About That Jim Hood Poll

A poll is circulating around Mississippi showing a close race between incumbent Attorney General Jim Hood and his opponent. The poll shows Jim Hood leading with 50% to his opponent's 44% with 6% undecided (a plurality of the undecided voters are Democrats). This poll also shows a number of statewide Republican incumbents with oddly high re-elect numbers.

Before anyone on either side of these campaigns gets in a tizzy, let's take a look at who conducted the poll. The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research. In case you have not heard of them, it is likely because they try to keep their history out of the news. For instance, during the 2012 election cycle, Mason-Dixon had an awful track record.

Mason-Dixon proudly projected that Mitt Romney would carry states like Virginia and Florida - Romney lost both; Mason-Dixon's poll showed Republican pickups in US Senate seats in Montana and North Dakota - Republicans lost both; Mason-Dixon polled a Congressional race in Utah showing a Republican pickup - the Republican lost.

In each poll, Mason-Dixon consistently raised likely turnout expectations among Republican voters anywhere from 4-6 percentage points. The same situation appears to be taking place in their Mississippi poll with Republican candidates running stronger than the historical average.

Latest AG race poll shows Hood with 57-35 lead

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood sent out an email to his supporters today touting a 57-35 lead in his internal polling over Republican challenger Mike Hurst.  I can say that I've seen similar numbers over the past couple of weeks, so I doubt these are off-base. These numbers actually represent a decline for Hurst from an April Mason-Dixon poll showing the race at 55-40.

Hurst is trailing Hood in the face of outspending Hood $630,201 to $378,362 on media this campaign.  It likely won't matter how much Hurst raises and spends over the next three weeks. He began the race with no name ID and a scant record, while facing the most popular politician in the state.  So as long as Hood has enough money to stay on air, he'll walk away with the election.  Should Hood continue to raise money, the only parlor game left in this race will be whether Hurst breaks 40%.

What Would Mike Hurst Do for BP?

This morning, Attorney General Jim Hood announced that Mississippi will receive 2.2 billion dollars from BP's disastrous Deepwater Horizon spill. Along with the tragic loss of lives, the spill wreaked havoc on our gulf coast's environment, fishing, and tourism industries.

In his statement, Hood said:

"We remain committed to ensuring that our coast counties and cities are included in any settlement and treated fairly. I am pleased to say we are upholding our promise. The size and scope of this settlement is the result of a successful partnership of all the gulf states and our state agencies. Together, we held BP accountable for the damage it caused."

But Republican Mike Hurst has different plans for companies like BP; he doesn't want them to face any consequences. How do we know? He'll tell you in his stump speech:

Poll shows AG Hood to be nearly unbeatable

The GarinHartYang Research Group completed a survey of Mississippi voters last week, and just recently shared their findings regarding this year's race for Attorney General and Governor.

The gubernatorial findings will follow in a second post, but here's what they found regarding Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood:

Approval ratings

• Overall, Hood has a 70% approval rating, and a 14% disapproval rating
• Hood's approval rating among Democrats is 70%
• Hood's approval rating among independents is 64%
• Hood's approval rating among Republicans is 72%

Reelection support

• Nearly 3 of 5 Mississippi voters say they will vote to reelect Hood
• Only 20% of Mississippi voters say they would vote to elect a Republican as AG
• Among Republican voters, 41% of them would vote for Hood, while only 36% would vote for a Republican

Hypothetical race against State Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ellisville)

• Chris McDaniel has substantial name ID at 78%
• In a hypothetical head-to-head matchup with McDaniel, Hood has a 62% to 27% lead

File Under: Actually Getting Things Done

According to a release this morning from the Mississippi AG's office, Mississippi's Jim Hood has lead the way for a 1.375 billion (with a b!!!) settlement with Standard & Poor, finally holding SOMEONE accountable for misleading investors in the lead up to the 2008 financial crisis.

“This settlement is the culmination of years of hard-fought litigation against an industry giant,” said Attorney General Hood.  “The result is historic because it finally and indisputably holds S&P accountable for its role in the financial crisis.  The size of the settlement and the successful partnership between the States and the Department of Justice send a strong message that no company is above the law.”

Hood's leadership on this issue is a landmark achievement, and proof that while some statewide leaders look the other way from problems (or worse, exacerbate them), Hood continues to be a voice for working Mississippians.

If only state Republicans took their jobs seriously.

