Seems like Christmas 2010 was just yesterday but here we are, the end of yet another year. Since everyone else is into lists, I thought I would try my hand at it. Feel free to fire away in comments.
Winners:
Haley Barbour: Changed the Governor's office to one of strength by using the special session and a Republican Lieutenant Governor to get his agenda passed. Had some controversy nearly a year ago over remarks about the Citizen's Council. Brushed it all off to teach the legislature who was boss yet again and make Billy McCoy's last year miserable. Next up: Leading American Crossroads to repeat the success he had leading the RGA. Will he become a Chief of Staff if the Republicans take the White House?
Phil Bryant: Completely botched redistricting and had to be saved by Haley and Delbert. Rebounded to crush his opposition in the primary and general elections. Questions remain if his two advisers, Quentin Dickerson and Josh Gregory, will retain their influence in the new administration.
Joe Nosef: Strong team player for Haley, then Phil, now stands in line to assume Chairmanship of Mississippi GOP.
Arnie Hederman: The "numbers guy" led the Mississippi GOP to unprecedented success in taking over the House and keeping the Senate. Finally lined up voters voting for GOP Presidential nominees over and over with voting for legislators.
Tyrone Lewis: First black Sheriff of Hinds County. All jokes made at his expense aside, he came back from being demolished by Sheriff Mac four years ago to redemption on election day. Started putting out signs and getting endorsements in February. He went after Mac and didn't cede any votes. Will he realize he is now bigger than the powerbroker wannabe's such as Chokwe that supported him or will they run him is the question.
Frank McCorder: Everyone laughed at Firemccoy.com. The pundits thought it was cute but useless. The Democrats planned on a fight for the next speaker between Bobby and Cecil. The Firemccoy effort took hold and became reality. Assumed operation of GOP mouthpiece Y'all Politics.
Robert Graham: Shook off months of bad press coverage, exposure of votes for sweetheart deals, and won re-election by a bigger margin despite being disliked by a strong part of the so-called black power structure in Jackson. Having Bennie on your side helps.
Majority in Mississippi: became the premier website for election analysis in Mississippi this year. Provided detailed coverage of redistricting that left the regular media in the dust. Now that elections are over, can Mr. Kitteridge replicate his success in 2012?
Will Longwitz: Shook off an embarrassing loss for county court judge with a list of rookie mistakes and ran to replace Walter Michel against a Barbour. No family name, no political background, just a fighting heart and a will to win carried him through a bruising fight to victory on election day.
The Score 620: Clearchannel gods decreed non-Clearchannel stations in Jackson will no longer carry Clearchannel programming. The Score thus got Limbaugh and Hannity radio shows.
Josh Gregory & Quentin Dickerson: Made millions off of Haley with the Frontier Strategies gravy train. Jumped that ship to get a ride with Phil. Made over half a million dollars off of the Bryant campaign while lobbying out of Phil's office in the legislature as they became the gatekeepers for Phil. Now that Phil has moved up, they will be the two players to watch.
Lobbyists: Power is expected to move back to the legislature as Phil is not considered to be as strong a leader as Haley, lobbyists are licking their chops.
Dick Hall: Elvis, no problem. Bennie & Marshand- I'll take you on, not raise as much money, and still beat you. Hall took nothing for granted and ran scared from day one. Paid off with two election victories.
Randy Tucker: Took on a sitting police chief of largest city in Madison County and won even though he had less money.
Jim Hood: Did it his way. Raised a ton of money, didn't pull any punches, and kicked Simpson's ass.
Hayes Dent& Lynn Fitch: Backed an unknown candidate for Treasurer, ran her campaign, and surprised everyone who didn't think a woman who once worked for Democrats stood a chance in this race. She campaigned hard and early, spent every dime raised, and left nothing on the table come election day.
Fight against animal cruelty: Managed to get a felony component added to current law.
Mississippi Farm Bureau: got its eminent domain initiative passed and won in its fight to keep a first-offense animal cruelty law off of the books.
The Gang of Five in Madison: Karl, Rudy, Eric, Tim, and Paul. Managed to get their way on everything this year then pulled off a redistricting coup as they redrew the lines after the qualifying deadlines to put strong opponents in other districts. Survives audit by Pickering's office.
Tate Reeves: Treasurer for eight years, seen more and more as someone in the Haley mold. Now has the Senate. Set a record in fund-raising and beat Phil's man Billy Hewes in a race that got nasty at times.
David Watkins: got city to provide help for Farish Street project in the form of bonds and removed any meaningful opposition on council by hiring Quentin Whitwell.
Delbert Hoseman: Took heat for it but saved Phil Bryant on redistricting.
Anna Rogers: Ole Miss grad, finance director for Tate Reeves, promoted to finance director for American Crossroads. Major promotion.
