Delbert Hosemann filed qualifying papers Thursday at the state Republican Party headquarters to seek a second term as lieutenant governor.
Hosemann announced his reelection bid before an overflow crowd in the party headquarters conference room. The entryway to the headquarters building also was elbow to elbow with people who could not get into the conference room.
“It is a real honor to be here,” said Hosemann, who added he “was mesmerized” to see the eagle on top of the Capitol building every day and still could not believe he had an office in the building.
Hosemann will be making stops throughout the state in the coming days to tout his accomplishments and his reelection bid.
The large crowd at the party headquarters could be conceived as a show of force by Hosemann. State Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, who lost a close Republican Party primary for the U.S. Senate in 2014 against incumbent Thad Cochran, has indicated that he might challenge Hosemann.
At Thursday’s announcement about 15 Republican senators flanked Hosemann. A large number of senators also was in in the entryway, unable to get into the room where the announcement was made.
Echoing the comments of Gov. Tate Reeves, who qualified to seek re-election earlier this week, Hosemann said the state “was in the best financial shape we have ever been in.” He said a lot of Republican politicians worked to put the state on sound financial footing. Like Reeves, he did not mention the billions of federal COVID-19 relief funds that have spurred the Mississippi economy.
Hosemann was introduced by his son, Mark, who said his father was a doer, not a talker.
“Dad focuses on the positive. He focuses on the potential,” he said.
Shane Quick, who garnered 15% of the vote against Hosemann in the 2019 Republican primary for lieutenant governor, has qualified to run again this year.
Hosemann served three terms as secretary of state before running and winning the office of lieutenant governor.
An effort by the Republican legislative leadership to override Gov. Tate Reeves’ line item vetoes of a handful of earmarked 2022 projects fizzled Thursday after the Senate couldn’t muster enough votes.
“We had the votes to override,” House Speaker Philip Gunn said Thursday after the House took a long recess waiting to hear if Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann could garner two-thirds support in the Senate. “The Senate tells us they don’t have the votes.”
Gunn and Hosemann had said Reeves’ vetoes were an overreach of executive power into purse-string duties constitutionally reserved for the Legislature.
“This wasn’t about the projects,” Gunn said. “This is about does a governor have the authority to line-item veto in a general bill? … There is no provision under the constitution for that.”
Reeves last year vetoed 10 projects, about $27 million worth, out of scores of projects lawmakers approved statewide in a $223 million capital projects bill. The state constitution says a governor has line-item veto power on appropriations bills, and the state Supreme Court recently expanded those powers with a ruling in Reeves’ favor in 2020. But the state constitution does not give the chief executive line-item veto power on general bills. They can either veto the whole bill or let it pass into law.
House Bill 1353 last year, although it funded projects, was a “transfer” bill shifting money from one fund to another — a general bill, not an appropriations bill. Lawmakers say allowing a governor line-item veto authority over general bills would be a huge power shift in a state where the governor is, by design, “constitutionally weak” particularly in spending matters.
Reeves, when he issued his veto last year, called the projects “wasteful” spending. But his vetoes appeared selective, and the city of Jackson bore the brunt, with four projects nixed by the governor. These included rejuvenating a golf course and building a nature trail at LeFleur’s Bluff State Park and upgrades to the city’s planetarium and convention center parking lot.
Reeves said Jackson has too many problems such as crumbling water infrastructure and crime to be spending money on parks and planetariums.
Hosemann, who had been a proponent of the LeFleur’s Bluff project, early this week said the vetoes were improper and he wanted to discuss overriding them with the House.
But Hosemann and other Senate leaders were tight-lipped Thursday on override efforts. Hosemann shrugged and walked away when asked for an update on whether the Senate would have the votes.
Overriding a governor’s veto requires a two-thirds vote of both chambers, and is a rare occurrence. Lawmakers overrode a Reeves veto of education spending in 2020. Before that, no governor’s veto had been overturned since 2002, with then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.
Besides the high hurdle of a two-thirds vote and rarity of attempted overrides by lawmakers, the effort to override Reeves’ line-item vetoes faced some political optics issues. The capital projects measure from last year was something of a “Christmas tree” bill with pet projects earmarked across the state, including another public golf course and $7 million in handouts to three private companies that Reeves said bypassed normal state vetting of economic development projects.
