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.

Special session called for Friday

Gov. Haley Barbour has announced a special legislative session will be held Friday to handle two unannounced economic development incentives. Retiring House Speaker Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi), constantly called an anti-bidness LIBRUHL by some, had this to say:

"We've never failed to work with Gov. Barbour on his economic development proposals," McCoy said. "I certainly am in favor of this."

So long as Barbour's not proposing that we absolutely give away the farm, I say "amen" to the Speaker's comments.

Great article on Speaker Billy McCoy's remaining time in the House, and his future

Bobby Harrison has a great article up on NEMS360.com detailing a recent conversation with retiring Speaker Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi). There's some stuff in there about McCoy's plans to travel the state and spend more time with his family after he retires, as well as a simple statement McCoy makes about his philosophy as Speaker:

“If you don’t have good systems of education, transportation, public health and public safety, you cannot compete for good jobs,” he said. “I don’t care what type of incentive package you have for a company. You need those things first.”

That's about as distilled as it gets.

Another McCoy editorial: Daily Journal's Lloyd Gray says "McCoy's career refutes the caricature"

Lloyd Gray has an editorial up praising McCoy's tenure in the legislature and shooting down the Republican criticism McCoy has faced on talk radio and the like. The whole editorial is well worth a read. It sums up what has happened to Mississippi politics over the last eight years, a period during which we've seen markedly increased and sharpened partisanship. It's the closing line, though, that I'll quote here:

(McCoy) is leaving more or less on his own terms. In doing so, he leaves a legacy of accomplishment that makes the caricatures painted by the McCoy mockers look mighty lame.

Clarion-Ledger's David Hampton: GOP talk radio attacks on Speaker McCoy "laughable"

Clarion-Ledger Editorial Director David Hampton has a column out today about Speaker Billy McCoy's retirement.  Here's the highlight:

(McCoy's) counter to Barbour's power has been beneficial for the state, especially in protecting funding for education.

That has resulted in some brutal, partisan attacks on McCoy, especially on GOP-dominated talk radio. He has been characterized as a wild, free-spending liberal obstructionist. That is not only inaccurate, but laughably so.

Make no mistake, McCoy is a Northeast Mississippi populist Democrat. He is a fiscal conservative, but is attuned to the concerns of working-class voters. He was a key player in creation of the state's four-lane highway program, one of the most important economic development projects in decades. But he also has been a committed supporter of public education and health care.

Hampton's characterization of McCoy's politics is dead-on, and would fairly summarize the difference between Mississippi Democrats and Republicans. Both are fiscally conservative, but Democrats are far more concerned with the economic and educational interests of working and middle class Mississippians than Republicans, who continue to be the party of big business (just take a look at BIPEC ratings and the Mississippi Manufacturers Association's efforts to control the House Speaker's race).

Speaker McCoy won't seek reelection

The Clarion-Ledger has reported that Speaker Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi) will be retiring from the House.  This brings to a close what has been a long period of speculation about whether or not McCoy would or wouldn't.  McCoy has been Speaker for the last 8 years, and has served in the Legislature since 1980.  McCoy expressed appreciation to former Speakers Buddy Newman and Tim Ford for appointing him to positions from which he could learn about the internal processes of the House and ascend to leadership.

It would be very difficult to encapsulate in a blog post all that McCoy has done for Mississippi, but education and highway programs have been at the forefront of McCoy's efforts during his tenure in the House.  He was a force for the average Mississippian, and will be sorely missed.

Republicans against Rep. Jeff Smith?

MajorityInMS.com has an interesting post up about Republicans in the Columbus area going after Rep. Jeff Smith (D-Columbus). Smith is running as a Democrat for office but will seek the Speaker's chair as an independent. Memorably, Smith ran against House Speaker Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi) in 2008. Smith, supported by a handful of Democrats and every Republican, lost a bitter contest by one vote.

Smith's approach to this upcoming Speaker's race is going to be interesting, especially considering that he is unlikely to gain early support of Republican House members. Currently, there appear to be at least two Republican House members looking seriously at a Speaker's run. (More on that in a subsequent post). In order for Smith to have a shot at obtaining the gavel, he will have to pick off at least one member of the McCoy coalition and Republicans will have to fall short of gaining a majority in the House.

In short, Smith has to hope Republicans fail in their ultimate goal: obtaining a majority in the House. So when Smith is going around talking to Republicans, how does the conversation go from Smith's end? "Hey man, I hope you lose so you can vote for me?"

Haley Barbour responds to Speaker Billy McCoy's request, confuses facts

Gov. Haley Barbour (R), a presidential hopeful, has responded to a letter from House Speaker Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi) concerning the remarks made by Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant (R) about 5th Circuit Chief Judge Edith Jones.  Jackson Jambalaya has the letter here.

