The home team usually wins in the Ole Miss-Mississippi State basketball series, but in 2019, Ole’ Miss guard, Breein Tyree (4), shown here driving past Mississippi State guard, Nick Weatherspoon (0), helped Ole Miss to an 81-77 victory at Starkville. Credit: Kevin Langley/CSM via ZUMA Wire) (Cal Sport Media via AP Images)
The Ole Miss-Mississippi State basketball rivalry, 110 years old this month, will be renewed tonight at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville.
If history tells us anything, it is that the home team has a massive advantage. You could look it up.
Rick Cleveland
In fact, I did. The 96 miles that separate Oxford and Starkville make a huge difference.
When Ole Miss plays in Starkville, State wins 78% of the time. When State plays at Oxford, Ole Miss wins 65% of the time. Overall, State leads the series, having won 149 of the 269 previous meetings.
Ole Miss won this year’s first meeting, 86-82, on Jan. 30 at Oxford.
But the home team advantage dates all the way back to 1914.
On Feb. 26, 1914, the two teams played for the first time at Starkville. If the final score is any indication, Ole Miss played as if the university boys had never seen a basketball before.
State won 68-15. They played again the next night, again at Starkville. It was even worse. State won 84-18. It was as if Ole Miss had to shoot at a moving basket.
Interestingly, both teams traveled from Starkville to Oxford the next day to play for a third consecutive day. The Jackson Daily News published a report in its Jan. 28, 1914, edition. After winning by an average of of about 60 points a game the two previous nights, State won by a tiny 12-10 margin at Oxford.
The Daily News recap began this way: “Twelve to ten, nobody killed or seriously hurt, and all the players able to join the rah, rah, rah, rah, at the final sound of the referee’s whistle, tells the tale of the final game between Ole Miss and A & M for the state championship giving the Aggies the seat of honor…”
Ole Miss was much more competitive at Oxford. The score was tied 4-4 at halftime and Ole Miss took an 8-4 lead in the second half “which looked like it would be the final score for the longest time,” the Daily News reported.
The Aggies rallied for a 10-8 lead but then Frank Smythe of Ole Miss “threw in a goal from a difficult angle” to tie the score. State won it on a basket by Clark. The winning basket did not even earn Clark a first name in the next day’s newspaper.
Turns out, it wasn’t the last game of the season. They played again the next night. State won again 20-8 for a four-game season sweep.
The A & M Aggies would go on to win the first nine games of the series. Ole Miss did not win until Feb. 27, 1917, when the Oxford boys prevailed 29-15.
State dominated the early years of the series, winning 16 of the first 18 times the two played. Interestingly enough, in 1919, future Mississippi State athletic director Dudy Noble was the head coach at Ole Miss. The two teams played three times and State won all three, which might have been part of the reason why Noble years later told a sports writer, “I know what hell is like. I once coached at Ole Miss.”
Things have been much more competitive in recent years. Since 2008, the two are tied with 16 victories each.
Ole Miss-Mississippi State games always carry special import. Tonight’s could prove especially important. Both teams are on the proverbial NCAA Tournament bubble, and both need to pad their postseason resume.
ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi – for my money, the best in the business – has Mississippi State in the tournament as a 10-seed. The Bulldogs can ill afford any slip-ups. Neither can Ole Miss, which Lunardi has as the very last team in the field.
State (17-8) has a No. 26 RPI, two spots ahead of Ole Miss (19-6). The two teams are tied for seventh place in the SEC standings with 6-6 records.
State is a 6.5-point favorite tonight, which figures. Home court advantage, don’t you know?
Legislative leaders on Tuesday pushed back on Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ social media post that criticized state lawmakers for pressing ahead with legislation that would expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor — a policy the governor has long opposed.
“Some in the MS State Capitol still want Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion,” Reeves wrote. “Most — but not all — are Democrats.”
As part of his post, Reeves attached a picture of a 2023 social media post from former Republican President Donald Trump, saying “Obamacare Sucks!!!”
Republican leaders in the House and Senate on Tuesday were undeterred by Reeves’ remarks and said they are still considering legislation to expand Medicaid coverage to improve some of the state’s dire health outcomes and address the high percentage of Mississippians who remain uninsured.
