BREAKING - MSGOP fires Brett Kittredge

This is an update to a post from last night.

I've been able to confirm that Brett Kittredge, former editor of Majority in Mississippi, has been fired from the Mississippi Republican Party.  Kittredge had been lured over to Mississippi from Georgia by the MSGOP at the beginning of this year to serve as their Communications Director.  That's the Christmas spirit, Republicans!

So who replaces him?  Frank Corder?

Interesting post on the battle between Hewes and Reeves

Majority in Mississippi has a lengthy post up today about the feud between Republican Lt. Governor hopefuls Tate Reeves and Billy Hewes over the appointment of committee chairs and campaign contributions from sitting senators.  As you may recall, Hewes announced his choices for several key committee chairmen earlier this week.  For his part, Reeves has drawn a connection between the names announced by Hewes and contributions Hewes has received.  I recommend reading the Majority in Mississippi post in its entirety.

State Sen. Michael Watson (R-Pascagoula) reportedly considering a run against U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo (R)

In Saturday's Sun-Herald, Geoff Pender broke the buzz that some of us had been hearing for awhile now: Sen. Michael Watson (R-Pascagoula) is considering a run against first term U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo (R). That would be a pretty audacious move, but it would be a fun race to watch.

As an aside, when Majority in Mississippi posted about this, a spat broke out in comments between Ron Williams, Republican candidate for Governor, and some guy posting as "Adam." Interesting to see a statewide candidate engaging anonymous folks on the internet.

Majority in Mississippi reports what it's hearing on House redistricting

Majority in Mississippi's got a post up on redistricting in the House, and it mirrors what we've been hearing as well. The highlight is this:

By and large, House Republicans seem pretty happy with their individual districts. It seems most have seen their proposed district, but not the entire map. But like I said, incumbent Republicans seemed OK with what they have been shown leading me to believe the process won’t be as difficult as believed.

It appears as though any challenges to the redistricting plans will come from Republicans outside of the Legislature, such as the group Mississippians for Fair Redistricting.

Russ & Margaret, we hardly knew ye...

Representatives Margaret Rogers and Russ Nowell announced that they were switching to the Republican Party today. Of course both of them had been voting with Republicans all along, including votes for Jeff Smith in the Speaker's race. Interestingly, Nowell voted for Smith after giving Speaker Billy McCoy his word that he'd support McCoy, which prevented Nowell from being effective in any way for his district over the last 3 years.

In reality, this is no big deal, as neither held any great power. Reaction from elected Democrats seems to be a collective yawn. Steve Holland, in a comment that typified the mood around the Capitol said, "It's good for them to finally embrace who they are."

Predictably, Majority in Mississippi, a Republican blog, has a post up that fixates on race. But are we surprised by that? Surely not.

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.