Should Republicans "redistrict" Congressman Bennie Thompson out of Congress? Tis a question dominating Mississippi political news right now so JJ is engaging in a little bit of political thunderdome. Should the Governor have cancelled the redistricting special session? What should be done about the Congressman? Redistricting rage dominates the political news in Mississippi right now so JJ is engaging in a little bit of political thunderdome. JJ invited State Auditor Shad White and former Hinds County GOP Chairman Pete Perry to offer their thoughts on the matter. Enjoy the pro and con below.
State Auditor Shad White
Mississippi should redistrict January 6th Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson out of his seat. He is the worst congressman in America and has been horrible for the people of the Mississippi Delta. If we want the Delta to improve, it needs better leadership.
For years, courts forced Mississippi to draw districts where a majority of the voters were a racial minority. Today that sort of requirement feeds racial tension in America. It divides us by race, not brings us together. It rests on a weird assumption that only white people can represent white people, and only black people can represent black people, or that all people of a race think the same way. These are offensive, backwards notions. The way to have a more colorblind society is to have colorblind rules for society.
The Supreme Court now agrees. In its new ruling in the Callais decision, the Court clearly ended the requirement for majority-minority districts. Other states around us are redrawing their congressional lines because of this. Mississippi has an opportunity to have four Republican districts, and we should take it.
Some people in the Mississippi Republican establishment have been hesitant to do this. In fact, at the time of this writing, I’m the only statewide elected official or member of Congress in Mississippi to call for redrawing the lines, to my knowledge. The establishment claims that, if we redraw the lines, we might accidentally create two Republican districts and two Democrat districts. But this is nonsense. If this were the case, the Mississippi Democrat Party would be arguing for redistricting. Instead, they are fighting it. That tells you everything you need to know. Moreover, anyone can use the free map-drawing software on the Internet to see there are many ways to create maps with four districts in Mississippi that Donald Trump would have won by more than 15 percentage points in the last election.
The real reason some in the establishment don’t want to redraw the lines is they want to protect some of their Republican buddies who are happy in their current seats. But we cannot let their comfort jeopardize a chance to help America. This is not some trivial political game. The people we send to Congress shape how safe our streets are, how high our taxes go, and how secure our border is. We must follow President Trump’s lead and redraw the lines to save our country.
Pete Perry
Governor Reeves, acting to stave off a scheduled hearing of Federal Judge
Sharon Aycock, issued a Call for the legislature to convene and consider
redistricting the Supreme Court Districts in compliance with Aycock’s 2025 order -
pending the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling that challenged federal courts’
authority under Article 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
SCOTUS found that Amendment 15 guarantees that the a citizens’ right to
vote “shall not be denied on account of race or color” and that intentional
discrimination is not allowed while establishing that the impact does not justify
the creation of majority-minority district. This clear - and proper - interpretation
of the Amendment negated a premise that has ruled redistricting actions since
the early 1980’s.
There immediately grew a push for Mississippi to follow our neighbors by
drawing a new map to “eliminate Bennie’s district,” or “get rid of our black
district.” There were demands for Reeves to expand his call and include the
creation of a new congressional district map.
While current and potential candidates were pushing to expand the call,
the Fifth Circuit dismissed Aycock’s ruling, eliminating the need to redraw the
Supreme Court districts resulting in Reeves - again showing leadership and his
understanding of our laws - cancelling the Call. Immediately, wanna-bes criticized
him for not following “Trump’s demands” and leaving Thompson for another
term.
Reeves was the adult in the room, not following those that were clamoring
to do the same as Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, and others by immediately
redrawing our congressional districts. He recognized that Mississippi is in a
different position than those states. Our election process had already begun.
Unlike them, our primary elections had been held with nominees selected. Those
other states had not.
IF Reeves had followed these demands, or if we had officials who chose not
to follow laws and processes, the entire election could have been in peril.
Negating the March 10 th elections would certainly have resulted in multiple
lawsuits which could not be resolved prior to the November election. And
practically there was not adequate time to allow for candidate qualifying,
campaigning, conducting party primaries, and nominee campaigning prior to the
November 3 rd election; much less the time required to prepare for and conduct
those elections.
But to those whose only interest was playing to the public, those factors
seem not to have entered their thoughts. Thankfully, Reeves chose to lead the
state rather than act in a manner to further personal interests or kowtow to a
populace that did not consider, or care, of the legal standards differentiating us
from other states.
While factors distinguish us from our neighbors are adequate to compare
proper leadership and political posturing, there is another consideration to the
suggested redistricting: the possible result and unintended consequences. But
that is a different discussion for a different time.
The concept and demands for the state to immediately redraw our
congressional lines to “eliminate Bennie’s district” ignores practical and legal
impediments. That ‘other states are doing it’ is no answer; each state has its own
election laws (thankfully, that truth still exists) and each state has its own status.
Candidates who claim what ‘they would do if they were in charge’ seem to
conveniently ignore at least one significant difference: the election had not begun
in the other states. In Mississippi, it had.
Election law is convoluted and attorneys who do not specialize in it may not
recognize all that is involved, possibly even Harvard-Law graduates. I readily
admit that I am not a lawyer, but I can read and sometimes that is all that is
needed to understand what is legal and possible. I’m glad that Governor Reeves -
also not an attorney - considered the legal and practical restraints when he was
making these proper, although not universally popular, decisions.
16 comments:
Bennie is as sorry as they come for sure. But he has zero power. There are several incompetent numb nut republicans that I would rather see retired by the electorate.
“Should Republicans "redistrict" Congressman Bennie Thompson out of Congress?” Absolutely!