House Speaker Jason White, R-West, told Mississippi Today that the governor is entitled to his opinion on Medicaid policy, but he believes the GOP-controlled House will pass a bill this session that expands health insurance to more citizens.
“My position’s been pretty clear on the fact that we were going to explore and look at Medicaid as it affects hard-working, low-income Mississippians,” White said. “My ideas and thoughts about that haven’t changed. He’s the duly elected governor and he’s certainly entitled to his opinions on that matter. I don’t hold any of those against him. We just maybe here in the House have a different view of it.”
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the leader of the Senate, similarly said that state leaders must do something at the Capitol to try and improve the state’s dismal labor participation rate, one of the lowest in the nation.
“Even a casual review of the health stats in Mississippi require us to consider all options to reach this goal,” Hosemann said on Tuesday.
Conservative lawmakers in both chambers have authored legislation to expand Medicaid coverage, though they aren’t yet available on the Legislature’s website and are several steps away from becoming law.
White personally introduced a measure to expand Medicaid coverage to additional people, a strong signal that the proposal is a major priority for the House speaker.
House Medicaid Chair Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, also conducted a committee hearing on Tuesday afternoon where national experts said Medicaid expansion would be a boon for the state’s economy and create more jobs.
McGee, after the meeting, did not substantively comment on Reeves’ remarks but made it clear that she plans to continue pushing legislation through the Capitol that will insure poor Mississippians.
“I believe that we have strong support in the House for finding health insurance solutions for our low-income workers and we can do it in a very positive, economically beneficial way,” McGee said.
In the Senate, Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, is expected to file legislation that expands Medicaid eligibility to additional people.
“I think it’s a misclassification to call it Obamacare Medicaid expansion,” Blackwell said in response to Reeves’ post. “I think it would be judicious to reserve comment after the bill’s language has been presented. Our goal is to provide health care for those who are working.”
The tension between the Republican leaders has crescendoed this week, but Reeves will appear alongside White and Hosemann on Monday night when the governor will deliver his annual State of the State address to outline his legislative priorities.
The speech is a chance for legislative leaders to formally hear an outline of the governor’s policy proposals — an occasion that has recently become an amicable affair because all of the state’s leaders belong to the same political party.
But the Reeves tweet on Tuesday about Medicaid policy was the opening salvo of the 2024 session, and the tension is expected to intensify throughout the year. The political stakes are high for both Reeves and the Capitol’s two leaders.
If Reeves successfully thwarts the Legislature’s attempt to pass a Medicaid expansion proposal, it would significantly undermine the historically powerful role of the lieutenant governor and House speaker in Mississippi politics.
And if White and Hosemann can form a large coalition of lawmakers to override a governor’s objections, it would send a strong signal that Reeves, in his final term of office, will not hold an iron grip on the state’s legislators.
With their sneakers planted firmly on the NCAA Basketball Tournament bubble, the Ole Miss Rebels and Mississippi State Bulldogs meet Wednesday night for Round 2 of Egg Bowl basketball. The game is always important, but this one really matters to each team’s post-season hopes. Also, the high school basketball championship tournament heats up and college baseball is officially underway.
Experts told a panel of lawmakers Tuesday that expanding Mississippi Medicaid would bring a large influx of federal dollars — costing the state nothing for the first two years and little in the years after.
In providing health coverage to poor, working uninsured Mississippians, it would also boost the economy, generate thousands of jobs and help struggling hospitals.
It’s nothing that experts, health providers and economists haven’t been saying for years — but it’s the first time in recent years House Republicans have offered them a platform to speak.
The House Medicaid Committee heard from speakers from the Hilltop Institute, a nonpartisan research group that partnered with the Center for Mississippi Health Policy on several Medicaid economics reports.
“I thought it was an excellent presentation by the Hilltop Institute … We are seeking information right now to make the best policy decisions that we can,” Medicaid Chairwoman Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, said.
The hearing marks a sea change for the Mississippi Legislature.
