Mississippi Today
Winning statewide office guarantees job security in Mississippi
The best job security in Mississippi might be winning an election, or in some instances appointment, to one of the down-ticket statewide offices.
The seven down-ticket statewide officials will be sworn in to begin a new four-year term next week during a joint session of the Mississippi Legislature. The swearing in will have the normal pomp and circumstance. The event will also be unusual because for only the second time since at least Mississippi’s 1890 Constitution was enacted, all seven statewide officials who will be sworn in after winning reelection this past November are incumbents.
When Gov. Tate Reeves is sworn in during the coming days, it will make for a clean sweep. For just the second time in state history, eight statewide officials will begin a new four-year term as incumbents.
All eight statewide officials being incumbents to begin a new four-year term is a recent occurrence. It also happened in 2015. Granted, until the 1980s there was never going to be a similar scenario โ unless in the rare instances when an incumbent left office early โ because the governor could not serve consecutive terms. In the 1980s, voters approved a constitutional resolution to allow governors to serve a second term. And in the 1990s, another proposal was passed to limit the lieutenant governor to two consecutive terms.
When statewide officials are sworn in to begin a new four-year term in 2027, there will be at the very least a new governor and lieutenant governor.
But more than likely, the other six statewide elected officials โ Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Secretary of State Michael Watson, Auditor Shad White, Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Treasurer David McRae and Agriculture Commission Andy Gipson โ can stay in their current offices as long as they like.
For decades in Mississippi, the Democratic primary determined the winner of most elections. The Republicans generally put up a token, if any, candidate in the November general election to challenge the winner of the Democratic primary. The tough race was generally in the Democratic primary, not the general election.
That began to change in state elections in the 1990s.
Republicans now have a similar advantage. It should be pointed out, though, that the past two elections โ 2019 and 2023 โ have proven that a Democratic candidate for governor can run a competitive campaign.
But in the so-called down-ticket races, Democrats with the exception of former Attorney General Jim Hood, who lost that 2019 bid for governor, have not had candidates able to run competitive campaigns. That is not to say the Democrats have not fielded some credible candidates, but they lacked the money, name identification and grassroots organization needed to challenge in a state like Mississippi, where a majority of voters are firmly affiliated with the Republican Party.
And once a Republican captures one of the statewide offices, usually after a tough primary election, he or she generally does not face a contender in reelection efforts. In the rare instance when incumbents have faced primary opposition, they have generally won by comfortable margins.
The last incumbent to lose a reelection effort was 2007, when long-time Insurance Commissioner George Dale was defeated in the Democratic primary by former state fiscal officer Gary Anderson. In part, Anderson took advantage of voter discontent with the insurance market after Hurricane Katrina pummeled south Mississippi to defeat Dale. But then Chaney defeated Anderson in the general election. Since then, the Republican Chaney has easily won reelection.
Among the current crop of statewide officials, Gipson was appointed by then-Gov. Phil Bryant in 2018 to fill a vacancy after incumbent Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith was appointed to the U.S. Senate. Gipson has cruised in his election efforts since then. White was appointed auditor by Bryant in 2018 to fill a vacancy after incumbent Stacey Pickering stepped down. After that appointment, White was able to do what all politicians dream of doing: run unopposed in 2019 for a full term as auditor.
Of course, the good news for wannabe statewide officeholders is that in 2028, the posts of governor and lieutenant governor will be open because of term limits. The conventional wisdom is that some โ if not multiple officials holding the other six statewide offices โ will opt to run for the vacant posts of governor or lieutenant governor in 2027.
That would mean that four years from now, there will be fewer incumbents being sworn among the pomp and circumstance during the joint session of the Mississippi Legislature.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1875
Nov. 2, 1875
The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from voting, resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the state.
A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black Mississippians had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to challenge Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state.
Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, including a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton.
The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan.
John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: โIt was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.โ
A federal grand jury concluded: โFraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi Todayโs NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi
High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader support; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.
In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Here at Mississippi Today we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.
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This year’s NewsMatch campaign runs from November 1 through December 31, giving us a special opportunity to make each dollar you give go even further. Through matching funds provided by local foundations like the Maddox Foundation, and national funders like the MacArthur Foundation, the Rural Partner Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar up to $1,000. Plus, if 100 new donors join us, we’ll unlock an additional $2,000 in funding, bringing us even closer to our goal. Boiled down: your donation goes four times as far.
Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday lifeโwhether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s happening around them.
Special Event: โFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impactโ
As part of the campaign, we’re excited to host a special virtual event, โFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.โ Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s โ25-foot law,โ which affects journalists’ ability to report vital news.
We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!
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Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we loveโnot only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to come.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Hinds County loses fight over control of jail
The Hinds County sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.
Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, including a failure to protect detainees from harm.
However, the appeals court called the new injunction โoverly broadโ in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.
The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be removed.
The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as โfederal intrusion into RDC’s budgetโ โ especially if the receivership has no end date.
Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.ย
In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which holds people facing trial.
โBut the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,โ the appeals court wrote.
This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022.
The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the solutions they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in Jackson.
The county had a chance to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the death of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old infrastructure and use of force.
Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.
But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff.
The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference.
Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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