Every non-leftist, non-totalitarian should take seriously Democrat Purposeful Crime Party House Minority Leader (Walmart Obama) Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) statement “We are in an era of maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time” while describing his party’s efforts to draw state districts favoring Democrats.
But, we damned sure do not want to create 2 purple districts, so who do we believe?
Appears to me Mr. Perry, who has hoped for years that Thompson would be defeated...is now feeling a tinge of white-guilt. Does he now see Thompson as a cowering underdog who needs pity, support and prayers? Seems so.
To fall back on the notion that 'we can't do this since our voting process has already begun' is a coward's approach. Redrawing Thompson out of a job would be worth whatever effort it takes to legally move forward.
It's interesting how many of those wanting to be Bennie's pall-bearers now have cold feet, want to back off the opportunity and, as usual, want to punt the problem on down the road.
I'm sure Mr. Perry knows who will again become Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security should the democrats take the House in November. Not acting now to redraw Congressional Districts will grease the wheels for Thompson to assume that position.
Come November, leaving the districts as they are, will assure Thompson at least two more years in the House.
"Now is the time for all good men..."
This explains everything that you need to know about Bennie and the radical left wing of his party. https://youtube.com/shorts/MfT4-ljoUGE?si=yfHyhPc0ieMheVzQ
Speaking of 'numb nuts', that moniker damned sure describes whoever thinks Thompson has 'zero power'. To think he is powerless is absurd. He has nine lives and has only used six of them. If he takes back control of Homeland Security Committee next November, tell us again that he has no power.
And when Democrats take back the house by ONE member, it will be because Mississippi ran scared of Bennie Thompson.
Two purple districts won't be created. Period. Shad is correct to point out if that was remotely a possibility the Democrats would be eager to throw caution to the wind right now and support an immediate redraw -- so they could immediatelyt run on open borders, trans boys in girls sports, and the other far, far left policies their national party has embraced.
The Law of Unintended Consequences is a soundbite the Mississippi establishment Republicans like Pete employ to maintain their control grips on the party machinery. It is all about FUD and a tool to safe harbor the Democrats like Delbert Hosemann who infest the Mississippi GOP.
Pete also fails to mention that our stupid early qualifying deadlines and primaries are 100% about incumbency protection and nothing else. Mississippi Congressional Republicans fear primary challenges far more than they fear general elections because it gets exposed in primaries how often they are voting back with the Democrats back in DC. Gregg Harper's record of voting with Pelosi, for example, was scandalous.
But, but, but where Reeves is correct is Mississippi's process is well underway and to try and redraw now would only invite litigation that the state and those clamoring to redraw will likely lose.
Pete is a great and knowledgeable guy, but he's part of the weak Republican party status quo that's stood by and allowed the Democrat party to catapult this nation towards communism since the mid 90s by sticking to some set of principles the other side doesn't abide by. It's time for those like him to step aside and let the younger fighters like Shad White lead the fight against the left to force the left back towards the center left.
Pete has criticized the early qualifying deadline .
I’m not a Bennie fan. But it is to Mississippi’s benefit to have a Democrat in Congress to push the state’s interest to the executive branch when there is a Democratic president, assuming the Democrats ever get their act together enough to win again at some point in the future. I’d say the same thing if the roles of the parties in the state were reversed.
This might be more important now and in the future than in the past when there were more moderates, bipartisanship and deal making in government. I don’t see any benefit in having 1 more Republican congressman from the state unless it turned out to be a star. And let’s face it, we don’t have any stars there compared to the likes of Eastland, Stennis, Lott, Thad and Sonny Montgomery.
Shad what does this have to do with J6, quit kissing Trumps ass and go for what you do for Mississippian's! Now Shad I done told you!
PS
Trump ain’t gonna be here for ever! Get some balls of your own Shad!
"For years, courts forced Mississippi to draw districts where a majority of the voters were a racial minority."
-Shad White
1. Only one of four districts in Mississippi is majority-black, so this are no such "districts."
2. Did those courts also "force" the other three districts to be at least 60% white?
3. Should Mississippi just throw out the primary results, since they have already taken place? I think that actually might be illegal.
Bennie T is not my cuppa. He's a self serving racist thug and proved it in the J6 hearings. What long term positive improvement has he produced for MS, other than possibly encourage the DOJ/FBI to bust Lil Choke and Jody Owens?
The reasons given by those opposed to redistricting only validate why the Supreme Court ruled they way they did. And Bennie's supporters also conveniently forget that he has served in a re-drawn district. The court's ruling says that should never have been done, so Bennie should simply thank Christmas for coming and stop trying to flip race cards in all directions.
I doubt most of those negatively commenting have ever met Bennie Thompson. I served on a committee with him. He did his due diligence by researching the options and had impeccable manners and was always calm and pleasant. He's also very smart.
In truth, both political parties have their conscientious, hard workers trying to do the best for those they represent and their arrogant jerks who only represent their own interests.
I would remind you that the first Republican leaders in this State were gentleman and that's why Bill Buckley was their friend.
Being a loud, ill mannered jerk isn't strength, it's low class.
Reporter- "Mr Thompson, will we EVER Vote this flag away?"
Thompson- Oh no, you'll NEVER VOTE the flag away, you'll have to LEGISLATE the flag away".
What goes around comes around, eh Bennie?
Shad, in an effort to be mini-Trump, is actually anti-democracy. The 2nd Congressional District voted for Bennie. He's their choice. He has no right to attempt to remove the man because he doesn't like him. Move there and run, Shad.
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