Reports across Mississippi reveal a higher than expected turnout

I've been fielding calls from across the state today that indicate voter turnout may well surpass the record 2008 turnout. That may impact the Supreme Court races, but I don't expect it to change how Mississippi casts its electoral votes. Last time around, McCain won 56.4% of the vote and Obama garnered 42.8%. There were 1,214,304 votes cast for president in Mississippi in 2008. A surge in voter turnout may most affect the Central District Supreme Court race, where a surge election in 2008 saw then-Chief Justice Jim Smith tossed out in favor of Jim Kitchens. Smith was the corporate candidate in that race, while this time Chief Justice Bill Waller has assumed that role. It will be interesting to see what we can learn, if anything, from the results of that race.

New video: Personhood opponents come out swinging against Waller

Pretty powerful stuff here in the Central District Mississippi Supreme Court race.  Waller's on the wrong side of Personhood.

Banks campaign: Parties in 52 cases currently before MS Supreme Court have given money to Chief Justice, and Chief Justice knows who they are

In a very lengthy press release today, the Earle Banks for Mississippi Supreme Court campaign has unloaded a mountain of evidence connecting political campaign contributions to Banks' opponent, Chief Justice Bill Waller, and 52 cases currently pending before Waller's Supreme Court.  Here's the full press release:

Personhood Amendment opponents: Replace Waller with Banks

In a blog post today, Parents Against Personhood, came out in support of replacing Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller with Rep. Earle Banks.  The group, widely credited with defeating Initiative 26 (also known as the "Personhood" Amendment), had this to say about Waller's stance on Personhood:

In Judge Waller’s view, the “sovereign right of the people” justifies any attempt to revoke the constitutional rights of other people. Had Initiative 26 passed, as seemed nearly certain at the time of the ruling, Mississippi women and families would have seen their rights infringed, and would be unable to get judicial relief until after the violation had already occurred.

Considering how unpopular the Personhood Amendment was in the Central District, this certainly has the potential to cause Waller major problems.  Rep. Banks voted against Personhood measures in the Legislature.

Banks campaign responds to Waller's attempts to take credit for drug courts and e-filing

Here's the text of a press release issued by the Earle Banks for Supreme Court campaign today:

WALLER OVERSTATES DRUG COURT AND E-FILING CREDIT

In response to a new campaign TV ad by Chief Justice Bill Waller, Jr.’s campaign, touting Waller’s leading role in promoting drug courts and statewide “e-filing,” the Earle Banks campaign responds as follows:

“Justice Waller only witnessed success with drug courts after the heroic legislative efforts of Representative Alyce Clark (D-Jackson) to create and fund them.  And it was the state legislature, including Rep. Earle Banks, who voted to fund drugs courts, just as he helped to create the Court of Appeals in Mississippi,” said Banks campaign spokesperson Tanya Patterson. 

“Waller’s claim to success with electronic filing, or “e-filing,” a system modeled after the feds that would allow lawyers to file court documents by computer, is absurd.  Only four or five out of eighty-two counties have e-filing.  Even the three largest courthouses in this district, Hinds, Rankin and Lauderdale, cannot afford e-filing.  The smaller counties in poor and rural areas will likely never see electronic filing in their courthouses.  In fact, you cannot even file appeal briefs in Waller’s Supreme Court electronically,” says Patterson.

Banks press release: Waller Admits Campaign Finance Improprieties

From the Earle Banks for Supreme Court campaign: Earle Banks Press Release 10-6-12

Chief Justice Bill Waller admits to looking over list of donors; creates huge ethical dilemma

This is potentially an enormous development in the Central District Mississippi Supreme Court race. WJTV interviewed Chief Justice Bill Waller for a story yesterday, and during the course of the interview Chief Justice Waller admitted to looking over the host list for a fundraiser held for him at the Eastover home of Robert Lampton.  Waller also admits that he should not have looked at it.   The invitation containing the host list can be found here, and the video of the WJTV story may be found here.

I'll let the official commentary to Section 5C(2) of the Code of Judicial Conduct do the explaining:

There is legitimate concern about a judge's impartiality when parties whose interests may come before a judge, or the lawyers who represent such parties, are known to have made contributions to the election campaigns of judicial candidates. Section 5C(2) recognizes that in many jurisdictions judicial candidates must raise funds to support their candidacies for election to judicial office. It therefore permits a candidate, other than a candidate for appointment, to establish campaign committees to solicit and accept public support and financial contributions. Though not prohibited, campaign contributions of which a judge has knowledge, made by lawyers or others who appear before the judge, may, by virtue of their size or source, raise questions about a judge's impartiality and be cause for disqualification as provided under Section 3E.

Here's Waller's problem in a nutshell:  By admittedly looking at the host list, he subjects himself to "legitimate concern" every time someone from that host list has an interest in a case before the Mississippi Supreme Court.  The problem is magnified by the inclusion of PACs on that host list.  PACs, by their nature, are collections of people who share an interest.  Since Waller has decided to accept PAC money, he has expanded the list of "parties" as defined in the above commentary to an almost incalculable number.

Take for instance the fact that the Mississippi Medical PAC appeared as a host on the fundraiser, and that Waller now admittedly knows that group supported financially him in this election.  Mississippi Medical PAC is the political action committee for the Mississippi Medical Association, which counts several thousand Mississippi doctors as its members.  That means that whenever a medical malpractice case goes before the Mississippi Supreme Court, there will be "legitimate concern" about Waller's impartiality should Waller defeat Banks.

This problem can easily be avoided in two ways: 1) Candidates for judicial office shouldn't look at their donors lists. That's why candidates for judicial office go to such great lengths to create fundraising committees that are independent of the candidate's campaign. 2) Judicial fundraising committees should never accept PAC money.  Doing so means that a judge who does see his donor list is open to questions about his impartiality every time a certain type of case, rather than a certain party, comes before the court.

