Free Republic

<p>Gov.-elect Haley Barbour, who takes office Jan. 13, has surrounded himself with people who reflect all of Mississippi. We trust this spirit of inclusion will be a hallmark of his administration.</p> <p>If his transition activities are representative of what his administration will be like, we can rest assured that Haley Barbour will have an administration that represents all Mississippians.</p>

Rural white Democrats lose Mississippi Legislature The Daily Journal By Bobby Harrison JACKSON - For the first time since the post-Civil War era, rural white Democrats will not be a majority or a plurality in the Mississippi House. The rural white Democrats lost their stranglehold on the state Senate last term. Their dominance over the Mississippi House will no longer exist once the 2004 legislative session begins, thanks to party switchers during the past year and thanks to this past November's elections. The Democrats still control the House and Senate. In the House, the Democrats hold a commanding 76-46 advantage,...

<p>VICKSBURG — Doctor shortage?</p> <p>A new federal inventory says there's no such thing. The number of practicing doctors in America increased at twice the rate of population growth for the decade ending in 2001. And in rural Mississippi, the report says the rate of new doctors increased faster than in the rest of the nation.</p>

Cop In Trouble After Leaving Loaded Handgun At School Story by wftv.com ORLANDO, Fla. -- An Orlando police officer is under investigation after he left a loaded handgun at a school. Kenneth Pinkston was off duty when his personal firearm was dropped inside the auditorium at Kaley Elementary. The handgun that was found is smaller than a videotape. But, fortunately, it wasn't fired. The gun looked like a toy, however, it's anything but. "If you don't know what you're doing and pick it up...Bang!" comments Larry Anderson, Shoot Straight Gun Range. Two first graders found it Wednesday morning on the...

GOP governors visit Boca to plot strategy for 2004 By Jennifer Peltz and Kathy Bushouse November 20 2003 Fresh from an electrifying election season, most of the nation's Republican governors are gathering in Boca Raton today to swap ideas, plot strategy, see, be seen and shoot skeet. The annual Republican Governors Association conference starts today at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. "It's a good chance for [the governors] to get together and discuss issues important to all of them," said association spokesman Harvey Valentine. Between 20 and 25 of the nation's 28 Republican governors and governors-elect are expected, including...

Southern White Male Democrats, Where Ya At? By State Rep. Erik Flemming (D-MS) As the dust settles after another election year, here is a request to those individuals who place missing persons on milk cartons: could you help us find the real Southern white male Democrats? It is obvious that they are MIA when it comes to local and national politics. Case in point: in the recent campaign by incumbent Democratic Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove, he ran ads that said he was conservative and independent. He never once mentioned that he was the Democratic nominee for re-election. Many in the...

Judge Pickering’s Revenge The judicial-confirmation battle has already hurt Democrats. By Sean Rushton Last week, Senate Democrats effectively defeated the nomination of Charles Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals through abuse of the filibuster. No doubt liberal ringleaders against the judge — Sens. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.), Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), and Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) — were pleased to add another Bush nominee's scalp to their collection, but with Tuesday night's Republican victory in the Mississippi gubernatorial race, as well as vulnerable Senate seats across the south and midwest in 2004, it may be Pickering who ultimately...

<p>Republican Haley Barbour, who defeated Ronnie Musgrove in Tuesday's election, made his first public appearance as Mississippi's governor-elect Wednesday afternoon, telling reporters and supporters that he attributed his victory to volunteers.</p> <p>"I attribute my vote — the largest for any candidate in the two party era — to thousands of grass-roots volunteers who worked in the precincts, at the crossroads and the forks of the creeks to get their families, friends and neighbors to vote," Barbour said during a news conference at the Clarion Hotel, where he held his election party Tuesday night.</p>

<p>UPDATE 12:15 a.m. Mississippi voters sounded off on their choices as they left polling places today, some saying they voted a straight-line ticket.</p> <p>At the Eudora Welty Library precinct on North State Street in Jackson, about 10 people had voted as of about 9 a.m.</p>

Officials report busy morning at Mississippi voting precincts EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippians took advantage of blue skies and hot contests Tuesday to vote in what election officials said was shaping up to be a very heavy election day turnout. "In our county it seems like its wonderful, lines everywhere," said Hinds County Circuit Clerk Barbara Dunn. "I hope beyond all hope that when the day ends, we will have had a turnout like we haven't had in years." Mississippians were deciding races from governor - where incumbent Democrat Ronnie Musgrove hoped to fight off a...

