JACKSON - Education and business were two of the topics discussed by three lieutenant governor candidates at a Mississippi Economic Council forum.
Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton, and former Supreme Court Justice Jim Roberts had eight minutes to lay out their platforms on Wednesday.
Troy Brown, a Democrat from Greenwood, said he wasn't allowed to speak because he failed to submit a campaign finance report.
Tuck, a Republican, touted her pro-business record and vowed to make more changes to the state's civil justice system.
"Almost the first action I took as your lieutenant governor was to appoint pro-business senators as the heads of the key committees. I did it because business provides the revenue that we need to keep our state growing and to keep our state prospering," Tuck said.
Tuck said tort reform has put Mississippi's upcoming elections in the spotlight.
"Everyone is watching to see whether candidates that have taken a pro-business stance will prevail," Tuck said Wednesday during a Mississippi Economic Council forum in Jackson. "So it's not a spectator sport. I'm asking you to be active participants in this election."
Tuck discussed her efforts to give teachers raises and in-crease accountability in that field.
Brown, Blackmon and Roberts of Pontotoc will face each other in the Democratic primary on Aug. 5. Tuck is unopposed for the GOP nomination. The general election is Nov. 4.
Blackmon, who said this was the first time MEC had invited her to speak to the group, praised the state's educational system and promised to build on it.
Blackmon, a lawyer who has been a legislator since 1992, said she's a product of a Mississippi education. She also said the state must do more for small business.
"If we provided the kinds of resources and programs for those small businesses to expand them, we could really go a long way toward enhancing the quality of life for all of our citizens," she said.
Roberts, who was on the Supreme Court for six years and ran for governor in 1999, said he's interested in the future of the state. That includes jobs, industry, education, health care, highways and public safety, he said.
Roberts called himself a mediator willing to work with both sides of the civil justice debate. "We all must work together, and unless we do that to raise every single Mississippian - economically, educationally and every other way - we're not making the progress we need to make," he said.
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