Analysis: Public Policy Polling Releases Mississippi Results

This morning, Public Policy Polling released their automated polling data from their weekend in the field. Solely focused on the coming U.S. Senate race, PPP provides a ton of data on the state of Mississippi's politics, and this nerd will be up late enjoying the provided cross tabs. At the bottom of the post I've attached the full report, but here are a few of the immediate takeaways:

1. Senator McDaniel is a real threat to "establishment" Republicans.

PPP has noted that Cochran is in danger of losing his primary all along. Some of us at Cottonmouth have been saying that for a while. But the truly interesting thing to note is that despite McDaniel's lack of name ID among everyday Republicans, he still out-polls Delbert Hosemann as the favorite to win if Senator Cochran is not in the field. McDaniel is a threat to anyone in the field who might be deemed "main stream." This is due to one thing... 


2. The Mississippi Republican Party is now controlled by the Tea Party.

It is not safe to be anything other than combative anymore. Even the well-known and popular Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves polls dismally (3%) to others in the prospective field, and among the Republican primary voters, 15% consider themselves "moderate." When asked if they'd prefer Thad Cochran or "someone more conservative," 55% of Mississippi's Republican primary voters prefer the latter. But..

3. Aside from a swath of Tea Partiers, Mississippians are willing to look at other options, even if they have a (D) next to their name.

Despite what has been stated so far -- at least the three Democrats mentioned in the poll are competitive. The generally surveyed field was overweighted with Republicans 422 to 502, and yet Attorney General Jim Hood is head-to-head with every potential Republican nominee...Including Senator Cochran. If Chris McDaniel ended up with the nomination, former Governor Ronnie Musgrove, former Congressman Travis Childers, and Attorney General Hood would be in a statistical dead heat -- and this is among a weighted Republican populous. Perhaps PPP  even missed out on an opportunity to test another strong candidate, Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who may be able to tap into the public discontent. Because...

4. These numbers aren't off.

In the coming days, there may be some people here and there suggesting that these poll results are off-kilter or possibly even completely incorrect. (even though they were weighted for Republicans). For that reason, I asked Mississippi Democratic Trust Director Brandon Jones, who very flatly told me:

"This matches our recent survey of Republican Party primary voters. The Tea Party owns this Party now."

With that in mind, the DSCC may be chomping at the bit for Republican primary voters to choose their favorite Tea Party candidate. Because they don't necessarily hold the views of the rest of our state, and some "moderate" Republicans may be without a home.

PPP Release MS 1119

Ms GOP Senate Numbers-PPP

Attorney General Jim Hood sues BP over oil spill

Just shy of the 3 year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, the State of Mississippi has filed suit against BP in both state and federal court. Here's a quote from a press release from Attorney General Jim Hood:

Attorney General Jim Hood stated, “I have worked very hard to get BP to discuss a reasonable settlement. BP refused to negotiate, forcing the state to take this action. BP would not even agree to waive the statute of limitations while we negotiated, which could have prevented the State from having to file suit and saved both them and the taxpayers a lot of money paying lawyers and fighting in the courts.”

You can read the full press release at: http://agjimhood.com/index.php/press/releases/attorney_general_files_suit_against_bp_and_others_for_damages

Upcoming Mississippi Democratic Trust reception packs impressive host list

This coming Tuesday, the Mississippi Democratic Trust will hold a reception at Hal & Mal's in Jackson from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.  The host list is quite impressive, and includes former Governors William Winter and Ronnie Musgrove, Congressman Bennie Thompson, Attorney General Jim Hood, former Secretary of State Dick Molpus, former Attorney General Mike Moore, former Congressman Travis Childers, Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole, Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, Moss Point Mayor Aneice Liddell, and over two dozen current and former legislators.

Here's a copy of the invitation:

Judge dismisses Obamacare suit filed by Gov. Phil Bryant

You may well have heard by now that United States District Court Judge Keith Starrett has tossed out the lawsuit filed by Gov. Phil Bryant (R) over Obamacare.  Judge Starrett ruled that, since Gov. Bryant has health insurance (that you and I already subsidize), Bryant has no standing to maintain the portion of the lawsuit dealing with mandatory insurance coverage.  In effect, the only way Bryant could sue would be to drop his health insurance.  But hey, why would someone want to do something silly like drop their health insurance?  Especially when you get such a good deal on it through your government job?

Charlie Mitchell: Attorney General "Sunshine" Law not what it's advertised to be

In an opinion piece on today's Daily Journal website, Charlie Mitchell outlines the losses the state will likely see going forward as a result of the so-called "Sunshine" Act that was the darling of corporate defense lawyer Philip Gunn (R - Clinton).  Gunn, of course, was elected Speaker of the House following the Republican takeover in January.

Some excerpts:

It's not about allowing citizens to learn more about what public officials are doing. 

