Monday, January 16, 2012

Rep. Bob Evans calls out Sen. Fillingane for retaliatory bills

In response to Senate Bills 2084 and 2102, Rep. Bob Evans (D-Monticello) has issued the following statement:

Republican Retaliates Against Hood for Work on Pardons

Mississippi House Democratic Caucus Press
Contact: Rep. Bob Evans
(601) 587-0615

January 16, 2012

Jackson, MS- In response to Attorney General Jim Hood’s efforts to stop former Gov. Haley Barbour’s release of over 200 Mississippi felons, including murderers, rapists and child sex offenders, a Republican senator has introduced a barrage of retaliatory legislation.

On Friday, two days after Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green temporarily blocked the pardons of 21 current and former inmates at the request of Hood, Senator Joey Fillingane (R-Sumrall) introduced Senate Bills 2084 and 2102, bills aimed at limiting the powers of the Attorney General to hire outside legal counsel to prosecute complex claims on behalf of the State.

“This retaliatory stunt couldn’t come at a worse time,” said Rep. Bob Evans (D-Monticello). “At this moment, General Hood is working to recover tens of millions owed to the state’s retirement system, now is not the time to tie his hands.”

Democrats say S. B. 2084 and 2102 are aimed at keeping the Attorney General’s Office from recovering taxpayer money for egregious acts against the State. During his most recent term of office, Hood recovered over $500 million on behalf of Mississippi taxpayers in civil litigation that didn’t cost taxpayers a dime.

At issue is the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office’s ability to contract with outside counsel to represent the state for costly recovery actions. The practice has been the target of United States Chamber of Commerce funded entities such as the American Legislative Exchange Council for almost a decade. Fillingane, like a number of his Republican colleagues, is a member of ALEC.

“We were able to kill these efforts in the House during the last term,” Evans said. “But the Republicans are determined to make sure Jim Hood is blocked from making their big business cronies pay when they do bad things to the State of Mississippi.”

Ironically, Fillingane, as former Chair of the Senate Judiciary A Committee, killed at least three bills that would have provided “sunshine” on the Mississippi pardon system now under scrutiny by news outlets nation-wide.

Evans said, "This is simple retaliation against the only statewide official who has taken action to protect Mississippians from Republican recklessness.” Evans added, “Senator Fillingane failed Mississippi victims and families when he killed these bills before. We can’t afford to let him compound the problem by grounding our chief law enforcement officer.”

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PRESS NOTES:

S.B. 2739 in 2009; S.B. 2130 and 2170 in 2010; S.B. 2118 in 2011 were killed in the Fillingane Committee.

As a private attorney, Fillingane urged the Miss. Supreme Court to allow a felon convicted of robbery and drug sale to be allowed visitation of his child, over the unwed mother’s objection in Christian v. Wheat, 876 So.2d 341 (Miss. 2004). The Court rejected his plea.

For more information on ALEC:

http://www.thenation.com/article/161978/alec-exposed

www.alecexposed.org

www.alec.org

2 comments:

mississippi citizen said...

Could it be that this is payback for Hood going after Barbour's clients? Barbour, Griffith, and Rogers, in 2011 alone, received $530,000 from pharmaceutical clients like Amgen, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, and Pharma Mfrs of America. It's no wonder that Fillingane is going after Hood who has recovered over $41 million for the state from Barbour's pharma clients for the state. Eli Lilly $18.5m, GSK--$8m, Amgen $3.8m. Barbour may not be governor, but he is still calling the shots! Now we know why Barbour and his friends in the Legislature have tried to stop Hood from filing these fraud cases!

Anonymous said...

Well, I'll be, an actual Democratic House member willing to call it like it really is, do tell! I am now waiting for an actual "gutsy" response from a Democrat to Senator Michael Watson's right-wing "chest-thumping" on introducing a bill to drug test citizens and taxpayers receiving any type of public assistance. Lets take it a step further and speak in terms of drug testing all state employees, all state elected officials and their staffs, all city and county elected officials and their staffs. BTW, where are our MS Tea Party groups who despise BIG SPENDING, such as the "fire McCoy" Tea Party bunch from last fall, calling-out new House Speaker Gunn for his BIG SPENDING hire of a glorified secretary to assist him in the amount of $110k salary plus benefits every year? Cat got their tongue??? Clock is ticking on their silence, tick-tock, tick-tock...