Mississippi Today
Election preview: Auditor Shad White faces challenge from Larry Bradford on Nov. 7
Democrat Larry Bradford alleges Republican incumbent Auditor Shad White has not been transparent in his investigation of Mississippi’s massive welfare scandal.
Bradford, who is challenging White in the Nov. 7 general election, also says White has a conflict of interest in the case because the welfare scandal occurred during the administration of former Gov. Phil Bryant, whom White is linked to professionally. White served as Bryant’s campaign manager in 2015, and Bryant appointed White to the vacant auditor’s post in 2018.
As the election approaches, state and federal investigations continue into the misspending of federal welfare funds. Various Democratic candidates for statewide office are trying to make the welfare scandal and broader corruption a campaign issue, given that the scandal occurred under the watch of Republican officials and their allies. The welfare funds were intended for the state’s poorest citizens, but instead were spend on such items as volleyball courts, drug company investments, fitness programs and other questionable activities.
White’s campaign says Bradford’s allegations about the welfare scandal are unfounded.
“Auditor White’s team uncovered the largest public fraud in state history and put a stop to it,” said Quinton Dickerson of the White campaign. “Maybe Mr. Bradford hasn’t read the news, but Auditor White turned everything over to the FBI years ago, and they have since taken the lead in investigating and prosecuting any new individuals in the scheme. Mr. Bradford might want to pick up a newspaper and get up to speed.”
At a recent news conference, Bradford said, “From the time he served as former Gov. Phil Bryant’s campaign manager to when he was appointed state auditor, White has been a lackey for Bryant’s cronies and a shill for the rich and powerful … White is setting a personal tone for corruption and cronyism. He must be removed from office.”
Dickerson pointed out White’s office released a nearly 200-page report detailing the misspending of the $77 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Family funds. Thus far, multiple people close to Bryant, including John Davis, the former governor’s appointed director of the Department of Human Services, have pleaded guilty to charges related to the welfare scandal.
In 2020, then-U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst of the Southern District of Mississippi said he was not notified by the state auditor’s office as would normally occur when federal money, such as the TANF funds, were misspent. White said he opted to work on the investigation with Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, a Democrat, to move as quickly as possible on the case to prevent the additional misspending of the funds. But now federal officials are investigating the case.
Bradford also challenged White to three debates this cycle to allow the incumbent “to defend his inaction and misinformation.” White ignored the requests for debates.
Dickerson countered Bradford has missed the last two campaign finance report filing deadlines, “violating state law and hiding how he’s spending his money. When he starts acting like a serious candidate, Auditor White will start treating him like a serious candidate.”
Bradford, a Panola County native, is the former mayor of Anguilla. He is running his first statewide campaign.
While White is running for his second full term as auditor, he is facing his first opposition. He was unopposed in 2019, his first campaign for the office of auditor after being appointed to the post in 2018 to fill the vacancy created when then-Auditor Stacey Pickering stepped down before his term was completed.
White recently touted that $70 million in misspent funds have been recovered during his tenure, “more than any five-year period in history.”
White is often active on social media, offering opinions on various topics. He recently received attention for his social media posts claiming it was a waste of taxpayer money for public universities to offer degrees in certain areas of study.
“Honestly, I have no idea why Mississippi taxpayers should pay money to educate an urban studies or women’s studies major. These programs are basically indoctrination factories. How about nursing, managerial economics, mech engineering instead?” he posted on social media.
White also has been critical of diversity programs at state universities.
Bradford said such issues are not related to the responsibilities of the auditor’s office. He said the auditor should be offering solutions of how to improve the state’s economy and stop population loss.
Bradford said White is focusing on those issues to try to distract from his shortcomings in the welfare investigation.
READ MORE: Mississippi Today’s complete voter guide for the Nov. 7 general election
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=301935
Mississippi Today
Mike Chaney is not the first state politico to call for his elected post to be eliminated
Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney is not Mississippi’s first statewide official to advocate for his job to be changed from an elected post to an appointed one.
Earlier this month, Chaney called on the Legislature to eliminate the elected insurance commissioner position and instead have the state‘s insurance industry regulated presumably by an appointee of the governor who is confirmed by the Senate. Chaney said he is willing to serve for a short period of time in an appointed position.
William Winter successfully proposed to the Legislature in the 1960s that his post as tax collector be eliminated and the duties incorporated into other positions. Winter’s actions did not end his political career. He went on to serve in multiple other statewide elected post, including as governor from 1980 until 1984 and is viewed as one of Mississippi’s most significant political figures.
In the 1970s, John Ed Ainsworth ran for and was elected to the post of land commissioner with the promise he would work to eliminate the position. One of his primary goals while eliminating the position was to ensure 16th Section land was properly managed to the benefit of public schools. He succeeded and for his troubles was defeated when he later tried to run for lieutenant governor, though he is viewed favorably by many for his work in various areas of state government, including in developing the state’s casino industry. The duties that the land commissioner had are now handled primarily by the secretary of state.
At least four previous statewide elected posts in Mississippi are either now appointed or have been eliminated. Besides the posts of land commissioner and tax collector being eliminated, the post of Supreme Court clerk was changed in 1976 so that the nine members of the Supreme Court appoint the clerk instead of the clerk being elected by Mississippians. And in the 1980s, the elected state superintendent of education was made appointed. The superintendent is now nominated by the Mississippi Board of Education and confirmed by the Senate.
While the state superintendent of education and Supreme Court clerk are in the constitution and required an amendment approved by the voters to be changed, the land commissioner and tax collector needed only action by the Legislature to be eliminated.
