Mississippi Republican Introduces Separate But Equal Flag Bill

From WAPT: 

Republican House Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden is proposing that the state have two flags: one with the Confederate emblem, which currently represents Mississippi, and another flag without the emblem.

Yes, you read this correctly. A leader in the Republican legislature is introducing a bill to fly two flags at the same time, acknowledging that our current confederate battle flag is offensive, but not enough to take it down.

So instead, Snowden reached back into history for a compromise. Separate but equal flags will have to do.

Republican Party Endorses Inadequate and Inefficient Public Education

It was bound to happen. For years, Mississippi Republicans have worked tirelessly to undermine public education in the state. Now, they have finally put their party's stamp of approval on it.

Early today, the Mississippi Republican Party Central Committee - not to be confused with the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China - voted unanimously to endorse the Mississippi Republican Party's opposition to public education. Some familiar faces are on this committee: Governor Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton), and House Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden (R-Meridian).

If you recall during this year's legislative session, Gunn and Reeves rushed alternative ballot language through the legislature without any hearings or public input while threatening their rank-and-file Republicans to vote for it. Their goal: confuse the voters. During this session, Gov. Bryant pushed his private school voucher bill which will pull resources away from public schools. At the same time, Speaker Gunn has been at the beck and call of the Bomgar Caucus, an association of deep-pocketed interests that spent tens of thousands of dollars to defeat pro-public education Republican legislators in the August primaries. Just last week, Bryant and Hosemann voted to put their political talking points on the November ballot by putting misleading language before the voters. This intentionally-confusing language, mind you, was pushed by Reeves and Snowden through the Legislative Budget Office. The public has been refused access to the communication between these offices because they chose to not be transparent. Let's not forget that time Rep. Herb Frierson (R-Poplarville) threw out his scare tactics of frightening state agencies that if the state fully support public education, their agencies would see massive budget cuts - possibly leading to huge layoffs.

All these political players and all these moves have been a part of the Republicans' masterful strategy of deliberately weakening Mississippi's public education system.

Republicans can talk about how proud they are about continuing to not fully support public education and that Mississippi still pays its public school teachers less than their counterparts across the South. The truth remains that you can either be a Republican or support public education, but you cannot do both. The Republican Party's vote today proves it.

Gunn, Reeves Hiding Emails

Reports out in recent days are shining light on the backroom deals Republican leaders are making in order to continue their attacks on public education while adding more evidence to the argument that Mississippi is cited as one of the most corrupt states in America. The problem involves Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) refusing to release emails over their involvement in crafting budget language that puts a blemish on public education funding.

While the Republican Party claims there are scandals over irregularities in Hillary Clinton's emails, the silence from Mississippi's Republican officials over this issue is deafening. It takes a certain amount of arrogance, hypocrisy, or both to suggest that Clinton's emails are fair game while theirs deserve to be concealed. Just another example of Mississippi's Republican leadership saying, "What's good for the goose is bad for the gander."

Even Marshall Ramsey gets in on the controversy.

Reeves had Sen. Giles Ward (R-Louisville) run interference for him by throwing up an ALL CAPS wall saying that Reeves's emails are not public records. It is likely that Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) will have House Management Committee Chairman Greg Snowden (R-Meridian) pull a similar move at their next committee meeting in two weeks. Snowden, mind you, has been the primary legislative advocate for ballot language that was intentionally meant to confuse voters when they head to the polls in November.

Opponents of public education have admitted that they are asserting their influence over non-partisan budget staff to frame funding public education in a negative light. In fact, the state's budget director said so herself that she is being contacted by anti-public education legislators.

“The Legislative Budget Office works for the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. As I do with all major decisions, I consulted with the leaders of the committee in crafting the language.”

Only weeks ago, it was Tate Reeves who championed transparency with respect to state agencies submitting budget requests online to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Yet, when it comes to Reeves's office, he's off limits.

Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said the update to the website also reinforces legislative leaders' commitment to transparency for how tax dollars are spent. He said the proposal was met with some opposition throughout state government but that "told me it was more important that we get it done."