Republican legislative leaders are for the first time in a decade at least considering Medicaid expansion. Mississippi remains one of only 10 states not to expand the federal-state program to cover hundreds of thousands of Mississippians who cannot afford private insurance. The issue has been a political third rail for Republicans in Mississippi. GOP state leaders, including former House Speaker Philip Gunn, blocked even serious discussion or hearings on the issue in recent years.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has remained steadfast in opposition to what he calls “Obamacare” and “Welfare” even as polls show a wide majority of people in Mississippi support expansion.
Reeves on Tuesday in a social media post criticized Republican lawmakers for considering the program, and said “for those wondering how I feel, I offer you the words of President Trump” — with a screenshot of a Trump post saying “Obamacare Sucks!!!”.
New Republican House Speaker Jason White – who replaced Gunn this year – has been outspoken about the state’s health care crisis and has authored a soon to be made public expansion bill. Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said the Senate has drafted its own Medicaid expansion plan, which would likely also include people paying premiums through a private care option and a work requirement.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Data scientist Morgan Henderson outlined the results of a 2021 study on the economic effects of a hypothetical expansion program in Mississippi. He covered three sets of impact: cost to the state, impact on the state economy, and impact on state hospitals.
The study estimated:
There would be about 210,000 new enrollees from expansion.
Of these, 95% are expected to be newly eligible and not currently insured – despite critics predicting that expansion would incentivize people to get off private insurance and move to Medicaid.
The first two years of adopting the program would cost the state nothing.
The third year would cost the state roughly $3 million.
For state- and locally-owned hospitals, which make up about 40% of Mississippi hospitals, there would be a reduction in uncompensated care costs by about 60% each year.
Expansion would stimulate the economy, putting about $1.2 billion into circulation that the state would not otherwise see.
Expansion would create an additional 11,000 new jobs.
Expansion would improve hospital aggregate performance by up to 2.4%
The study was based on a traditional expansion model, as opposed to one including a private care option – first modeled in Arkansas and which has gained traction as conservative lawmakers consider expanding Medicaid in several Southern states.
House Democrats, in the minority, recently unveiled an expansion proposal, which includes a private insurance option for people making up to double the federal poverty level. It’s often touted as a more pragmatic approach, since it involves more people partially paying premiums in a tiered system, based on income.
The House Republican bill authored by White, and the Senate expansion bill both had yet to be assigned to committee or publicly posted late Tuesday, but leaders in both chambers said they were filed before a Monday night deadline.
House leaders filed a bill Tuesday that would ditch the objective formula that has for decades determined the funding level for Mississippi’s public schools and instead leave it to lawmakers to annually determine how much to give schools.
The bill, which would scrap the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), is sponsored by House Education Chair Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, and is supported by first-year House Speaker Jason White.
Roberson on Tuesday did not rule out the possibility that the House leadership’s final version could include an objective funding formula to determine what is known as the base student cost.
The current MAEP, which Roberson and other members of the House leadership are trying to rewrite, uses a formula to ascertain the base student cost to provide an adequate education for each child and provides that amount of money for each student. Local school districts are required to pay a portion of that base student cost — no more than 27%. MAEP provides more state funding for poor districts than for more affluent districts.
First-year House Speaker Jason White, R-West, announced earlier this week on the SuperTalk radio network his plans to “scrap” MAEP and pass out of the House a new plan in about two weeks, but he offered few other details. If the White-Roberson plan passes the House, it would go to the Senate, where leaders have introduced legislation to “fix” but not totally replace MAEP.
The House rewrite bill, House Bill 1453, was posted on the legislative website on Tuesday, but was later removed.
While Roberson did not rule out the possibility of an objective formula being added to the bill, he said, “I would contend the current formula is not objective.” Even though MAEP was passed in 1997 with bipartisan support, some Republicans have been longtime critics, arguing the state could not afford it and that the program was too complex.
Roberson said the rewrite would direct more money than the base student cost to students based on certain criteria, such as for special education needs or for English learners. But as the bill is currently written, the Legislature would determine what the base student cost is. Some public education advocates fear legislators would reduce the base student cost in future years so that they could fund other pet projects or provide tax cuts.
Roberson said he hopes to provide an additional $100 million to $150 million to public education as part of the rewrite. MAEP is underfunded $174 million for the current fiscal year and has been underfunded by $3.52 billion since 2008.