Some Clues to '04, However Faint, Are Set to Emerge By MICHAEL JANOFSKY Published: November 1, 2003 LOUISVILLE, Ky., Oct. 31 — With a presidential campaign well under way, leaders of both parties are searching for signs, any signs, of favorable trends for November 2004. For the next two weeks, the best place to look is the South, where three states will hold elections for governor. On Tuesday, voters in Kentucky and Mississippi will determine whether the reins of power remain in Democratic hands, and 11 days later a runoff in Louisiana will decide who succeeds a Republican. While a...

<p>The governor's election in Mississippi tomorrow will be the Republicans' first major opportunity to test how much voters care that Democrats are filibustering some of President Bush's judicial nominations.</p> <p>If the issue sticks, Republicans are ready with blocked nominees — several representing the Democratic Party's most crucial constituencies — to use as the faces of what they call "Democratic obstruction" in next year's presidential and senatorial elections.</p>

Campaign in Mississippi diverting money from Bush By STEFANIE MURRAY The Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald WASHINGTON - Haley Barbour's expensive race for governor is delaying President Bush's efforts to raise money from Mississippi Republicans, according to state party leaders. Because the governor's race is so heated, Mississippi Republicans have been encouraged to give money to the state party instead of donating it to Bush. As a result, Bush has only raised about $133,000 from state contributions, compared with the nearly $250,000 that Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has raised in the state, according to third-quarter figures recently released by the...

Musgrove, Barbour Make Final Push For Votes Candidates Comb State During Weekend JACKSON, Miss. -- With just hours left to woo voters, Democrat Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and Republican Haley Barbour hit the campaign trail this weekend. Musgrove started off on the steps of the office he's fighting to keep. He said he's not worried about polls, which show him about even with Barbour. The governor also campaigned at Jackson State University's homecoming game, hoping to convince undecided voters to pick him. Barbour also was making trips across the state in the final hours before Tuesday's election, campaigning Sunday in Yazoo...

<p>Anybody remember Gov. Ronnie Musgrove's party affiliation?</p> <p>Let's put it this way. In the 2003 gubernatorial campaign, there is an audible thunder of elephants from Mississippi Republicans — but the state's Democrats seem to have developed a dual case of lockjaw and amnesia. Silent donkeys, these.</p>

Musgrove Flip-Flops on Who Should Win if Governor's Race Goes to the Legislature With nine days until Election Day, there’s even more evidence today that Governor Ronnie Musgrove feels the election slipping away from him. In an article in today’s Clarion-Ledger newspaper speculating on what would happen if neither candidate receives a fifty-percent plus one majority of the vote, Musgrove flip-flops from his earlier statement about which candidate should win if neither receives a majority. With published polls of Musgrove trailing Haley Barbour, now Musgrove has changed his story from four years ago. On November 8, 1999 Musgrove said that...

Poll shows Barbour with lead By Jerry Mitchell jmitchell@clarionledger.com Republican gubernatorial challenger Haley Barbour is holding a slim lead over incumbent Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, and both campaigns face woes that won't be easy to overcome in the nine days remaining before the Nov. 4 election. THE RESULTS A telephone poll of 623 likely voters was conducted Oct. 21-23 for The Clarion-Ledger and The Associated Press by Washington-based Ipsos-Public Affairs. The sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points. Among the findings in percentages if the election were held today: Governor Barbour 50 Musgrove 45 Others 2 Lieutenant governor...

Giuliani To Campaign With Barbour In Pascagoula Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will visit Pascagoula to campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour next week. Quinton Dickerson, Barbour's spokesman, said Wednesday that Giuliani will join Barbour at a fish fry on Wednesday at the city park in the Gulf Coast town. The event will be free and open to the public from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Giuliani is one of several Republican heavyweights visiting Mississippi to stump for Barbour. Vice President Dick Cheney will be in Columbus on Monday with Barbour. Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., will appear in...

Democrats Hope to Win 2003 Elections to Create Momentum For 2004 By Jimmy Moore Talon News October 23, 2003 WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Prefaced by an advertisement offering an autographed copy of liberal author Al Franken's book, the Democrat National Committee sent out an e-mail to supporters on Wednesday detailing their plan for "a stinging defeat on President Bush" beginning with the off year elections coming in less than two weeks. In the unsigned e-mail from the DNC, they point to the November 4 gubernatorial and mayoral elections as crucial to the goal of defeating President George W. Bush in...

Haley Barbour for governor of Mississippi After months of campaigning, Haley Barbour has convinced us that Mississippi can, indeed, do better. To support his bid to become only the second Republican since Reconstruction to lead the state, we must make an exception to our policy of not endorsing individual candidates. This year, in this race and one other, the circumstances demand it. Ronnie Musgrove, the Democratic incumbent, has failed at the most important task facing a governor of Mississippi. Despite excellent credentials, Musgrove has been either unable or unwilling to work with the Legislature to implement an agenda we have...