4 candidates to seek House seat of late Rep. Jessica Upshaw.

Four candidates have entered the state House of Representatives District 95 special election ahead of Monday’s qualifying deadline.

The election is to fill the seat held by the late Rep. Jessica Upshaw, R-Diamondhead, who was found dead March 24 at the Mendenhall home of her boyfriend, former State Rep. Clint Rotenberry. Law enforcement officials said she died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Secretary of State’s Office said as of 3 p.m. Friday, the candidates are Tommy Ballard of Gulfport; Sherri Carr Bevis of Diamondhead; Grant Bower of Diamondhead; and Patricia H. Willis of Diamondhead. The State Board of Election Commissioners will review their applications before they can be placed on the ballot.

Special elections are non-partisan, so party affiliations won’t appear on the ballot.

If no candidate receives a majority in the May 28 vote, a runoff will be held June 18.

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Mayor Gene Alday becomes Rep. Gene Alday

The Walls Board of Aldermen Tuesday night officially accepted former mayor Gene Alday’s resignation.

Alday, 54, had to resign from the job he held for six years after winning the state House seat in District 25 in the Nov. 8 general election.

Walls Deputy Mayor Lynda Austin will assume duties as mayor until a special election is held on Feb. 6. Austin said at that time, she plans to run for mayor.

via In brief: Doyle appointed to fill vacant alderman seat in Walls » The Commercial Appeal.

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Obama Justice Department begins push back against new voting laws

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/holder-to-wade-into-debate-over-voting-rights/2011/12/12/gIQAdUHZqO_story.html

Legislative Priority–Appointed Superintendents of Education

Appointed versus elected school superintendents is a topic that has been debated for years and if things go as State Rep. Gary Chism (R-Columbus) plans, it’s a topic that will no doubt lead to further debate in the Mississippi Legislature this January.

Chism has introduced 12 bills trying to mandate appointed superintendents since his 1999 election to the state House of Representatives. However,  every time the issue comes up for a vote, it is defeated.

The legislation has the backing of the Mississippi Board of Education, which plans to discuss the matter at its annual leadership conference in November.

“One of the Mississippi Board of Education’s 2012 legislative priorities is appointed superintendents,” said Wendy Polk, the state board’s director of communication. “The Mississippi Board of Education supports appointment of all school district superintendents.”

Mississippi uses county and city districts, as well as special and consolidated districts. The state’s special districts are unique only in name when compared with county and city districts. However, consolidated districts combine one or two more local school boards to provide better services to students.

“Only 147 of the nation’s approximately 14,500 school districts have elected superintendents,” added Polk. “Alabama, Florida and Mississippi are the only three states that elect superintendents.”

via To elect or not to elect » Local News » Leader Call.

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AG candidates spar over who blew the most taxpayer money.

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Hood said these documents and other travel expenses convince him Simpson “abused his office” as public safety commissioner.

Paradise said he found it ironic that such criticisms are “coming from a guy who spends thousands on a trip to Disney World. It’s unfortunate it’s gotten to this point. We wanted to talk about big issues, and Jim Hood didn’t want to.”

Documents show taxpayers paid $2,647 for Hood’s six-day Evidence for Prosecutors Conference held at Disney World. The money included meals, lodging and transportation.

Taxpayers also reimbursed Hood $1,351 for a May 2009 trip to Philadelphia, Pa., where he was a presenter at a training conference for the National Association of Attorneys General titled “Protecting and Empowering Our Next Generation.” Hood stayed at the Ritz Carlton, where the conference was held.

Simpson’s campaign questioned Hood’s spending on his 2004 trip to Washington, D.C., where he stayed at the Hyatt Regency, which cost $259 for the night. He had traveled to the nation’s capital to the NAAG office for a moot court argument there.

via Hood says political foe abused his office at DPS | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com.

McDonnell heads to Miss. to campaign with gubernatorial candidate – Virginia Politics – The Washington Post

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Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will take a quick jaunt to Mississippi Thursday evening to raise some money.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Bob Brown)

McDonnell, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, will headline a fundraiser for gubernatorial candidate Phil Bryant (R).

Bryant, the state’s lieutenant governor, will face Democrat Johnny DuPree in November.

More than 200 people are expected to attend the event in Jackson on Thursday.

via McDonnell heads to Miss. to campaign with gubernatorial candidate – Virginia Politics – The Washington Post.

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A rundown of the latest campaign finance reports.

