U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo, representing Mississippi’s 4th District, became the first incumbent congressman to lose in a party primary in recent state history when he was defeated Tuesday by Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell in the Republican primary runoff.
Another incumbent congressman, Michael Guest of the 3rd District in central Mississippi, easily survived a runoff challenge from former Navy pilot Michael Cassidy in the Republican primary.
In the west Mississippi 2nd District runoff Tuesday, Brian Flowers defeated Ronald Eller and will run in the November election against incumbent Democrat Bennie Thompson, the state’s only African American U.S. House member.
Incumbents Guest and Palazzo were forced to runoff elections because neither garnered a majority vote in the first primary earlier this month.
Guest, a former district attorney representing Madison and Rankin counties in suburban Jackson, actually trailed Cassidy, a campaign novice, in the first primary vote.
But in the runoff, the Republican establishment and the Guest campaign, which apparently had underestimated Cassidy, waged an intensive campaign, easily outdistancing Cassidy. Late Tuesday with results still coming in, Guest had a commanding 67% to 33% lead over Cassidy.
Palazzo did not have similar success in the runoff. In late results, Ezell had a 54% to 46% lead over the incumbent.
The Associated Press called both races late Tuesday.
Ezell in his campaign had hit Palazzo on a long-running complaint the 12-year incumbent has faced: That he is inaccessible to constituents and often absent from the district or in Congress. Palazzo also has been under a House ethics investigation over allegations he used campaign and congressional funds for personal expenses.
In 2010 Palazzo was a member of the state House representing Harrison County when he was a surprise candidate against incumbent Democratic Congressman Gene Taylor. Most gave Palazzo little chance of upending the long-time incubent Taylor, viewed as a fixture in Gulf Coast politics.
But Palazzo took advantage of the historic Republican wave in 2010 to upset Taylor.
Palazzo’s loss appears to be the first time an incumbent U.S. House member has lost a party primary election in Mississippi since 1962. In that year incumbent Jamie Whitten defeated fellow incumbent Frank Smith in the Democratic primary after they were placed in the same district after Mississippi lost a House seat.
In the 3rd District, Cassidy ran as a Donald Trump conservative, but Guest attacked his conservative principals in late campaign ads. Cassidy, a Lauderdale County resident, had touted on his campaign web page various social spending programs, such as a universal health care proposal. Cassidy later renounced those programs, but not before giving Guest campaign fodder.
Cassidy attacked Guest as a “Republican in name only” and for voting for the proposed Jan. 6 Commission to investigate the attacks on the U.S. Capitol. Trump opposed the commission.
In the November general election, Guest will face Democrat Shuwaski Young. Ezell will face Democrat Johnny DuPree and Libertarian Alden Johnson.
A civil defendant in Mississippi’s massive welfare misspending scandal is arguing that if he’s being sued, so should former Gov. Phil Bryant.
That is just one explosive nugget included in a Friday court filing from Austin Smith, nephew to the now disgraced former welfare director John Davis and a former contractor of Nancy New’s nonprofit. The state is suing Smith for nearly half a million dollars.
Smith, in the filing, also alleges:
• That he was directed by members of Bryant’s inner circle to expend federal grant funds on an expensive advertising contract with the company that owns Supertalk Radio, the conservative network that spans the entire state and touts Republican leaders.
• That Nancy New, who has pleaded guilty to misspending millions in federal grant money including for celebrity rehab stints, told Smith she also paid for rehab for the son of Supertalk CEO Kim Dillon. Kim Dillon denied this allegation on Tuesday.
• That Smith was wrongfully accused of calling his uncle and welfare agency director John Davis gay — a falsehood, Smith says, that isolated him from his family.
• That the state of Mississippi has protected other entities that were involved in misspending of welfare funds, including the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation and members of the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, which allowed for the use of $5 million in federal public assistance funds to build a new volleyball stadium.
Bryant consulted concussion drug company Prevacus, one of the civil defendants that received stolen welfare funds, and the former governor was even poised to accept stock in the company after he left office — a deal only made public after Mississippi Today obtained text messages between Bryant and former NFL legend Brett Favre. Smith’s recent filing uses Mississippi Today’s reporting to criticize the state for failing to name Bryant as a defendant, considering what the news organization found about the former governor’s role in the scandal.
Through a written statement Tuesday, Bryant rejected the notion that he should be held civilly responsible in the scheme.
Independent forensic auditors found that at least $77 million in federal welfare funds were misspent or stolen from Mississippi Department of Human Services during Bryant’s last four years in office. The agency filed a lawsuit in May seeking about $24 million from 38 individuals or organizations, but Bryant — who had the sole, statutory responsibility to oversee the spending of the state’s welfare agency — was not among the defendants.
