Pressure Is On The Speaker
Y’all Politics has an interesting note about the makeup of the redistricting committee in the Senate. Lt. Governor Phil Bryant, who has control to pick the members, decided to take the bipartisan approach with 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans.
Billy McCoy now has the same responsibility for the House. We know which path he choose to take with budget negotiations when he choose zero Republicans to occupy the seven seats on that committee. McCoy has been bitter since he was challenged, and maintained his position by a 62-60 vote, just two years ago.
It is interesting that McCoy complains about the partisanship of the governor and Republicans in the legislature, yet he is one of the most partisan men in Jackson. However, he now has a chance to prove he is “bipartisan” instead of just talking about it.
The Senate is evenly divided; the House, emphatically, is not. So it makes sense, if you’re going for proportional representation, to have a 5-5 Senate committee and a more Democratic House committee. To have them both tied would overrepresent Republican legislators in the House.
Tom:
Last I checked, the House voted 62-60 after tying 61-61 twice on their choice for speaker. I think liberal/conservative, it doesn’t get any closer than in the MS House. The Senate was 29-25 D to R.
Unless McCoy doesn’t want to see a replay of the regular session/special session for redistricting (i.e. it goes to the courts to decide), he better come up with a 50/50 solution or something damn close. Barbour would have not compunction about taking him to school again.