JACKSON, Miss. — Republican Phil Bryant still has the most cash in the open race for Mississippi governor, but Democrat Johnny DuPree says he’s confident he can reach voters through personal appearances and online in the final four weeks of the campaign.

Candidates filed their latest campaign finance reports Monday.

Bryant, the first-term lieutenant governor, has spent nearly $4.2 million in the governor’s race this year, and has $928,670 cash on hand.

DuPree, the third-term mayor of Hattiesburg, has spent $610,830 and has $235,703 on hand.

“We don’t raise a lot of money in our campaigns. Never have,” DuPree said this past week in Jackson. “I like what we’re doing. I like going and talking to people. I like listening to people and their needs and the things that they’re interested in. That’s what gets buy-in.”

The Bryant campaign is having a fundraiser Thursday night in Jackson, with suggested donations of $1,000 to $25,000. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour are scheduled to appear at the event. Barbour is limited to two terms and couldn’t run again this year. McDonnell is chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

“Phil Bryant’s campaign for governor continues to build momentum as we head toward the Nov. 8 election, thanks to the support of thousands of Mississippians,” campaign spokesman Dan Turner said in a written statement Monday.

Other finance reports show:

— In the lieutenant governor’s race, Republican Tate Reeves of Flowood has spent just over $3 million this year and has $451,586 cash on hand. Reeves is the current state treasurer and he defeated longtime state Sen. Billy Hewes of Gulfport in a hard-fought GOP primary for lieutenant governor. No Democrat is in the race. The Reform Party’s Tracella Lou O’Hara Hill of Hattiesburg has spent $200 and has no cash on hand.

— In the attorney general’s race, two-term Democratic incumbent Jim Hood of Brandon has spent $520,723 and has $848,316 in his campaign fund. His Republican challenger, former state Public Safety Commissioner Steve Simpson of Gulfport, has spent $196,749 and has $212,438 cash on hand.

— In the open race for treasurer, Republican Lynn Fitch of Madison, who’s on leave as director of the state Personnel Board, has spent $470,512 and is holding $154,389. Democrat Connie Moran, the second-term mayor of Ocean Springs, has spent $64,230 and has $2,300 on hand. The Reform Party’s Shawn O’Hara of Hattiesburg has spent $200 and has no cash on hand.

— In the open race for agriculture commissioner, Democrat Joel Gill, the mayor of Pickens, has raised $19,453 and has $17,168 on hand. The Republican nominee, state Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Brookhaven, spent $193,751 and has $63,379 in cash on hand. The Reform Party’s Cathy L. Toole of Biloxi has spent $200 and has no cash on hand.

— In the state auditor’s race, first-term Republican incumbent Stacey Pickering of Laurel has spent $130,951 and is holding $129,566. The Reform Party’s Ashley Norwood of Canton has spent $200 and has no cash on hand.

— In the secretary of state’s race, first-term incumbent Delbert Hosemann of Jackson has spent $557,473 and has $471,580 cash on hand. Hosemann defeated Gulfport City Councilman Ricky Dombrowski in the GOP primary and is unopposed in November.

— In the insurance commissioner’s race, first-term incumbent Mike Chaney of Vicksburg has spent $106,302 and has $402,824 cash on hand. A finance report for Democrat Louis Fondren of Pascagoula was not immediately available. The Reform Party’s Barbara Dale Washer of Hattiesburg has raised $200 and has no cash on hand.

via Bryant leads DuPree in Miss. gov race fundraising; Hood ahead of Simpson in atty gen’l contest | The Republic.

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Salter–Mississippi’s racial politics distorted by lazy reporting | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com

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STARKVILLE — What an incredibly convenient story New York Times reporter Campbell Robinson dropped into Mississippi to write about the current political anemia of the Democratic Party in the South with the 2011 governor’s race in this state as the backdrop.

After what I’m sure was an exhaustive examination, Robinson concluded, as the headline on his story trumpeted: “For politics in the South, race divide is defining.” The gist of the story, like so many before it, is that the Republican “Southern Strategy” worked and that whites in the South won’t vote for Democrats because of race.

In what I’m certain was a matter of sheer coincidence, the Times reporter went to my hometown of Philadelphia to follow Democratic nominee Johnny DuPree‘s campaign.

On the day in question, DuPree was speaking to the local Rotary Club. That laid the groundwork for the reporter to mention that the Ku Klux Klan murdered civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney in Neshoba County in 1964 and that Ronald Reagan kicked off his successful 1980 campaign for president at the Neshoba County Fair.

