Local attorney Vicky Slater announced her candidacy for Governor:
VICKI SLATER ANNOUNCES CAMPAIGN FOR GOVERNOR
“Today we begin to write a new history for our state.”
JACKSON, MS, February 19, 2015
– Jackson attorney and small business owner Vicki Slater announced her
campaign for Governor today at the state Capitol. In her speech, she
said that “today we begin to write a new history for our state.”
Slater was flanked by family, supporters
and members of the MS House and Senate as she challenged Republican
incumbent Phil Bryant as a failure on education, healthcare, jobs and
corruption. “Let’s be clear about something. The problems we have are
not the fault of Mississippi’s people, they are the fault of
Mississippi’s failed leadership,” she said.
Slater is a successful attorney and prominent Democratic leader, making her first run for public office.
“There can be no argument that government
is morally obligated to keep its citizens safe, educate its children,
look out for those who cannot look out for themselves, and be good
stewards of the taxpayers’ money,” Slater said. “I am running for
Governor because Phil Bryant has miserably failed to meet those
obligations. I promise you all that I will not fail.”
Editors/reporters: The full text of Slater’s announcement speech follows.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE VICKI SLATER
Mississippi State Capitol
[embargo until 10am, February 19, 2015]
Thank you for coming. My name is Vicki
Slater and I am here today to announce my candidacy for the Office of
Governor of the Great State of Mississippi.
With me today is my husband Scott. We
have a blended family of six children, four children in law (soon to be
five children in law), and we have been blessed with six grandchildren
so far.
Today we start the difficult but
incredibly important work of saving our beloved state of Mississippi
from the forces that are wrecking it. I stand here to ask every citizen
of this state to join in that work. Together we can build the
Mississippi we all deserve. Today we start to write a new future for our
state.
Let’s be clear about something. The
problems we have are not the fault of Mississippi’s people, they are the
fault of Mississippi’s failed leadership.
There can be no argument that government
is morally obligated to keep its citizens safe, educate its children,
look out for those who cannot look out for themselves, and be good
stewards of the taxpayers’ money.
I am running for Governor because Phil
Bryant has miserably failed to meet those obligations. I promise you all
that I will not fail.
When he took office, Phil Bryant
single-handedly shut down an insurance exchange that had been created by
Republicans and funded by our tax dollars. Phil Bryant and the
Republicans in the Legislature turned away nine billion dollars
in Medicaid expansion money and every year they send hundreds of
millions of our tax dollars away – saving lives in other states,
sustaining hospitals in other states, while working Mississippians go
without healthcare and doors to rural hospitals slam shut. In healthcare, Phil Bryant has failed us.
To the parents out there who are working hard to make ends meet, but have no health insurance, I will not fail you, and together Mississippians will thrive.
Since the day Phil Bryant became Governor, America has created over 8,000,000 new jobs. But Mississippi has lost over 40,000 jobs. We have the highest unemployment rate of any state in the country. On jobs, Phil Bryant has failed us.
To the moms and dads out there who are
working while raising children, and to those who stay at home to care
for your children, to the small business owners out there working 80
hours a week, to those out there looking every day for the chance to
work, and to those out there working for the minimum wage without a
raise in years, I will not fail you, and together Mississippians will succeed.
Governor William Winter told us 30 years
ago that the road out of the poorhouse runs in front of the school
house. Public education has been the ladder into the middle class for
millions of Americans, and public school teachers have held that ladder.
But Phil Bryant and the Republicans are sawing through the rungs. They
brag about how fat they have made the State Rainy Day Fund with money
that should have, by law, gone to our schools. That is just robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Phil Bryant and the Republicans have
simply – and illegally – refused to fund education in our state.
Underfunding our schools not only hurts teachers and schoolchildren. It
hurts everyone when local governments have to raise property taxes to
make up for the shortfall, if they can. On the Mississippi Gulf Coast,
high insurance rates for homeowners are making ownership an
impossibility. Add higher property taxes and the dream of home ownership
is all but erased for Gulf Coast families. When families cannot
maintain home ownership, communities and businesses fail. With
Mississippi now 50th in education and 50th in business environment, Phil Bryant has failed us on education.
To the parents worried about what the
future holds for children with a last-place education, to the teachers
buying pencils and books out of their own paychecks, to the homeowners
facing spiraling property taxes, I will not fail you.
I have spent most of my career as an
attorney and small business owner fighting corruption at the highest
levels of government in this State. Does corruption exist in
Mississippi? Yes. Can the people get justice from a corrupt government?
No.
