Mississippi Today
Welfare scandal is big deal to Mississippi voters. But will it play in governor’s race?
Ninety percent of likely Mississippi voters said they are concerned about the Mississippi welfare scandal and government corruption in general, according to a new Mississippi Today/Siena College poll.
Of numerous issues polled, it’s nearly top of mind for voters, trailing only the state’s hospital crisis.
But despite Democratic challenger Brandon Presley’s efforts to lay the scandal and corruption at incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ feet, it doesn’t appear to be providing him much separation. Reeves leads Presley in head-to-head polling by 11 points.
But when asked which of the two candidates they believe will do a better job of addressing corruption and the welfare malfeasance, the split is narrow: 45% choosing Presley to 43% Reeves.
Editor’s note: Poll methodology and crosstabs can be found at the bottom of this story. Click here to read more about our partnership with Siena College Research Institute.
At least $77 million in federal money meant to help the poorest of the poor was stolen, misspent or directed to wealthy, politically-connected people between at least 2017 and 2020. One of the large expenditures was for a volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi, a project championed by Reeves’ friend and supporter former NFL quarterback Brett Favre.
Eight people have been criminally charged, seven have pleaded guilty and 47, including Favre, are being sued by the state to recover money. State and federal probes continue.
Voters have been bombarded by Presley’s claims of Reeves’ involvement in the scandal and Reeves’ counterclaims.
READ MORE: What exactly is Gov. Tate Reeves’ involvement in the welfare scandal?
For weeks, Presley has aired a TV advertisement alleging: “Under Tate Reeves, millions were steered from education and job programs to help his rich friends.”
Reeves quickly responded with his own ad that counters Presley’s claim.
“Tate Reeves had nothing to do with the scandal,” the Reeves ad narrator says. “… It all happened before he was governor.”
But past reporting reveals several ways the scandal has touched Reeves.
Mississippi Today reported this week that Gov. Reeves’ brother coordinated with state Auditor Shad White on damage control for former NFL star Brett Favre after an audit first revealed in 2020 that the athlete had received more than $1 million in welfare funds, according to text messages the governor’s political campaign released Thursday.
And records obtained by Mississippi Today indicate that then-Lt. Gov. Reeves in 2019 met with the head of the state welfare agency — who has pleaded guilty to charges in the scandal — about Reeves’ friend and fitness trainer Paul Lacoste.
Lacoste at the time had secured a contract to receive $1.4 million in welfare funds for a fitness program. But most of the money had not come through. Communications records indicate that changed after Reeves met with the welfare chief. The welfare director texted his deputy at the time and asked him to find a way to send a large sum of welfare money to a nonprofit without triggering a red flag in an audit so the nonprofit could fund Lacoste’s fitness camp. The welfare director in the text referred to the program as “the Lt. Gov.’s fitness issue.”
Reeves, who took office as governor in 2020, has also faced questions about his firing of the attorney the state had initially hired to probe the welfare spending and sue to recover money. In July 2022, after the lawyer subpoenaed the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation for communications with former Gov. Phil Bryant, Bryant’s wife Deborah, and former NFL star Brett Favre over $5 million in welfare dollars spent on a volleyball stadium, Reeves’ administration abruptly fired the attorney.
Pigott said his firing was a politically motivated response to him looking into the roles of former Republican governor Bryant, the USM Athletic Foundation and other powerful and connected people or entities Reeves and others didn’t want him looking at.
Reeves has called Presley’s attempts to tie him to the welfare scandal “mental gymnastics” and said, “The bad actors in this case have been sued by the Reeves administration.”
Only 9% of voters polled between August 20-28 said they were not concerned about the scandal and government corruption, with 1% not knowing or refusing. The poll surveyed 650 likely Mississippi voters and has a margin of error of 4%.
The Mississippi Today/Siena College Research Institute poll of 650 registered voters was conducted August 20-28, 2023, and has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.0 percentage points. Siena has an ‘A’ rating in FiveThirtyEight’s analysis of pollsters.
Click here for complete methodology and crosstabs relevant to this story.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
An ad supporting Jenifer Branning finds imaginary liberals on the Mississippi Supreme Court
The Improve Mississippi PAC claims in advertising that the state Supreme Court “is in danger of being dominated by liberal justices” unless Jenifer Branning is elected in Tuesday’s runoff.
Improve Mississippi made the almost laughable claim in both radio commercials and mailers that were sent to homes in the court’s central district, where a runoff election will be held on Tuesday.
Improve Mississippi is an independent, third party political action committee created to aid state Sen. Jenifer Branning of Neshoba County in her efforts to defeat longtime Central District Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens of Copiah County.
The PAC should receive an award or at least be considered for an honor for best fiction writing.
At least seven current members of the nine-member Supreme Court would be shocked to know anyone considered them liberal.
It is telling that the ads do not offer any examples of “liberal” Supreme Court opinions issued by the current majority. It is even more telling that there have been no ads by Improve Mississippi or any other group citing the liberal dissenting opinions written or joined by Kitchens.
