State Sen. Michael Watson accomplished something on Tuesday that many members of the legislature try, but seldom accomplish: win the Republican nomination for a statewide office.

Watson defeated Public Service Commissioner Sam Britton, who represents about one-third of the state in that regulatory position, by a 54-46 margin. He now faces former Hattiesburg mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Johnny DuPree in the general election, where he is the odds-on favorite. 

While Watson was successful, three other members of the legislature were hoping to ascend to statewide office. State Sen. Buck Clarke, the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee for the past eight years, was running for treasurer. State Rep. Mark Baker ran for attorney general and State Rep. Robert Foster ran for governor. 

Some, like Foster, were underdogs from beginning. But still, they all lost. The story wasn’t much different in years prior.

In 2011, three members of the legislature were hoping to make the jump. State Sen. Billy Hewes was challenging then-Treasurer Tate Reeves for the open lieutenant governor’s office, State Sen. Lee Yancey was running for treasurer, and State Rep. Dannie Reed was running for agriculture commissioner. Each of these candidates, some more serious than others, lost.

But a state legislator did win that year. Then-State Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith was elected agriculture commissioner.

And then back in 2007, as the Republican Party was officially solidifying their statewide dominance, two members of the legislature were successful in a Republican primary. Then-State Sen. Mike Chaney won the Republican primary for insurance commissioner, though he had little opposition. And then-State Sen. Stacey Pickering won the Republican nomination for state auditor, though he had no opposition on the GOP side.

But that same year, State Sen. Charlie Ross was defeated by then-Auditor Phil Bryant for the open lieutenant governor’s office. And State Rep. Mike Lott ran unsuccessfully for secretary of state. 

Even in 2003, at a time when Republicans held two statewide offices (thanks to Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck switching parties before qualifying), legislators still had trouble. This was Tate Reeves’ first entrance into politics, and before he could become treasurer, he defeated, among others, State Rep. Andrew Ketchings in the primary.  

Part of the problem today is that the Republican bench of statewide officials has more-or-less rewarded “moving up” offices. And any statewide official certainly has a name, and likely, money, advantage over a legislator. But we’ve also seen candidates do better with no political background – such as David McRae in the treasurer’s office this year. 

A lot of members of the legislature have wanted to become statewide officials. Few have been successful. But as Watson showed, it's not impossible.

Since the story was originally published, updates have been made to include Cindy Hyde-Smith and Stacey Pickering.

Only devout progressives could be foolish enough to order the destruction of a gigantic work of art that was actually critical to the establishment’s history of George Washington and our nation’s founding and not see the irony.

In the rush to take any measure to prevent students from the unbearable experience of contemplating complex and thorny issues, the art must go. The statues of Confederates must come down. The annual birthday celebration of the founding father and architect of the University of Virginia must end. 

According to these dilettantes, modern education is no longer about developing the intellectual muscles; it is about preventing any encounter with resistance. It’s like trying to get in shape without breaking a sweat, trying to sharpen a blade without removing metal, or trying to prune a tree without cutting the dying wood.

The result of such protectionist idiocy is that we are producing students with weaker constitutions and duller minds – unable to grow into robust adults. By giving into a belief that students are unable to confront opposing thoughts, ideas, or history, and thus must be protected from such challenges, we are preventing them from becoming fully formed citizens. And we do so at our own peril.

As Jefferson wrote, “an enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.” What the founder, formerly known as Thomas Jefferson, was writing about is critical to our future. The nation’s future requires citizens who thirst for knowledge, possess discernment, and can courageously articulate an idea.

Whether at the University of North Carolina, the San Francisco Board of Education, or in Charlottesville, it is the progressive edutocracy, in lock step with postmodernists, who are failing the republic and setting us on a dangerous path.

If our student citizens are unable to go out into the nation and contend with diverse opinions, whether they be in the form of a monument, a mural, or a speaker, how then do we expect them to contend with a malignant threat to the West and the nation one day?

Even a cursory review of history informs us that evil and malevolent ideas will gain momentum and challenge our way of life at some point. If the 20^thCentury proved nothing else, it proved that. According to R. J. Rummel’s book Death by Government, roughly 110 million people were killed by communist democide from 1900 to 1987. 

Rather than possessing faith in strong ideas and having the courage to oppose their government, citizens in these nations turned on friends and families and allowed evil, false, deadly regimes to bring hell to earth. In short, the citizens chose a naïve approach to these genocidal nightmares.