The latest filing aims to demonstrate that Bryant had a close relationship with Davis and New and is just as responsible for the scheme. Without a bid or application process, Mississippi Department of Human Services, a department under the governor’s office, selected New’s nonprofit to receive tens of millions of welfare dollars, which they spent with little oversight.
“The most plausible reason for this massive transfer to New and her companies is the friendship between Bryant and New. There was no ‘full and open competition’ for this massive federal funding as required,” the filing reads.
New pleaded guilty to bribery, fraud and racketeering while Davis is still pleading not guilty to several similar charges. Much of the case deals with the fact that funds from a federal program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, which is supposed to provide assistance to needy families, were used in ways that didn’t help the poor.
“Governor Bryant’s personal involvement in these misexpenditures would have communicated to Governor Bryant’s immediate subordinate, John Davis, and to Governor Bryant’s long-time, personal friend, Nancy New, that Bryant did not require TANF funds to be used exclusively for the benefit of needy families, but that the governor ratified and approved use of TANF funds for non-TANF purposes,” the filing reads. “Thus, to the extent that Governor Bryant’s immediate subordinate, John Davis, and close personal friend, Nancy New, were expending TANF funds for non-TANF purposes without ‘full and open competition,’ Governor Bryant is jointly responsible.”
Denton Gibbes, a spokesperson for Bryant, defended the former governor in a fiery retort Tuesday.
“The ‘Answer’ filed by Austin Smith’s attorney is truly a work of fiction and an attempt to draw attention away from his client,” Gibbes wrote in an email. “Fortunately, the justice system requires more than hearsay, political jabs, and baseless conclusions. The only thing that doesn’t appear to be a complete fabrication or distortion of the truth is the fact that Governor Bryant was the whistle blower who turned the evidence over to the state auditor, the state watchdog over state agencies that traditionally investigates allegations of fraud and misspending.”
In response, Jim Waide, the Tupelo attorney representing Smith, noted that some lawyers take the approach that if you “deny something strongly enough, people will believe it.”
“I don’t see how he’s going to deny what he said in his own text messages,” Waide said.
Smith alleges in his filing that Bryant had promised Davis a position in the consulting firm Bryant established after he left office.
Instead, Davis explained to his family members, Bryant told him he was going to “fucking jail,” the lawsuit states, because Davis had allowed an agency contractor, retired professional wrestler Brett DiBiase, to use Davis’ own P.O. Box to receive payment of $48,000 from the agency.
This comparatively small suspected instance of fraud — not information related to the Nancy New nonprofit, the volleyball stadium or Prevacus, projects of which Bryant was aware — is the tip Bryant took to State Auditor Shad White in 2019.
“Governor Bryant apparently believed this check was a kickback,” the filing reads.
Brett DiBiase entered a guilty plea regarding making false statements in order to defraud the government. DiBiase pleaded guilty before Judge Tomie Green in Hinds County Circuit Court Thursday morning in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
But in reality, the filing alleges, Brett DiBiase used his boss’ address to retrieve payment because he was in the middle of a divorce and wanted to hide the income from his wife. In a 2019 polygraph interview, in which state auditor’s investigators tried to discern whether Davis had received a kickback, Brett DiBiase explained that he used the money to lavish his girlfriend, not on Davis.
Davis helped direct over $5 million in welfare funds to organizations owned by the DiBiases. The state is also suing the DiBiases for repayment. If Davis received something of monetary value from the DiBiases in exchange for contracts, which would be a clear crime, officials have yet to describe what it was.
The recent filing touches on another wrinkle in the case that hasn’t become public thus far: Davis’ sexuality. Smith, in the filing, alleges that Brett DiBiase told Davis that Smith told DiBiase that Davis is gay. Smith said both Davis and his own parents became hostile towards Smith as a result.
Smith denies telling Brett DiBiase that Davis is gay, but much speculation has swirled around this case because of the flagrant favoritism the welfare director showed to Brett DiBiase and his brother Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr. and the closeness of their relationships.
Former director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services John Davis (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Davis and Teddy DiBiase swapped Christian devotionals, traveled out of state and exercised at the gym together, Mississippi Today first reported in its investigative series, “The Backchannel.” Davis frequently texted the older brother, “I love you.” The welfare director flew across the country to visit Brett DiBiase while he was in drug rehab, discussed his treatment options with a specialist and called him the “son I never had.” Davis directed New to use nonprofit funds to pay for Brett DiBiase’s rebab stint, text messages obtained by Mississippi Today show, resulting in criminal charges against New and Davis. When not together, Davis and Brett DiBiase shared long, late-night phone calls, phone records show.