Waller has gone wrong on both accounts, and now calls into "legitimate concern" his judgment in every case that comes before him that can affect nearly every industry in the state, from healthcare to manufacturing to trucking to real estate.  This is awful, and I don't know of any way Waller can fix it.

Waller sidles up to big business, Banks refuses to, campaign picks up

Yesterday at the Stennis Institute/Capitol Press Corps forum, the candidates for the Central District Supreme Court spot squared off over campaign finance.  The issue arose because sitting Chief Justice Bill Waller has been taking money from political action committees (PACs), while his challenger, Rep. Earle Banks, has not.

Banks' response to Waller's acceptance of PAC money is was powerful, especially considering how former Chief Justice Jim Smith lost his seat (in the very same Central District) 4 years ago:

“With no disrespect, there’s a lot of PAC money been going around,” Banks said. “And it’s not for Earle Banks. And that’s fine. Because Earle Banks is going to be the candidate for the people of Mississippi … blue-collar workers, to everybody whether you’re in the ivory tower or whether you’re the man on the street, whether construction or whatever. I will be fair in hearing your case before this court.”

The conventional wisdom is that former Chief Justice Jim Smith lost his seat due in large part to a perception that the Mississippi Supreme Court had been bought and paid for by big business, and wasn't being fair to average Mississippians.  The fundraiser invitation linked below is going to add fuel to the idea that Waller is a sock puppet for corporations and the wealthy, not the average Mississippian.

Follow the jump to see the Waller fundraiser invitation at issue.

Chief Justice Waller courting Tea Party

In the past, Chief Justice Waller has presented himself as a political moderate, which is important in Mississippi's Central District, from which he is elected.  Former Chief Justice Jim Smith was viewed as being too much of a firebrand conservative on the bench, and was defeated by moderate Justice Jim Kitchens.  Courting the Tea Party in Mississippi's Central District is either a sign of poor advice or bad internal polling results.

My guess is he thought folks wouldn't find out.  Hurricane Isaac forced the Tea Party to send out the above announcement rescheduling Waller's appearance, though, and that's how word spread.

***BREAKING - STATE REP. EARLE BANKS QUALIFIES TO RUN AGAINST CHIEF JUSTICE WALLER***

In an unexpected move, Rep. Earle Banks (D - Jackson), has qualified to run against Chief Justice Bill Waller. The demographics of central district may make Banks a favorite against the incumbent Waller. This being a presidential election year, turnout will be up.

This is the same district that saw the last sitting Chief Justice, Jim Smith, defeated in the last presidential election year.

Rep. Earle Banks (D - Jackson) speaks against Denny map

Rep. Earle Banks: Interesting that the lawyers involved in drawing the Denny map are at Butler Snow, Haley Barbour's law firm. Urges folks to think about rural Mississippi when voting.

Rep. Earle Banks (D - Jackson) questions Rep. Bill Denny (R - Jackson) about the Denny map

Rep. Banks says that Rep. Denny told him that the districts could not be changed after Banks saw them last.  Denny denies saying that.

Rep. Banks disagrees with Denny's frequent statement that Hinds County lost 22,000 residents since 2000.  Banks says Hinds has lost only 2% of its population.  Some research reveals that Banks is correct: According the US Census Bureau, the 2000 population of Hinds County was 250,800.  The 2010 population is 245,285.  This is a decline of 2%.

So a loss of 5,000 people means a loss of a seat for Hinds County?  That's BS and Denny knows it.

Democrats release budget plan, give map for level funding for education, healthcare, and libraries

From a Mississippi Democratic Legislative Caucus press release:

Jackson, MS – House and Senate Democrats held a press conference at 11:30 a.m. today to announce their budget plan for the 2013 fiscal year.  Democrats proposed level funding for the following key budget areas: 1) education, 2) healthcare, and 3) local libraries.  The Republican budget plan, introduced by Governor Phil Bryant on January 31, 2012, proposes significant cuts to each of these areas.  “Our budget plan would provide level funding for education, community mental health and local libraries without raising taxes and without exhausting our savings,” said House Democratic Caucus Leader Rep. Bobby Moak (D-Bogue Chitto).  

Education

The Republican budget would cut education by more than $100 million including:

o   nearly $73 million in cuts to elementary education,

o   over $12 million in cuts to community colleges, and

o   over $18 million in cuts to four year colleges.

“With our improving economy, we have enough money to maintain level funding,” said Sen. Hob Bryan (D-Amory).  “There is not a single Republican who won election by campaigning on spending less on education but that is exactly what their budget proposes.”

Healthcare

The Republican budget would cut healthcare by nearly $30 million including:

o   nearly $12 million in cuts to the University Medical Center,

o   nearly $14 million in cuts to the Department of Mental Health,

o   nearly $3 million in cuts to Public Health, and

o   over $1 million in cuts to Rehabilitation Services.

“The Republican healthcare plan is nothing short of reckless.  These deep cuts place the public at risk by jeopardizing our community mental health centers and cutting healthcare centers that have already been hobbled by previous budget shortfalls,” said Rep. Cecil Brown (D-Jackson).

Local Libraries

 The Republican budget would cut our local libraries by 15% or nearly $2 million. These cuts would place numerous important programs at risk, including:

o   children’s reading programs which serve more than 400,000 Mississippi children,

o   computer programs that serve more individuals performing job searches or completing employment applications, and

o   some WIN Job Centers.

“Local libraries perform several crucial functions for our communities including introducing children to reading and helping connect people to jobs.  These cuts would place many of our libraries at risk of closing their doors,” said Rep. Earle Banks (D-Jackson).