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Presley faces uphill climb to upset Reeves in Mississippi gubernatorial race | Mississippi

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Steve Wilson | The Center Square – 2023-05-18 13:20:00

(The Center Square) — The biggest question in the upcoming Mississippi governor’s race is whether Democrat Brandon Presley can pull off an upset in November over incumbent Republican Tate Reeves.

Presley, who serves as the Northern District Public Service Commissioner, faces two big obstacles to becoming the first Democratic governor to win the office since 1999.

One of those is name recognition. According to a Mason-Dixon poll of 625 likely voters with a margin of error of 4% commissioned by the Magnolia Tribune in March, 95% of respondents were familiar with Reeves, while only 63% knew Presley.

A Siena College Research Institute poll commissioned by Mississippi Today of 783 registered voters with a margin of error of 4.3% a month later didn’t show any major improvement, as 64% of respondents said they didn’t know that much about him.

The other problem beside name recognition for Presley is a lack of money as the challenger. One area where Reeves excels is fundraising, as he amassed a campaign fund of $9 million according to his latest filing.

While Presley has done well, taking in $1.4 million since the start of the year, he only has $1.6 million in his campaign account, a huge disparity to overcome.

Glenn Antizzo, a professor of political science at Mississippi College, says that lack of name recognition could be costly for Presley in a number of ways.

“I know he doesn’t have a whole lot of money,” Antizzo said. “But he has to be careful not to let the GOP basically create the narrative around him because they have a much bigger war chest, and define who he is before he even gets a chance to say, you know, ‘Hi, my name is Brandon Presley.’”

Despite the lack of name recognition, Reeves’ unfavorability ratings in both polls might trend to a closer race. In the Mason-Dixon poll, 56% of respondents had an unfavorable or neutral view of the governor while it was 57% that had an unfavorable or didn’t know enough to say rating.

Antizzo says the nation’s trend toward tribal, overly-partisan politics is definitely part of the equation in the Magnolia State. He says that might help Reeves overcome his sizable unfavorability ratings in polls with GOP voters who dislike him.

“That pretty much everybody wants to win, wants their team to win and wants the other team to lose,” Antizzo said. “And I think at the end of the day, a lot of the people who probably don’t like Reeves but are more on the conservative side are gonna hold their nose and vote for him anyway.”

There are factors from Reeves’ 2019 victory that won’t be in play come November.

Reeves had to fend off a bruising primary challenge from former state Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr. that he defeated by a 54.1% to 45.9% vote in the GOP primary.

This time, he has no well-funded, serious challenger. Another factor in 2019 being such a close race was the entrance into the field of the Democrats’ last remaining statewide officeholder.

Former Democratic state Attorney General Jim Hood had much better name recognition (only 2% of respondents in a 2019 Mason-Dixon poll didn’t know who he was) than Presley. He was unable to pull off perhaps the Democrats’ best chance of turning the governor’s mansion blue.

Reeves won with 51.9% of the vote in that race.

Where Hood faltered was his home area of northeast Mississippi, a once-traditional Democrat stronghold that is also home to Presley. In the nine counties in the northeast corner of the state, Hood only managed more than 40% of the vote in one of them, Lee County (Tupelo). The rest went for Reeves by huge margins.

Another area where Reeves dominated was in the six coastal counties. Hood only managed to eclipse 40% of the vote in Harrison County, with Reeves rolling up huge victories elsewhere.

Antizzo says that the Republicans will likely try to tie the populist Presley, who refers to himself as a proud “New Deal Democrat” to the national Democratic Party. Former President Donald Trump carried Mississippi with 57.6% of the vote in the 2020 election.

“He’s (Presley) a traditional Mississippi Democrat, just slightly left of center,” Antizzo said. “But as you could tell from the governor’s announcement speech, he was already starting down that road of framing Presley as you know, some AOC clone.”

AOC is the acronym given to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY.

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The Center Square

Taxpayers covering California rents over $7,000 near Mexican border | California

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www.thecentersquare.com – Kenneth Schrupp – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 17:01:00

(The Center Square) – According to federal data, taxpayers may now be helping cover California rents of up to $7,030 near the Mexican border.

Under the federal Section 8 housing voucher program, families are expected to dedicate 30% of their incomes to housing costs, while a federal voucher covers the rest. Vouchers are portable, with the Department of Housing and Urban Development aiming to provide tenants with “greater ability to move into ‘Opportunity Neighborhoods’ with jobs, public transportation, and good schools.”

In San Diego County, there are three ZIP Codes where fair market rents covered by Section 8 exceed $7,000 per month for a four-bedroom home: swanky coastal Del Mar, whose notable homeowners include Microsoft founder Bill Gates and football star Aaron Rodgers, and neighboring Rancho Sante Fe, whose residents include Bill Murray and Phil Mickelson, is joined by Chula Vista, a more modest community that adjoins the California-Mexico border.

