Thursday Afternoon Election Notebook
A couple notes on the 2011 elections…
** If you want to keep up with the day-to-day of candidates, I encourage you to check them out on Facebook and Twitter. Before the “real” campaigning begins this summer, Republican candidates have generally been traveling to the main GOP counties having meet-and-greets, speaking to local Republican committees, some Tea Party groups, and other specific Republican groups (College Republicans, Republican Women, etc.). And, of course, there have been fundraisers as well.
We just don’t have the ability to tell you about, for example, Lynn Fitch’s stop at Broad Street on Tuesday or Billy Hewes’ Young Professionals meet and greet that same day.
** Here is a good interview from Dave Dennis with the Jackson Free Press, one in which the Republican gubernatorial hopeful came across very well in my opinion. A good bit of it concentrated on economic and education issues. There were a couple other areas I wanted to specifically point out, just because of the contrast with Phil Bryant (besides Dennis’ regular refrain of contrasting his private sector background with Bryant’s).
On redistricting, Dennis was asked how he thought Bryant had handled the issue. Here is a quote from Dennis: “Just candidly, I think redistricting has been more about failed leadership than bad maps. You can take maps and negotiate solutions and you can come up with answers. But people elect leadership to solve problems, and I think the voters clearly would say- and it’s been pretty evident the last couple of weeks- there has been mighty weak leadership showing up on the lieutenant governor’s side.”
On immigration, Dennis did not specifically comment on pending legislation modeled after Arizona’s law which Bryant has supported. Although he did say the state of Mississippi is a different place than a border state like Arizona. Dennis certainly sounded a lot more like Haley Barbour- who has never been a major proponent of this legislation- than Bryant.
** Here are several pictures from Gregg Harper’s endorsement of treasurer candidate Lee Yancey on Tuesday. Yancey also picked up the endorsement of the Mississippi Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement this week.
** Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Luckett, likely in response to the charges that he has not been a Mississippi resident for the required five years to run for governor, has a new Facbook album: “Bill Luckett, a Mississippi Boy.”
Luckett, a Mississippi Boy…and a Memphis man.
The first pic on Luckett’s Facebook album has his son in a Bama tshirt and he looks like he’s wearing a Louisiana hat. Maybe when he loses in Mississippi his plan is to run in one of these other states.
“You can take maps and negotiate solutions and you can come up with answers.”
Actually, no… you can’t.
It’s rather easy to make a decision in your own company, but it doesn’t quite work that way in the legislative process. 200+ years of political history proves just that. I’m extremely interested how a Dennis would handle a power-grabbing McCoy, and if he would have had enough sternness to fight; would he expect to negotiate solutions with the House?
One thing is for certain; you know where Bryant stands on issues concerning Republicans (ie immigration, etc.)
One thing is for sure about Dave Dennis.. He would have appointed a solid majority of Republicans to the joint committee on redistricting rather than the half democrat panel of ten that Phil Bryant appointed…
I know I’m going to vote in the GOP Primary but, as of now, I’m “Undecided” in the top two races on the ballot. But here’s a key difference I’m picking up between Dave Dennis and Phil Bryant. Privately, Dave Dennis is appalled that the Lt. Governor, a member of the Executive Branch, has injected himself so deeply into the clearly-defined realm of the Legislative Branch. I knew Kirk Fordice, and he would have been equally appalled at the Lt. Governor’s violation of the Constitution and such foundational, conservative principles. Give the Lt. Governor “points” for not accepting the “traditional, gentlemn’s agreement” between the chambers regarding redistricting, but take away all those points and more for this serious, serious violation of separation of powers.
Jack,
I don’t know how to break this to you…. But…. The Lt Gov is part of the legislative branch.
Nope. He’s Executive Branch. (How do you think he or she gets the Governor’s salary when the Governor is out of state?). The Constitution says the only powers of the office are to preside over the Senate, voting only in case of a tie, and to serve as Governor when the Chief Executive Officer is out of state. The “powers” of the office (stated fairly well by Rubradog below) are actually granted by the Senate rules.
Jack, Bryant is the president of the Senate. Basically has the same duties in the Senate that McCoy has in the House. Main ndifference is he is elected statewide versus by the chamber.
I’m not disagreeing with that. My points are (a) according to Article 5 of the State Constitution, the Lt. Governor’s Office is a part of the Executive Branch of Government, and (b) while Article 5, Section 129 of the State Constitution makes the Lt. Governor the President of the Senate, it is actually Senate Rule 7 that grants him or her the authority to name committees and assign bills.
