VICKSBURG — It may not be the key issue on voters' minds, but a key consequence in selecting Mississippi's next lieutenant governor is whether the state Senate will become an echo chamber for Gov. Haley Barbour, who most believe will get the nod Nov. 6 for a second term.
At the national level for much of recent history, voters have seen to it, purposely or not, that the president was from one party and majorities in Congress were from the other. The result has been a combative imbalance, often called gridlock, but, hey, people seem to prefer that arrangement. Indeed, it is often good for the public when new laws either aren't passed or follow hard-fought compromises.
Phil Bryant, the Republican nominee for what, on paper, is the state's most powerful job, might take issue with that “echo chamber” thing.
Well before defeating Sen. Charlie Ross, R-Jackson, for the nomination, Bryant was hauling the banner of Republicanism around Mississippi. When he was tapped as state auditor by former Gov. Kirk Fordice in 1996, Bryant had already served five years in the state House. According to his campaign materials, the last time Mississippians got a tax cut was when Bryant wrote the bill leading to a capital gains tax reduction for businesses in 1994. Barbour was still up in Washington during that time, working as chairman of the Republican National Committee to dislodge Democratic congressional majorities and hand then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, a Congress dominated by the not-so-loyal opposition.
After Bryant served his appointive term, he was elected twice. Indeed, his experience in winning statewide no doubt gave him an edge over the equally conservative and equally pro-business Charlie Ross. During their rivalry, Bryant and Ross seemed to one-up each other on who was the better buddy of Barbour. However, Bryant can now claim some distance, because, if nothing else, he has four times the years of Barbour in state government and, if elected, might roil him once in a while as GOP Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck has done.
Speaking of conservative, that describes the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, Jamie Franks, too. On social issues, the resident of Mooreville, near Tupelo, mirrors the Democratic nominee for governor, John Eaves. Franks, a scrapper who always looks proudly uncomfortable in a coat and tie, is pro-life, against gun control and gay rights. He hasn't spoken out on school prayer, but he's more than a pew-filler at the Tupelo Church of God. “Those are my principles,” he said in an interview. “It's how I was raised and how I am.”
Otherwise, Franks commands the positions favored by a whole bunch of interest groups on topics ranging from full funding for public schools, health care for the young and for the old and, notably, on raising taxes on cigarettes while lowering them or eliminating them on groceries.
While those points poll well, they have not translated into Franks as a shoo-in, just as they haven't for Eaves. Bryant is believed to have the edge.
For reasons unknown, the Franks camp has been trying to assail Bryant not on education and tobacco taxes, but on the failed Mississippi Beef Processors plant at Ashland.
As auditor, Franks insists, Bryant had inside information that the Richard Hall Jr. group picked to head the plant had a questionable financial history, but didn't disclose that information to legislators who later voted repeatedly to put more than $50 million into the project. Franks also says Bryant, by announcing a coming investigation, screwed up the process. Maybe, but Hall, convicted on state and federal charges, is now serving eight years in prison and taxpayers have eaten the debt.
Bryant has deflected the beef plant rap mostly by pointing out that Franks had three opportunities to vote in favor of the allocation and did so all three times. Indeed, Bryant tells people he was instrumental in amending legislation so that in the future when the state commits public money to private projects, the auditor has a seat at the table. “It now says we ‘shall,' instead of we ‘may,” Bryant said.
Anyway, the over-arching deal is this: Barbour wants a Republican House, which would be a first, and a greater Republican majority in the Senate. While he has been more effective in managing the Legislature than any governor in memory, the fact remains that lawmakers run the state.
If voters want to see how Barbour's policies would work for Mississippi if unfettered, electing Bryant would be a big part of making that come true.
If, however, they want to see the agenda of a second-term governor challenged, they'd have to go with Franks.