Johnny Dupree: Had the guts to run for Governor, ran his campaign with class, and earned a great deal of respect in the process. Mr. Dupree lost but showed one could get votes and respect without acting like Barbara Blackmon.
Elizabeth Crisp: Clarion-Ledger reporter earns her chops covering state politics and becomes the leading journalist at the "state newspaper".
Les Miles: 13-0. SEC Champs. Honey Badger. Beat Saban in his own house. His own players.
Byram Police Chief Luke Thompson: Stands up to Hinds BOS and against wasting more money on Graham cronies and wins.
WLBT: Leaves other media in town in dirt on investigative journalism. Might be why they are number one in ratings, hint, hint.
Chokwe Lamumba: Led the charge for Tyrone Lewis. Flexed his political muscle as he gears up to run for Mayor in 2013.
Losers:
Mississippi Democrats: Lost the House. Didn't even field a full slate of candidates. Complete embarrassment at all levels.
Northeast Mississippi: McCoy. Holland. Musgrove. Mabus. Tuck. et al. Northeast Mississippi dominated Mississippi politics much the same way the Delta used to decades ago. No more. Power now passes to Central Mississippi: Gunn-Clinton, Reeves- Rankin, Fitch- Madison, Bryant- Rankin, Hoseman- Hinds.
Steve Palazzo: Staffers embarrass him. High-profile turnovers in office. Rumors wife meddles too much in its management. Taylor may want rematch. One-hit wonder?
Ole Miss: Football team quits early in the season. More ineptitude from Boone as he allows Nutt to stay on even as he announces he is leaving. Boone shows an inability to get even basic things right as an award is given to a professor at the Alabama game whose family is wearing...Bama jerseys. Pretty bad when your opponent is beating you so bad he calls it quits with five minutes to go by taking a knee. Only thing missing was the Honey Badger taking a nap on the sidelines.
WFMN: Supertalk Mississippi went waaaaay over the line for Phil Bryant and especially Billy Hewes. Now the gravy train in advertising dollars they get from the state is probably going to stop. Davenport probably squirming right now.
Clarion-Ledger: more layoffs. Worse coverage. Staff laid off while managers and editors who have been there for decades remain. Makes decision to use Facebook for comments only to see comments dry up. Continues to show inability to use new media as reporting itself continues to slip. Candidates used social media and blogs more and more to render the newspaper more irrelevant.
Lucien Smith: Had huge fund-raising lead and didn't even make the primary for Treasurer. Poor ads and little name recognition.
George Smith: pummeled by media coverage and exposure of votes for questionable deals. Bad enough but then to finally lost to Kenny Stokes. Ouch.
Hinds County Board of Supervisors: Awarded illegal contract to Derrick Johnson for redistricting. Kept map secret, didn't publicize notices for hearings. Spent millions on companies owned by cronies while the county goes in the hold over $5 million. No problem, just borrow next year's taxes. Meanwhile police are unable to get equipment they need while Airwave gets a $94,000 payment the same day.
Mac: Refused repeated pleas to run as an Independent. Attracted critical media coverage after storming out of forum at New Horizon. Didn't campaign much until the last few weeks.
Dave Dennis campaign staff: Ran one of the weakest campaigns for governor in memory. Took a candidate who serves at the Federal Reserve and tried to use him in a cherry picker a la Mick Jagger. Didn't attack Phil until the end and wasted Bryant mistakes during the legislative session.
Jackson Free Press: endorsed candidates lose. Paper becomes known as a Harvey mouthpiece and noted for its refusal to cover negative stories about the Hinds County Board of Supervisors. Stories broken rarely make next level of media coverage.
Jimmy Houston: Chief of largest police department in Madison County but quits after Hatch Act questions raised. Raises much more money than his opponents. Wins the primary. Then makes an ass of himself at the Haute Pig because there were Randy Tucker signs at the restaurant to much media play. Didn't help another Mayor was fired up working against him.
Ablene Cooper: Good job. Don't read The Help until much later. Have a meltdown in front of cameras after Tomie Green of all judges ruled you really dropped the ball.
Staffers for Billy Hewes: Several decided to geaux nasty and dirty on Tate during campaign, now they get to be on the receiving end of what they dished out. Word is its not pretty right now. Woe to those who have clients needing help in the Senate.
Steve Simpson: Ran against Hood on Obamacare. Can't make that up. No mention of Scruggs in campaign. No mention of Ed Peters. Didn't raise much money and made repeated mistakes. Might be able to rebound from that with a clerkship in the House. Um, Phillip, why aren't you looking at Pete Perry?
