Jackson Jambalaya

Here are Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves' prepared remarks for his inaugural speech yesterday:


Thank you, Thank you! What a great day in Mississippi. Congratulations to Delbert Hosemann, Jim Hood, Stacey Pickering, Lynn Fitch, Cindy Hyde-Smith and Mike Chaney who took their oaths alongside me here today.

Voters placed their confidence in everyone elected in this chamber to keep Mississippi on a path to a brighter future. They want better-paying jobs, better schools and a safe place to raise their children. Speaking of children, I’d be remiss if I did not mention my family who is here with me today. During my first campaign for State Treasurer I said that my wife Elee was my biggest asset, but my friends kept telling me that she was my ONLY asset. Our family has grown since then. Many of you know my girls Tyler and Emma and we have another little girl on the way. It’s my hope that the work we do together in this building will make their future and the future for all Mississippi kids brighter than ever.

And I believe we can accomplish that. We need to continue to improve the climate for companies to bring highly-skilled jobs to Mississippi – keeping taxes low and providing the best in workforce training opportunities. We need to look at innovative ways to provide quality education through our public schools, community colleges and universities. And we need to ensure our law enforcement has the tools needed to keep our families safe.

We can move toward these goals, but it will not be easy. Our state’s economy – like the nation’s – is struggling. Revenues are coming in at slightly higher-than-expected levels, but that could change over the course of the next six months. Most economists, including our state economist, believe revenues will continue to be sluggish and won't return to pre-recession levels until FY 2014 or 2015. Caution should be the standard as we design a budget for the next fiscal year.

We will need to budget conservatively and look for more ways to save money. We should pass legislation requiring agency heads to find more efficiencies in government. And that is why I created a new committee in the Senate named Accountability, Efficiency, and Transparency – whose charge will be to help accomplish this. By right-sizing government and holding down the state’s debt, we can make Mississippi a more attractive place to do business. In all things we do we should remember that government does not create jobs, instead we should strive to provide an environment that encourages the private sector to invest capital and create jobs.

We have seen great success in economic development over the past eight years. Mississippians are making solar panels in Senatobia and Hattiesburg. They’re making jet engines in Batesville and defense systems in Columbus and on the Gulf Coast. And, of course, Mississippians are now making cars in Canton AND Blue Springs.

But we cannot let these successes lull us into a false sense of confidence. Our neighboring states have taken notice of our accomplishments, and they are positioning themselves to be more competitive and to attract the higher paying and highly skilled jobs that we want here.

We cannot lose our intensity and focus on economic development. A big part of that is workforce training. We have to keep upgrading the skills of our workforce. A well-trained workforce is the key to recruiting better jobs for Mississippi. And with good jobs, we can keep our children at home to raise their families.

Like many of you, Elee and I grew up in small Mississippi towns … went to a Mississippi college … graduated and got great Mississippi jobs … got married and started raising Mississippi kids. Most Mississippians want to do just that. But not all of them have that option. Our job is to change that.

Everyone in this Chamber knows someone who moved to Texas or Georgia or Florida or somewhere else to get a better career. We need to reverse that trend. Too many Mississippi teens do not see college as part of their future, and we need to change that mindset.

We will start by improving the education attainment level of our students. We have to make sure that we’re providing access to a quality education for all of our people. Black, white, rich and poor. We have to improve the early education curriculum to get children off to the best start possible. We have to put college within reach of every child who needs it.

We all want these things to happen for every citizen in Mississippi. So, whether you serve in the Senate or the House … whether you are from the Hills or the Delta, the Pine Belt or the Coast, working together we can accomplish our goals.

I look forward to working with Governor-elect Bryant, Speaker Gunn and each of you to keep Mississippi on that path to that brighter future. God bless you and may God bless the State of Mississippi.

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Updated with Hewes response.

Nothing like a good ole food fight a couple of days before a primary. The Reeves campaign sent a mailer concerning one of Mr. Hewes' bills to several Republican areas such as Clinton and Madison. The Hewes camp accused the Reeves tribe of race-baiting. WLBT picked up on the story:

and the Clarion-Ledger reported:

"Republican lieutenant governor candidate Billy Hewes is crying foul over a mail-out from rival Tate Reeves' camp that claims Hewes wants to merge certain school districts.