They chose temporary safety – unable to understand that they were sewing the long-term seeds of their own destruction. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, a painfully detailed account of the Russian forced labor camp system, is now available in an abridged version. If you want to understand the potential depths to which a nation and its citizen can fall, read it or listen to an audio version.

Whether a George Washington mural painted by the Russian artist Victor Arnatauff or a nameless Confederate soldier statue standing on the campus in Chapel Hill, many on the left have determined the next generation is not able to contend with it. Therefore, progressives are now marching swiftly with their majoritarian mobs to dutifully purge public spaces of symbols they find offensive. This sort of mob censorship of historic symbols is a not-too-distant relative of censoring speech and burning books.

At UNC, students and activists tore down the Confederate statue known as Silent Sam, which had stood on the north end of campus for a century. The administration and board at the school have yet to decide the appropriate next step.

Perhaps there is hope here in Mississippi? This past March, the University of Mississippi student government voted unanimously to remove the Confederate statue from its current location atop the center circle of campus and relocate it to a cemetery on school grounds. To their credit, the students have not engaged in the destruction of property in their quest to remove the statue, which has stood since its erection in 1906.

Instead, the students have engaged in a public and democratic process and taken the time to offer a proposed solution. While I may disagree with the solution they propose, they should be commended for engaging in the debate and for not cowering in the corner out of the imagined oppression by an ancient statue. It remains to be seen how this plays out in Oxford. The IHL is searching for the next leader at Ole Miss. You can bet this is one of the interview questions.

The message of the progressive movement in other places in our nation is clear, however. If you are not on board with immediately removing such symbols, you will be accused of racial animus or xenophobia.

The hard left leaves no room for complexity, context, or individual opinion. We are in a new world where the individual must, through definitions ascribed by the progressives, belong to a group.

When the collective's viewpoint must be given preference over the individual’s perspective, we have lost what it means to have individual liberty and agency. In such a world, it is easy to see how woke progressives could be so foolish as to convince themselves to spend over $600,000 to paint over a mural of George Washington.

Such is the result of groupthink. Unfortunately, our students are the ones who suffer from such arrested development.

This column appeared in the Clarion Ledger on August 8, 2019.

New polling shows that Republican voters in Mississippi oppose expanding Medicaid and are less likely to vote for candidates for office who support expansion.

The poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, found that 55 percent of Republican voters would be less likely to vote for a candidate who supports Medicaid expansion. Just 26 percent would be more likely. 

“Republican voters are not buying the lie that Mississippi needs to expand Medicaid to able-bodied adults,” said Jameson Taylor, Vice President for Policy at Mississippi Center for Public Policy. “Even the lipstick-on-a-pig Medicaid expansions in Indiana and Arkansas are costing far more than expected, leading to tax and fee increases. Medicaid is a budget buster that will radically reduce available funding for K-12 education and roads and bridges.”

When voters were then told that Medicaid expansion has generally cost millions more than expected, which has resulted in tax or fee increases, along with increased competition for general fund priorities like education or infrastructure, opposition to expansion increased even further.

Republican voters, by a 70-13 margin, said they would be less likely to support a candidate who favored Medicaid expansion. 

“Medicaid is the worst form of welfare there is,” Taylor added. “Unlike other forms of welfare, like Food Stamps, the courts won’t let states require that able-bodied Medicaid recipients work or volunteer. There are also no time limits. 

“Medicaid expansion is a welfare trap, which is why more than half of expansion enrollees are not working. Medicaid expansion would deny these people of the American dream, the promise that with hard work and grit anyone can be a success in America.”

The full poll results can be found here.

A glance of the county map from Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary shows most of the counties went for Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. And that is true, they did.

Reeves carried 74 of the state’s 82 counties, while former Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller won six and State Rep. Robert Foster won two counties. But, as we know, not all counties are the same and Reeves was held to 49 percent, just under the threshold needed to avoid a runoff. 

Republican primaries were once limited to about a dozen counties, but that has certainly expanded. And to Reeves’ benefit. There were 27 counties that provided more than 5,000 votes. 

Waller maximized his support in his home territory around Jackson. He carried Hinds county with almost 59 percent of the vote, while picking up about 62 percent of the vote in Madison county. Waller even led the pack in Rankin county, Reeves’ home county, with 45 percent. 

These three counties provided about 64,000 votes, or about 17 percent of the total votes cast on Tuesday. Rankin county provided more votes than any other county in the state. Madison was fourth and Hinds sixth. 

The county that provided the second highest number of votes? Desoto, carried by Foster who is from Hernando.

Desoto leaves us with more unknowns because of Foster’s strength. But Foster aside, yesterday Reeves received more than triple the number of voters as Waller in the county. 