At the time, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba was also critical of lawmakers spending $13 million on a golf course and not providing more for water system work.
But opponents of Reeves’ vetoes said they appeared selective, noting he approved most of the scores of projects in the bill, including for museums and greenspace around some courthouses and other public buildings — but not others.
One of the projects vetoed by Reeves was $500,000 to place a green area around the federal courthouse in Greenville.
Sen. Derrick Simmons, the chamber’s Democratic leader who lives in Greenville, said the courthouse project in his district was supported by the federal judiciary; U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Tupelo Republican; and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Bolton Democrat.
“It was my hope that I would be given the opportunity to vote to override the governor’s veto of the project in my district and all the other projects in the state that were deemed worthy by the Legislature but vetoed by the governor,” Simmons said.
Three officers with the Jackson Police Department are on administrative leave after a person died in their custody last week.
Officers responded to a service call near 500 E. Beasley Road Saturday night and took a person into custody who experienced a medical emergency, according to a news release from the department. An ambulance was called, but the person, who has not been identified, died at the scene.
Officers Avery Willis, Kenya McCarty and James Land will remain on leave until an internal police investigation is complete, according to Jackson police.
“The Jackson Police Department is committed to community-oriented policing and providing relevant information to the public, however, until both internal and external investigations conclude, the department will make no further comments,” the department said in its release.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which investigates officer shootings statewide, is also investigating. In statements from JPD and the city, the incident was described as an “officer-involved incident” rather than a shooting.
“The loss of life is always tragic and we remain committed to transparency,” Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said in a Wednesday statement from the city.
So many entertaining bowl games over the weekend, but then came Monday Night Football and the devastating injury to Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin. For the Clevelands, the injury brought back memories of Chucky Mullins and was a stark reminder of the inherent dangers in the sport of football. With that as an unsettling backdrop, the Ole Miss and Mississippi State bowl games, the college football playoffs and Tulane’s magnificent victory are all discussed.
The Jackson Public School District will be conducting school virtually on Jan. 5-6 due to little or no water pressure at 33 schools.
City of Jackson officials said Wednesday they’re still working to put more pressure into the city’s drinking water system before being able to lift the boil water notice. Most of the city has been under a boil water notice for the past 10 days, since Christmas morning, after below-freezing temperatures once again wrecked the city’s distribution system.
JPS officials said computer devices will be available for pickup on Jan. 4 from 3-6 p.m. at each school. Breakfast and lunch will be available for pickup on Jan. 5-6 at each school from 7-9 a.m. The announcement comes as students prepare to return from their winter break.
“The loss of water pressure in our school communities has had an enormous impact on us all,” the press release said.
JPS serves more than 18,000 students in the capital city, and chronic issues with water pressure have frequently forced schools to pivot to virtual learning. In September 2022, the district went virtual for a week during the water crisis which left residents without clean water or reliable water pressure for an extended period of time. District officials previously told Mississippi Today each student receiving a device through the federal COVID relief funds has also been beneficial for responding to water pressure issues, allowing them to pivot to virtual instruction more easily.
The press release said the district will continue to monitor updates from the City of Jackson and provide daily updates to families regarding when schools will reopen.
The Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees wants to hire a new president at Delta State University by summer 2023 or sooner.
The interim president, E.E. Butch Caston, who IHL appointed last July, had said he would stay in the position for a year. The 22-page profile recently finalized by Academic Search, the headhunting firm that IHL is contracting for the search, gives some clues to the type of president trustees want to take over after Caston.
While the regional college in Cleveland, a small town in the Mississippi Delta, is contending with plummeting enrollment and shaky finances — problems that are widespread in higher education — potential applicants do not need experience working in university administration, so long as they’re successful in their field and have a “deep knowledge” of higher education, according to the profile.
IHL prefers candidates with a terminal degree, but the profile does not say it is required.
The profile makes clear that despite the challenges facing Delta State, IHL wants candidates with ambition that match the university’s vision to become “the best regional university in America as it combines a heritage of academic strength with a robust commitment to serving people and communities, particularly in the Mississippi Delta.”
