Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Bigger Pie Forum: Will Governor Sign Incumbent Protection Bill?

Bigger Pie Forum authored and sponsored this post. 

The Mississippi House of Representatives has passed, and the Senate is expected to vote this week on HB 1048, a bill to move the deadline for candidates to file to run for office to February 1 of election years.

For most offices, the current deadline is March 1, but for county election commissioners, it is June 1. Legislators were told that election commissioners asked for a change from the June 1 deadline to be more in line with the earlier deadline currently in place for legislators, statewide officials, and county officials, such as sheriffs, county supervisors, circuit clerks, and more.

But in the course of making that change, the House made the additional move to change the deadline for all candidate filings to February 1. A Senate committee has given its approval to that bill with no changes to the House-passed version. If the full Senate approves it by the deadline for action this Wednesday, it will go to the governor for his signature or veto.

Why does this matter?

Early filing deadlines benefit incumbents. So do brief filing seasons. Since no candidate is allowed to file before January 1, the new February 1 deadline will only allow one month for candidates to file.

It is likely that many who would consider running for office would not make that decision so early in the year. The party primaries are not held until early August. And Independent candidates, also subject to the early deadline, do not appear on the ballot until the November general election.

In short, there is no need to have such an early deadline, nor is there a legitimate reason to limit the filing season to one month. So why would they do this?

More than 25 years ago, the legislature moved the filing deadline from June 1 to March 1. It was well known at the time that legislators wanted to know by March 1 if they would have an opponent in their election. If so, they would have to be more careful about the votes they cast in the last month of the legislative session, when votes occur on the final versions of bills. If they did not have an opponent, they could vote however they wanted.

In Washington DC, Congress is working to pass a bill that would dramatically change election laws in the country. It appears that the Mississippi Legislature is attempting to do the same.


 

History & text of bill.

 

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your so called "Public Servants" really have no shame. They will do anything to stay in office. Including redrawing districts on the coast that go into the gulf then back onto land in order to have the desired voter base.

It's a damn shame that the citizens of MS have such self serving elected officials.

I'm really surprised the political campaign managers and advertising firms haven't thrown a fit. This will take money out of their pocket.

Anonymous said...

The filing deadline would only be one month, but most people know long before that if they are going to run. If someone waits until January 1 to start making that decision, they probably should not run.

Anonymous said...

This state is last in every metric

Who cares to be honest

Anonymous said...

@2:30pm And that there's the purpose.....to keep everyone down, uncaring, and so fed up that they don't pay attention and stay involved long enough to know how those scumbags are financially raping them everyday.

Anonymous said...

An alt perspective: why not make it harder for last minute boneheads to run? If they so badly want to rule over us, then make them work harder for it. It gives us plenty of time to vet each new criminal with their hand out.

I guess to a bunch of government employees, a month is not enough time to fill out a few forms!

Anonymous said...

All I want to know is, will we have Voter ID after the Supreme Court rules.

Anonymous said...

I am not surprised at anything a Phillip Gunn run house comes up with. That guy is the poster child for bad leadership in Mississippi.

JT said...

Come on people does anyone who thinks these Servants of the People really believe their in office to serve anyone but themselves? Both republican and democrats couldn’t care less what Mississippians think should be done. The debacle of the legislature in not fixing the initiative process almost a decade ago should tell everyone what these people are all about. Legislators think the voters work for them not the other way around. Hell Proposition 65 may go down in flames next month because of that failure. You’d think they’d try to save their worthless butts and push something through for MM without taxing the piss out of it. But alas stupid is as stupid does.

If there’s anyone in Mississippi who votes an incumbent back into office you truly hate the state in which you live.

Anonymous said...

3:24 completely misses the main point. It's not so much about the short filing window, it's about how early in the game it is. If the primary is in August and you have to file by February 1st, fewer people will commit to running that early.

Running for office comes at a huge professional and personal risk. Forcing incumbent challengers to make that decision earlier rather than later discourages people from challenging incumbents.

Anonymous said...

Self preservation. First law of nature. First, second, and third law of politics. Trumps EVERYTHING else. It's the one thing ALL politicians can agree on whether Dem or Repub: Let's protect our interest. Really, I'm surprised they haven't done more to limit the competition. Kudos to our legislature.

Anonymous said...

It's almost as if this is the most pressing of our state's needs. You'd think at least they could be building welcome centers for all the industry headed here in response to our new flag.

Anonymous said...

This is supported by both parties, men, women, blacks, and whites. Amazing how all sides can get along when we are talking about a common interest of this diverse group: sustaining their time on the public tit while preventing "outsiders" from getting a nip at that tit.

Anonymous said...

4:47 - by "All Parties" I assume you mean "all political parties THROUGH their representatives in the legislature".

I don't believe it is supported by "all" of anything - political parties (democrats, republicans, libertarisns, anything - or by all people.

The only folks who like this bill are the incumbent legislators who put it together and tried to sneak it through, and their counterparts in other elected positions.

Over the past two or three decades, they have moved the filing deadlins back from summertime to this February 1 date, but kept the primary elections in August.

Congratulations, Mr. Speakah!! You are now riviling Buddy Newman in your quest for power, for you and "your members".

Anonymous said...

4:17, JT sounds pissed. And right.

Anonymous said...

I'm all for taxing the piss out of marijuana, medical and/or legal.

Gaul Pallo said...

You peeps is slower than slow. It's all about requiring the filing before the legislature gets all bogged down in meaningless shit instead of the people's bidness.

Assuming some folks might decide to run while watching the shit show at the capitol, in session, they ought to have that right. Nobody has any inherent right to know who plans to run against them.

Once again Speakah Gunn shoot his-self in honorable foot.


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