Despite the Jackson metro area and Desoto county, Reeves led – sometimes with large numbers – everywhere else in the state. For example, the lower six counties of the state (Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, George, Pearl River, and Stone counties) provided essentially the same number of voters as the metro area. Reeves won each, winning between 56 and 65 percent of the vote.

Overall, Reeves won 22 of the 27 counties with more than 5,000 Republican voters. 

The Reeves and Waller runoff will certainly generate most of the headlines over the next three weeks, but it’s not the only statewide runoff. Treasurer Lynn Fitch, who opted to run for Attorney General, led a three-person race winning 44 percent of the vote. She will face attorney Andy Taggart in the runoff for the last office in the state Republicans have yet to capture. 

In this edition of Unlicensed, the MCPP team talks about the results from Tuesday’s primary election.

Tate Reeves narrowly missed a majority and will meet Bill Waller in the gubernatorial runoff. Lynn Fitch and Andy Taggart will be in the runoff for the Republican nominee for Attorney General. Meanwhile, Michael Watson and David McRae advance. And there were some upsets in the legislature. 

What should we look for in the runoff and in the general election?

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves led the Republican ticket for governor but narrowly missed the majority needed to avoid a runoff. In the three-way race, Reeves won 49 percent of the vote, followed by former Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller at 33 percent and State Rep. Robert Foster at 18 percent.

Reeves and Waller will meet in a runoff on August 27. The winner will face Attorney General Jim Hood who cruised to the Democratic nomination in a field of eight candidates. Hood is largely seen as the most competitive Democratic nominee for governor since Ronnie Musgrove lost his re-election bid to Haley Barbour in 2003. 

Among large Republican counties, Reeves cleaned up in South Mississippi. He won an outright majority in the lower six counties, including big numbers in population centers of Hancock (60 percent), Harrison (60 percent), and Jackson counties (65 percent). He won in the Pine Belt, east Mississippi counties such as Lauderdale and Lowndes, and Northeast Mississippi. Many of those counties were voting in the Republican primary in large numbers for the first time. With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Reeves won at least a plurality in 72 of the 80 counties that had reported numbers.

Republican gubernatorial breakdown by county

Reeves led most counties in the state, while Waller's base was centered around the Jackson area.

Waller’s strength was in the metro area. He easily won Madison (62 percent) and Hinds (59 percent) counties, but also won a plurality in Rankin county, Reeves home county. Those three counties gave Waller about one-third of his total vote. Foster, who is from Hernando, won Desoto and Tate counties. 

For those looking just at numbers, 2019 will be the year Republican primary voters finally outpaced Democratic primary voters despite the GOP holding the governor’s mansion for 24 of the past 28 years. 

In the race for Attorney General, Treasurer Lynn Fitch led the field and she will face Attorney Andy Taggart in the runoff. Taggart narrowly defeated State Rep. Mark Baker for the second spot. Baker won his home county of Rankin plus a few other smaller counties, Tagart won Hinds, Madison, and Yazoo counties. Fitch won the rest of the state. 

State Sen. Michael Watson defeated Public Service Commissioner Sam Britton 53-47 for the GOP nod for Secretary of State. And David McCrae will be the Republican nominee for Treasurer, defeating State Sen. Buck Clarke 62-38. 

In the State House, five liberty-minded Republicans defeated their primary opponents. This includes Reps. Joel Bomgar, Dana Criswell, Dan Eubanks, Ashley Henley, and Steve Hopkins. Notably, Bomgar and Hopkins both had opponents who had been endorsed by Gov. Phil Bryant but that wasn't enough to put them across the finish line.

And there looks to be a couple significant shakeups among the Republican leadership. Speaker Pro Temp Greg Snowden appears to have been defeated by Billy Adams Calvert and House Ways and Means Chairman Jeff Smith is trailing Dana McLean in his bid to return to Jackson. 

Ten seizures worth $68,634 by the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office and listed in the state’s civil asset forfeiture database have no associated paperwork, according to an analysis of records by the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

The Sheriff’s Office said that incident reports were only available for eight of the 18 forfeiture cases listed in the first 18 months on the civil asset forfeiture database. They said the other records were missing.

The eight incident reports provided by the sheriff’s office can be found here. Seven of them match up to records in the forfeiture database. 

One of them has the same case number as one in the database, but the dates and facts of the case differ from the one listed online.

This case from March 28, 2018 involved the seizure of a 2009 BMW 750iL luxury car worth $10,000, but the incident report provided to MCPP listed a driving under the influence case with a different arrestee from March 3, 2018 that involved no seizure of property and a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu.