In the 2010s, then-House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves tried to rewrite MAEP and to remove the objective formula. That effort was killed in a bipartisan effort in the Senate in 2018.
The current effort by new Speaker White is the first attempt since 2018 to completely rewrite the formula.
Last year the Senate, led by Education Committee Chair Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, tried to make significant changes to MAEP and to fully fund it. The Senate’s proposed changes included requiring wealthy school districts to contribute more to the formula and limiting the possible year-over-year growth in the formula. Those proposed changes and full funding were rejected by House leaders.
DeBar has filed a bill again this session to try to enact those same changes.
Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Pickens, introduces legislation every year to increase how much in state funding MAEP would allocate to the districts for at-risk students. At-risk students would include those living in poverty. But considering that MAEP has been fully funded only twice since it was enacted in 2003, there has not been much appetite among state leaders to increase the money going to MAEP by increasing the amount of money at-risk students are supposed to receive. Under current law, local school districts are supposed to receive an extra 5% for each at-risk student.
Clark said he has not yet seen the proposed MAEP rewrite bill, but said an objective formula is important. He called the objective formula “the heart and soul of MAEP” and without it feared how poorer districts could be impacted in later years.
The Legislature has overwhelmingly passed a bill to regulate how insurance companies decide which prescription drugs and medical procedures to cover for a consumer — a process called prior authorization.
The Senate passed the proposal unanimously earlier this month, but the House had amended the Senate bill and sent it back. The Senate on Tuesday agreed to the House’s changes.
The proposal now heads to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who vetoed a similar measure last year, for consideration.
“The bill that we have will be a great improvement for the process,” Senate Insurance Committee Chairman Walter Michel said. “It’s great for the medical community, it’s great for the patient, and it’s an improvement for the insurance companies as well because they have a defined timetable to provide the prior authorization.”
Prior authorization is when physicians have to seek approval from an insurance company before the company will cover a prescribed procedure, service or medication that is not an emergency.
If an insurance organization denies a prior authorization claim, a consumer could be forced to pay for a prescription or medical procedure out of pocket.
Insurance companies typically believe prior authorization helps ensure doctors provide only medically necessary services. Doctors argue the process is typically handled by clerical insurance staffers ill-equipped to understand medical procedures.
The bipartisan proposal would require insurance companies to create a “portal” or website by January 2025 for doctors to submit prior authorization applications.
For emergency services such as treating a stroke, prior authorization is not required under the new measure. For urgent services or procedures that can help treat someone in intense pain, insurance companies have 48 hours to process requests. For non-urgent services, insurance companies have seven days to process requests.
The governor vetoed a similar measure last year, but a Reeves spokesperson previously told Mississippi Today that the governor’s office has worked with “necessary stakeholders” to address some of his concerns in last year’s version of the bill.
“We made changes mainly to hopefully find something that the governor can agree with and go on and sign into law,” House Public Health Chairman Sam Creekmore IV said. “I think they were reasonable changes, and I hope it will make for a more efficient prior authorization process going forward.”
Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney’s office will be responsible for enforcing the plan, and Michel told reporters on Tuesday that he intends to ask legislative leaders to give more money to Chaney’s office to effectively enforce the program.
First-year House Speaker Jason White said his intention this year is to “scrap” and “rewrite” the formula that funds Mississippi’s public schools.
The speaker’s blunt statement about the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which has been in place since 1997, signals the continuation of a decades-long debate that has gripped the state’s lawmakers for decades.
“We are going to pass that probably in the next two weeks in the House,” White told SuperTalk on Monday of a House plan to rewrite the funding formula.
White did not say in the interview whether the House’s proposed rewrite will include an objective formula to determine the amount of money needed for a school district to provide an adequate education — a point of consternation and legislative debate over the years.
In the 2010s, White was among the House Republicans who tried to rewrite MAEP to remove any objective funding formula. Instead, the legislative leadership wanted lawmakers to determine the amount of money local school districts needed each year.
White has long said MAEP is too complicated. But the concept behind MAEP is simple: Through an objective formula, a base student cost for schools is developed. The state provides school districts with a certain percentage of that base student cost for each student enrolled. The state provides more of the base student cost for poorer districts and less for more affluent districts.
