Friday Morning Election Notebook
A couple notes on the 2011 elections…
** The Mississippi Press Association is sponsoring a gubernatorial forum today at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi. Phil Bryant and Dave Dennis were invited on the Republican side; as were Johnny DuPree and Bill Luckett on the Democratic side. Tomorrow, they will host a forum for lieutenant governor candidates Billy Hewes and Tate Reeves.
** Tate Reeves is out with his latest campaign ad, “Cars.”
** The Clarion-Ledger has a rundown of where candidates for office are spending their money. Here is Elizabeth Crisp’s report on the gubernatorial candidates, and here is the information on candidates for lieutenant governor.
** Philadelphia Mayor James Young sent out an email endorsing Johnny DuPree yesterday.
** The Lucien Smith campaign sent out an email yesterday touting the endorsement of Henry Barbour. We noted last week that Barbour sent out a tweet in support of Smith. Here was the statement from Barbour (this time, in more than 140 characters): “Lucien is a smart, hard-working conservative, who is clearly the best choice to prudently manage taxpayer dollars. He is a leader and is not afraid to do the right thing even if it’s unpopular with some folks in Jackson.”
** Here is the Southern Political Report’s take on how the gubernatorial race currently stands.
** Rep. Wanda Jennings has an annual event at her house that has turned into a “who’s who” of Mississippi politics. Check out this story from the Desoto Times for information on this year’s event.
Intresting fact, the SPR report writes that James Broadwater is in the Gov. race, but no Ron Williams. Eventhough Ron Williams is the most vocal candidate in the race so far.
I do agree that ole Ron is certainly very vocal. Very vocal indeed! In fact he is so vocal to those that know him in Jackson County that he is known to throw temper tantrums when our Jackson County elected officials don’t agree with his erratic and disturbing rants. Oh yes, he is most definitely very vocal! Here in Jackson County he is known to have “Ron Moments”. These instances are well known to many past employees of his, local elected officials and others here in Jackson County. One can routinely hear comments about ole Ron as being “disturbed”, “unbalanced”‘ “needing professional help” and other terms indicating a serious condition. These comments are not made jokingly or in jest. But rather in all seriousness. Ole Ron’s tantrums, rants and raves that cross the line of hysteria are definitely known here. Maybe this is why our home-boy has not garnered an endorsement or support of even one single elected official in Jackson County. Virtually none of our county supervisors, mayors, representatives or senators will even begin to support Ron. I have viewed his web site and even heard him speak on an occasion and have seen his blogs here and there. Ron is obviously a very bitter, angry and abusive person that seems to have a vendetta against all government officials that don’t run to him and try to get work for his company. He claims to be in the haz-mat cleaning business but our county and city emergency officials and haz-mat responders talk of his company as a “wanna-be” response company that could not even begin to do the dangerous work he claims to do.
So yes, I do agree with you that Ron is very vocal. And this is the very reason that he cannot get one single endorsement in his own back yard from a single elected official. And it will also result in him getting maybe 1% of the vote on Aug 2. Very, very vocal, indeed!
I never thought I’d see the day when I became a legitimate Mississippi newspaper reporter in 1959, later to become editor/publisher of a few newspapers, that the Press Association would pull a stunt as they are in their convention.
Any worthwhile wordsmith, and at their core this is what newspaper people are, is well aware of how to make something more or less acceptable is by the amount of attention yu pay to it. So, what does all this lead to?
This week the Press Association embraced only two of the GOP candidates to speak before them, therefore while not endorsing either one, embraced both. Retired General Hudson Holliday, Pearl River supervisor and very successful businessman with multiple interests along with hazard waste contractor Ron Williams where left outside making it very obvious they weren’t considered worthy of appearing before the gathered new people. While they also only had two Democrat candidates appear as well, the other two, lesser known candidates are not really campaigning. Not true with the Holliday/Williams.
What the Press Association has done falls in line with a number of major associations that have for whatever reasons chosen to not even interview General Holliday while promoting the two candidates that have more Republican club credentials.
The public be damned. The Press today seems to have no sense of obligation of responsibility to completely and fairly report on the campaign. Maybe it’s a sign of the death of newspapers (I hope not) and the growing power of Internet bloggers.
For what it’s worth, I’ve learned a lot from blogs, but I doubt few readers decide who to vote for based on blog comments.
When you hear the name RON WILLIAMS for GOVERNOR – LISTEN UP
Here is a guy – just like you and I – HE IS NOT A POLITICAL INSIDER – in fact just the opposite could be said. IF you think Ron is not a politician YOU WOULD BE CORRECT.
I have known Ron since 8th grade – yep Ron is looking out for Ron. In this world if you are not looking out for yourself – you are not going to make it. However Ron has made it – in fact made it enough to help other people – Ron is a very caring & giving person. But is charity what we need for a MS Governor ? Yes somewhat all political figures need to come across as giving…. but it’s what they do while no one is watching is the key to GOOD CHARACTER. Ron’s charity has not been orchastrated for the media sensation nor has his donated time to champion great causes been planned by his campaign mgr. RON gives from the heart, coupled with his wife Towana their passion for helping exceeds anything i have ever witnessed. Yes they are disturbed that the great state of MISSISSIPPI does not consider their own people & their own companies when contracts are sent across state lines ( but that is merely looking out for our citizens of MS), not sour grapes in my opinion. Ron always shoots from the hip – NOTHING planned or staged – what you see is what you get – In this day of telepromters & staged media productions the costs can be huge – pretty much big money trumps in the political world – RON has refused to accept political donations ( this could be a mistake on his part or just his pride standing between him and PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS) In short if you are satisfied with the road the Professional politicians are taking Mississippi – then VOTE for them on AUG 2nd – If you are convinced that Mississippi honestly needs real change not just window dressing I believe RON WILLIAMS could do more for The Great State of MISISSIPPI in 4 years than has occured in the last half of a century. Ron has a great family and would do anything to help anyone, he is a great person with some truely good ideas – I HOPE MISSISSIPPI wakes up to the opportunity to elect a man who is not owned by the special lobbying groups. MAKE NO MISTAKE – RON WILLIAMS would be a great new beginning for my home state of MISSISSIPPI, as I am very tired of PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS – I hope you are too!
I personally feel that Johnny Dupree is the most qualified candidate. No if, ands, or, buts about that… The other candidates all bring something into office, but we need proven leadership. Johnny Dupree is just that..