With four days left before the election, the mail-out is the latest point of contention in what has become the most bitter race of the primary election season.

Voters in areas with high-performing predominantly white school districts this week received mailings that imply Hewes wants to merge those districts with predominantly black schools."

The Hewes campaign says that is untrue and wants an apology.

"This is race-baiting, scare tactics - plain and simple," said Hewes spokesman Keith Plunkett said Friday."


The bill is SB# 2024. The 128-page bill states on the first few pages:

SECTION 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Mississippi School District Reorganization Act of 2011."
SECTION 2. (1) From and after July 1, 2014, there shall be no more than eighty-one (81) public school districts in the State of Mississippi. Each county in the State of Mississippi shall constitute a school district and shall be known as the school district of ____________ County, Mississippi. Each county school district shall constitute a unit for the control, organization and administration of schools. All the other type of school districts, whether they be consolidated or line consolidated districts, municipal separate districts or special municipal separate districts, shall cease to exist on June 30, 2014. All county school districts created or reconstituted according to the provisions of this act shall have the same prerogatives, powers, duties and privileges as provided in this act. On June 30, 2014, every board of trustees of every municipal separate, special municipal separate, consolidated or line consolidated school district or agricultural high school shall cease to exist; and the newly created or reconstituted county school districts in this state shall be governed by the county boards of education selected as provided for by law. On June 30, 2014, every county superintendent of education and every superintendent of every municipal separate, special municipal separate, consolidated or line consolidated school district or agricultural high school shall cease to exist; and the newly created or reconstituted school districts in this state shall be administered by the superintendents selected as provided for in this act.

The bill provides for a school board made up of one member from each Supervisor District. Any county with a population less than 3,000 is combined with an adjacent county school district (Not a bad idea.).

Keith Plunkett, Communications Director for the Hewes campaign, sent this email to JJ:

"Senator Hewes has introduced hundreds of bills. SB 2024 is a foundational bill intended to begin the discussion on education reforms. This is a common occurrence in the legislature and is intended to get ideas across and bring people to the table to talk about reforms. Few bills make it out of committee as introduced. This is one of those bills. If our opponent had any experience or understanding of how legislation is created and how consensus is built he would know this. He is taking a simplistic approach to campaigning because he has no in depth experience of the issues to discuss.

Senator Hewes DOES NOT support the consolidation of all school districts under one county administration. He supports consolidating administrative functions to save money. It is clearly stated in the Game Plan for Mississippi, and no amount of political gotcha changes that fact."


I've read most of the bill and don't see a section where it states just administrative or purchasing functions are combined. I do not think Senator Hewes set out to destroy Clinton public schools or combine them with Jackson. I think its more a case of what is usually the case in the legislature: a piece of poorly drafted legislation. I spoke to Mr. Plunkett, who said the bill was a starting point and it was a way to get the attention of teachers and school boards who are resistent to any consolidation in any form. I've seen enough legislative sausage made to know what he is talking about and it makes sense. However, the Senator did write the bill, the language is there, and the Reeves campaign did jump on it and used it to their advantage.

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Here is a link to the WAPT-sponsored "debate" last night between Billy Hewes and Tate Reeves. Video of debate. I thought both candidates did well. Both made their points, weren't afraid to go after each other- and weren't afraid to defend themselves as well. I'm going to watch it again before I declare a winner. Feel free to treat this post as an open thread for this race.

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WLBT had an online poll asking who readers to vote for Billy Hewes or Tate Reeves.

Just one problem. The news broadcast showed the following results:

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Nothing like a food fight between two candidates for Lieutenant Governor. Here are the direct mail pieces sent out recently by the Reeves and Hewes campaigns. Enjoy.

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I ranked the campaign videos according to hits on June 15, 2011 on Youtube. I tried to include professionally produced commercials, not Youtube videos of campaign speeches, appearances, debates, and the like. Very interesting. Obviously the two ads released at the beginning of the year had the most hits. Max Phillips is a surprise as it was released Monday and already is in the fourth spot. I thought the Dick Hall ad would have done better but one thing I noticed was ads that are "delisted" on Youtube (Youtube now offers an option where the provider can remove it from the search engine) did not fare as well as those that were.

Length of the video did not seem to affect the number of views as several videos more than a minute long are at the top of the list. Feel free to comment as I'm no expert on this subject.

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