People who supported the rewrite have said the state cannot afford to fund MAEP, which has been underfunded by $3.52 billion since 2008. For the current fiscal year, fully funding MAEP would have required an additional $175 million — a seemingly attainable goal considering the state’s record multi-billion dollar revenue surplus and the $525 million tax cut lawmakers passed last year.
The most recent effort to rewrite MAEP died a dramatic death in the Senate in the 2018 session. Since then, there has been no effort to rewrite the formula.
Last session, however, the Senate passed a proposal to make changes to the formula, including requiring wealthy school districts to contribute more to the formula and limiting the possible year-over-year growth in the formula. Along with those changes, the Senate passed legislation to fully fund the formula for the first time since 2007.
The House leadership, under former Speaker Philip Gunn and then-Pro Tem Jason White, rejected that effort. Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, has again filed legislation this year to try to make similar changes to “fix” the formula.
The House leadership this year has presumably filed a bill to rewrite the formula. That bill is expected to be publicly accessible as early as Tuesday. It is not clear whether the bill will detail the changes being proposed by White and other House leaders or just include the relevant legal code sections, allowing House leaders to unveil the specifics later in the session.
White’s radio interviewer on Monday opined that he did not know if MAEP is good for children, but pointed out that it is good for Democrats because they used it to lambaste Republicans for not fully funding education.
White said the formula was difficult to fully fund because it increased by a significant amount each year. But studies have shown that in most years the increase in the formula would be minimal after full funding was achieved.
The formula has been fully funded only twice since 2003 even though every governor since then — Haley Barbour, Phil Bryant and Tate Reeves — have committed to full funding at some point during their political tenure.
Members of the Rankin County “Goon Squad” who inflicted decades of terror on residents would be among those listed in a public database of law enforcement misconduct, under proposed legislation.
It’s one of over 300 bills relating to the criminal justice system that have been filed during the 2024 session of the Mississippi Legislature, which could affect policing, courts, jails, prisons, post-incarceration and more.
House Bill 828 by Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, called the “Trust in Law Enforcement Act,” would require the Department of Public Safety to create and maintain a database of officer misconduct incidents and publish it online by Jan. 1, 2025.
That database must include information about an officer’s conduct and performance including:
Revocation of law enforcement certification by the Board on Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training and the basis of the revocation
Termination by a law enforcement employer, unless the termination is overturned or reversed by appeal. A notation must be placed by their name during the appeal process
Resignation or retirement while under investigation by the employing law enforcement agency, a district attorney or the attorney general’s office for an incident that could result in the officer being included in the online database
Resignation or retirement following an incidents that, within six months, leads to the opening of an investigation that could result in placement in the database
Being the subject of a criminal investigation for a crime that could result in certification revocation or suspension or filed criminal charges. The investigating agency would need to notify the Office of Standards and Training about any investigation or charges as soon as practicable.
Whether an officer knowingly made an untruthful statement about a material fact or knowingly omitted a fact on an official criminal justice record, while testifying under oath or during an internal affairs or administrative investigation
Three or more failures to follow educational and training requirements by the Board on Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training or failure to complete continuing education within a consecutive 10-year period
Multiple House members are listed as co-authors of the bill: Reps. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus; Cheik Taylor, D-Starkville; Rickey Thompson, D-Shannon; Bo Brown, D-Jackson; Robert Sanders, D-Cleveland; Jeffrey Hulum III, D-Gulfport; Oscar Denton, D-Vicksburg; Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez; Keith Jackson, D-Preston; and Fabian Nelson, D-Byram.
The bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B and Appropriations A committees.
Here is a look at some of the other criminal justice bills making their way through the legislative process.
Policing
House Bill 301 by Rep. Ronnie Crudup Jr., D-Jackson, would require police officers and sheriffs to have a less-lethal force option available to use while on duty.
Examples of these options include but are not limited to stun guns, batons and pepper spray.
Municipalities that employ the officers and counties that employ the sheriff and deputies would pay for the less-lethal force option through approved budgets for the police department and sheriff’s office.
The bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B Committee.
House Bill 61 by Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, would require cities and counties to provide body-worn cameras to police officers and deputy sheriffs.
