Empowering Opponents of Public Education

In the Haley Barbour years, Mississippi Republicans at least voiced some support for public education. Even then-Lt. Governor Phil Bryant campaigned on the promise that he would always fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP.) As anyone who has observed the Republicans' shameless tactics to undermine Initiative 42 can tell you, Republican support for public schools has come completely unraveled over the past several years. What's changed?

Many Republicans have probably just started showing their true colors. For years, they would voice support for MAEP while voting to under-fund it. There were a few who really did support public education - mainly from districts with strong public schools, such as Lafayette, DeSoto, Madison, and Rankin counties. Their reversal seems to have been dictated by outside pressure rather than personal philosophy or the interests of their constituents.

Thanks to financial disclosures posted on the Secretary of State's website, we can start to get a picture of who is applying that pressure. A campaign finance report for an anti-public education political action committee, Empower PAC, shows some disturbing information about our elected officials' stances on public education. We already know that Republicans are not supporters of public education, and the information in this report further backs that up.

Between January 1 to April 30, 2015, this PAC received nearly $365,000 in donations from anti-public education forces such as state House candidate Joel Bomgaars of Madison and the Mississippi Federation for Children PAC, an ALEC-aligned organization, which is oddly based in Virginia. Who is the Federation for Children, you might ask?

The national organization is chaired by former Michigan Republican Party Chair Betsy DeVos. Her husband, Richard, unsuccessfully ran for governor of Michigan in 2006, as a Republican, while spending $35 million of his own money on the race. For Mississippi's purposes, the Chairman of the Mississippi Federation for Children PAC is Greg Brock, a person who is listed with a Washington, DC, address. To give you a sense of his feelings on public education, he led an unsuccessful school voucher initiative in 2000. The DeVos family, as well as billionaires Alice and Jim Walton of Walmart, have poured a tremendous amount of money into anti-public education efforts in recent years. That money is now seeping into Mississippi politics.

Republican candidates for statewide and legislative offices are indirect recipients of the DeVos and Walton money to undermine Mississippi's public education system. If you recall from this year's legislative session, state Rep. Forrest Hamilton spoke from the House Well claiming that he was to be the target of forces who want to hurt public education while Speaker Gunn demanded to know the source of this speculation. Hamilton was right. Hamilton's Republican primary opponent, Dana Criswell, has received at least $11,000 from Empower PAC. Steve Hopkins, who is challenging fellow DeSoto County Republican Rep. Wanda Jennings, has received at least $11,000. Mind you that Hamilton and Jennings both oppose legislation advocating vouchers and charter schools. Longtime Republican Rep. Ray Rogers of Rankin County voted against charter schools in 2013, and now he is a target of Empower. Rogers's opponent, Randall Stephens, has received over $11,000 to take on this race.

Not all incumbents are targets, however.

• Lafayette County Republicans like Senate Education Committee Chairman Gray Tollison and House Education Committee member Brad Mayo both received $2,500 from Empower PAC.
• House Education Committee Chairman John Moore received $2,000.
• Republican Rep. Carolyn Crawford (who serves on the House Education Committee) received $5,000.
• Republican Rep. Joey Hood received $2,000.
• Republican Rep. Randy Boyd (who serves on the House Education Committee) received $2,500.
• Republican Rep. Charles Busby (who serves on the House Education Committee and was the floor manager of the charter school bill) received $2,500.
• Republican Lt. Governor Tate Reeves (who is a product of the Rankin County school system) received $5,000.

The evidence is abundantly clear that Republicans do not care about public education; it's been said before and will be said again. You can be a Republican or you can support public education, but you cannot do both.

The review of Pascagoula's Fair precinct in the District 111 House race has begun

Jackson County's 5 Election Commissioners has begun the review of the Fair precinct in the District 111 House race between Rep. Brandon Jones (D-Pascagoula) and Charles Busby (R-Pascagoula).

The Election Commission (a majority Republican body) voted unanimously yesterday to examine the poll books in Fair to determine whether or not voters in that precinct received the correct ballots on election day. The Fair precinct is split 6 ways, meaning there are 6 different ballot styles for that precinct.

Nearly 1,500 people voted in the Fair precinct on election day. There is a 35 vote difference between Jones and Busby, meaning that errors in distributing 35 or more of the approximately 1,500 ballots would place the election in limbo.

Spotted today in District 111

Got this from Pascagoula:

Rep. Brandon Jones' dad weighs in on Charles Busby's slime

Rep. Brandon Jones (D-Pascagoula) benefits from having one of the most highly-respected members of the Pascagoula community for his father. Charles Busby, an Alabama businessman running to oust Rep. Jones from the House, has unleashed some rather vicious lies about Rep. Jones as Busby sees the race slipping away.

That got under Rep. Jones' father's skin, and the elder Jones sent out an email response today taking the bark off of Busby for his slimeball tactics. Here it is:

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your friendship and support over the years.

As you know, our son, Brandon, is running for reelection to continue to represent District 111 in the Mississippi House of Representatives. It has been wonderful to see many of you as we have campaigned across the district.

While much of the campaign has been exciting, Mary and I have been utterly appalled at the willingness of Brandon's opponent to assault the character of our son. Although Brandon told us months ago to be “prayed up” because he expected a ruthless campaign, he understated the negativity that has followed.

