STARKVILLE — The House that freshman state Rep. Tim Ford joined in 1980 was one ruled by an all-powerful speaker who took care of his friends, ignored his enemies and marginalized the relatively small number of African-American lawmakers — a group that had grown from four to 17 in the election that brought Ford to the Legislature.
Before his career was over, Ford became a remarkably effective leader of the Mississippi House of Representatives at a time when the chamber had been rocked by a bloody political battle between “old guard” legislators and a group of so-called House “rebels.”
Ford was not a leader of the “rebel” group that sought to unseat entrenched Democratic House Speaker C.B. “Buddie” Newman of Valley Park. Newman was an old school legislator who ruled the House with an iron fist.
But Ford was the acceptable compromise candidate for speaker who helped put the House back together. Ford was able to beat back challenges by fellow Reps. Tommy Walman and then Ed Perry to win election as speaker by acclamation — mostly with the support of the “reformers.”
Ford served as speaker from 1988 through 2004. Quick with a laugh and peaceable by nature, Ford’s frequent good-hearted admonition to quarreling lawmakers to “be sweet” during spirited floor debate set a different tone in the chamber.
Since 1976, Mississippians have seen the tenures of eight governors and seven lieutenant governors. But only four House speakers have served the state over the last 39 years. Newman held the post from 1976-1988.
Former Speaker William J. “Billy” McCoy of Rienzi held the post from 2004 through 2012. Current House Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton became in 2012 the first Republican since Reconstruction to lead the chamber.
Before Gunn, Democrats controlled the House speaker’s post in Mississippi for more than 135 years. Beginning with Walter Sillers in 1944 and continuing until Newman was ousted in the infamous House Revolt of 1987, all House speakers ruled with an iron first — rewarding those loyal to the speaker and punishing those who bucked him.
Those 1987 House reforms limited the speaker to two four-year terms, restricted the speaker’s committee appointment powers and redistributed power on the “money” committees — Appropriations, and Ways and Means. The reforms also reinstituted the speaker pro tempore position and gave the position considerable powers — voting in the speaker’s stead and chairing the Management Committee that allocates office space and staff.
Ford succeeded Newman in 1988. But the 1987 “reforms” eroded, and Ford was eventually able to win back the power to succeed himself as speaker. He served 16 years in the post.
Rep. Robert Clark of Ebenezer was elected speaker pro tempore as part of Ford’s gambit seeking a second term as speaker in 1992. Ford early on saw the political and policy benefit of making members of the House Black Caucus a strong part of his ruling coalition. Men such as Rep. Percy Watson moved into positions of influence under Ford and even more so later under McCoy.
Ford, whose shock of dark hair and perpetually flushed cheeks made him recognizable from one end of the Capitol Building to the other, was the last of the analog age Mississippi House speakers. Facebook was invented the year Ford retired from the Legislature. Twitter came along a couple of years later.
The always-on, instant feedback and ginned-up displays of “grassroots” support were not part of Ford’s political style. Neither was the old school imposition of reward and punishment that marked the tenures of Newman and Sillers before him.
Ford worked well with conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats alike. Truth be known, Ford’s political philosophy was on many issues more Republican than some actual Republicans. But he never cut ties with African-American lawmakers and with rural Democrats.
I found Ford to be genuine and a man of his word. We sparred over open meetings and open records legislation in the early 1990s, but he listened and granted the Mississippi Press Association an audience to let us plead our case on First Amendment issues.
For the son of a successful Baldwyn physician who had not known poverty himself, Ford had real empathy for the less fortunate and was a friend of public education at all levels. Ford knew how to make a legislative deal and how to compromise on methods without compromising his principles.
Ford left Mississippi better than he found it when he entered public service — and that’s a powerful legacy.
• Sid Salter is director of the Office of University Relations at Mississippi State University. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