"If you post it for all to see, it will make agencies and agency directors think twice about spending taxpayers' money in an irresponsible manner," Reeves said in an interview. "No agency director or politician wants to be called out for irresponsible spending habits."

This obstruction of transparency should be alarming for the public because it highlights the legislative branch is holding itself to a different standard. This refusal by the Republicans to disclose their government emails cloaks any communication that could have occurred between the Republican legislature and anti-public education forces like Empower Mississippi while they passed policies to cripple public education.

What Gunn and Reeves expect is for voters to believe that they followed protocol by having their respective oversight bodies make the judgement on whether to release government emails from Gunn, Reeves, and their staff. Don't be fooled by this facade.

Rather than admit whether they had or had not sent emails on government servers and through government email accounts, Gunn and Reeves are choosing to hide their attacks on public education from public view, and the Republican drumbeat against public education gets louder.

Republicans Resort to Shouting

Republicans are working their hardest to undermine public education in the state of Mississippi. Sadly, this does not matter at all to the state's Republican leaders in the Capitol and governor's mansion.

At a recent public hearing on supporting public education, Rep. Greg Snowden (R-Meridian) shouted down a constituent of his who dared to speak out against the reckless anti-public education proposal of Snowden and his Republican colleagues. The response from Snowden's constituent is right on target. Check out the video below for the exchange.

What this young man reminds us is that you can either be a Republican or support public education, but you cannot do both. In the case of Snowden, you can still be a Republican hypocrite. 

Democrats + Public Education = Greater Support

Republicans must be feeling the heat from public education supporters on the campaign trail. Given the Republicans' shortchanging of Mississippi's public education system, it makes perfect sense.

Take a journey with me to 2011, the most recent year where Democrats had leverage in the appropriations process, to see for yourself which party truly supports public education and which does not. 

In 2011, the Democratic-led House of Representatives passed its Department of Education appropriations bill funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) to the tune of $1,835,713,885. Republican leaders such as now-Speaker Philip Gunn, now-Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden, and now-House Education Committee Chairman John Moore were among a small number of members who joined their Tea Party colleagues (the Tea Party used to be a thing) and voted against higher levels of public education funding passed by the Democratic leadership.

Meanwhile, in the Phil Bryant-led Senate, Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to cut education funding to $1,754,374,491, a proposal roughly 4.5 percent lower than the Democratic plan.

The final product hammered out between House Democrats, Phil Bryant's Senate Republicans, and Haley Barbour resulted in funding MAEP at $1,808,129,050 - an amount closer to the Democratic position than the Republicans'. In short: Democrats' negotiating strength led to more support for public education funding than would have passed under the Republicans.

This is another example of Democrats putting their money where their mouths are while Republicans accept less support for public education and call it a success. We now find ourselves in an election year where Republicans like Speaker Gunn and Greg Snowden champion education spending while they have voted against greater support for public education. One could say that the flip flopping by Gunn and Snowden constitutes being "full of it." As has been stated, "You can be a Republican in Mississippi, or you can support education, but you can't do both."

What Did Gunn Say?

During yesterday's debate over the Initiative 42 alternative, House Speaker Philip Gunn interrupted the remarks of House Democratic Leader Bobby Moak and Rep. Steve Holland when these two mentioned that they heard speculation that the Speaker may have applied stronger-than-normal pressure upon Republicans to pass their bill. There were nearly a dozen Republicans who were prepared to defeat the alternative language. Only two Republicans ended up voting against the bill. Upset that no one can keep a secret, Gunn wanted to know from Moak and Holland who has been talking to the press and other members.

Here are the questions that we should be asking instead: what did Philip Gunn say to his fellow Republicans? Which members did Gunn, Greg Snowden, and House staff have contact with about this bill, and what was said during the conversation? Did the Speaker, in any way, shape, or form have contact with an individual or others to discuss funding opposition to fellow Republicans who voted no?