Y'all Politics: Went to Facebook log-in. Comments disappeared and the site was rarely discussed in this year's election coverage. When will YP and the CL learn: Facebook is not a magic bullet for abusive comments but it is a magic bullet for killing comments and traffic.
Rankin County School Board and Superintendent: Gave themselves Ipads and drew heat for it. Super hires relatives. Board tries to pass a $170 million bond issue and gets creamed for it. First time Facebook is used so effectively for a political cause in Jackson area for a local issue as the bond issue goes down in flames.
John Burwell: Harborwalk still not happening. Gets arrested twice.
Northeast Jackson: Burglaries up 60% for the last two years while they drop for everyone else. Property values start to drop, more rentals appear on the market. Harvey tries to stop residents from using public access gates and other security measures. Meanwhile their councilman has to recuse himself whenever David Watkins comes to council for more money... and gets it.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Winners & Losers of 2011
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43 comments:
I didn't realize Graham and Stokes were that close. Scary to think of how bad Hinds is going to get.
Pete F Perry, you got to be kidding, hit the bar circuit and hear who he said over and over was too dumb to be Governor.
Wow, you're right about YP having no comments. I haven't been there in a while and the site is utterly DEAD.
Just because people like to post anonymously at times doesn't mean they have nefarious intentions. Forcing everyone to show their hand means no one plays at all. Good luck, YP and CL. Guess you never realized that people come to your sites as much for the user commentary as for your crack reporting.
Good list of stuff on winners and losers. Only thought otherwise from me is that you might have mentioned Barbour stepping in his own poop when he claimed 'Race relations not that bad as he recalled Yazoo City'. Major flub but nothing to lose.
It would have been a major bullet point against him had he decided to seek higher office. Only goes to prove Haley is one of the few alive who can sh*t his own pants, pull them down and step in it, hitch them back up and walk right away.
Good list with exception of northeast Jackson. There have been numerous ground breakings of new homes this fall.
Billy should be on list with his staffers. Surprise personhood wasnt mentioned.
Winner.....taxpayer, with light shined on PERS
Shadow, once again you didn't bother to read the post. want to know why people give you a hard time? this is why, because you did NOT read the part about Haley.
Joe-Phil Nosef as Chairman means Josh Gregory runs the state party. Which is fine, as long as you're not Tate Reeves. When the donations run dry, we'll all ask Tate to take over, which is probably for the best.
Sounds like you are predicting that Bryant will be Barbour-Light or some version of a Musgrove-type Republican who gives away the store to the lobbyists. Like all central political committees the issue of succession of power is foremost on the minds of the middling ranks. Perhaps Haley & Phil had an private understanding and were able to get the political work done that was pressing and divide the spoils later.
There have been numerous ground breakings of new homes this fall.
BFD. Don't mean diddly squat.
Actually I DID read the post re Haley. Otherwise, how would I have known there WAS one. Haley's perpetual dustups re the CCC are separate issues from his claim that 60s era Yazoo had no race issues. You might resolve in '12 to not bristle so loudly at constructive criticism and gentle commentary.
And since you won't allow this post anyway, why didn't you include mention of the ongoing Gallo-Lang love affair. They got together on-air at least BI-weekly during '11 to assure each other that they're relevant. Lang doesn't need anonymous posts as long as he gets that continued stroke from Davenport's guy.
Happy New Year Kingfish. PS: I'm not a bad guy. Nor am I the enemy. We have met the enemy and it is Kangaroo. snort. Happy New Year Cap'n.
It looks like there was one loser that was left out... If the Gang of Five in Madison County was a Winner, the people of Madison County were a Loser this year.
No 8:24, you may not be, but you wrote the book on nerd.
3:47, I kinda agree with your question about a**hole Perry, but think you are wrong about him and Bryant (although that wouldn't necessarily matter as to fish's suggestion to Gunn). From everything I saw, Perry supported Bryant during this years election. He may be an a**hole, but he's not totally dumb.
You are exactly right 11:29 - the Gang of Five makes Madison county residents losers. Beware of Rudy backing anyone (say a Kroger Manager) for Mayor of Madison next year...that will be crony politics as usual, all for more money in Rudy's pocket off the people!
Tate's going to be the leader of the party and the state way after Phil and his "team" fizzle out and become irrelevant. People that can't accept that and don't get on board are morons. No one is smarter than Tate politically and as long as he has Anna he'll always have plenty of money. She's by far the best in the state and Tate's smart enough to hold on to her. Yeah, he's not going anywhere.
I have been told that Rudy already has the votes to be back. Even with the new board. He apparently has four of the five locked in.
2:16
Ask Josh and who else has been around, he can wait until tate!!
I would add to the losers list, all candidates from the Mississippi Gulf coast. No one from the coast came even remotely close to winning their election.
I predict Rudy will get all five votes. No problem with that. People voted for it, that is what they want.