The San Diego County income limit for a family of five to qualify for Section 8 is $49,500, meaning that family would be expected to contribute up to approximately $1,237.50 per month towards the up to $7,030 fair market rent authorized for Section 8 vouchers of up to $5792.50 per month. 

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the Section 8 program, FMR is set by the 40th percentile rent, as determined by the results of the American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. 

As of March 31, there are four four-bedroom homes for rent in Chula Vista’s 91914 ZIP code listed on Zillow, ranging from $3,800 per month to $10,000 per month, with two of the rentals under the $7,030 threshold. 

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’s January 2025 report, 2.3 million households receive Section 8 vouchers, which are expected to cost federal taxpayers $32.8 billion in fiscal year 2025.

Because maximum voucher amounts are set by local rents, expensive, densely-populated coastal regions receive a disproportionate share of voucher funding.

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News from the South - Louisiana News Feed

Town of Montgomery fails audit, lacking payment documentation, budget | Louisiana

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Emilee Calametti | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 15:37:00

(The Center Square) — A recent audit showed the town of Montgomery lacked several supporting documents, including vendor payments, operating losses, and meeting minutes for the Board of Aldermen.

After failing to complete an audit report before the deadline and reconcile financial accounts, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office released an audit summary on March 26 detailing its findings for Montgomery’s 2023 fiscal year.

The independent auditor did not provide an opinion due to the findings.

“We do not express an opinion on the accompanying financial statements of the governmental activities, business-type activities, and each major fund of the town,” the report said. “Because of the significance of the matter described in the Basis for Disclaimer of Opinion section of our report, we have not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion on the financial statements.”

The auditor could not perform necessary procedures due to the lack of documentation concerning transactions and bank reconciliations. An analysis by management showed that the town overlooked adopting a budget for the audited period.

No meeting minutes for the Board of Aldermen were recorded, for the year ending Dec. 31, 2022, concerning budget. The lack of minutes is reported by the auditor to be an administrative oversight. Failing to adopt a budget violates state law and the Home Rule Charter.

The schedule of findings provided by the independent auditor states no documentation was available to support various vendor payments for the first quarter of 2023.

Findings also showed the utility system reported substantial operating losses, which resulted in a depletion of finances. Rates were not adjusted to offset costs, resulting in a significant decrease in funds. Montgomery officials submitted the audit late in violation of state law.

There were also cases of reconciliation issues and payroll documentation. According to the auditor, the bank accounts operated by the town had not been properly reconciled. As for payroll, employees recorded their timesheets but there is no record of supervisor approval for some. 

The different findings were originally reported in 2021, some in 2022, and now again for the 2023 audit. 

Montgomery, population 620, is located in north central Louisiana on the west bank of the Red River. 

Emilee Ruth Calametti serves as staff reporter for The Center Square covering the Northwestern Louisiana region. She holds her M.A. in English from Georgia State University and soon, an additional M.A. in Journalism from New York University. Emilee has bylines in DIG Magazine, Houstonia Magazine, Bookstr, inRegister, The Click News, and the Virginia Woolf Miscellany. She is a Louisiana native with over seven years of journalism experience.

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News from the South - North Carolina News Feed

Carolinas wildfires battle helped by rain | North Carolina

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 15:21:00

(The Center Square) – Wildfires continued to burn Monday in the Carolinas, though a sign of optimism arose with a burning ban lifted in 41 South Carolina counties and measured rainfall in both states.

Largest of the fires is Table Rock in Pickens and Greenville counties of South Carolina. The Black Cove fire is burning in North Carolina’s Polk and Henderson counties, the Rattlesnake fire is burning Haywood County, and the Alarka 5 fire is in Swain County.

South Carolina’s Horry County at the Atlantic Ocean and North Carolina border, and the northwestern counties of Spartanburg, Greenville, Pickens and Oconee remain under a burning ban. In North Carolina, all 100 counties have a ban in effect.

The Table Rock fire size is about 13,191 acres in South Carolina and 574 in North Carolina, the Forestry Commission of the former said. Containment is about 30%.

The Persimmon Ridge fire is 2,078 acres in size with 64% containment. Rain Sunday into Monday measured nearly 1 inch.

The Covington Drive Fire in Myrtle Beach is about 85% contained and in mop-up and strengthened firebreaks stage.

In North Carolina, the Black Cove complex of fires are 7,672 acres in size. It includes the Black Cove (3,502 acres, 36% contained), Deep Woods (3,971 acres, 32% contained) and Fish Hook (199 acres, 100% contained) fires. Rainfall overnight into Monday helped the battle.

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