NEMS360.com – DuPree I will find common ground

(Dupree) said he would host a retreat to find common ground so he could hit the ground running on those issues after his inauguration in January.

“I want to start off fast…,” he said. “I only have four years.”

DuPree is facing Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, who has outspent him $4.2 million to $610,800, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

But DuPree expressed confidence Tuesday that he could pull a major upset. He said, like all elections, it will depend on which candidate gets his supporters to the polls on Nov. 8.

As for priorities once he’s elected, DuPree said, “What is important to me is education, early childhood development,” DuPree said. “…You have to start a child’s life off in the right direction. Too many times kids are not ready for K-5.”

DuPree added, “the start (of the educational process) will affect the end.”

He said he believes federal funds are available to provide incentives to private day care providers to enhance their curriculum to get children prepared to learn. He said legislators, seeing the results, would be more willing to provide state funds to further improve early childhood education.

DuPree said he would continue to recruit major manufacturers, but wanted “to look more toward small business development.”

As governor, DuPree said he would veto any legislation that reduces retirement benefits for current government workers or retirees. Outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour has formed a commission to recommend changes to the system, which according to industry standards, is currently underfunded. DuPree also said he would look for ways to maintain the system as it is for future government employees.

“State employees don’t get paid great salaries,” DuPree said. “The one thing we have is a great retirement system.”

via NEMS360.com – DuPree I will find common ground.

Related articles

• Candidate for governor unveils education plan – WLOX-TV and WLOX.com – The News for South Mississippi (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
• Mississippi Gubernatorial Candidates Offer Differing Ideas on Education (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
• WDAM to televise debate between Phil Bryant and Johnny Dupree – WDAM – Channel 7 – Mississippi News, Hattiesburg, Laurel (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
• Mississippi black mayor DuPree makes history (sfgate.com)
• A rundown of the latest campaign finance reports. (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
• Johnny Dupree wins historic Miss. nomination (cbsnews.com)
• Salter – Mississippi’s racial politics distorted by lazy reporting | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
• Miss: 1st black modern major-party nominee for gov (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Mississippi Gets First Black Major Party Candidate For Governor In Modern Times (huffingtonpost.com)

Candidate for governor unveils education plan – WLOX-TV and WLOX.com – The News for South Mississippi

Image by StuSeeger via Flickr

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) -

Throughout his campaign for governor one of his top platforms has been education and Thursday, the state’s democratic nominee, Johnny DuPree, laid out what he calls his signature Mississippi Educational Restructure Program.

“Education is really where it is, that’s really where it is,” said DuPree.

The mayor from Hattiesburg unveiled his plan in Jackson at Operation Upward, a child care center serving more than 300 children primarily from low income families. It’s places like this where DuPree says reform is key and center director Robrelle Murray couldn’t agree more.

“If the foundation is laid appropriately and you have certified teachers you have everything that you need in order to prepare the children for the classroom setting,” said Murray.

Under the four phase plan, DuPree hopes to begin with early childhood development and teacher education as well as reducing the state tax burden on teachers to put more money in their pockets and that’s just a start.

“We’ve got to be determined to pay our teachers a decent salary. If we’re determined to do that, we can do it,” said DuPree.

With Mississippi often criticized for it’s educational status, leading the nation in drop out rates and behind in graduation rates, DuPree says it’s time for the state to pull itself up in the rankings.

“Hopefully we’re going to have those numbers change for us and change for the better,” said DuPree.

To help with that change, DuPree says graduation coaches need to be placed in middle and high schools across the state as well as updating the state’s gifted programs, but all of it starts, he says, with Mississippi’s youngest.

“We’ve had a lot of people to work on education, reformation and all those kinds of things, but the bottom line is we’re still in the same position that we’ve been in for such a long time so we’ve got to start from scratch,” said DuPree.

via Candidate for governor unveils education plan – WLOX-TV and WLOX.com – The News for South Mississippi.

Related articles

• NEMS360.com – State’s eighth graders will be asked to choose career clusters (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
• Hands-on learning helps students on MCT2 | Hattiesburg American | hattiesburgamerican.com (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
• Salter – Mississippi’s racial politics distorted by lazy reporting | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com (mississippipep.wordpress.com)

Three tiered turnover first since ’76

NEMS360.com – : www.nems360.com/view/full_story/15479671/article-T…olumn

JACKSON – In January 1976, Jimmy Carter was winning the Iowa caucuses to set the stage for his surprise run to the presidency.

Mississippi, meanwhile, was swearing in a new governor, lieutenant governor and speaker. It’s the last time the three most powerful positions in state government changed hands simultaneously – until January 2012.