Ties between the DiBiases and the welfare department are central to both criminal and civil cases against several defendants. Brett and Teddy are the sons of famous retired WWE wrestler Ted DiBiase, known as “The Million Dollar Man.” Smith’s filing alleges that Davis said Bryant was in on the welfare program’s partnership with the wrestlers — something the former governor has publicly denied.
“John Davis told Austin Smith that Governor Bryant wanted money received from a federal program called a ‘faith-based initiative,’ to be administered by the Heart of David Ministries, Inc., run by Ted DiBiase, Sr., ‘The Million Dollar Man,’” the filing reads. “According to what John Davis told Austin Smith, Governor Bryant claimed that Heart of David Ministries, Inc., and Ted DiBiase, Sr., would bring movies to the State of Mississippi.”
Former Gov. Phil Bryant and Ted DiBiase Jr. in 2015.
“Assuming that the ‘faith-based initiative’ actually means TANF funds,” the filing continues, “Governor Bryant could not have actually believed that Heart of David Ministries, Inc., operated by the DiBiases (a professional wrestling family), had a ‘special skill’ to expend welfare money for the benefit of needy families. Ted DiBiase, Sr., ‘The Million Dollar Man,’ was a champion in professional wrestling, a pseudosport, in which the champions are determined by fixed matches. According to a post about him on Wikipedia, ‘The Million Dollar Man’ repeatedly bragged that he was paying bribes for his championship belts.”
Michael Dawkins, the attorney for Ted DiBiase Sr. and Heart of David, said his client “acted in good faith reliance on the direction that was given to them by the state” and that the state monitored their work.
Smith’s filing also sheds new light on the state government’s relationship with conservative talk radio network SuperTalk.
In addition to working as a contractor for the Families First for Mississippi program, in which he was hired to develop a curriculum for an educational coding program, Smith also worked for the Mississippi Community College Board as a program manager for the state’s $10.6 million federal Preschool Development Grant (PDGB5). Smith alleges that a high level policy advisor in Bryant’s office, Laurie Smith, no relation to Austin Smith, called all the shots for how the grant would be spent.
“During his time with the Community College Board, Austin Smith refused to ‘sign off’ on only one expenditure,” the filing reads. “(Mississippi Community College Board President) Dr. (Andrea) Mayfield, in the presence of Dr. Laurie Smith, directed Austin Smith to sign an authorization for payment for advertising to TeleSouth Communications, a large media company which operates the well-known radio show ‘SuperTalk.’ Austin Smith declined to sign for this advertising because the time for making the expenditure under the terms of the grant had expired.”
SuperTalk heavily promoted the Families First for Mississippi program — through which most of the welfare funds were allegedly misspent or stolen. The parent company, TeleSouth Communications, received more than $630,000 from the two nonprofits running the welfare program, according to the state auditor.
“After the PDGB5 Grant expired, Austin Smith was the only grant employee whose employment was terminated. Among the PDGB5 Grant employees retained were Austin Smith’s secretary, the niece of SuperTalk’s prominent host, Paul Gallo,” Austin Smith’s filing reads.
Davis had close communication with Supertalk CEO Kim Dillon and the two would discuss the progress of her son Logan Dillon, who worked as a lobbyist for the welfare department, Mississippi Today first reported in April.
“I talked with Logan last night and told him I had dinner with you. I didn’t go into what all we talked about but did let him know. I appreciate everything you have done for him!” Kim Dillon texted Davis in 2019.
Austin Smith’s filing could provide context for their communication: “Nancy New informed Austin Smith that she was paying for treatment for Logan Dillon, the son of Kim Dillon, the chief executive officer of TeleSouth Communications,” the filing alleges. “Logan Dillon is also a former legislative liaison for Governor Bryant. The fact that such welfare department funds were likely used for the treatment of Logan Dillon is corroborated by Logan Dillon’s former wife, an acquaintance of Austin Smith, who informed Austin Smith that her ex-husband, Logan Dillon, in fact, was receiving treatment paid for by Nancy New’s nonprofit.”
“Such a misuse of money intended for TANF beneficiaries is especially egregious since State law establishes onerous requirements for needy families to receive benefits,” the filing reads.
Kim Dillon denied the allegation, saying to Mississippi Today in a text message Tuesday, “Any medical treatment received by my son is subject to HIPAA laws and regulations. Any allegation that Nancy New or one of her related organizations paid for any medical treatment for my son is categorically false.”