These are the cases without associated incident reports:

• This case from May 5, 2018 where the Sheriff’s Office seized $710 in cash and a Glock pistol worth $550. The notice of intent to forfeit says the seized property was found in close proximity to ecstasy and marijuana.
• A Volvo commercial truck ($10,000 value) and a Great Dane refrigerated truck ($15,000) were seized on June 27, 2018. No drugs were listed on notice of intent.
• This case from May 17, 2018 resulted in the seizure of a 1998 Honda Accord ($1,000 value) and $1,201 in cash. No drugs were listed in the notice of intent.
• The sheriff’s office seized $6,131 in cash, according to the notice of intent, on July 16, 2018. The NOI said marijuana was in close proximity to the seized cash.
• On August 31, 2017, the sheriff’s office seized $1,431 in cash. No drugs were listed on the notice to forfeit.
• The database lists a seizure from October 10, 2017 when $3,863 was seized. Marijuana was reported as the drug in proximity to the cash.
• The sheriff’s office reported a seizure from October 12, 2017 of $5,000 in cash, a $500 safe and a 12-gauge shotgun worth $200. Marijuana was listed as the drug in proximity to the seized items, but the forfeiture was later contested and no final decision is listed in the database.
• On January 10, 2018, deputies seized $10,520 in cash, citing the presence of marijuana as the justification for the seizure. 
• On February 1, 2018, $1,040 in cash and a 20-gauge shotgun worth $100 were seized due to proximity to marijuana.
• This case from February 28, 2018 resulted in the seizure of $1,488 in cash. No drugs were listed on the notice of intent.

A new report from the non-profit Institute for Justice on the federal equitable sharing program finds that civil asset forfeiture does not deter crime and does not reduce drug use, the two most common refrains from proponents of civil asset forfeiture. At the same time, forfeiture activity increases as local economies suffer.

A 1 percentage point increase in local unemployment — a standard proxy for fiscal stress — is associated with a statistically significant 9 percentage point increase in seizures of property for forfeiture.

Mississippi has begun to make a move to scale back civil forfeiture. In 2017, the legislature let administrative forfeiture die when the law authorizing the program was not renewed. 

Previously, administrative forfeiture allowed agents of the state to take property valued under $20,000 and forfeit it by merely obtaining a warrant and providing the individual with a notice. In order to get the property back, an individual was required to file a petition in court within 30 days and incur legal fees in order to contest the forfeiture and recover such assets.

The state is still allowed to seize and keep property through civil forfeiture, a process that requires the state to go before a judge for an adjudication of whether the property should be forfeited, even if the owner does not file suit. 

And much like the federal program has not translated into less crime or drug use, the program in Mississippi has generally not led to big drug busts. In fact, if you remove one large bust from the equation, the average value of forfeited property is only $5,422 over the past 18 months. Less than 10 seizures statewide amounted to more than $60,000. One-third were for less than $1,000. A similar story is evident among Hinds County seizures.

The Office of State Auditor released its annual exceptions report this week. The auditor’s office staff recovered more than $1.5 million in fiscal 2019 and issued 64 demands for more than $4.6 million. 

The report outlines funds from misappropriations by government officials from either violations of the law or accounting errors. The 64 demands issued by the auditor’s office were 24 more than last year.

"The Office of the State Auditor continues to serve as a watchdog organization to ensure that tax dollars are protected," said Auditor Shad White. "We pledge to perform our jobs with integrity, honesty and a commitment to excellence. We continue to protect the public’s trust through evaluations of accounting practices and aggressive investigations of alleged wrongdoing."

Taxpayers are owed more than $13.5 million in unpaid civil demand letters by governmental officials issued by auditor’s office. 

If the official doesn’t pay the requested amount, the auditor can take the case to a local district attorney or the Attorney General’s office for prosecution. Public officials are required to have a surety bond to protect taxpayers and the auditor’s office can recover part of the demand from the bonding firm.

The report also details previous cases dealt with by the auditor’s office and the disposition of funds. The auditor’s office can issue demand letters to government officials responsible for misappropriated funds after an investigation concludes. 