The Speaker claims to be a man of high integrity so for him to maintain that standard, he should come forward and explain what was said - or not said - to his caucus members prior to the vote. Gunn said his job as Speaker is to maintain decorum; here is his chance. The best way to get the story right is to get it from the source.

Undermining the public's intent with public education

Tomorrow morning at 10 a.m., the Mississippi House of Representatives will vote on an alternative initiative to the education funding ballot initiative that over 100,000 Mississippians signed on for last year.

This deliberate act led by Republican leaders to confuse and undermine the public’s intent is quite perplexing after Governor Bryant's strong declaration a few weeks ago that the public is in charge education in Mississippi.

Perhaps it is the large number of constituents who are employed or have children educated through public schools, or perhaps they took the Governor’s earlier mantra to heart, but about 13 Republican legislators have indicated they are opposed to the alternative language.

Speaker Philip Gunn, however, needs these 13 votes for Tuesday morning. According to sources, these 13 Republican legislators were taken into the Speaker’s office one-by-one and told they would lose their chairmanships and have $100,000 spent on their primary opponent against them this year. The backer of this $1.3 million? A candidate for office from Madison County with substantial financial resources.

This will be the first time in Mississippi history that the legislature has proposed an alternative to a ballot initiative by the people. If the people are in charge of education in our state, then the people should be voting on the initiative as they signed off on it. But instead, the Legislature is sending Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden around to tell folks that they’ve met their "promises," and intentionally misleading the public through an alternative to the initiative.

Educating our children is a promise that has not been met - it is a necessity to improving our state. It is a necessity to turn around our continuous abysmal performance on every list imaginable, from the highest rates of incarceration to the worst places for business.

It is absurd to think that Speaker Gunn, arguably the most powerful elected leader, is threatening his moderate Republicans in order to cater to Tea Party reactionaries who do not understand that everyone suffers when we do not invest in our greatest asset - Mississippians.

Republican Leaders Complain, Do Nothing Constructive

Once again, Mississippi Republicans continue to show us they do not care about our state's increasing poor population and those without health insurance.

At its budget hearing Friday, the state's Medicaid director requested additional funds to help pay for new enrollees in the program. Many of these enrollees were added as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

As expected, Republican leaders like Lt. Governor Tate Reeves and House Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden huffed and puffed at Medicaid's request. Oddly enough, they would rather the state pay 100 percent of the costs associated with covering the new enrollees as opposed to 10 percent, which the Affordable Care Act allows. We've said for years that the state will save money if it expands coverage, but that has fallen on deaf ears in the Capitol.

For all of their complaining about the rise of Medicaid's costs, Republican policy makers have not advocated for policies to address the underlying problem: poverty. Rather than be proactive, Republican leaders continue to play catch up to the problems of chronic poverty in our state. Let's not forget that Mississippi has the second-highest unemployment rate in the country, currently at 7.9 percent.

We can hope, because we have yet to see any evidence that they will do anything productive, that the Republican majority in the legislature will advance legislation such as tax reforms to help move 22.5 percent of Mississippians out of poverty. Mississippi can and must do better, and the solutions are staring us in the face. Our policy makers simply need to accept reality and reasonable solutions.

MS House Speaker pro tempore paid alleged Cochran vote buyer immediately following 2011 election

As if there weren't enough tentacles to this deal, the minister making the accusations of vote-buying against Sen. Thad Cochran's campaign staff was recently paid by Rep. Greg Snowden (R - Meridian) for "campaign organizational assistance" immediately following the 2011 election.

It's at the bottom of the very last page of this report filed by Snowden in January of 2012.

As a result of that election, Rep. Snowden would become the Speaker pro tempore of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

Greg Snowden is Good at Deck Stacking

Rep. Greg Snowden

House Speaker Pro Tempore and frequent SuperTalk guest Greg Snowden (R-Meridian) has filed a piece of legislation that takes a local political strategy of his and takes it statewide. House Concurrent Resolution 8 would amend the Mississippi Constitution to provide that the governor be elected by a popular vote and eliminate the state's electoral college allocation for that office as well as abolish the ability of state House of Representatives to decide a gubernatorial election dispute. Sounds clean on its face, but check out the dirty pores.