Gov. Haley Barbour, Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant and House Speaker Billy McCoy are all leaving their current positions, an unusual triple turnover. But the potential replacements – including Bryant as a possible governor – aren’t necessarily strangers to the scene.
“For most people involved, it’s not their first time around the track, just like it was not in ’76,” said Rep. Tommy Reynolds, D-Water Valley, who entered the House in January 1980, but remembers the events of January 1976.”There may be a few rough edges to begin with, but I don’t think experience will be a problem.
“If there is a problem, it will be policy and the execution of that policy. But let’s hope for good things.”

Republican Bryant and Democratic Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree are vying to replace Barbour, who is term limited. Treasurer Tate Reeves won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in August and faces no major party opposition in November.

Assorted House members are positioning themselves to replace Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, who after two terms as the chamber’s presiding officer is not seeking re-election.

In 1976, District Attorney Cliff Finch of Batesville was the surprise winner of the gubernatorial seat, replacing Bill Waller, while Evelyn Gandy of Hattiesburg captured the lieutenant governor’s post that was vacant because incumbent William Winter opted to run for governor. C.B.”Buddie” Newman of Valley Park was elected speaker for the first of three terms.

Ed Perry of Oxford, who served in the House from 1968 until January 2000, said of the new faces,”I don’t think we thought about it much one way or the other back then … Everything was so much different then. There was not the partisan differences we had today. People did not have to answer to party leadership.”

Winter agreed, saying,”The big difference is that we did not have the political parties that exist now. It was almost a matter of individual leadership rather than choosing sides on the basis of party.”

#Mississippi #Haley #Barbour #Phil #Bryant #Billy #McCoy #Governor #Speaker #Lt. #Governor #Democrats #Republican #Legislature #politics #campaigns #elections #Tommy #Reynolds #Johnny #Dupree #Cliff #Finch

Budget–Performance still the goal

| The Clarion-Ledger | www.clarionledger.com: www.clarionledger.com/article/20110909/OPINION01/1…ome|s

The unusual turnover in key leadership positions of state government has raised questions about how the budget process should proceed. Officials working on the budget now will be turning over that responsibility to a new crop of budget-writers in January.

Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant is the current chairman of the 14-member Joint Legislative Budget Committee, but he won’t be lieutenant governor. He is the Republican nominee for governor, facing Democrat Johnny DuPree, independent Will Oatis and possibly a Reform Party candidate in the Nov. 8 election.

State Treasurer Tate Reeves is headed for the lieutenant governor’s office, facing only nominal opposition, and will choose key budget-writers in the Senate.

House Speaker Bill McCoy, D-Rienzi, is retiring, and the speaker’s race will hinge on the makeup of the House after the Nov. 8 elections. Whoever is the next speaker will appoint key fiscal leaders from that body.

Bryant had proposed canceling this year’s budget hearings and limiting the process. That would not have been the right approach. Had the hearings been postponed, it could have placed a hardship on incoming legislators who would be playing catch-up with new committee assignments, a new governor and new speaker. They would be lacking budget specifics.

So, it’s best that the committee announced Wednesday that it will hold public hearings Sept. 19-22 at the Woolfolk State Office Building, near the Capitol in Jackson.

Bryant is on the right track, however, when it comes to his proposals for more performance-based budgeting. It’s not a new idea and, admittedly, the record on such accountability isn’t very good. But, it has not been given much of a chance.

#Mississippi #budget #Phil #Bryant #Tate #Reeves #Billy #McCoy #Legislature #Johnny #Dupree #Lt. #Governor #Governor #Treasurer

Jim Ellis thinks Phil Bryant is “headed for a landslide” victory in Governor’s race

Jim Ellis Insights: jimellisinsights.wordpress.com

#Mississippi #Phil #Bryant #Governor #Republican #Johnny #Dupree #politics #elections

Jobs, state retirement plan focus of Labor Day picnic

| Hattiesburg American | www.hattiesburgamerican.com: www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20110906/NEWS0…TPAGE

#Mississippi #Labor #AFL-CIO #Democrats #Johnny #Dupree #Rickey #Cole #David #Blount #Republicans #Tim #Saler #PERS #State #Employees #State #Personnel #Board

Taylor staffer joins DuPree campaign

| www.gulflive.com: blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2011/09/p….html

Familiar face joins DuPree campaign

Ana Maria Rosato, a Bay St. Louis native known to most folks for her work as Congressman Gene Taylor’s communications director, has joined Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree’s gubernatorial campaign as communications director.