Officers and sheriffs deputies would also be required to wear a body-worn camera while on patrol, or be faced with a misdemeanor with a maximum of six months in jail and a fine up to $1,000.
The bill has been referred to the Municipalities and County Affairs committees.
Domestic violence
House Bill 842 by Rep. Cedric Burnett, D-Tunica, would establish a domestic violence fatality review team within the State Medical Examiner’s Office.
The multi-agency and multidisciplinary team would review domestic violence-related deaths and suicides to identify potential challenges or breakdowns in interventions, safety barriers and gaps in community services, according to the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which supports the bill. The team can help consider alternate or more effective responses to prevent future fatalities.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to the stark reality that domestic violence is a pervasive issue in our communities. It shatters lives, breaks families, and all too often, results in tragic consequences,” MCADV Executive Director LaVerne Jackson said in a Feb. 11 statement. “The creation of such a board is not just about acknowledging the gravity of the issue but taking concrete steps towards a safer and more secure community for everyone.
The bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B Committee.
House Bill 435 by Rep. John Hines Sr., D-Greenville, would allow courts to establish domestic abuse court programs that act similarly to existing intervention courts for drugs and mental health.
Hines has been filing legislation to establish domestic abuse courts since as early as 2013. Last year, the bill passed the House and went to the Senate’s Judiciary B and Appropriations committees where it died – the furthest Hines’ domestic abuse courts bill has advanced to date.
“In order to fix your problem, you have to be willing to admit that there is a problem. And nobody in the state wanted to admit there was a problem with domestic violence,” Hines has told Mississippi Today. “If you kill (the bill), we don’t have to talk about that.”
The bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B and Appropriations A committees.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s reluctance to investigate or prosecute campaign finance violations last year prompted other state leaders to call for reform and more enforcement.
Now Fitch is calling for — wait for it — campaign finance reform and more enforcement. This appears to be at least in part political damage control, trying to get out front in an area where she’s drawn slings and arrows.
Fitch, whose own campaign is largely funded by out-of-state special interests, in a brief media tour with conservative media outlets said she wants to put a halt to “out of state influencers” with deep pockets meddling in Mississippi elections.
But oddly, in announcing this crusade, Fitch offered an open call to out-of-state influencers to dump unlimited amounts of money into Mississippi elections.
Fitch, in her press release announcing her call for reform, said — contrary to more than 30 years of legal interpretation and practice — there is no limit to the amount of money out-of-state corporations can donate to a Mississippi candidate. She even put it in italics, for emphasis on her attempted nullification of one of the few stringent campaign donation rules Mississippi has.
This goes against at least 30 years of legal interpretation and practice. Mississippi candidates and campaigns, bless their hearts, have operated under the assumption that out-of-state corporations face the same $1,000 a year donation limit as in-state corporations.
In its written campaign finance guide for Mississippi candidates, the secretary of state’s office for decades has advised candidates: “Corporations, incorporated companies, and incorporated associations are prohibited from contributing more than $1,000 per calendar year, directly or indirectly, to a political party, candidate for office or political committee.” The current 2024 guide for candidates includes this same language that does not make a distinction between out-of-state and in-state corporations.
Fitch’s office did not answer questions about her new interpretation that such limits don’t apply to out-of-state corporations. It would appear that only months ago — on Aug. 4, 2023 — Fitch herself appeared to believe that limit applied. She announced, after months of inaction on major campaign finance complaints, that her office was investigating whether a PAC run by lieutenant governor candidate Chris McDaniel’s campaign treasurer tried “exceeding corporate contribution limits” by shuffling out-of-state money through PACs.
But now, Fitch contends out-of-state corporations do not face the state’s $1,000 limit law. This is likely based on the wording of that law, which says, “It shall be unlawful for any corporation … organized under the laws of this state” to exceed $1,000 a year in donations to a candidate. But that law also says this applies to any corporation “doing business in this state.” This language, similar to corporate law and rules elsewhere in Mississippi regulations and those of other states, has been generously interpreted. Doing business in this state can mean many things, including making a donation to a candidate, and hence out-of-state corporations have been at least in practice limited to $1,000 a year.