Recently we have seen corruption abound in
the Department of Marine Resources on the Coast, and the prison
kickback scandal involving no-bid contracts, and threats made against
legislators who would not tow the Republican party line. It’s
unacceptable. Corruption wastes taxpayers’ money and deprives
Mississippians of justice and jobs.
Why did we have to wait for the Federal
government to expose the corruption? Why didn’t Phil Bryant dig it out
when he was State Auditor, Lt Governor or Governor? On stewardship of the public trust, Phil Bryant has failed us.
I want to say something in particular to
young voters: Back when Governor Bryant and I were in school, our
teachers never had to dip into their pockets to help fund the classroom,
and college was fully affordable. When folks got out of school, they
could find jobs that supported a family.
Your fathers and mothers and others before
you got better than you are getting now. But it doesn’t have to be that
way. The government is funded with your tax dollars, too. There is
nothing wrong with voting for better health, better wages, better
education, better jobs for yourselves. It is our government, it is our money, and it is the tradition of America that Americans work in partnership with our government for the good of all of us.
That is why it why we say ours is a
government of, by and for the people. You don’t deserve any less than
what the rest of America gets and you should not accept less. Don’t
accept it for even one more day!
I am running to be your Governor because time is of the essence. The time is now to have our money work for us, the time is now to put Mississippi children, families and businesses first, the time is now to save lives. We have waited for leadership too long, and we know it will not come from Phil Bryant.
Mississippians are the greatest, most
generous, most spiritual, most talented people in the greatest country
on the face of the Earth. It is simply wrong for us to be held back, to
be held down, by failed leaders, corruption and selfish politics. That starts to change right here, today.
Today is the day. Today is
the day we proudly step forward and begin working together to get
Mississippi back in the game and for all of us to win. Together, we will not fail.
Thank you. God bless you, God bless the United States of America and God bless the great state of Mississippi.
Slater for Mississippi
PO Box 23981
Jackson MS 39925 United States
PO Box 23981
Jackson MS 39925 United States
37 comments:
Wow......poor Phil was blamed for everything.
Oddly, the zip code in her address at the bottom is in Oregon.
Correction to my comment....zip code is in Mexico.
Hahahaha! This is HILARIOUS! I feel so bad for folks like her that are talked into running for an office they will NEVER win and spending HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars. It's quite sad... I'm going to call her the Democrats Russ Latino.
The road may run in front of the school house, but until PARENTS stand up to their kids and encourage education, we can hang it up. Have five kids by five different men, get govt checks and benefits to pay for them. Then when they are in their teens, teach them how to "live off the land (tax-payers).
Govt assistance should be a temporary thing, not a way of life.
But, when I got out of school in 1994, I could hardly support a family on what I was making.
And if I 'Don't deserve less', then why can't I get govt money to buy my liquor and have my nails done weekly? Oh, I know, because my REPUBLICAN family taught me to WORK for what I want.
So what stops her from receiving the same level of votes cast in 2011 for the personhood amendment and for jim hood? Watch for Bennie, the hospital association, school superintendents to ste up in October don't underestimate the intensity of p I s s e d off women.Bryant has never had to deal with a large black turn out.the democratic party is not dead.watch how many dem house candidates are being recruited
10:32 "the Democrats Russ Latino."
That's hysterical and accurate.
"Your fathers and mothers and others before you got better than you are getting now."
Got better?
Why is it that EVERYTIME somebody announced for office, they declare that it is a NEW day (in Mississippi), yet, when they are elected, it's the same 'ol tired crap?
So THIS was the dems' second "major announcement" in as many weeks? Impressive, no?
I was just watching MSNBC, where Rachel Maddow hosted a panel including Barbara Streisand, Jane Fonda, Arianna Huffington, Paul Krugman, and the ghosts of Che Guevara, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, and Ted Kennedy. The panel all agreed that Vicki Slater's views and agenda were a bit far to the left, that they were "slightly uncomfortable with it," and that the United States and capitalism "is not as bad as she makes it sound."
She starts out with 200,000 people who support public schools and signed the MAEP petition who saw their efforts ruined by the underhanded efforts of the state leaders. She starts out with the 300,00 families denied healthcare. That is one hell of a good starting point in this state. Most people in this state, both Democrats and Republicans, recognize this state is in terrible shape and it is not any better since Phil Bryant and Tate Reeves have been in charge. If Vicki Slater can get that message across, she will make this a very competitive race.
@12:44 -
Yep. What Mississippi needs is government giving more things to more people.
Parasite.