In the letter, Barbour accuses me of impugning the integrity of the federal court and its senior judge.  Obviously, Barbour's confused, as it was Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant who did the impugning, not me.  For his sake, I hope Barbour surrounds himself with advisors who will help him avoid similar mistakes as he makes his presidential bid.

In the meantime, I'll have a little fun with Barbour's slip up and change the subtitle of the blog up top.

Speaker McCoy: There will not be any conference on redistricting

This afternoon, Speaker Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi) issued a statement that was read into the record. As we announced earlier, there will be no conferees appointed by the House should the Senate chose to invite conference. Rather, the House will forward JR 201 to DOJ for clearance. This means there will be litigation, and that the federal courts will draw the lines.

This likely prevents the dreaded and costly "run twice" scenario, saving Mississippi millions of dollars. That's important, seeing as we're having trouble paying for education and health care in these tight budget times.

Now what will the Senate do, knowing that the courts will draw the lines if they do not concur? The senators listed earlier as potential losers are sure to be drawn into oblivion by the courts. How will they vote now, knowing that their only path to survival is a vote to concur?

New redistricting website up

Mississippi Legislative Redistricting 2011, which is subtitled "A closer, comprehensive look at the Mississippi House of Representative plan to redraw all 122 state House districts", is online. It's a great site, and highly informative.

Today, the site hosts a piece from Speaker Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi). In the post, Speaker McCoy confirms that 3 House members will lose their districts, that the City of Madison will gain its own, that DeSoto County will pick up 2 seats, and that the number of split precincts will be greatly reduced. That's pretty substantial stuff.

Speaker McCoy also repeated something we've known for awhile: the rancor over redistricting is largely coming from Republicans who aren't in the Legislature. (See "Mississippians for Fair Redistricting.") The Speaker then warns against the high cost to the taxpayers of litigation over the legislative redistricting plan. High litigation costs for taxpayers aren't historically much of a concern for Republicans, however, so we'll see how this plays out.

Credit where it's due

After being called out for not linking Sid Salter's article excoriating Republicans for calling Speaker Billy McCoy "Mississippi's Nancy Pelosi", the staff at Yallpolitics.com posted it and said they'd been too busy to catch it.

Sid Salter sets the record straight on Speaker McCoy

As we noted the other day, two radical Republicans have started a website entitled "Fire McCoy."  Their goal is to get rid of "liberal" Mississippi House Speaker Billy McCoy and the "liberal band" of legislators who voted for him.  Well, aside from threatening members of their own Republican party, the "Fire McCoy" folks are trying to fool Mississippians into thinking of Speaker McCoy as "Mississippi's Nancy Pelosi."  (They aren't the first to try to dupe the voters on Speaker McCoy.  See state-funded SuperTalk radio in 2007.)

In an article you won't find linked by Majority in Mississippi Georgia or Yallpolitics.com, soon-to-be-former Clarion-Ledger opinion writer Sid Salter came to McCoy's defense and took the bark off of the "Fire McCoy" folks.  Here are some excerpts:

"...neither original nor particularly innovative."

"...Speaker McCoy has a record and that record bears zero resemblance to Pelosi's on the issues."

"During his tenure as speaker, McCoy has been the target of irrational criticism as some sort of uber-liberal Democrat - a charge that cannot be justified based on his record."

"McCoy's decisions to exclude Republicans from the sharing of power and leadership in the House are decisions that carry consequences. Partisanship is a dance that requires two to tango and the GOP bears some responsibility for the bitterness in the House. But 'Mississippi's Nancy Pelosi?' That's beyond the pale." (emphasis added)

"Billy McCoy is not a cultural liberal and never has been. He's a New Deal Democrat from Appalachia with rock-ribbed conservative cultural values."

"'Fire' him if you will. But don't lie about him in the process. A good and decent man, McCoy deserves better."

I highly recommend Salter's article in its entirety.

"Firemccoy.com" is folly at its best

Yesterday, Yallpolitics.com and MajorityInMississippi.com were all atwitter over a new website named "Firemccoy.com". The aim of the new website, in their words, is to "Fire McCoy and the Boys!" And by the boys, they say they mean those selected by McCoy for committee chairmanships and vice-chairmanships. Here's a clip from their website:

I'm sure that the following legislators would be interested to know that they're being targeted by their own:

Republican Vice-Chairmen

Larry Byrd - County Affairs
Mac Huddleston - Enrolled Bills
Billy Nicholson - Ethics
Forrest Hamilton - Executive Contingent Fund
Bill Pigott - Forestry
Bubba Carpenter - Interstate Cooperation
Andy Gipson - Investigative State Offices
Hank Zuber - Marine Resources
Frank Hamilton - Military Affairs
Tom Weathersby - Municipalities
Margaret Rogers - Oil, Gas, and Other Minerals
Jessica Upshaw - Public Property
Ray Rogers - Public Utilities
Toby Barker - Select Committee on Poverty
Wanda Jennings - State Library

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.