Category: Analysis
[Analysis] Rep. Gene Taylor Gets Ovation for Pelosi Vote
In an excellent column about Nancy Pelosi’s positive messages for women in politics, our friend Bill Minor tells a fun story about Congressman Gene Taylor:
Obviously she didn’t please some House Democrats such as Mississippi’s 4th District Gene Taylor, who in 2001 and 2003 voted for his “Blue Dog” colleague, John Murtha of Pennsylvania, for minority leader. That’s why this time when the conservative Taylor voted for Pelosi as speaker, his party colleagues gave him a standing ovation. “Just teasing me,” Taylor said later. Significantly, in December when House Democrats selected a new majority leader, Pelosi backed Murtha instead of Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland who won the post. Pelosi said she supported Murtha (some pundits called it a misstep) out of loyalty to Murtha, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and staunch defense backer. His call a year ago for the U.S. to begin disengagement in Iraq started a shift of public opinion against the war and helped Democrats on Nov. 7.
Gene Taylor, by the way, got a choice committee assignment out of Pelosi: chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee in charge of shipbuilding, a plum for him, since the huge Northrup-Grumman (Ingalls) shipyard is a major employer in his district.
Posted by ladd at 02:37 PM on 01/12/07. Discuss (2)
[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)
[Analysis] Legislative Round-up, Week 1
Here’s Adam Lynch’s take on Week 1 in the JFP:
Rep. Bill Denny, R-Jackson, called the bill onslaught a ?political action,? by House Democratic leaders to characterize Republicans as unsympathetic to Mississippi Adequate Education Program and state employees.
?What leaders have done is cut off one-half of that membership,? Denny said. ?In my 20 years of working in the House, we always had a reasonable situation in the House where we could disagree in a manner that would get something done. But (House Speaker) Billy (McCoy) putting forward those bills without letting us review them, the idea of him doing these kinds of things doesn?t serve the public at all. I can?t imagine that he wouldn?t have considered that a rule suspension?wouldn?t have happened.?
Posted by ladd at 03:43 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)