12:44 - first fallacy with your math is that the supposed 200,000 people that signed the petition included only 115,000 registered voters. Realize that being legal doesn't really matter to Democrats when looking for votes, but will be a problem. The suppossed 300,000 'families' that were according to you 'denied healthcare' also doesn't match facts. First, they weren't denied healthcare - they all have access to healthcare today, many on employer supplied policies, other through the free care provided throughout the state. Also, you have exaggerated again (good Dem policy, by the way) and turned individuals into families.
Most people in this state realize that it has been in terrible shape for decades - and all those decades it was completely controlled by Dems. To try to blame the current condition of the state on the current leadership is good b/s to spread, but it doesn't sell. It will take several more years of good sound fiscal leadership to begin to break the stranglehold that people like Vickie and Elvis are trying to sell.
Phil Bryant was never the choice of the Republican Party leaders to start with (remember Dave Dennis). He has been a very poor governor one of the worst in modern times. There is no vision, no plan, no direction, no nothing. Every Republican and Democratic governor before him had some type of plan of what they wanted to do.
200,000 did sign the petition, 115,000 were registered voters. That is a lot more people than the mailing list of any politician in this state.
300,000 were denied Medicaid expansion. They are working people who make too much for the current Medicaid program but do not make enough to qualify for the federal healthcare exchange. They have zero healthcare.
Laugh all you want, most of what she says is true. Phil was horrible as an auditor and horrible as a governor. As much as people argue that the state was controlled by Dems being the reason we are in such bad shape, the future under republican leadership still looks bleak. How can we lose jobs while the country has hundreds of thousands of jobs each month? Is it because of the policies put in place under democratic leadership of years ago (@2:34) that our current leadership has somehow been "powerless" to overcome for the past several years?
Republicans have controlled the Governor's office since 1992 except for the term of Ronnie Musgrove. There was job growth in all of those years for which all of those governors took credit.
So now that we have lost 40,000 jobs under Phil Bryant that somehow makes it the fault of Democrats? That makes no sense. It cant be both ways, if Dems are the fault for losing 40,000 jobs you have to give them credit for all those created since 1992.
In Phil's announcement, he claimed to have created 30,000 jobs. So is it 30,000 up or 40,000 down? My thinking is, it isn't (nor should it be) the function of government to create jobs. It's not in the Constitution.
I never said Phil has been a great governor; just that not all that is wrong with the state's current situation can be blamed on the 'recent' Republican leadership. And although he has no vision or concept of leadership, he doesn't dive into more and more pits of unending government for the sake of government.
And to 3:29, many of those "300,000" (I see you concede individuals rather than your earlier 'families') do have health insurance. Many others receive free healthcare from many different sources. I am very familiar with some employers where some of the 300,000 work - and they do have employer supplied healthcare. Go check out the various free clinics throughout the Delta and elsewhere.
Yes, you could break the budget by putting them on Medicaid - and along with the Prop 42 MAEP funding - shut down all the rest of state government. But those of us paying the tab don't want more government, thus Ricky's attempt to put someone in the campaign to prove his worth won't work.2:34 here
Free clinics do not pay the hospital bills of people with serious illnesses which run into hundreds of thousands. We pay for that already with higher insurance premiums.
Medicaid expansion could be done with zero cost. Tennessee developed such a plan where the cost to the state would be zero forever. If the feds ever changed anything that would just stop the plan. It was voted down by the Chris McDaniel's of the Tennessee legislature. There are enough Republicans in the legislature who would vote with Dems to do it here except for Phil Bryant and Tate Reeves blocking it.
The state does not want to fund MAEP but eventually something will have to be done. If Bryant wants to propose an alternative formula why hasnt he done it in the first 4 years? If nothing is done eventually the federal courts will do it for the state just like they have done in other states where education was not adqequately funded.
She speaks the truth. The truth hurts, sometimes, doesn't it???? Go Vicki!!!! By the way, if you are too afraid to leave your name on a comment, it says a lot about your character and the veracity of your statements.
Do it now, Suanne? This woman is wasting her time as well as the contributory pittance of two hundred people who will donate to this idiocy. Is she supposed to be the Evelyn Gandy of the current century? She will get no more than 7% of the popular vote.
Ms. Strider, you are quite judgmental, offensive and off-putting, not unlike your friend Vicki Slater.
Early and Often if you think Phil Bryant will get 93% of the vote then you might want to check the expiration date of the Kook Aid package.
Sorry I meant Kool Aid not Kook Aid.
Why does Phil only keep young, good looking white men in his closet inner circle ? Looks matter to this governor
Here is one comment that was fine but for the last sentence:
Vicki starts with 43% of the vote. Her personality in court is "off putting" to me. If she is as condescending in a debate as she is on cross, with that raspy cigarette soaked voice, she will not do very well amongst more than the base. If she brightens up a bit, lays off the bitch attitude, and offers some real answers...she may get closer. Can she win?
