      
   
   |
And
the winner is…. Sen. Hob Bryan, who finished third (out of four) in the polling, attended the 1972 Republican convention.
Clinton LeSueur, the GOP nominee against Thompson two years ago, rolled up impressive numbers against challengers Stephanie Summers-O’Neal and James Broadwater. LeSueur faces long odds against Thompson. Rep.
Mike Lott dispatched Steven McCaleb and proverbial challenger Karl Mertz.
Lott faces an uphill battle against longtime incumbent Taylor, but with
a popular Republican president on the ballot, he could make it interesting
if he can show some fundraising ability early. Brown avoided the coup d'etat by secretly moving the precinct caucuses. When Democrats showed up at their voting precincts to participate, they discovered the switch. It turns out Brown had arranged instead to hold the precinct meetings in the homes of his supporters around the county instead of the polling places. Brown published the notice of the precinct caucuses in the Macon Beacon as required, but didn't list the meeting locations. Said Board of Supervisors President William Oliver, a Democrat, "He's slick." Brown
retained control after hand picking the delegates to the county convention.
He blamed the attempted ouster on Republicans posing as Democrats, as
well as Democrats who aren't truly Democrats because they fail to support
the party. "I'm the Democratic Chairman and nobody but nobody is
going to tell me what to do," Brown said.
State and national news reports on the event focused largely on the schism among Kerry's base over gay marriage. When a black member of the audience chastised Kerry for equating the black struggle for civil rights to the gay rights movement, Kerry came down squarely on the side of the gay rights movement. The controversy looms as a large issue for Kerry in his fall campaign against Bush. Both the gay rights movement and African-Americans make up an active part of any Democratic nominee’s base. Yet, large sections of the black community are uncomfortable, and sometimes resentful, about having their struggle compared to today’s fight for gay rights. In his response, Kerry managed to mangle a reference to the dragging death of James Byrd, a black man murdered by three white men. The Clarion Ledger missed the story, but national publications jumped on it. Comparing the murder of Matthew Sheppard, who was murdered because he was gay, to Byrd’s story, Kerry substituted the name of one of Byrd’s killers, John William King, for Byrd’s name. He also said Byrd was murdered because he was “gay” instead of black. "But - but - but: I believe it's important in the United States of America that we recognize that we have a Constitution which has an equal protection clause," Kerry said. "Let me tell you something, when Matthew Shepard gets crucified on a fence in Wyoming only because he was gay," he said, "when King gets dragged behind of a truck down in Texas by chains and his body is mutilated only because he's gay - I think that's a matter of rights in the United States of America."
The
party scorecard reflects an new attitude from the Mississippi Republican
Party. Since
the change in leadership earlier this year, the party has taken on an
aggressive posture, utilizing frequent communications to GOP members and
the larger public to advance its agenda.
Jonathan Compretta, who has been a fixture in the Attorney General’s office under both Mike Moore and Jim Hood, is leaving the office to move to Kentucky. Compretta, who has been deeply involved with Boys and Girls State, will be Director of Governmental Relations for Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He is going to be responsible for Boys and Girls Clubs' state government efforts in multiple states including Mississippi. Ole
Miss grad, Scott Walker, is making a move to the White House to work for
Senate Legislative Affairs. He previously worked for Senator Trent Lott
on the Rules Committee.
When Rep. Phillip Gunn’s legislation addressing affidavit ballots was suddenly moved up the House calendar, Rep. Bill Denny was ready with an amendment to require voter ID for affidavit voters. The House initially passed Denny’s amendment by a vote of 77-45. Denny’s amendment survived two more procedural votes before the rhetoric really heated up. Prior to the final vote, member after member took to the floor to make passionate pleas. Proponents argued the amendment was about election integrity. Opponents argued it would return the state to the bad old days when minorities were intimidated at the polls. According to several state representatives, the turning point came when a Hinds County member of the Legislative Black Caucus took to the floor and intimated that the caucus would abandon McCoy’s coalition if rural Democrats abandoned them on the issue. The threat was enough to sway 27 legislators toward voting against the bill they were for a few hours earlier. The Senate has already passed a voter ID bill this year. Last year, the Senate passed voter ID legislation as part authorizing legislation to allow Mississippi claim up to $32 million it stands to receive under the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The money is for modernizing and upgrading the state’s voting process. If authorizing legislation is signed into law this session, the legislation has one more year to enact legislation that would qualify the state to capitalize on the federal funds. Monday, the House of Representatives passed legislation designed to qualify Mississippi for federal HAVA funds. House leadership caused consternation among many of the rank-and-file when it pushed through a procedural vote to deny voter ID proponents from offering voter ID amendments to the bill. The close vote on the procedural motion was seen by many as a chink in Speaker McCoy’s armor.
"Today I was diagnosed with a dual aneurysm and face certain death," Mertz said. "I will be selling my home and moving to Montana. "Mississippi is last in a number of categories for good reasons. A disproportionate number of its people are racist, dumb and lazy. ...
Mississippi sucks the life out of anybody with any brains, courage and
ambition." "A
lot of the people who are supporting this don't even practice the Ten
Commandments. A lot of the authors don't even practice the Ten Commandments.” "We
quite frankly have not had opposition from anybody but tree huggers and
Democrat. Don't use that, say, 'environmentalists.' By Democrats, I mean
the blacks. Don't write blacks. Were you in the Judiciary hearing? That's
most of who had questions about this."
Civil justice reform garnered 61 co-sponsors in the 122 member House of Representatives, right at the number of votes a measure needs to be pulled from committee and on to the floor of the House for a vote. Possibly sensing a committee end-run by a majority of House members, McCoy changed the rules of the House to require a 2/3 vote to withdraw a bill from committee. Several of the sponsors of civil justice reform legislation voted for the change, effectively killing their own bill. Among those voting for the change was Rep. Jeff Smith of Columbus, the author of the legislation. The vote on the rules change was 73 yeas and 49 nays, with nearly all Democrats voting for it and Republicans almost unanimously against it. The
move by McCoy was seen as heavy-handed by many members of the legislature.
Some compared his early tenure to the iron-fisted rule of Speaker Buddy
Newman, who was eventually deposed by House members. Others said he’d
gone further than Newman ever had.
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Ike
Brown, Chairman of the Noxubee County Democratic Party and member of the
Democratic State Executive Committee had been considering letting someone
else take over as county chairman, the Macon Beacon reports. That is until
he heard some folks were going to attempt to oust him at the recent precinct
caucuses. 
Jackson
Mayor