Waide, Smith’s attorney, responded that HIPAA laws prevent providers from sharing medical records, but does not apply to the source of payment for medical treatment. “If they want to check out the sources to show they didn’t pay for it, then that’s the way to go about it to clear it up,” Waide said.
Smith’s filing also criticizes the state for failing to include as defendants the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation, which received $5 million in welfare funds to build a new volleyball stadium at the school, and Lobaki Foundation, which received nearly $800,000 to run a virtual reality program forensic auditors determined did not serve the needy.
Nancy New admitted to defrauding the government related to her nonprofit’s payments of $365,000 to Lobaki and her son and the nonprofit’s assistant director, Zach New, pleaded guilty to defrauding the government by paying the USM athletic foundation $4 million, which was disguised as a lease.
In addition to Smith’s filing, three other answers to MDHS’s complaint have been filed on behalf of defendants Amy Harris, Adam Such and his company SBGI LLC, and Ted DiBiase Sr. and his ministry Heart of David. Each of them denies the allegations.
Austin Smith’s answer to the civil lawsuit ultimately argues that the state has denied him equal protection of the law since the state did not also name Bryant and others as defendants.
“Arbitrarily naming Austin Smith, who has no assets with which to pay a judgment, while not suing politically-influential entities, such as former Governor Phil Bryant,” the answer reads, “… represents arbitrary denial of equal protection of laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
All four Hinds County chancellors recused themselves from the lawsuit filed by the state’s only abortion clinic asking that a law banning abortions in Mississippi be stopped from taking effect.
The four chancery judges, Denise Owens, J. Dewayne Thomas, Crystal Wise Martin and Tiffany Grove, recused themselves from the case Tuesday and requested the state Supreme Court appoint a special judge to hear the case.
Earlier on Tuesday, attorneys for Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only remaining abortion clinic in the state, filed a request for a temporary restraining order.
The order, if enacted by the court, would temporarily halt a trigger law that would ban most abortions in the state and another law that would ban abortions in the state after the sixth week of pregnancy.
Roe v. Wade, which upheld the constitutional right to an abortion, was overturned on Friday in a watershed decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. On Monday, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch certified that Roe had been overturned, meaning that under an existing (or trigger) law, abortions would be banned in the state after 10 days.
But later Monday, the lawsuit was filed saying the trigger law and the six-week ban were invalid because an all but forgotten 1998 ruling by the state Supreme Court that held the right to an abortion was protected by the state constitution.
“Given that the decision was issued by the Mississippi Supreme Court based on the Mississippi Constitution, it is not dependent upon the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the U.S. Constitution,” the lawsuit filed on behalf of the abortion clinic said.
The 1998 Supreme Court decision saying the right to an abortion was protected by the state constitution upheld a decision issued by then-Hinds County Chancellor Patricia Wise. The lawsuit filed Tuesday by the abortion providers was originally assigned to Wise’s daughter, Chancellor Crystal Wise Martin, before she and the other Hinds County chancellors recused themselves Tuesday.
It is not clear whether the state will try to enforce the trigger law if the case is not resolved within 10 days. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Fitch’s office has said the office would not comment on pending litigation.
Northern District Transportation Commissioner John Caldwell postponed the disbursement of $100 million to cities and counties for emergency road and bridge needs Tuesday saying he wanted more details on how the funds were being divvied.
Caldwell said he had told Mississippi Department of Transportation staff he wanted data on how the projects were selected before voting on them. Because he said he did not have that information, he voted against approving the list of projects Tuesday at the monthly Transportation Commission meeting.
The other two commissioners – Tom King of the Southern District and Willie Simmons of the Central District – voted to approve the funds, but the law creating the Emergency Road and Bridge Fund in a 2018 special session mandated a unanimous vote of the commission to spend the money.
“We will get it worked out,” Caldwell said after the meeting. “I asked them (staff members) not to put it on the agenda if they did not have the data. I did not think they were.”
The Legislature appropriated $100 million for the fund during the 2022 session. The commission was voting Tuesday in an attempt to disburse the funds before the new fiscal year begins July 1.
“We told them in April not to put this out at the last minute,” Caldwell said. He said the hoped to have the list of projects finalized by early June so that it could presented to the Mississippi Municipal League and the Supervisors Association during their annual conferences and then the commission could vote on it at the Tuesday meeting.
The Legislature created the Emergency Road and Bridge Fund in a 2018 special session focused on fixing the state’s crumbling infrastructure, and helping local governments that were facing widespread emergency bridge closures because of disrepair.
In earlier rounds of funding for the program, MDOT was able to use some of the money — about a third — on state projects. But in this year’s session the Legislature, flush with money, provided more direct funds to MDOT and decreed that the entire $100 million it allocated to the emergency fund go only to county and city projects.
