New Hampshire Governor Blasts Mississippi

Haley Barbour was in New Hampshire stumping for GOP gubernatorial hopeful John Stephen yesterday. Anytime Barbour heads to a state like New Hampshire we need to take note as part of the 2012 rumors.

But aside from that, the Democratic incumbent- John Lynch- took the moment to blast the state of Mississippi upon Barbour’s arrival to the state which will host the first presidential primary in 2012:

Lynch spokeswoman Pam Walsh said she hopes Barbour’s taking notes to bring back home.

Walsh, in a campaign press release, noted that Barbour’s home state ranks at or near the bottom in most categories, including unemployment, health, safety and livability.
Specifically, Mississippi has been rated the worst state in which to raise children by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the unhealthiest state in the country by CQ Press, and the most unlivable state in the country by CQ Press. New Hampshire sits at the top of all three of those rankings.

“We welcome Gov. Haley Barbour and encourage him to learn from New Hampshire,” Walsh said.

I would love to hear a response from Lynch’s fellow Democrat Jeanne Shaheen- the state’s junior Senator. After all, she received her Master’s Degree from Ole Miss.

Huck PAC Endorses Palazzo. Former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee formally endorsed Steven Palazzo in the Fourth District yesterday, as the Palazzo camp continues to pick up steam heading into the last month of the campaign.

Huck PAC, his political action committee, also endorsed in the First backing Alan Nunnelee earlier in the spring.

NRA backs Taylor. Gene Taylor picked up his own endorsement recently- from one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country. The NRA is supporting the incumbent while thanking Taylor for his “unwavering support for Mississippi’s gun owners, hunters, and shooters.” Earlier this campaign cycle the NRA donated $2,000 to Taylor.

The NRA also backed the incumbent Democrat- Travis Childers- in the First. They did that about three months ago.

NRCC hits Taylor’s new choice for Speaker. Gene Taylor made news when he said he would prefer Missouri Democrat Ike Skelton over Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. To be sure Skelton has less baggage than Pelosi, and did himself many favors by bucking his party on healthcare reform, but the NRCC did take notice of these votes from Skelton- whom they refer to as a ‘Pelosi clone:’

Taylor’s politically opportunistic choice for Speaker of the House…

- Votes with Nancy Pelosi 94.7 percent of the time.
- Supported President Obama’s failed stimulus spending bill (House Roll Call 70).
- Supported the reckless $3.4 trillion Obama-Pelosi budget (House Roll Call 192).
- Supported the Obama-Pelosi National Energy Tax that could cost Mississippi nearly 11,000 jobs (House Roll Call 477).
- Voted for a permanent extension of the job-killing Death Tax (House Roll Call 929).
- Voted for the government bailout of Wall Street (House Roll Call 681).
- Voted to increase the federal debt limit by $2 trillion to a whopping $14 trillion (House Roll Call 46).

Odds and ends. **The Mississippi Center for Public Policy sent out a presser yesterday announcing the launch of a government spending transparency website. A demo will be shown tomorrow. Here is some of what the site will provide: “The site features a searchable state spending database with 137 state agencies, over 1,300 spending categories, and more than 145,000 vendors…Future data sources will include: state revenue data, state contracts, county spending and revenue data, municipal spending data, and school spending data.” ***Bill Luckett will be having a fundraiser in Greenville Thursday night as he gears up for his gubernatorial run on the Democratic side.