Jackson Jambalaya

and deservedly so. Stacey has done a fine job as auditor, but this was a dumb move. I don't think people north of Hattiesburg realize how PO'd the folks on the coast are about this whole DMR thing. Just more salt in the wound.

Stacy wants a political promotion, and is more interested in raising money and running for the senate if Thad retires, than he is in performing his duties.

Stacey needs a primary challenger in whatever office he decides to seek.

Badly.

And 8:40, Stacey has hardly done a "fine job" as auditor. In fact, a sound argument could be made that he is lazy, spineless and uninterested in holding public officials accountable for misdeeds.

This is about how politicians of both parties spread around our tax dollars and react when their friends or supporters or relatives get caught in the process.

Politicians need to take more care in doling out the money to only those who will stay within the legal loopholes and not get too greedy.

What about Stacey doing that stupid investigation of the Madison BOS. What evidence did he have to do one? ZERO. all he found out was the BOS owed Rudy MORE money. He did the investigation because Mary told him he would find something. So now we run full blown investigations because someone with a vendetta says so. Stacey is a little girl like his name indicates. He should change it to STACIE MARIE.

Candidates for State Auditor should sign a pledge that if they win the election they won't run for another political office until ten years after their last day on the job. Frankly, if you're not willing to make that pledge then I'm concerned that you're really not that interested in being the State Auditor. It's too important a position to be used as a stepping stone to a higher office, and the person in the job needs to be able to act without fear for his political future. Loyalty to donors and decisions based on politics should never be considered when trying to determine whether there was financial wrongdoing. Maybe we'd run into a string of one term auditors, but at least they'd be free to act as they need to while in office.

I have a better idea, 9:36. Candidates for State Auditor should sign a pledge that if they win election, they will do the job to which elected. I cannot see Pickering successfully passing out the 'I Voted' stickers at a polling place. Spineless, unengaged and wimp are way too kind.

Candidates should be a CPA; thats take care of knowing how to do the job..

" In fact, a sound argument could be made that he is lazy, spineless and uninterested in holding public officials accountable for misdeeds. "

I think you're being too easy on him.

Seriously.

Pickering has done such a good job he has never audited the DMR allowing for the complete looting of the Agency by his political friends or at least Republican Brothers. The last audit of the DMR was 2003 at the beginning of Bill Walkers rein. Now we know because of no outside oversight millions have been misused or spent on things like Walker's sons land or the business of a close friend. He is going to find out in the future this disaster he has allowed to happen and his failure to bring these crooks to justice will haunt him and his Republican Party big time. He will chase down a school secretary for a few thousand dollars ,demand full restitution and give or threaten imprisonment but he will not do the same to people who form a nonprofit foundation for the purpose of steeling taxpayers money. They get caught red handed and he forgives over a $I,000,000.Go figure. He then has a fundraiser at the home of Joe Cloyd,Josh Gregory's partner in Frontier Gulf Coast knowing they are involved at the DMR. How can the man be so damn dumb? Pickering is giving it to the taxpayers "Preacher Style" I guess as his education dictates. Thanks for the coverage KF. His dismal performance needs to be known state wide because the money that has been misused, stolen an embezzled belongs to all of us.

if we convicted everybody who had a hand in the DMR cookie jar, there would be no state government left. oh, to see the log of all the boat rides given or to be a fly on the wall of some of those trips. that is why nobody at the state level will touch it.

Amen, 1:16!

Someone on the Sun Herald article wants a list of all those who attended the Pickering fundraiser at Frontier Gulf Coast's, Joe Cloyd's, home. You know, I don't think it's a coincidence that the $200 donation to attend is also the maximum contribution per calendar year while staying anonymous. Of course the Sponsors of the event donated much, much more. Their names are on Slabbed.org somewhere.

FYI. There's no hyphen in Sun Herald.

No 3:25, its not a coincidence that the contribution level is $200 - the level for reporting. That's the case with many, if not most, fundraisers. And just for the reason that you named. It has nothing to do with Pickering, Cloyd, Gregory, or the Coast. It is the norm.

Frankly, I can join in the whole "Pickering is spineless and unwilling to tackle public officials" chorus. But to connect Cloyd, Pickering fundraiser, and the DMR mess is trying to make egg soufle out of a flock of chickens - they have something in common but one doesn't lead to the other.

Cloyd has been a Republican activist for many years. He has supported Pickering for many years. He has merged his lobbying business with Gregory. Gregory has supported Pickering for many years. They throw a fundraiser for Pickering. Does that mean that they can't do any business with any agency of the state that is subject to audit? Hell no.

Well, 4:36, this is not just an agency that's subject to audit--it is under investigation by state and federal agencies. Pickering allowing Cloyd to host a fundraiser for him absolutely reeks of impropriety. Whoever called Pickering "tone deaf" had it exactly right.