Clearly Dennis does not understand how the Legislature works. The Lt. Gov. is the head honcho in the Mississippi Senate. He appoints all the chairmen, assigns the bills to whatever committee he wants the bills to go to, and guides the budget process for the Senate. That is a big deal. McCoy thought he was going to shove his redistricting plan down Bryant’s throat. He did not succeed. Bryant got his forces organized and stalemated McCoy. He sent McCoy into a rage such that McCoy then became almost irrational in his responsive actions. There was no way to negotiate with McCoy on redistricting and although Bryant tried (and continues to try by appointing conferees) he pretty well knew McCoy had no intention of negotiating. Bryant has shown real Republican leadership on this issue and anyone who thinks otherwise really does not understand how the Legislature works.
You’re right on point about a couple of things. First, there was no way for Lt. Governor Bryant to negotiate with Speaker McCoy, because Lt. Governor Bryant is not a member of the Senate and therefore, could not appoint himself a conferee (he’s a member of the Executive Branch, not a member of the Senate). Second, Lt. Governor Bryant did know, or at least he should have known, Speaker McCoy had no intention of negotiating with the Lt. Governor. Agree with him or not, Speaker McCoy made it abundantly clear for months before the Census data arrived he would not negotiate with the Lt. Governor or anyone in the Senate on the House Plan. So to say Lt. Governor Bryant has shown “real Republican leadership” in this is really a stretch.
Speaking of that “real Republican leadership”: it’s amazing how quickly some of y’all forget the fight over the Burton plan. Bryant got his own plan shoved down his throat in embarassing fashion by his own party.
So what? Do you have some other point to make? He took a risk and failed. At least he tried. More than we can say for McCoy.
It was certainly bad judgment, but he also was able to kill the House plan- which was much more important to me than one seat in Hattiesburg.
If there wasn’t a gubernatorial primary in the making, there would be little criticism of Bryant. I can’t help but wonder if some of what I’ve seen so far implies Dennis is going to have to go negative. At least as negative as he thinks he can get by with.
On some things in this thread, the LG is a bit of a hybrid position, but he’s clearly not abusing anything constitutionally. Going down that logical path, the Governor should stay totally out of legislative matters (which isn’t going to happen and I doubt few here want). On the Senate plan that was voted down, didn’t a majority of Republicans vote with Bryant? And on the appointments, it’s pretty consistent practice to appoint by party in similar proportion to the make-up of the body. McCoy violated this practice in the House map drawing and Bryant appears to have reciprocated (at least symbolically) with his conferees. And I don’t agree that Dennis doesn’t understand how the legislative process works, but he’s just trying to find a way to get a dig in against Bryant. But you may be right. He wouldn’t be the first to think he oughta come in and just be the “boss” as in a private company. In politics, one has to lead by persuasion and consensus not with an authoritarian hammer. And it’s messy and frustrating to watch sometimes.
Good points.
I also don’t understand how a bipartisan Senate committee symbolizes failed leadership.
We all know the history of our redistricting and the DOJ oversight. NOT having a bipartisan committee would certainly doom the fate of the Senate plan; however, it was passed by both parties. (I personally think there was a reason behind submitting a Bryant plan, and it wasn’t to pass it, but rather, to make sure the favorable Republican senate plan was accepted by both parties and to minimize the scrutiny of it)
Alas, with our history of DOJ oversight and redistricting woes, the ONLY choice is a bipartisan committee.
Ultimately, it is the House committee that has haulted this process, not the Senate.
Jack,
I’m responding down here b/c the replies get too narrow up top.
While the Lt Gov might have some executive duties at times, I don’t understand how the arguement could be made that he is not a member of the Legislative branch. I am aware that the Senate gives him the authority that he has, however look at the JLBC.
Years ago the Governor was on the Budget Commission. The Budget Commission was made up of House members, Senate members and the Governor. This was ruled unconstitutional because the Executive Branch, being the Governor and the Legislative Branch, being the House and Senate were all in the budget writing process together. Today we have the Joint Legislative Budget Committtee. It is made up of the Legislative Branch and the Lt Gov and the Speaker alternate chairmanships by fiscal year. The JLBC was created to keep the Legislative Branch separate from the Executive Branch, so I don’t know how you can say the Lt Gov is not Legislative.
Didn’t Gene Taylor file suit against Brad Dye that was similar to Jack’s argument? Didn’t he lose his case?