If Gunn gives the clerkship to Steve Simpson, it will mean we are in store for more of the same. What has Simpson ever really done?
More than you, 5:31. He isn't anonymously blogging about your empty life.
Interesting 2:52 .
I've noticed a Kroger manager in Madison working the customers a little more than what one would expect
from a local neighborhood grocer.
Hey 3:15, what's your obsession about Reeves?? The smartest guy in the party?? Give me a break, you must have gone to Millsaps with him. I don't know if you saw or not but the leaders of the party (sorry, Haley's gone)went for Billy Hewes, although he never had a chance. Legislators seldom do. Once Tater has a credible Republican opponent he is toast. BTW, great list!!
8:42, you really make the point for Reeves supporters even though you are trying to trash him.
"the leaders of the party went for Billy Hewes"...your words, not mine. Yes, Phil Bryant, Trent Lott, Billy Mounger, Billy Powell, Andy Taggert, etc. "went for hewes."
And Reeves basically won EVERY county in the state. Like it or not, the old "leaders of the party" are no longer leaders!
Leonard Bentz belongs on that 2nd list. In 4 years he went from a 51% margin of victory (against a wellknown guy), to a 12% win against a nobody with no money.
At least one supervisor will not vote for Rudy.
It just goes to show that in politics, losers can win.
You mean he is running his Kroger the way Henry Holman expected ALL of his managers to do?
Loser(s): NEMS (Lee County) and Rep. Brian Aldridge. Lawsuit aside, no experience, no leadership...
I don't know about Henry Holman, but leaving the shelves empty of items day after day while Walmart has the same items on their shelves doesn't sound like a very good manager. I'm speaking of the store near Bonefish, not the refurbished one.
What about Greg Davis on the losers list?
Thanks 9:55, it doesn't surprise me to see you think for people about the way you pick Pols. The leadership was against Tate but Billy was not a good candidate because no one knew him outside his district (like all legislators, ask Mike Parker what he thinks of Charlie Williams statewide abilities)...the fact that the leadership STILL went for him says everything about Tate, not Billy. Hear well, Tate has slipped through to this point and while he's good at raising money, that's where it ends. He will have a major opponent in his next step up and it will unravel at that point.
I agree, maybe the lt guv will employ the former MA Com lobbyist?
Hey, 2:18: folks said that about Bryant for the last four years. in the end, he didnt have serious in-party competition. I doubt that Tate, especially after eight years of raising money and building his brand, will have serious GOP opposition either.
3:06, go back to the campaign meeting and let everyone know that is not the way it is going to be.
How about "Congrats Kingfish!"
Happy New Year everyone. I have to admit, this is best group of conversationalists. I nominate "Anonymous" for next years consideration, because, we all know where you can and cannot express your opinion without retribution and in a stimulating conversational environment.
Great job this year KF and congrats!
I wish for the sake of the new "Central Mississippi Power Base" that times would get real tough for "Jackson" and that these guys would do some serious power play with the crowd that governs that place. A bill should be introduced immediately to revoke the city's charter and it be run as a state controlled district with all officals appointed by the Governor or a committee set up for that purpose.
Things would turn around with a Provost Marshall in charge for about four years. Tax Revenues would go for infra structure and basic services only. Vast areas of blight could be demo'ed and re-forested. Then slowly the city is turned back over to more sensible leaders. Something really drastic is needed to save that place from comlete ruin.
To all the Tater lovers and the Hewes hater's: Tate had a basket load of money in that race, and ran upwards of 300K worth of advertising in the Memphis market alone the last two weeks. He also made some promises that are likely to hamper him with some senators in his new job at LT Gov. The problem with Hewes campaign was that he didn't get any PR moving until the last two months and Tate had been pushing his name all over the state with taxpayer dollars as treasurer for years. Despite the fact that no one knew Billy's name outside of the coast, his "staffers" managed to help him gain 25 points in the last 6 weeks alone...no small feat. Tate is not invincible, and he is a pitiful public speaker. That's going to hurt him as the stage gets bigger. We'll all be very happy he won't be running the party in the coming years.
You want to talk about winners, you have to include Marshall Ramsey. Demoted to part-time cartoonist by the CL, rides a groundswell of popular opinion in his favor to speaking engagements where he is a free agent and Sid Salter's old radio slot. Without saying a word, mind you, in the popular press about his demotion or his plans. Masterful.
Tater NOR the Governor will have an easy time with our state budget NOR will the next Presidente. Our state will be a massive loser if economic constraints severely limit federal outlays in the next couple of years. No state in the Union receives as much as we do here. Think of Camp Shelby or Ingalls shutting down. Ending of ag subsidies. What state party titan has a clue of how to handle that type of a situation?
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