So much to cover on this week’s podcast but Southern Miss’s surprising hire of Marshall coach Charles Huff tops the list, and USM athletic director Jeremy McClain joins the podcast to discuss. Also, a recap of the high school state championships, more college football and, in case no one has noticed, we have two Top 25 basketball teams in Mississippi.

Stream all episodes here.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The decades-old, Jackson-based advertising agency GodwinGroup has closed its doors, and some of its principal team leaders are now part of a new firm.

Ridgeland-based Ad5 was formed when a group of Jackson-area advertising executives partnered with Princeton Partners, a 60-year-old national agency based in Princeton, New Jersey. 

Philip Shirley, who was a senior partner, chairman and CEO of GodwinGroup, is a senior partner in the new marketing and advertising agency.

“Our goal was to combine the experience and expertise of a group of senior-level ad professionals primarily from the Jackson area and nearby states with the brand marketing and digital marketing expertise of Princeton Partners,” Shirley said in a news release announcing Ad5. “We have known and worked closely with the owners and management of Princeton Partners for over 25 years, so we knew it was smart to join forces.”

Tom Sullivan, president of Princeton Partners, is chairman and a senior partner of the new firm.

The new company will focus on offering marketing services in banking, healthcare, education, nonprofits, workforce development, tourism, government agencies and consumer marketing, according to the news release.

Ad5 local management includes Jeff Russell, who was a senior partner and president at Godwin, as president and partner, and Lauren Mozingo, digital marketing specialist at Godwin, as managing director and partner. They have local day-to-day management responsibilities for the new entity, according to the release, and will work with Kevin Kuchinski, managing partner of Ad5 and Princeton Partners. Ad5 serves clients operating from Texas to Florida and up to Kentucky, according to the release.

GodwinGroup was the state’s oldest advertising group. It shuttered its doors Friday.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

At the request of a top lawmaker, Attorney General Lynn Fitch opined that state Auditor Shad White lacked the authority to hire a consultant for $2 million to look for waste and fat in state government.

Fitch’s opinion said White has the authority to conduct “financial audits only,” but does not have authority to conduct “managerial studies” without a written request from the governor or the Legislature.

A spokesman for the auditor said on Wednesday that the office did have legal authority to commission the study — and added Fitch’s legal opinion is likely the result of the consultant finding that Fitch and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who oversees the state Senate, took the state plane on a trip to an out-of-state college baseball game.

This trip was not mentioned in the consultant’s report White released to the media and public in October, although White recommended getting rid of the state airplane. White previously denied a records request from Mississippi Today for any documents other than the 59-page report he made public. The auditor’s spokesman did not specify on Wednesday what baseball game he was referencing.

Fitch’s office on Wednesday declined comment on the statements from White’s office. Hosemann’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

Lawmakers have been questioning whether White’s study on waste was, itself, wasteful spending. Some have noted the result was mostly a rehash, amalgam of long-discussed, never enacted ideas ideas to cut government spending that could have been cobbled together after spending a day or two on Google, going through Mississippi press clippings and perusing old legislative watchdog reports and bills.

READ MORE: Cutting fat in state government: Everything old is new again

Lawmakers and Mississippi politicos have questioned whether White’s report, released with fanfare at a press conference and subsequent media circuit, was more a campaign effort for his stated 2027 gubernatorial aspirations.

White, who has compared his efficiency study to President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts at cutting federal waste, has written off any questions of his consultant study as deep state pushback.

State Sen. John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, chair of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees the budget for White’s office, requested the attorney general opinion on White’s study. Polk noted the $2 million White spent never came up when setting his budget for the year, which is “quite unusual.” He said White has some autonomy on “escalating” his budget, but he questions whether this large increase met legal criteria.

“I’m concerned he has broken the law, and that is not a good thing for a state auditor,” Polk told Mississippi Today on Wednesday.

Polk noted the AG’s opinion doesn’t carry the weight of law, and the opinion itself notes such opinions “are prospective determinations on matters of state law only and can neither sanction nor invalidate past actions.”

“What I want to focus on is how going forward we control things like this, prevent them from happening,” Polk said. He said he wants lawmakers to look further into White’s consultant contract, how the auditor chose the Boston firm and other issues.

Polk said he and other lawmakers have noted the study produced “nothing new … the same old, same old” in suggestions for government efficiency.

“It’s things we’ve tried, or talked about, or in some cases are already doing,” Polk said. “… The (consultants’) contract says they would talk with agency heads as part of the study. I haven’t found an agency head yet that says they talked with them. That bothers me.”

Jacob Walters, a spokesman for White, said Hosemann “probably” had Polk request the attorney general’s opinion.

Walters speculated Hosemann was upset that White’s study “uncovered” that he and AG Fitch “took a taxpayer-funded trip” on the state airplane to travel to an out-of-state college baseball game.

“This is why Auditor White called to eliminate the state airplane in Project Momentum,” said Walters, alluding to the name White gave the Boston consulting group study.

He said many Mississippi politicians, like those in Washington, “dislike Auditor White’s willingness to upset the applecart on behalf of taxpayers.”

“Your days of wasting our money are over,” Walters said.

Whether or not White commissioned the study to raise his profile for a potential run for governor, the issue is firmly mired in 2027 politics. White and Fitch are considered likely candidates for the office, as is Hosemann, who oversees the Senate and for whom Polk is a top lieutenant. Any battle over White’s budget or spending the $2 million in the upcoming legislative session is likely to be politically charged.

White has been politically sparring with Hosemann and Fitch, and the internecine fight among Republicans with gubernatorial aspirations is heating up as the Jan. 7 start of the 2025 legislative session draws near.

Other politicians, including the current chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, have accused White of grandstanding for political gain, and questioned his writing a book about the ongoing Mississippi welfare fraud scandal he helped investigate.

READ MORE: ‘Lies, rumors, innuendo … fiction.’ State GOP chair, AG bash Auditor Shad White’s book on welfare scandal

White’s scrutinized report said Mississippi could sell the state’s airplane, make officials use commercial or charter flights, and save more than $1 million a year. The existence of the state airplane and intense scrutiny of travel on it by governors and others have been debated off and on for decades. Former Gov. Phil Bryant, who appointed White to the auditor’s office, pitched selling one of the state’s planes when it had two a major political platform and vowed to take commercial flights for state-related travel.

White’s consultant report includes recommendations such as reducing government officials’ travel spending. This was a hot topic for several years after a 2013 investigation by the Clarion-Ledger showed that even during lean budget years, government officials still spent tens of millions of dollars on travel, domestic and abroad, and had a massive fleet of government vehicles with dubious need for them. The Legislature clamped down on travel and agencies enacted fleet rules and promoted mileage reimbursement for personal vehicles. But according to White’s report, travel spending has been growing and again needs a major haircut.

The report also found that, compared to other states, Mississippi government is spending too much on office space and insurance for state buildings and leased property, and on advertising and public relations for state agencies — again, issues that have been pointed out multiple times over the last couple of decades by lawmakers, journalists and government watchdog reports.

White’s report recommends the state consolidate and reform its purchasing and look for better deals when it buys goods and services. That should sound familiar: Two lawmakers in particular, Sen. Polk and Rep. Jerry Turner, led a serious crusade on purchasing reform for several years and managed to push through some meaningful changes. But many of those have been undone or are now ignored.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.