In one of the latest mail assaults, Brandon has been accused of not doing everything he can to protect Mississippi’s children. In a year of outrageous attacks, this may be the most outrageous one of them all. Brandon is the father of two children and I can assure you that he will do whatever it takes to protect his children and yours. He has been a champion for children throughout his time in the legislature, authoring laws to protect young people from internet predators and working to include children in Mississippi’s domestic violence statutes. In fact, the bill in question actually refers to a measure that Brandon spoke out against because ministers and doctors were concerned that it would have prevented them from counseling vulnerable young women in their time of need.

Although they have handled themselves beautifully in recent days, I know that these false attacks have hurt Laurie and Brandon and I am thankful that their impressionable children are too young to comprehend the lies being told about their wonderful father.

When Brandon ran for office, we were warned that his would be a tough and mine-filled journey. This campaign has been all of that and more. Even so, in recent days Brandon has demonstrated those characteristics that have made him such an effective leader in Jackson. Despite the negativity, Brandon has been campaigning hard, listening to voters, and trying to turn the conversation back to those things that inspired him to run in the first place like lowering insurance costs, protecting families, and creating jobs for Jackson County.

As a father, I’m angered and appalled at the irresponsible false attacks aimed at my son. As a constituent of House District 111, I am proud of our representative and more convinced than ever that he is the leader we need.

In these final days of the campaign, I urge you to talk to your friends and family about voting for Brandon on Tuesday. With your help, we can send a clear message that we want to keep honest and effective leadership working for us in Jackson.

Thank you for your time,

Ed Jones

Republican lookalike mailers appear

Some folks on the other side have been having fun pointing out the similarities between Democratic legislative candidates' mailers.  Well, take a look at these mailers from Dorothy Wilcox (running against David Baria in Bay St. Louis) and Charles Busby (the Alabama businessman running against Rep. Brandon Jones in Pascagoula):

Here's Busby's:

And now Wilcox's:

Interesting, huh?

Charles Busby goes negative on Rep. Brandon Jones, and lies in doing so

Word had begun to spread that this week would mark the beginning of coordinated Republican attack ads across Mississippi, and that word has proven to be at least partially true. Charles Busby is running against Rep. Brandon Jones (D-Pascagoula), and he unveiled the first negative mail piece. In it he says Rep. Jones was derelict in his legislative duties because he wasn't around to vote on a bill that would "increase accountability in education", bills that would have protected "restaurants and health care providers from lawsuit abuse", and a bill that would have blocked "Obama's stimulus money from coming to Mississippi."

Well, that's all fine and good to make those claims. Heck, Busby even went so far as to footnote the danged thing, almost daring the public to go look it up. Well, if you do actually go look it up, guess what you find out?

Rep. Brandon Jones was there every...single...last...time.

So, Charles Busby lies to the public, after he decided that they'd be too lazy to figure it out. Honestly, I'm not sure which is worse.

Here's Rep. Jones' response at electbrandonjones.com.

Rep. Brandon Jones (D-Pascagoula) adds another impressive endorsement

In the summer, Rep. Brandon Jones (D-Pascagoula) was able to roll out some stout and meaningful endorsements. Well, over the weekend, he announced another. The Mississippi Police Benevolent Association has endorsed Rep. Jones in his bid for reelection in House District 111. Not a bad get at all.

Did Rep. Lester "Bubba" Carpenter teach this at the training?

In an effort to become more familiar with legislative races around the state, I decided to look at candidates I had yet to hear a lot about. When I came to Republican candidate Jerrerico Chambers I found that he has been a guest on SuperTalk's Paul Gallo Show and that he says he is a conservative Republican by choice, albeit one who doesn't always toe the party line.

I also learned that Mr. Chambers was an attendee at a recent Tea Party training event, at which Rep. Bubba Carpenter (R - Burnsville), among others, taught candidates like Chambers, Charles Busby, Jay Mathis, and Dorothy Wilcox.

But that wasn't all I learned.

To begin with, Chambers has quite a presence on both MySpace and Facebook. It's not your typical campaign stuff, however. Chambers decides to let us really see who he is. Literally.

I can't find a way to adequately describe what I found in words, so I'll just use screen shots:

To begin with, here's the front of his MySpace page.

Now, on to the pictures.  First, his "Republican Presidential Attire."  Next, Mr. Chambers shares with us his thoughts on the hot topic of "sagging."  (I agree with his sentiment, if not his delivery.)  Next, he decides to let us see a bit more of himself.  And then a bit more.  And finally, an invitation.  (And if you doubt that this Jerrerico Chambers and the candidate are one in the same, I refer you to this comment on his MySpace page.)

So how about Facebook?  Well, he has a campaign page up.  Nothing out of the ordinary there.  So what about his pictures on Facebook?  A click on the "campaign button" picture reveals a blue and white logo that's fairly nondescript.  But that's photo number 9 out of 26, so there's more to see here.  I'm a read-things-backwards type of guy sometimes, so let's click back....WHAT THE HOLY HELL?!? (I edited this heavily in order to keep you, dear reader, from seeing what I saw on Mr. Chambers' publicly available Facebook page.)