Delta State opened as a teachers college in 1924. The profile touts the university’s small student-to-teacher ratio; efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion like the annual “Winning the Race” conference; and its estimated $175 million annual economic impact on the Mississippi Delta.
The next president will be expected to increase enrollment, both graduate and undergraduate, and retention across all classes, according to the profile. This is a significant challenge, as Delta State has lost enrollment faster than any other public university in recent years. Headcount has dropped 29% percent since 2014, with just 2,556 students enrolled this year.
Another challenge that IHL wants the next president to tackle is growing the university’s annual fund and modest $30 million endowment by reaching out to alumni, community members and regional employers. State appropriations, once the school’s most significant source of funds, have plummeted in recent years.
Adjusted for inflation, Delta State receives less money from the state than it did in 2000. The university’s cash on hand was less than half of IHL’s recommended reserve of 90 days in 2020.
At Delta State, the enrollment and financial challenges are reciprocal. The lack of funding over the last decade has led the administration to slash scholarships and raise tuition and that in turn has made the university less affordable to students.
In 2014, tuition at Delta State cost $6,012 a year before room and board. This year, it’s up to $8,435, a quarter of the median household income in Bolivar County.
Most students receive Pell Grants — federal financial aid for students from low-income families — and are from Mississippi. Though the university has long, and still does, serve one of the highest percentages of Black students of any public university in the state, its demographics don’t line up with the Delta’s. In 2020, 33% of students at Delta State were Black and 55% were white, according to federal data — a near inversion of the demographics of Bolivar County, which is 65% Black and 33% white.
IHL wants the next president to “demonstrate a lived commitment” to diversity, equity and inclusion and to work well with faculty and staff by hewing to the “the principles of shared governance.”
On behalf of the board, Academic Search will take confidential applications until the position is filled but prefers candidates submit by January 31. Presidential searches are secret in Mississippi.
Candidates must submit a cover letter, a “written philosophy” of diversity, equity and inclusion, a resume and five professional references.
As the 2023 session of the Mississippi Legislature gets underway this week, lawmakers face the specter of a federal lawsuit.
Various groups have joined together to file a lawsuit on behalf of the NAACP and other Mississippians claiming that the newly drawn legislative districts dilute the voting strength of African Americans.
Republicans, who enjoy supermajorities in both the House and Senate, drew and passed the new legislative districts in 2022 session. The lawsuit asks that the districts be declared unconstitutional and that new districts be drawn.
Carroll Rhodes of Hazlehurst, a long-time civil rights attorney who is involved in the lawsuit, has said in the past the new legislative districts violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution by “packing” Black voters in a smaller number of districts to dilute their strength.
Rhodes and others claim that a new redistricting plan could generate more Black majority districts in addition to increasing the number of African Americans in other districts to provide them more impact in non-minority majority districts.
“Mississippi’s newest maps are a continuation of the state’s long history of disenfranchising Black voters. Black voices were not heard in the redistricting process and these districts, which break up Black communities and limit their electoral voice, are the result,” said Janette McCarthy, general counsel with the NAACP. “If our elections are to be just, equitable and fair, it is imperative that all Mississippians have a fair opportunity to elect candidates that reflect their communities and are responsive to their needs.”
The 174 members of the Mississippi Legislature (52 senators and 122 House members) face a Feb. 1 deadline to qualify to run for reelection. So the federal lawsuit will play out against the backdrop of the 2023 campaign.
Under the plan approved by the Legislature and facing the federal lawsuit, 29% of the Senate districts are majority African American while 34% of the House districts are. Based on the 2020 Census, the state’s African American or partially African American population is 38%, while the white population is 59%.
Under the current maps, there are 42 Black majority districts in the House and 15 in the Senate. But the number of districts where Black voters can have an influence, such as a district with an African American population of more than 35%, has been significantly reduced over the past two redistricting cycles.
Redistricting normally occurs every 10 years after the U.S. Census. Legislative districts across the country must be redrawn to match population shifts found by the census.
Those involved in the lawsuit include both the national and state chapter of the NAACP, state and national chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the law firm of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, the Mississippi Center for Justice, and others.
A three-judge panel has been convened to hear the lawsuit. The federal panel consists of Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick, Chief Judge Daniel Jordan of the Southern District of Mississippi and Judge Sol Ozerden of the Southern District.