The Emergency Road and Bridge Fund has an advisory board, but the three-member elected state Transportation Commission must officially – and unanimously – sign off on projects. MDOT staff vets and analyzes the projects and makes efforts to spread them evenly through the three state transportation districts.
White said the plan initially was to use an existing list of approved city and county projects, but that because of inflation and other issues, the advisory council and MDOT staff decided to reopen the application process for the $100 million.
“The law (providing $100 million) was passed in April, and we opened the applications in mid-April to May for locals to apply,” White said. “… In keeping with what we’ve done since 2018, we used computer data analytics, had staff manually go through each application, and also followed the legislative intent that we have equity in projects across the state.”
White said the vetting took some time, and the recommended list was presented to the advisory council a little over a week ago. The council approved the list, White said, then it was provided to the Transportation Commission a week ago.
White said he intends to present the list again for ratification at the commission’s next meeting on July 12, and hopes that Caldwell will have had enough time to review it and the panel will vote unanimously. But under the law, White said, the money sits in limbo until the commission unanimously approves projects.
White said counties and cities presented more than $700 million worth of projects for the $100 million available. He said there were 378 applications, including 297 from counties and 81 from cities or towns. Of those, he said, 54 county projects and seven city or town projects were chosen to present to the commission for the $100 million.
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Twenty-two years ago, The Tomato Place was nothing more than one of four fruit and veggie stands run by Luke Hughes.
“I was here sorting tomatoes, when this guy comes up, takes a look at my tomatoes and asks if we could make him a sandwich. I made him a sandwich. Guess he must’ve really liked it,” Hughes says with a chuckle. “Because the very next day, he came back for another one. The rest, as they say, is history.”
And, so began The Tomato Place, located just south of a wicked curve on the blues highway — U.S. 61 South — in Vicksburg.
A sign in the business brings a smile to the faces of all who come: “Welcome Home! We are a slow food, smell the roses, hear the music, feel the atmosphere kind of place.”
So, there was never a need for a Robert Johnson-esque deal with the Devil for success. The great food, friendly atmosphere, Americana art and souvenirs have made the little roadside business a worldwide attraction.
From Omaha, the Clevelands recount the Rebels’ amazing run to the national baseball championship. As Mississippi State did in maroon last year, Ole Miss fans painted Omaha red and blue as the Rebels finished an amazing run to the national championship. Tyler watched from the stands. Rick was in the press box working. They recount the scene and the Ole Miss heroics.
Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann on Monday announced he was creating a nine-member “Senate Study Group on Women, Children and Families” after the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion decision last week.
In a press release, Hosemann said the committee would be tasked with making recommendations to the Legislature on policies pertaining to families and children from birth to 3 years old. These, he said, may include making adoption easier and improving foster care, helping children in state custody, and improving child support and child care.
On Friday, House Speaker Philip Gunn announced he would create the “Speaker’s Commission on the Sanctity of Life,” to examine issues and policies affecting mothers and children.
Republicans Hosemann, Gunn and Gov. Tate Reeves have praised the high court’s decision on a Mississippi case last week that overturns the decades-old Roe v. Wade decision providing women abortion rights. But the three said the decision also requires Mississippi leaders to provide more resources to help mothers, children and families.
Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation, suffers from lack of prenatal, postnatal and all other forms of health care. It also has the highest infant mortality rate in the nation and one of the highest maternal death rates. It has for years faced federal court decrees to address its substandard foster care and children’s services system.
On Monday Hosemann said: “From increasing opportunities for early education to addressing health care availability, the Senate has approved common sense legislation which supports our mothers and babies. I look forward to reviewing the recommendations from this diverse group of lawmakers on these critical issues.”
Gunn has steadfastly opposed Medicaid expansion to cover the working poor and earlier this year torpedoed a Senate proposal backed by Hosemann to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for Mississippi mothers.
Hosemann is the only one of the state’s top three leaders who’s said he’s open to discussion about expanding Medicaid, which would provide the state about $1 billion a year in federal funds to provide health coverage for the working poor.
Hosemann said his new study committee will be chaired by Sen. Nicole Boyd, R-Oxford and will include Sens. Kevin Blackwell, Hob Bryan, Dean Kirby, Rod Hickman, Angela Hill, Chad McManan, Angela Turner-Ford and Brice Wiggins. Hosemann said the committee will hold public hearings in the late summer or early fall and hear testimony from state agencies, experts and others.
Gunn indicated his commission would have lawmakers and advocates making recommendations to the House for policies to help women’s and children’s wellbeing.
