner, $25,500 from Netscape founder Jim Barksdale and $25,000 from the Mississippi Manufacturers Association political action committee.
Posted by ladd at 04:55 PM on 01/17/07. Discuss (11)
[Desk] Mississippi Democrats Blasting Haley Barbour
The Mississippi Democratic Party today announced an ad campaign blasting Gov. Haley Barbour. From a statement on their Web site:
A television ad campaign commissioned and funded by the Mississippi Democratic Party outlines how Republican Gov. Haley Barbour has failed to play straight with Mississippians on several high-profile issues. The ad highlights Barbour?s conflicting stand on taxes and education funding. And it points out that many Coast residents remain homeless and in trailers despite the state?s Katrina Homeowners Assistance Grant Program. The ad will begin airing on broadcast stations across the state this week.[...]
The ad talks about how Barbour says he opposes raising taxes but nevertheless vetoed bills during the 2006 Legislature that would have eliminated or reduced the state?s 7 percent tax on the sale of groceries. The ad also talks about how Barbour says he supports Hurricane Katrina victims. But despite the Homeowners Assistance Grant Program, one of Barbour?s top storm relief programs, thousands of people are without homes and continue to live in trailers.
Finally, the ad talks about the governor?s flip-flop on funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, a state-funded program designed to ensure K-12 students receive an education on par with a Level 3, or mid-level, accredited school.
Script here. Here’s a factsheet.
Posted by ladd at 04:46 PM on 01/17/07. Discuss (6)
[Desk] Mississippi GOP ‘Liberal’-Baits Sen. Gloria Williamson
It seemed to really tick off the state GOP when a Democratic senator made the political statement that voters need to elect a “genuine Democrat” to take back the seat of state Sen. James Shannon Walley who just defected from the Dems to the GOP for the upcoming election. She stated in a Democratic press release:
?This district is made up of hard-working people who support Democratic issues such as strong public schools, a higher minimum wage, strong health care, lower grocery taxes and Medicaid,? Williamson said. ?A Democrat will win this seat on these issues.?
In a snarky press release posted on their Web site, the GOP ripped at the senator from Neshoba County for daring to say the g-word:
Senator Gloria Williamson, the chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Party Caucus, recently boasted that Democrats will re-take the seat of Sen. James Shannon Walley, qualified for re-election as a Republican. “A Democrat will win this seat...,” said Williamson. In that statement Keelan Sanders, Executive Director of the Mississippi Democratic Party, echoed Williamson: “The voters will elect a genuine Democrat.”
What does the Mississippi Democratic Party consider a “genuine Democrat?” Further more, does Mississippi really need more of them? Let’s look at Gloria Williamson:
Posted by ladd at 11:38 AM on 01/17/07. Discuss (0)
[Desk] It Ain’t Exactly the Party of Lincoln, Y’all
The Desk always gets tickled to see the current GOP talk about their party as if it is the same one that, oh, ended slavery and elected black statewide officials during Reconstruction. Over on Redstate.com (what it sounds like, they’re talking about Walley’s defection, as if it’s a turn to the halcyon days of the diverse Republican Party:
This is the first time since Reconstruction that Republicans have controlled the MS State Senate. Democrats still have a solid majority in the State House.
The part they inevitably leave out is that the parties flip-flopped in the 1960s when the GOP defected from its non-racist roots and started playing the “southern strategy” to take over the Dixiecrats, who were p.o.-ed that the national Democratic Party was becoming too integrationist. So what has actually happened in recent years is that more and more Democrats (defined the old way) have switched over to the Republican Party, with policies closer to the old days. The big change, of course, is that a new Democratic Party has emerged over all this years.
Posted by ladd at 02:17 PM on 01/12/07. Discuss (0)
[News] Voters May Decide Eminent-Domain Question
The Clarion-Ledger is reporting that the House of Representatives today approved a resolution to ask voters to restrict the use eminent domain for private purposes:
Representatives today approved House Concurrent Resolution 18 to put on the Nov. 6 ballot as a referendum limiting eminent domain. The measure passed in a 116-2 vote and heads to the Senate.