It's about trying to curb the enthusiasm of Attorney General Jim Hood in signing contracts with private attorneys to file suits on Mississippi's behalf. 

It comes with a cost because, like them or not, these cases have been part of the state's revenue picture for almost 20 years.

...

Nobody likes trial lawyers, right? Ambulance chasers. That's what they are. So flushing them out into the open is a good thing, right?

Well, except for the fact that their efforts have ginned up hundreds of millions of dollars for the public treasury in this, the poorest state in the union.

...

But aside from the stench is that Big Tobacco (through its customers) is paying the state Big Money to offset Medicaid and other state expenses in treating people with tobacco-related illnesses. 

The 2011 payment was $113 million. Compare that to state revenue from casinos, which was $150 million during the same period. It's not a pittance. Over 25 years, payments are expected to total $3.6 billion.

There was also the MCIWorldCom settlement that provided the state treasury with $100,000,000.00 and a new building to house the Department of Environmental Quality.  There have been others as well.  I hope we won't need money like that going forward, because under "Sunshine", we ain't going to get it.

ATRA takes a swing at Jim Hood and misses terribly

The American Tort Reform Association issued a press release yesterday containing an email from its Communications Director, Darren McKinney, to Attorney General Jim Hood.  In the release, ATRA says McKinney was responding to "what he felt was a misleading campaign email" Hood sent regarding HB 211.

That's funny, because apparently no one at ATRA bothered to read HB 211 before criticizing Hood about his opposition to it.

Attorney General Hood sets the record straight on Barbour's attempt to shift blame for Pardongate; says Barbour is "a desperate man"

Here is the full text of a press release from the office of Attorney General Jim Hood:

It is unfortunate that former Governor Barbour has made some misrepresentations about the role of our attorney assigned to the Mississippi Department of Corrections. At no time did our Assistant Attorney General assigned to MDOC advise the Governor or any of his assistants that there was no requirement for publication. The comments by former Governor Barbour are a shameful attempt to deflect blame for his office’s failure to confirm that the requirements of the Constitution had been met.

First, the special assistant attorney general, David Scott, who the governor has supposedly relied upon, has only one client, the DOC; he is housed there and works together daily with the Commissioner of Corrections, Chris Epps. He is the MDOC lawyer. Scott is not counsel to the Governor who had his own three staff attorneys advising him.

On November 28, 2011, Scott texted Daryl Neely with the governor’s office and said, “please refer to Section 124 of Constitution regarding pardons and notice”. So, the governor and his staff and his attorneys were given the law at that time and had plenty of time to make sure publications were done properly before his term expired. So what did the governor and his staff do? Nothing. In fact, Daryl Neely told David Scott on November 29th that the governor’s staff had discussed the Constitutional publishing requirements and “decided it wasn’t necessary.”

Not until December 6, after 5:03 p.m., (31 days before the pardons were issued), did Neely text back to David Scott that ““top guy” wants to go ahead and run notices” for mansion trusties, and a few minutes later provided a list of names. The next day, December 7, 30 days before the pardons were actually issued, David Scott confirmed for his client, MDOC, that MDOC would take care of publication for the in-custody inmates. David Scott’s job was to advise MDOC, and their job is to run prisons, not to issue pardons.

Neither David Scott, nor the AG, nor any AG staff ever talked to an inmate or provided legal advice to an inmate. At the direction of DOC, David Scott did in fact refer the Governor’s Office to Section 124, which the Governor chose to ignore. Later, David Scott passed along the ‘Top Guy’s” last minute request that MDOC do the task of getting the publications done.

Finally, the Constitution puts the duty on the convict to make the newspaper publication, saying “no pardon shall be granted until the applicant therefor shall have published for thirty days, in some newspaper in the county where the crime was committed…his petition for pardon….” The failure to comply cannot be excused because the governor took it upon himself and an agency he controls to do the required publications, then botched the job. And his attempt to shift the blame for his failure to a career staff attorney for MDOC, who advised him well in advance of the law’s requirements, is shameful .

I am disappointed to see the former governor out in the national media making untrue statements. This is a sideshow by Tom Fortner and the former Governor to divert attention from the fact that the former Governor has loosed his favored murderers upon the public without any legal authority to do so. These untruths and mischaracterizations are indeed the sign of a desperate man.

8th grader demonstrates Republican claims about Attorney General Hood are flat out lies

Republicans, in an effort to prevent Attorney General Jim Hood from protecting Mississippi from unscrupulous Wall Street behemoths, are attacking Hood's ability to contract with attorneys skilled in high-level litigation. Among the complaints being made by Republicans are that AG Hood isn't being transparent about whom he contracts with, that the terms of these contracts are unknown, and that some "insiders" get better terms than others. Allegations like these need to be called what they are: bald-faced lies designed to prevent Mississippi from defending itself against major corporations who steal from us.

