House committee assignments expected tomorrow

All signs point to Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) announcing his committee chairmanship selections tomorrow morning around 9:00 a.m. In addition, Gunn will assign each of the 122 members to the various committees. These choices will be the most important of Gunn's career in the House thus far. With these appointments, Gunn will have an opportunity to live up to the cooperative tone he set in his acceptance speech. I believe he will do just that.

Here's why:

The most frequent complaint from Republicans over the last 4 years was that Speaker Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi) didn't appoint any Republicans as committee chairs. If Gunn follows McCoy's lead and doesn't appoint any members of the opposing party to committee chairmanships, then he'll appear hypocritical. An appearance of hypocrisy isn't something Gunn can afford right now, as Mississippians are dealing with the fallout from Barbour's Pardongate. (Barbour's pardon record doesn't exactly match the Republican "tough on crime" line.)

There's another dynamic at play here as well, and it has to do with institutional knowledge. Most of it resides over on the Democratic side of the aisle, and that will be important when it comes time to handle intricate health, education, and budget matters. Having Democrats with experience in those areas willing to play ball is going to be vital to doing the work of the House in a timely fashion.

All of the above, coupled with Lt. Gov. Reeves' decision to appoint Democrats to chair important committees, lead me to believe that we will see a fairly even distribution of power at the committee level. Guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Two House committees have been announced

Got your attention, didn't I? The two committees are Rules and Management. Here are their members:

Rules

Rep. Charles Beckett (R-Bruce)
Rep. Ed Blackmon (D-Canton)
Rep. Gary Chism (R-Columbus)
Rep. George Flaggs (D-Vicksburg)
Rep. Mark Formby (R-Picayune)
Rep. Gregory Holloway (D-Hazlehurst)
Rep. Mac Huddleston (R-Pontotoc)
Rep. John Moore (R-Brandon)
Rep. John Read (R-Gautier)
Rep. Joe Warren (D-Mount Olive)

That's 6-4 GOP to Democrat.

Management

Rep. Richard Bennett (R-Long Beach)
Rep. Credell Calhoun (D-Jackson)
Rep. Angela Cockerham (D-Magnolia)
Rep. John Hines (D-Greenville)
Rep. Rita Martinson (R-Madison)
Rep. Willie Perkins (D-Greenwood)
Rep. Margaret Rogers (R-New Albany)
Rep. Ray Rogers (R-Pearl)
Rep. Jerry Turner (R-Baldwyn)
Rep. Hank Zuber (R-Ocean Springs)

Once again, 6-4 GOP to Democrat.

The Rules Committee is the one to watch, as they will be making the determination regarding seniority and appointment to Appropriations and Ways & Means.  The current rule is as follows:

(3) The Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on Ways and Means each shall consist of thirty-three (33) members appointed by the Speaker, six (6) members from each congressional district as constituted on January 1, 1996, and three (3) members from the state at large. Appointments from the congressional districts shall be made on the basis of seniority. For the purposes of this rule, "seniority" shall mean length of service, continuous or interrupted, in either the House of Representatives or the Senate. However, seniority among members having the same length of service shall be determined as follows: first, continuous, uninterrupted service in the House; second, continuous, uninterrupted service in the House and Senate; third, interrupted service in the House; and fourth, interrupted service in the House and Senate.

This rule came into existence in the late 1980's as a way to strip the Speaker of his near-dictatorial powers.  I assume we will see the end of this rule this week.  Here are the rules from the last term of the House.