Currently, statewide elected officials in Mississippi are required to obtain a majority of the popular vote and receive a majority of the electoral votes from each state House district in the state. If a candidate gets the most votes in a House district, he or she gets an electoral vote. Should a candidate not satisfy those requirements, the state House is the final authority.

The most recent example of this is the 1999 gubernatorial election when then-Lt. Governor Ronnie Musgrove received the most electoral votes and a plurality of the popular vote but failed to breach the 50 percent threshold to secure victory. The House of Representatives then voted in Musgrove's favor at the beginning of the 2000 Legislative Session. This is where Snowden's bill comes into play. It says

If no person receives a majority of the votes, then a runoff election shall be held three (3) weeks after the general election between the two (2) persons who received the highest number of votes.  The election shall be held in the same manner and in accordance with the same procedure, as nearly as practicable, as provided by law for a general election.  The candidate who receives a majority of the votes in the runoff election shall be declared elected.

For the sake of this article, let's say Snowden's bill is the law of the land and we have a very close election for governor where the Republican and Democratic candidates both get 48 percent of the vote and other candidates make up the difference. The House of Representatives no longer votes for governor like it was able to in 2000; the Republican and Democratic candidates would have a runoff election three weeks following the General Election. Historically, Democrats have not been as successful as Republicans at getting voters to polls in special and runoff elections, and Snowden understands this. In order to design an election destined for a runoff, Snowden knows that it takes a Democratic-leaning independent candidate to siphon off enough votes to push an election to a runoff which would favor the Republican candidate.

Take a look at some recent elections in Meridian and see some of Snowden's handiwork for yourself. In his 2011 reelection, a Democratic-leaning independent candidate jumped into the race and was able to divide the Democratic base while Snowden secured a 52 percent victory. He still won the majority, but he built a safety net around him just in case. Jump ahead to the 2013 Meridian mayoral race when a Democratic-leaning independent candidate got into the race against Democratic candidate Percy Bland. Snowden's scheme did not work out since the Republican incumbent mayor was defeated. Meridian Democrats have now caught onto Snowden's tricks.

Chances are this bill will not have the votes to pass the House, but Snowden is very sneaky. Very sneaky indeed.

Rep. Greg Snowden (R-Meridian) to become House Speaker pro tempore; Rep. Jeff Smith (R-Columbus) and Rep. Herb Frierson (R-Poplarville) snubbed again

After the Republican conference in Rankin County several weeks ago to determine a Republican Speaker candidate, many assumed that one of the two strongest losing candidates, Rep. Jeff Smith (R-Columbus) and Rep. Herb Frierson (R-Poplarville), would get the nod for Speaker pro tempore. That's a logical assumption, seeing as Frierson reportedly lost to Gunn by one vote on the final ballot. Electing Frierson or Smith as pro tempore would presumably unify the thin Republican majority in the House, making it a much more solid voting bloc.

Well, that didn't happen. Rep. Greg Snowden (R-Meridian), who was not a candidate for Speaker, reportedly has been chosen by Gunn as his Speaker pro tempore candidate. I have no doubt that we will see supportive comments from both Frierson and Smith in the near future, but one has to wonder how they really feel about being shut out of the top two posts.

Rep. Bobby Shows: “I am here to be a white conservative Republican.”

Last Tuesday, Representative Bobby Shows (R-Ellisville) made his long anticipated switch to the Republican Party. The ensuing press conference, staged at Mississippi Republican Party headquarters in Jackson, had all the makings of a typical media event until Rep. Shows announced, “I am here to be a white conservative Republican.” As noted in the Republican blog Majority in Mississippi, this was a strange choice of words, particularly given the dust-up over Governor Barbour’s remarks on race in a recent issue of The Weekly Standard.

Majority in Mississippi, the first folks to offer a full throated defense of Governor Barbour, try the same rehabilitation of Rep. Shows using arcane statistics. Their stat line was picked up by Rep. Greg Snowden (R-Meridian) on his Twitter feed.