I thought she had a good point.
Bryant was state auditor, lt. gov., and then governor.
Why did he need the federal gov't to find out about the corruption at MDOC?
Why does Miss. always need the feds to pull up our socks and tie our laces?
She had the balls to see that the Lott/Delaughter/Scruggs/ Langston gang were exposed for what they were. It was a hard row to hoe in that they were her friends, or so she thought, and colleagues.
She is a trial lawyer and was only involved in te Scruggs mess as one of Bob Wilson's attorneys. Or, as his "attorney" as she only did as instructed and was someone who could be controlled. She is an average, at best, attorney and absolutely lacks all of the tools to be a good governor. Granted, she is a hell of a lot more educated, smarter, etc. than Phil Bryant, but who amongst us isn't. Ha!
That is actually the biggest problem Phil Bryant has. He is not just running against Vicki Slater but every other politician people have ever voted for. Sadly he does not measure up to any of them and that is a problem that will be difficult on the campaign trail.
<Granted, she is a hell of a lot more <educated, smarter, etc. than Phil <Bryant, but who amongst us isn't. Ha!
You and I disagree, 8:06 PM. That is fine. I can only say that I was involved in much of that litigation from the beginning, True, there was another well known lawyer who worked along side Slater in the beginning. The two of them broke the nefarious judge for hire plot wide-open. I do think that, in all honesty, she is an above average trial lawyer in most respects.
Does that show any of us that she would be a great Governor? I would say not really. I am not sure that she has "all of the tools to be a good goveror". Does anyone?
I can assure you that she will, hands down, be a much more hard working, better quallified, enthusiastic Governor than Phil Bryant.
Damn good point raised that if Feel has so much experience and expertise, why did he need the feds to expose the DOC corruption?
Blah, Blah, No one has touched on the one failed common denominator that they All have. Lawyers to a fault. Every one of them. We have elected and paid them to lie too us and for us for so long we can't tell the difference anymore. We pay far to much tax to pay for things that are a privilege and not a right. Education is only a right to the extent they tax us to pay for it. With over 50% of the state budget going to Education already the only way to fully fund MAEP is cut the budget somewhere else. Or raise taxes on the #7 highest taxed middle income state in America.(Also 50th in Median and Per Capita Income) Obama tried to make healthcare a right as the supreme court pointed out with a tax called ACA. Healthcare is a privilege not a right. Nothing is until the State Government or Federal government provides it for you after they tax you for it. On every issue they are both right and they are both wrong. The truth is we can't keep electing lawyers to run our government and expect anything to get done. I intend to remedy that on Thursday. I plan to file. I have a platform that I sent them both. Better yet I'm not a lawyer and I have a plan for every issue brought up and then some. I have asked myself many times how politicians who are Lawyers could be so stupid. Then I remembered Clinton, Bush and Obama were Lawyers from Harvard or Yale. No further explanation necessary. Most any fool can tell you what the problem is. Do they have a Plan. How are they going to fix it without making things worse somewhere else. Lack of a plan is why Mrs. Slater didn't win her state seat. I think she'll get the token 33%-38% democrat vote but she will never unseat Bryant. Even if she did she would never get the Republican Legislature to go along with anything she wanted. Good Luck!
So this group complains about tne current governor idiot but when someone smart enough to come in out of the rain steps up to tne plate you bitch about her. Republicans gave us bryant and mccrazy....instead of belitting someone with answers why dont you lazy white boys get us a leader that can overcome the mess you have given us. And by the way...i am in the same party as you but its hard to watch trainwreck and listen to you whiners.
Bryant, McDaniels, Tate. and Gene Alday are the names most people now associate with the Mississippi Republican Party. Other states with strong Republican leadership are moving forward toward finding compromises and actually doing things. Meanwhile we are stuck with daily diversions that appeal to the fringe right but do nothing to solve any actual problems. This legislative session was about $50 tax refund checks, putting $5 in everyones pocket by eliminating inspection stickers, stopping sharia law, etc.
Vicki Slater is a sharp candidate. She is not afraid to express herself and she actually has abilities and ideas. It will be interesting to see what she can do against Bryant.
"Tennessee developed such a plan where the cost to the state would be zero forever."
Really? So medicine now has its own equivalent to a perpetual-motion machine? Or one of those "suppressed" inventions that turns water into gasoline?
Just repeat to yourself, over and over:
"There is no such thing as a free lunch.
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
There is no such thing as a free lunch"
As unimpressive as Bryant has been as a governor, at least he understands that.
2:24 you should hook up with some of the lobbyists, there are plenty of free lunches.
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