Citing those events is an opportunity to illustrate what the Times through various writers has argued since 1980 – that Reagan’s Neshoba speech represented some type of philosophical handoff of the baton of racism from the old racist Democrats of the 1960s to the new racist Republicans in 1980 and beyond.

That argument fails on any number of levels. First and foremost is the size and scope of the Democratic Party’s political turf in Mississippi against a GOP that couldn’t elect a governor in Mississippi until 1991. Democrats control the Mississippi House, are within striking distance in the state Senate, and control the majority of municipal and county governments statewide.

To his credit, the reporter admitted that a 92 percent white majority in Alcorn County elected Eric Powell as state senator in 2007, but found a source who said that wouldn’t survive the GOP’s political onslaught.

via Mississippi’s racial politics distorted by lazy reporting | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com.

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Schools: Appoint superintendents | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com

Image by Sean MacEntee via Flickr

There is one major education reform in Mississippi that could be accomplished easily and would not cost anything – requiring that all school superintendents be appointed.

Electing school superintendents is a throwback to another era when small community school districts voted on school leaders.

It sounds so democratic. But it simply is bad policy that restricts a community from recruiting the best and allowing that professional educator to operate with independence needed to succeed.

Mississippi elects 64 school superintendents in its 152 school districts. To put that in perspective, only 147 of the nation’s 14,500 school districts elect superintendents.

This is not to criticize any of the state’s elected superintendents, many of whom are dedicated professionals. However, the system of electing a superintendent is a hindrance to any of them.

First of all, electing a superintendent restricts the applicant pool for what should be a purely professional position. An elected superintendent, like any official, must live in the district, which excludes educators from other areas who might be better qualified. It prevents a district from seeking the best and the brightest.

Second, electing a superintendent puts the emphasis on a prospective school leader’s political prowess rather than on his or her educational and administrative talents. Someone who might be the best administrator and visionary school leader might be a terrible politician. Running a school district certainly takes political and people skills, but those attributes should be secondary to professional qualifications and abilities as an administrator.

Finally, an elected superintendent is subject to the same political pressures any other elected official might face, including the transient political passions and whims of voters.

While any superintendent must be attentive to public desires, he or she also must be independent and have the ability to stand up to popular opinion when it is not in the best interest of schoolchildren.

In other words, a superintendent needs to be independent, stubbornly and doggedly so if necessary. An elected superintendent cannot do that, especially if he or she has eyes on the next election.

Rep. Gary Chism, R-Columbus, has tried repeatedly to gain approval of a bill to require all superintendents be appointed.

State education leaders, good government and education groups support appointive superintendents. Yet, those efforts have been defeated for the same reasons electing superintendents is a bad idea – politics.

Chism should keep pushing.

Mississippi needs the best people leading school districts and the best way to recruit and hire the best superintendents is through appointing them.

via Schools: Appoint superintendents | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com.

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Revote set in House district | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com

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About 225 voters in Hinds Countys Dry Grove A precinct in Terry will get to recast their primary election ballots on Oct. 18 in the Mississippi House District 73 race.

Leake County Circuit Judge Vernon Cotten ruled Monday in favor of unsuccessful candidate Gay Polk, who filed suit against the Hinds County Democratic Executive Committee last month following her loss in the August Democratic primary.

Polk contends she lost to Brad Oberhousen by 90 votes because some Dry Grove A voters were provided ballots with the incorrect House race – District 63 instead of 73.

The Dry Grove precinct is geographically split in two: Voters in Dry Grove A are in House District 73. Voters in Dry Grove B are in House District 63.

Polk asked for a revote in the precinct located at Springhill Christian Center on Springhill Road at Midway Road. The Mississippi Supreme Court appointed Cotten as a special judge to preside over the case.

“I am so elated,” Polk said shortly after the 4:30 p.m. ruling. “This is what I was fighting for. I told these people their vote counted, and on Aug. 2 it did not.”

Oberhousen, a lawyer, could not be reached at his Terry home. Polk, a registered nurse, also is a Terry resident.

The revote is only for the 225 people who signed the poll book on Aug. 2 to vote in Dry Grove A, said Polks attorney, Chris Tabb. The revote will be held from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

The winner will face Republican incumbent Rep. Jim Ellington in the November general election.

Officials with the Hinds County Election Commission said a proofing error caused ballot information to be transposed.

The cards voters were given designed for Dry Grove A took them instead to the ballot for Dry Grove B.Those people “were disenfranchised of their right to vote,” Polk said.

via Revote set in House district | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com.