Currently, the statewide posts of governor, lieutenant governor, auditor, attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer are all in the constitution, so it would take a vote of the people to change how they are selected or to eliminate any of them. The positions of insurance commissioner and commissioner of agriculture and commerce would require only action of the Legislature and the governor’s signature to make a change.
When Chaney first ran for and was elected as insurance commissioner in 2007, he said the post should be appointed. Since then, Chaney has been reelected four times. He does not plan to run in 2027 and is saying now is the time to change how the insurance commissioner is selected.
Chaney said recently he believes an appointee “can do a better job regulating the industry and protecting the consumers” than someone elected to the post.
“I have grave concerns about someone running for this as a stepping stone to another position,” said Chaney, age 80. “It is too important to do that.”
He said it “is borderline unethical” to take campaign funds from the industry being regulated.
Chaney said in 39 states the person regulating the insurance industry is appointed instead of elected.
Mississippi has eight statewide posts — more than most states, but there are states with more. For instance, neighboring Alabama has 10, but that includes three public service commissioners, all of whom are elected statewide. Mississippi also has three public service commissioners, but they are elected regionally.
Another neighbor — Tennessee — only elects its governor statewide. The lieutenant governor is elected by the members of the Senate.
Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who is elected statewide, recently said on Mississippi’s Today “The Other Side” podcast that the Senate would look at state government structure in the coming session, including whether Mississippi should elect so many positions.
While some posts have been changed from elected to appointed, Mississippi legislators often have been reluctant to take the vote away from the people.
In the early 2000s, the House led by then-Ways and Means Chair Billy McCoy passed legislation to make the Transportation Commission appointed instead of elected. The proposal did not survive the process.
But in more recent times, legislators did vote to make all local school superintendents appointees of the local boards of education.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1927
Sept. 22, 1927
St. Louis native Josephine Baker became the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture. She played the lead role of Papitou in the French silent film, “Siren of the Tropics,” who, like Baker, found her true calling as a performer.
The film’s success led to other starring roles, an autobiography, the creation of a doll in her likeness and even a toothpaste commercial.
At age 11, Baker had witnessed racial violence in East St. Louis, “watching the glow of the burning of Negro homes lighting the sky. We children stood huddled together in bewilderment … frightened to death with the screams of the Negro families running across this bridge with nothing but what they had on their backs as their worldly belongings.”
After working in some choruses on Broadway, she traveled to Paris, where she became the most successful American entertainer working in France. Picasso drew paintings of her, author Ernest Hemingway spent hours talking to her in Paris bars. During World War II, she aided the French Resistance by socializing with the Germans while secretly gathering information that she transmitted to England, sometimes writing the information in invisible ink on her sheet music.
After the war, she received the Croix de Guerre, the medal of the Légion d’honneur and other medals. When she returned to the U.S., she refused to appear before segregated audiences, despite being offered up to $10,000 ($110,000 in today‘s money) to perform. She fought to prevent Willie McGee’s execution in Mississippi, and in 1951, the NAACP honored her with a “Josephine Baker Day” and a parade of 100,000 in Harlem.
In 1963, she became the only official female speaker at the March on Washington. She adopted a dozen children in her lifetime from countries around the globe. She called her children the “Rainbow Tribe.” She played Carnegie Hall in 1973, the Royal Variety Performance in 1974 and a revue celebrating her 50 years in show business in 1975.
After rave reviews, she died unexpectedly after experiencing a cerebral hemorrhage. More than 20,000 attended her funeral, where she received full French military honors.
Diana Ross portrayed Baker in her Tony-winning Broadway show, an HBO movie told her life (for which Lynn Whitfield became the first Black actress to win an Emmy for Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special), and she was depicted in the TV series, “Lovecraft Country.”
In 2021, Baker was inducted into the Panthéon in Paris — the first Black woman to receive this honor.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1955
Sept. 21, 1955
Moses Wright took the witness stand and identified the men who kidnapped and killed his great-nephew, Emmett Till.
“It was the first time in my life I had the courage to accuse a white man of a crime, let alone something terrible as killing a boy,” Wright said later. “I just wanted to see justice done.”
He worked as a sharecropper and was also a minister, whom the locals called “Preacher.” The two white men who abducted Till — J.W. Milam and his half-brother, Roy Bryant — threatened to kill Wright if he said anything.
“How old are you, Preacher?” Milam asked. Wright replied 64. “If you make any trouble, you’ll never live to be 65,” Milam said. When the teen’s body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River, Wright identified Till. Despite threats, Wright still took the witness stand. When the prosecutor asked him to point out Till’s abductors, he stood up, pointed his weathered finger at Milam and said, “There he is. That’s the man.”
He testified that Bryant identified himself as “Mr. Bryant.” It may have been the first murder trial in Mississippi where a Black man testified against a white man. Even after the trial, the threats continued, and Wright left to join his family in Chicago, where he had already sent them.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
-
Mississippi Today6 days ago
On this day in 1925
-
News from the South - Georgia News Feed5 days ago
GA woman released from prison 20+ years after killing alleged abuser
-
News from the South - Alabama News Feed6 days ago
Diddy Arrested In Manhattan | September 16, 2024 | News 19 at 10 p.m.
-
Mississippi Today7 days ago
Another Midwest drought is causing transportation headaches on the Mississippi River
-
News from the South - Louisiana News Feed5 days ago
Ponchatoula homes catches fire overnight
-
News from the South - Texas News Feed2 days ago
Cocaine busts galore at southern border, including from ‘trusted traveler’ | Arizona
-
News from the South - Louisiana News Feed6 days ago
Louisiana school districts working to address teacher burnout, unpaid work | Louisiana
-
Mississippi News Video4 days ago
Bicycler wanted for string of burglaries in West Point