Granted, it is fair and likely accurate to point out that Branning is more conservative than Kitchens. After all, Branning is considered one of the more conservative members of a supermajority Republican Mississippi Senate.
As a member of the Senate, for example, she voted against removing the Confederate battle emblem from the Mississippi state flag, opposed Medicaid expansion and an equal pay bill for women.
And if she is elected to the state Supreme Court in Tuesday’s runoff election, she might be one of the panel’s more conservative members. But she will be surrounded by a Supreme Court bench full of conservatives.
A look at the history of the members of the Supreme Court might be helpful.
Chief Justice Michael Randolph originally was appointed to the court by Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who is credited with leading the effort to make the Republican Party dominant in Mississippi. Before Randolph was appointed by Barbour, he served a stint on the National Coal Council — appointed to the post by President Ronald Reagan who is considered an icon in the conservative movement.
Justices James Maxwell, Dawn Beam, David Ishee and Kenneth Griffis were appointed by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant.
Only three members of the current court were not initially appointed to the Supreme Court by conservative Republican governors: Kitchens, Josiah Coleman and Robert Chamberlin. All three got their initial posts on the court by winning elections for full eight-year terms.
But Chamberlin, once a Republican state senator from Southaven, was appointed as a circuit court judge by Barbour before winning his Supreme Court post. And Coleman was endorsed in his election effort by both the Republican Party and by current Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who also contributed to his campaign.
Only Kitchens earned a spot on the court without either being appointed by a Republican governor or being endorsed by the state Republican Party.
The ninth member of the court is Leslie King, who, like Kitchens, is viewed as not as conservative as the other seven justices. King, former chief judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals, was originally appointed to the Supreme Court by Barbour, who to his credit made the appointment at least in part to ensure that a Black Mississippian remained on the nine-member court.
It should be noted that Beam was defeated on Nov. 5 by David Sullivan, a Gulf Coast municipal judge who has a local reputation for leaning conservative. Even if Sullivan is less conservative when he takes his new post in January, there still be six justices on the Supreme Court with strong conservative bonafides, not counting what happens in the Branning-Kitchens runoff.
Granted, Kitchens is next in line to serve as chief justice should Randolph, who has been on the court since 2004, step down. The longest tenured justice serves as the chief justice.
But to think that Kitchens as chief justice would be able to exert enough influence to force the other longtime conservative members of the court to start voting as liberals is even more fiction.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1968
Nov. 24, 1968
Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver fled the U.S. to avoid imprisonment on a parole violation. He wrote in “Soul on Ice”: “If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America.”
The Arkansas native began to be incarcerated when he was still in junior high and soon read about Malcolm X. He began writing his own essays, drawing the praise of Norman Mailer and others. That work helped him win parole in 1966. His “Soul on Ice” memoir, written from Folsom state prison, described his journey from selling marijuana to following Malcolm X. The book he wrote became a seminal work in Black literature, and he became a national figure.
Cleaver soon joined the Black Panther Party, serving as the minister of information. After a Panther shootout with police that left him injured, one Panther dead and two officers wounded, he jumped bail and fled the U.S. In 1977, after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, he returned to the U.S. pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of assault and served 1,200 hours of community service.
From that point forward, “Mr. Cleaver metamorphosed into variously a born-again Christian, a follower of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a Mormon, a crack cocaine addict, a designer of men’s trousers featuring a codpiece and even, finally, a Republican,” The New York Times wrote in his 1998 obituary. His wife said he was suffering from mental illness and never recovered.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1867
Nov. 23, 1867
The Louisiana Constitutional Convention, composed of 49 White delegates and 49 Black delegates, met in New Orleans. The new constitution became the first in the state’s history to include a bill of rights.
The document gave property rights to married women, funded public education without segregated schools, provided full citizenship for Black Americans, and eliminated the Black Codes of 1865 and property qualifications for officeholders.
The voters ratified the constitution months later. Despite the document, prejudice and corruption continued to reign in Louisiana, and when Reconstruction ended, the constitution was replaced with one that helped restore the rule of white supremacy.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
-
Kaiser Health News6 days ago
A Closely Watched Trial Over Idaho’s Near-Total Abortion Ban Continues Tuesday
-
Local News5 days ago
Sherral’s Diner to be featured on America’s Best Restaurants
-
Local News2 days ago
Introducing our Student Athlete of the Week: Ocean Springs’ very own Mackenzie Smith
-
News from the South - Georgia News Feed4 days ago
Jose Ibarra found guilty in murder of Laken Riley | FOX 5 News
-
News from the South - Alabama News Feed5 days ago
Trial underway for Sheila Agee, the mother accused in deadly Home Depot shooting
-
News from the South - Kentucky News Feed4 days ago
Nicholasville organization activates weather plan in response to bitter cold temperatures
-
News from the South - Alabama News Feed4 days ago
Judge grants mistrial in Sheila Agee trial due to ‘unhinged juror’
-
News from the South - Alabama News Feed5 days ago
Alabama's weather forecast is getting colder, and a widespread frost and freeze is likely by the …