Among the cases the auditor’s office pursued in fiscal 2019 include:

• Town of Bay Springs— Former city clerk Randy James received a demand letter for $325,561 and the bond company has repaid $60,000, leaving a balance of $265,561.
• Town of Coldwater— Former town clerk George Nangah was served a demand for $302,973 on January 17 and signed a plea deal for one count of wire fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi on April 29. No payment has been received and state charges are still pending.
• Town Creek Water Board — The auditor’s office issued demands to eight board members totaling $523,032. James Robinson ($85,877), Jim Bucy ($88,100), Jim Long ($11,797), the late John Morgan Jr. ($103,040), Kenneth Oswalt ($95,625), Luther Oswalt ($23,565), Michael Pannell ($90,810) and Teresa Winters ($24,323) received demands and no payments have been received.
• Holmes County Board of Supervisors— Supervisor Eddie Carthan was issued a demand for $184,184 on April 17 and no payments have been received.
• Warren County Tax Assessor’s Office — Former bookkeeper Paula Hunt was indicted for embezzlement and issued a demand for $165,329. No payments have been received.
• Humphreys County — Chancery Clerk Lawrence Browder was issued a demand in 2014 for $143,306 for exceeding the fee cap($90,000 according to state law). On January 10, he was indicted on count of fraudulent statements and representations and the auditor’s office issued a demand letter for $279,764 on January 14. No payment has been received.
• Oloh Volunteer Fire Department — Former secretary Jessica Delancey was issued a demand for $100,294. The bond company paid $50,000 and a balance remains of $50,294.
• Wayne County Sheriff’s Department — Sheriff Joseph Ashley was sent a demand for $53,554 and no payment has been received. 
• Mississippi Board of Animal Health— Former director of accounting Chris Smith was served a demand for $33,892. Payment was issued by the bond company for $25,000, leaving a balance of $8,892.
• City of Moss Point — Utility supervisor Kenya Bowens and Lakeshia Benton were both indicted on single counts of embezzlement. On January 11, Benton was issued a demand of $4,218, while Bowens received one for $26,350 and both were paid by the bond company.
• City of Pascagoula — Former city manager Robert Huffman was issued a demand on May 31 for $6,819, which has been paid.
• Mississippi Attorney General’s Office— Former investigator Kelly Edgar was issued a demand for $6,188 on January 8 and payment was received in full.
• Harrison County School District— Former bookkeeper Rita Franke was issued a demand for misappropriation of funds on April 30 for $4,990 and no payments yet received.
• Mississippi Department of Health — Former environmentalist Willie Anderson was indicted on single counts of embezzlement and fraud on January 24. He was served a demand for $2,009 and no payments have been received.

As a new school year approaches for children, some 15,000-20,000 Mississippians won’t be settling into a traditional public or private school classroom.

Rather, they will be classified as homeschoolers, though that definition ranges from those who are part of co-ops to those who take classes online to those who follow standard curriculum at home to those who take a more unschooled approach. Or maybe it’s a little of all that and more. 

While the numbers are just estimates without a formal registration process, we have seen homeschooling jump quite significantly – both in Mississippi and nationwide. According to federal data, the number of homeschoolers more than doubled over the first decade over the 21st century.

And there is no reason to believe those numbers are doing anything but growing.  

After all, it’s easier than ever to homeschool, and to be as engaged (or not) as you would like. Thanks to the power of the Internet, and social media in general, a group of moms (or dads) can easily organize a trip, whether it’s to a museum, zoo, water park, etc., as a group without any formal organization. It’s easier than ever to meet with other homeschool families, to share ideas, or to exchange books and curriculum. Or to just get encouragement from local families.

Reasons families give for homeschooling

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

And Mississippi makes it easy to homeschool, as they should. Families just have to file an annual certificate of enrollment with your local attendance officer by September 15. Beyond that, there are no regulations concerning curriculum or testing, nor do you need to provide any additional information to the local school district. 

Still, that hasn’t stopped school districts in Mississippi from trying. 

Last year, Greenville Public School District Deputy Superintendent Glenn Dedeaux said the district is “legally responsible to ensure every child of educating age receives an adequate education” and he warned that not all homeschool curricula “are approved by the Mississippi Department of Education to meet the necessary standards.” Dedeaux also implied that homeschoolers must take subject matter tests to graduate. Not true. 

We also have the story of a Mississippi mom who was arrested on truancy charges. Her child had previously been enrolled in public school, but she chose to homeschool him because of health reasons. She decided to begin homeschooling the following year, but was arrested before the September 15 deadline to file her notice to homeschool. 

And school districts in general have taken it upon themselves to require more than a notice to homeschool at time. The Natchez-Adams School District tried to demand homeschoolers provide receipts for curriculum purchases. They likely aren’t the only district who has asked for information parents aren’t required to provide.

Our guess is as homeschooling continues to grow in popularity, we will continue to see school districts overstep their authority. And the state might be interested in enacting new regulations as well. 

We can hope they won’t.