Thursday, January 13, 2011

Senate District 12 seat still vacant

There doesn’t seem to be a rush to fill the vacancy left by Senator Johnnie Walls (D-Greenville) who was elected Circuit Court Judge for the 11th District in 2010.  Walls who had served in the Mississippi Senate since 1993, resigned from the Senate on January 3.

State law gives the Governor 30 days to call a legislative special election to fill a vacancy.  After that, the Governor must give 40 days notice of the election date.

If an election isn’t set quickly, there is a very good chance that thousands of Mississippians in Washington and Bolivar counties will go without a state senator for the 2011 legislative session. After all, the 2011 session's already off and running.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

If Johnnie Walls has resigned earlier like Nunnelee and Palazzo, the election would have been have two days ago. He waited until January 3, which is his choice. But if he wasn't in a hurry I don't know why anyone else should be.

Cottonmouth said...

Elayne, I'm sure Haley Barbour has known for quite some time that there was going to be a vacancy in SD 12, considering that Walls was the only person to qualify for that judicial seat. Barbour didn't have to wait on Judge Walls to resign.

Seriously said...

Actually, the Governor by law cannot call a special election until the seat is vacant.

Cottonmouth said...

Seriously, Barbour knew it was going to happen. He could have had the date already selected and announced it the moment Walls resigned.

Here's what's going on here: Haley Barbour knows that a Republican has no chance of winning SD 12, so he's holding off until someone notices that he's denying the residents of that district a representative in the Senate. Politics over people, it's the Barbour way.

Seriously said...

He had 30 days to call the election. He called it after 10. You are trying to make something out of nothing. Walls wanted to keep getting paid that's why he didn't resign. Walls wasn't concerned about his constituents being represented.

Ricky Bishop said...

The Democratic way of thinking, ignore the law and call a special election before a seat has even been vacated. The reasoning that Barbour is not calling the election because it is a safe Democratic seat it equally crazy. He is fallowing the law as he has to do. Why did Walls not resign when Nunnelee and Palazzo did?? Extra Paycheck. Walls is the reason Senate 12 is unrepresented and no one else to blame.

Unknown said...

Ricky is correct. There is one person to blame for this and that is Johnnie Walls. If he was more concerned with the representation of his district and less concerned with drawing a paycheck, then the special election to replace him would have already happened. So much for public service.

John Wesley Leek said...

I'm glad to see everyone is in agreement! (1. Someone is at fault. 2. It's not the person I like. 3. Blame is the only appropriate response.

Unknown said...

JWL, you're right. The whole thing is moot because the same day this post was made, Governor Barbour called for the special election.