It would appear Fitch — the only statewide official with clear authority to investigate and prosecute campaign finance violations — is going through some legal contortions in an effort to avoid having to do so. Many political observers believe this is because she has higher political ambition, perhaps for the governor’s office, and doesn’t want to draw ire from the more conservative wing of the GOP by clamping down on campaign finances.
In a radio interview last week, Fitch said, “We’re allowing out-of-state influencers to determine and to pick who the candidates should be in our state … (and) We’ve got to have enforcement.” She said there were instances last election that were “clearly unethical and clearly immoral … but they weren’t criminal under our laws.” She said she wants lawmakers to fix that. Others have said Fitch’s office has campaign enforcement power that she refuses to exercise.
Fitch’s call for reform and limiting out-of-state money in Mississippi rings a little hollow. A majority of Fitch’s own campaign money, according to her 2023 finance reports, came from out-of-state businesses: about $727,000 of $1.27 million.
Fitch also appears to get lots of money from out-of-state interests to whom her office awards contracts. Records show that Fitch signed at least nine AG office contracts last year with out-of-state law firms (law firms and other forms of limited liability companies do not face a $1,000 limit) that had donated more than $300,000 to her campaign.
Secretary of State Michael Watson declined comment on Fitch’s call for reform and statement that the $1,000 limit doesn’t apply to out-of-state corporations. Watson has called for major reforms and last summer appeared to take a dig at Fitch when he said he wasn’t seeking more power for his office.
“But when people do not do their jobs,” he said, “I will stand in the gap for Mississippians.”
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who filed several campaign finance complaints with the AG’s office against his primary opponent McDaniel last year, has also called for reform and more enforcement. On primary election night when his victory was evident, Hosemann said campaign finance reform would be a top Senate priority this session.
Calls for Mississippi campaign finance reform are fairly common, particularly during statewide election years. But actual reform is rare. In 2017, after a more than a year-long investigative series by the Clarion Ledger, lawmakers did pass a law ending the practice of Mississippi politicians spending campaign donations for personal expenses — a practice dubbed “legalized bribery.”
But otherwise, Mississippi’s weak campaign finance laws for decades have only been tweaked and changed piecemeal. The laws are now a confusing, often conflicting, patchwork. For instance, the new law on spending for personal expenses conflicts with some existing law that was left intact.
And enforcement has been nearly nonexistent.
It’s unclear whether sweeping reform such as that being proposed by Watson will be addressed this legislative session. Generally lawmakers are loath to police their own campaigns or give more enforcement power to any other office holder. Some have said the appointed Ethics Commission should be given more authority and enforcement power, as many other states have non-elected entities policing campaign finances.
Fitch’s Democratic challenger in last year’s election, attorney Greta Kemp Martin, campaigned unsuccessfully on reform and enforcement of campaign finance laws.
“It’s amusing to see Attorney General Fitch’s newfound interest in election laws,” Martin said last week, “especially considering there was no apparent concern leading up to Election Day. Enhance penalties, reform and clarity are needed in Mississippi campaign finance for sure. But AG Fitch has not shown that enforcement of even the minimal laws currently in place has even been a priority for her office … Further, this sudden interest has me curious as to whether AG Fitch has taken a look at her own financial reports, especially when it involves out-of-state donations.”
Fitch did not provide great detail on her “reform package” in her press release or subsequent interviews. Her office did not answer questions on what specific bills might be forthcoming or which lawmakers would be filing them.
But Fitch did say she wants more transparency and truthfulness in campaign finance reporting, suggesting “adding a penalty of perjury to all campaign finance reports, which can carry up to 10 years in prison.” She also called for improving the civil penalties for violations and “giving the secretary of state authority to do his job” of making public campaign finance reports easy to read and search.
Despite most everyone else already thinking it’s the law for decades, Fitch wants to prohibit “all corporate contributions over $1,000 — not just those made by Mississippi corporations, which is current law.” (Those italics are by her.)
In her press release, Fitch said: “We have devised a package of reforms that will tighten the laws to keep outside special interests from meddling in our elections, to give Mississippi voters the tools to know who is trying to influence their vote, and to hold bad actors accountable.”