"I am so excited about Mayor DuPree’s campaign," Rosato said. "Through Mayor DuPree’s vision, expertise and leadership, Hattiesburg has become what we want the entire state of Mississippi to be: wonderfully vibrant, alive and growing!" Rosato is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science.

#Mississippi #Johnny #Dupree #Gene #Taylor #Gulf #Coast #Hattiesburg #USM #Governor #Democrats

Patience and planning are essential to state progress

- Charlie Mitchell – www.sunherald.com: www.sunherald.com/2011/08/30/3387553/patience-and-….html

Haley Barbour sees a day when expansion under way at the Panama Canal brings unprecedented prosperity to Mississippi.

Phil Bryant, the Republican nominee seeking to follow Barbour as governor, sees a day when Jackson is a center for health care with a dozen or more medical centers rivaling Houston, Texas.

Democratic nominee Johnny DuPree will likely espouse some long-range goals, too.

It’s the”vision thing” we hear about.

But Barbour, preparing to leave office after eight years, says one thing he has discovered during his two terms is that state government is poorly structured to engage in long-range planning, especially of the type needed to create lasting economic development.

At a meeting of the state’s newspaper industry in July, Barbour went so far as to say it is impossible for the legislators to think beyond their four-year terms. It was a criticism, but also a reality. There are exceptions, such as multiyear highway programs, but lawmakers are more like firefighters. Even if they had wanted to devise long-term projects, they’ve been putting out blazes, scrambling to find funds to get the state through the next 12 months. They’ve had no time (and little interest) in developmental measures.

That’s what makes organizations such as Advance Mississippi and the Mississippi Economic Council essential. They and several other groups take the state’s economic pulse constantly.

In addition to speaking to the press, Barbour was on the Gulf Coast to meet privately with stakeholders on his much-maligned notion that a serious investment in port facilities now will result in thousands of jobs during the next 10 to 15 years.

The work in Panama will double the canal’s capacity by 2014. As Barbour and many others see it, Gulfport — if prepared — would become the most affordable destination for hundreds of ships delivering goods from Asian ports.

Today, most of those ships offload on the West Coast. Containers are dispatched to their destinations via truck or train. Once the canal is expanded, the most time- and cost-efficient route to any point east of the Mississippi would be through Gulfport, but only if it has the infrastructure.

#Mississippi #Gulfport #Economic #Development #Legislature #Haley #Barbour #Phil #Bryant #Johnny #Dupree #Health #Care

Salter–Underestimating DuPree is a mistake with caveats

(op-ed) | www.gulflive.com: blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-opinion/2011/0….html

With many November Republicans voting in local Democratic primaries and second primaries in order to participate in choosing their local officials, there has to be some concern among Democrats that November Republicans voting in the Democratic primary chose DuPree over Luckett with an eye toward Bryant’s fortunes in November. Conversely, Republicans see DuPree’s victory as an effort by Democrats to bolster the African-American votes in contested legislative districts in November as a means to hold on to one of the last outposts of Democratic power in state government, the state House of Representatives. There’s likely some political truth in both theories.

#Mississippi #Johnny #Dupree #Governor #Phil #Bryant #Bill #Luckett. #Democrat #Republican #Elections #voting #politics #campaigns

DuPree campaign needs cash

- Elections – www.sunherald.com: www.sunherald.com/2011/08/27/3380456/dupree-campai….html

With primaries wrapped up after Tuesday’s runoffs, the gubernatorial race is in full swing, with Democratic Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree facing Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant on Nov. 8.

DuPree last week received pledges of support from the national Democratic Governors Association, and from his primary-runoff opponent, Bill Luckett. Democratic political observers are hoping this will bring an influx of cash to the DuPree campaign, which faces the well-funded Bryant campaign.

DuPree has spent less than $500,000 — half what Luckett spent — and had an anemic cash-on-hand balance of only $120,000 at last report. Bryant has spent more than $3.1 million, and had nearly $700,000 on hand at last report.
“The Democratic Governors Association congratulates Mayor DuPree on his historic victory tonight,” said Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, the group’s chair.”He has helped move Mississippi forward by becoming the first African-American to run for governor on a major party ticket. We look forward to working with his campaign and Mississippi Democrats in the coming months.”

Luckett’s endorsement statement for DuPree was:”I have come to know Mayor DuPree well. I regard him as a friend and someone who loves this great state as I do.”

#Mississippi #Democratic #Governors #Association #DGA #Johnny #Dupree #Governor #Martin #O‘Malley #Democrats #Republican #general #election #Bill #Luckett #Phil #Bryant #campaign #finance #elections #politics