4:36 must be the new public relations consultant hired by the Frontier consultants to put the spin on the facts. If these two J&J knuckle heads had any consulting sense they would have known better than to hold this type of money grubbing event, at this time, in this location with the original Bill Walker in total view for all to see just 3 days after the public was to find out Pickering allowed him to walk on over a million dollars of misused taxpayer money. Great timing guys! How in the world you don't connect the DMR with Cloyd, Gregory, Pickering, Walker, and the Fundraiser is a little insulting even from someone who is consulting for these dumber than a rock consultants. They can do as they like no matter who it impacts but the public will never buy what you are selling. Gregory should pull that fancy parachute cord on this slow motion plane crash he is involved in on the Gulf Coast Frontier before somebody like Jim Hood does it for him at the crash site. Good Day.

Word is that the Snake Nation will be picketing the CMR meeting at the DMR tomorrow morning. Stacey Pickering has fired them up by bringing up the lovely ladies' name whose life he ruined at the Rotary Club on the Coast. He also referred to the CONProfit group (Walker, McKay, Cloyd, Harris', Joe Zeigler, Billy Hewes, etc.)as "dear friends". Now how is that for an Auditor? He is "dear friends" with the ones who are robbing the Taxpayers blind! And he says it right in front of the voters of this State! Anyone who votes for this dingbat gets just what they deserve....more of the same....nothing. How can a man that claims to be a christian do this to those he promised to protect? So long Pickering....
Pickering picked a peck of pickled croakers (over the Taxpayers)!

Pickering is very easy on government officials of every type. His office knows of a boat purchased by the Univ of Southern Foundation that had a good deal of issues, He gave DPS a pass on an audit a couple of years ago after they lost guns and looks the other way regularly.

The Ms.State Auditor announced this afternoon that the Executive Director of the Stone County Economic Development Partnership has been arrested for embezzlement or misuse of the peoples money in the amount of $24,000.If he is pursued in the same way that Bill Walker and the other board members of the Marine Resource Foundation were this man, Mr.Gumm will only have to pay back $2400.Pickering will also accept live chickens and credit you as if they were boneless chicken breasts. All criminals who break the law should be treated equally. It is their right.

The protest is on at the DMR office-Bolton Building. This gathering will include the SNAKE NATION,the SLABBED NATION, the SEA(SCREWED ENOUGH ALREADY) PARTY, the Biloxi Police Dept. and others.

I don't get the Cloyd criticism. Didn't his firm get business from the post-walker dmr? Is dmr being investigating for anything they are doing right now? It's not like Cloyd or Gregory is under investigation are they? So why shouldn't they be able to support someone politically?

7:22, evidently anyone that currently does work for DMR is guilty, just because it is DMR. And Cloyd better move because his house is next door to Walker's son. Guilty by association if you are from the coast and have ever walked close to the DMR building.

Anybody able to show a connection between Gregory, Cloyd, Frontier, etc. with the Walker administration? I haven't heard of it, but am willing to listen if any of the folks condemning here can provide the facts. Otherwise, I guess only folks not any way associated with the Republican Party can do anything associated with DMR - open invitation to Derrick Johnson, Sam Begley, and Ricky Cole's buddies.

9:06 since you represent Frontier Gulf Coast and the owners interest why don't you pick up the phone and ask them about how they worked diligently to get Jamie Miller the DMR job. And once they got their man in position how long was it before they merged to become FGC then got the first no-bid contract to do the hokey PR work at the DMR.Just a coincedece for sure. Also ask Cloyd if he has ever represented anyone doing oil spill cleanup work that required his connections to Scott Walker and Bill Walker. Nobody gives a damn if he lives next door to his republican brother, Scott Walker. What they do not like are people like him feeding at the taxpayer trough by getting no-bid contracts because of connections to elected or appointed officials. This allows him to occupy a Million Dollar Row home just like his buddy.While we do not know if these guys are part of the ongoing state and federal investigations because this information is not public, we do know their names comes up time and time again. This has them under a cloud of suspicion because of what we all know they have been involved in. Time will tell.

What about Pickering and his involvement of Howard Industries??? That deserves a LONG look!!! First he was Human Resource director then after he was elected state senator he was moved to Governmental affairs for Howard!! All illegals just happened and little Stacey knew nothing about it!! Poor fall guy that took the bullet while Stacey beats his own drums for Thad's seat!!

9:06 ...you hit the nail on the head. The instant gratification re-election culture of fundraising, what have you done for me lately, who's corporate jet can I borrow to fly to the National guv's or whatever conference, who is the "go to" daddy warbuck crowd in the Delta, Tupelo, MMMAAADISON, the Coast, etc....I realize that this is how it works but the people are tired of it and these blogs explain why. Stacey, Cloyd, and Scotty Walker are like a bunch of elephant walking circle jerk dweebs hanging out like vultures thanking their sucker donors for feeding their machine that makes their self importance relevant. These are leaches that need to move on to something that doesn't smell so bad. You boys are hurting Mississippi and need to go somewhere else where your tactics are tolerated. Just not here a**holes