In a video being circulated among legislators and members of the media by the Mississippi Democratic Trust, an 8th grader shows just how easy it is to locate and read contracts AG Hood signs with independent counsel. Oh, and how every single contract has the same payment terms. Here's the video:

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.”

###

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

Judge Tomie Green orders no further releases for pardons; order focuses on Section 124's language

Attorney General Jim Hood (D) sought an injunction yesterday from Hinds County Senior Circuit Court Judge Tomie Green that would prohibit the Mississippi Department of Corrections from releasing any more of the inmates purportedly pardoned by Gov. Haley Barbour (R). Judge Green granted that motion, and issued a hand-edited order yesterday around 6 p.m., and the Clarion-Ledger has it posted on their site.

The nature of injunctive relief does not leave much time for careful word processing, so often judges will do as Judge Green did here, and edit the proposed order by hand. To me, there are two interesting parts to this order.

First, that Judge Green wrote in the types of crimes Barbour was pardoning. She adds "i.e., murder, manslaughter, rape, armed robbery, aggravated assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, domestic violence, etc." I wasn't at the hearing, but I'm certain Hood brought up the nature of the crimes being excused by Barbour. Here, Green seems to be letting the respondents know that the nature of the crimes committed by these purported pardon recipients makes the matter one of larger import than if they had been, say, guilty of possession of cocaine.

Second, Judge Green underlines the portion of Section 124 that reads "no pardon shall be granted until the applicant therefor shall have published for thirty days, in some newspaper in the county where the crime was committed, and in case there be no newspaper published in said county, then in an adjoining county, his petition for pardon, setting forth the reasons why such pardon should be granted." That shows that the Defendants need to be prepared to argue that the publications either happened or aren't required, and they're going to have a tough time if they want to argue the latter.

Today Show covers Haley Barbour's Pardongate (video)

Rep. David Baria (D-Bay St. Louis) and Attorney General Jim Hood (D) are interviewed in this story about Gov. Haley Barbour's Pardongate, which NBC titled "Mississippi Mess":

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Attorney General Hood says Barbour employees refused to turn over public records concerning pardons; Gov. Bryant ordered them to comply

Wow. Things are getting more and more strange regarding Pardongate. In his press conference today, Attorney General Jim Hood (D) said employees of former Governor Haley Barbour (R) had stonewalled him all day in his efforts to obtain the documents relating to the pardons involved in Pardongate. Those individuals, as of today, are private citizens in possession of public documents.

After AG Hood informed Gov. Phil Bryant (R) of the refusal of these individuals to turn the documents over, Gov. Bryant ordered the documents released, and they complied.

Thanks, Haley.

***BREAKING*** - AG Jim Hood will seek injunction stopping release of "pardoned" prisoners

In a press conference currently being held, Attorney General Jim Hood (D) is announcing that he will seek an injunction that would prevent those apparently pardoned by outgoing Governor Haley Barbour (R) from being released from prison.  At issue is the procedure outlined in Section 124 of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890, mentioned here last night.  In particular, it does not appear that many of the pardons were issued in accordance with the constitutional requirement that a pardon petition be published for 30 days prior to a pardon being issued.

For example, take a look at the Sun-Herald announcements found here.  None of those were posted 30 days prior to January 10, 2012, and would therefore likely be unconstitutional.

In addition, AG Hood has asked MDOC Commissioner Chris Epps to refrain from releasing anyone from MDOC custody on such a "pardon" until the constitutionality of the purported pardon can be determined.  Those who have been released may be rearrested.

Thanks, Haley.

Attorney General Jim Hood to hold press conference at 3 p.m. on pardon issue

AG Jim Hood will speak shortly regarding his plans for action concerning the Barbour "Pardongate" matter. No word on whether there will be a Republican response.

Attorney General Jim Hood wins battle against Kenneth Feinberg to keep oil spill-related litigation in state court

The story in a nutshell is that Kenneth Feinberg, the administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility has been attempting to dodge a subpoena from Attorney General Hood's office that would require Feinberg to produce documents that show how they handle oil spill damages claims.  Hood filed the subpoena in state court, and Feinberg had the matter removed to federal court.  U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves ruled today that the removal was improper, and sent the matter back to state court, where presumably Feinberg will be forced to comply with the subpoena.

Here's the story from Legal Newsline.