A poll announced this week by ZataPulse found that a whopping 76 percent of Mississippians are against the use of eminent domain to take public property for private use (as happened with the Nissan land), so such a measure would likely be passed.
Posted by ladd at 02:09 PM on 01/12/07. Discuss (0)
[News] A Dem Defects; State Senate Numbers Now Equal
Geoff Pender of the Sun-Herald is reporting:
The Mississippi Republican Party on Thursday welcomed party switcher, state Sen. Shannon Walley of Leakesville, with open arms, while Democrats said good riddance.
Walley’s party switch as he filed to run for a second term brings GOP Senate numbers equal to Democrats, something that hasn’t happened since Reconstruction. Republicans now hold 26 Senate seats, same as Democrats. But both Democrats, and Walley, pointed out that this is really a technicality. Walley has often voted with the GOP. And, while Republicans have been a slight minority in the Senate in the last few years, they have controlled the lieutenant governor’s office and hence that chamber’s committee leadership posts.
Posted by ladd at 02:00 PM on 01/12/07. Discuss (0)
[Breaking] Sean Perkins Qualifies to Run for Supervisor Charles Barbour’s Seat
We just got a call from Sean Perkins, director of 100 Black Men, to tell us that he qualified this morning to run for the Hinds County Supervisor District 1 seat of Charles Barbour. (We’ve also heard another juicy tip about who else is running for that seat?someone who comes from inside the law-enforcement community. We’ll be back in touch on that one shortly.) As we understand it, the demographics of this district are now such that a strong African American candidate has a good shot at the seat. We’ll see. Sean is widely recognized in Jackson as an up-and-comer politically; his name came up in this JFP thread about potential Jackson mayoral candidates last year.
Posted by ladd at 02:30 PM on 01/10/07. Discuss (2)
[Desk] Barbour Is Willing to Raise/Drop the Big Bucks to Keep Seat
On the topic of the race for the big-banana seats, this interview with Haley Barbour by Emily Wagster Pettus of the Associated Press is fascinating, and is a reminder that machine politics have definitely taken hold in Mississippi, and how well the TV stations fare from political advertising?$13 million is quite the chunk o’ moolah.
Barbour - a former Washington lobbyist and Republican National Committee chairman - tapped into a broad network of donors and set a Mississippi campaign fundraising record in 2003, when he unseated Democrat Ronnie Musgrove.
“Between my campaign and the state party, we spent about $13 million last time. And you know, I’m expecting to have to raise that kind of money again,” Barbour, 59, said during a recent interview with The Associated Press staff in Jackson.
Records show Musgrove spent about $7.7 million four years ago.
Posted by ladd at 01:33 PM on 01/10/07. Discuss (2)
[Desk] And They’re Off … State Political Races Heating Up
It’s early, but candidates are starting to qualify to run for state political offices. For all you poli-junkies out there, the major parties released links to Web pages Monday listing candidates who have qualified to date (donkeys here and elephants here). No real surprises, yet?Rep. Jamie Franks, a populist Democrat of Tupelo, has qualified for lieutenant governor, and Republican Sen. Charlie Ross of Brandon and State Auditor Phil Bryant are expected in the race soon. On the governor’s side, the only Dem officially in so far is Musgrove’s chief of state and former state senator, Bill Renick, 53, and the executive director of the Marshall County Economic Development Authority. (His entry led Barbour fan Sid Salter to quickly proclaim that “[n]ow, there are two former lobbyists in the 2007 Mississippi governor’s race.” Touch?, Sid. Meantime, and being that Renick isn’t expected to set any thing on fire, the state awaits other potential Democratic challengers to Barbour. Rumors are that trial attorney John Arthur Eaves Jr. and Internet mogul Jim Barksdale may challenge Barbour. All are expected to wallop the governor over his poor track record on supporting adequate education funding in the state.
But, remember, candidates have until March 1 to qualify so expect some surprises. Keep an eye here on StateDesk for updates and a few poli-rumors along the way.
Posted by ladd at 01:09 PM on 01/10/07. Discuss (4)
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