Texas’s Ivan Melendez flips his bat after he hit a three-run home run against Mississippi State during the ninth inning of a baseball game in the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb. (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
OMAHA — On a bizarre day when the College World Series entered baseball’s version of “The Twilight Zone,” Mississippi State’s road to a national championship hit a stormy detour.
The Bulldogs, 8-5 losers to Texas Friday night (and Saturday morning), now have to defeat the Longhorns Saturday night in order to advance to the CWS championship series. They’ll need to throw more strikes to do it.
The really weird stuff was on the other side of the CWS bracket, where Vanderbilt was declared the winner after a strange sequence of events sci-fi legend and Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling would appreciate. First, the Vandy-North Carolina State game was delayed for more than an hour because the NCAA had to sort out major problems with North Carolina State’s COVID-19 testing. Stay with me here. Apparently, several Wolfpack players tested positive. Others were sidelined because of contact tracing.
Rick Cleveland
North Carolina State was given a choice: forfeit or play with 13 available players, missing several starters and facing Vanderbilt All-American Kumar Rocker on the mound.
The Wolfpack, playing baseball’s version of the Texans at The Alamo, made a terrific game of it before falling 3-1. Then, early Saturday morning, the NCAA announced Saturday’s rematch of the two teams would not be played. North Carolina State was effectively disqualified from the CWS. Because of privacy concerns, the NCAA would not elaborate. So weird. So awful for NC State. And so fortunate for Vandy, which enters the national championship series without having to use any more pitching.
Texas and Mississippi State also endured their own delay, but it came in the ninth inning and was much more routine: a thunderstorm that delayed the game for two hours, 27 minutes and well into Saturday morning.
Amid all the craziness and delays, one fundamental maxim of baseball rang all too true for Mississippi State, that is: Walks will kill you.
The Bulldogs had fought back from a 5-2 deficit to tie the game with a three-run eighth inning. It should be noted that Texas pitchers walked four Bulldogs in that inning, fueling the comeback.
And then, just when it seemed we were watching another one of State’s patented late-game comeback victories, rain commenced and Bulldog reliever Cade Smith walked Mike Antico to start the Texas ninth. There may be worse things than walking the leadoff hitter in a tie game in the ninth inning. Maybe.
State quickly found out. It started raining harder. After a sacrifice bunt, new reliever Parker Stinnett walked Zach Zubia, putting runners at first and second with clean up batter Ivan Melendez coming to the plate. The count went to three balls, two strikes, before Melendez smashed a grooved fastball through the now-pouring rain for a three-run home run to make it 8-5. Stinnett walked the next Texas batter and apparently Mother Nature had seen enough. Heaven knows, Chris Lemonis had. Lightning in the vicinity sent the game into a long delay.
Here’s the deal: The home run surely hurt. But the two walks that preceded it count twice as much in the scorebook. Walks do kill. Seven State pitchers walked 11 Texas batters. Three of those scored. The final score was 8-5. Do the math.
“It’s hard to beat anybody when you walk 11 guys,” Lemonis said. “We’ve just got to make sure – got to throw strikes. We’ve got to compete in the zone. I think that’s where we fell short a little bit tonight.”
He doesn’t think. He knows so.
So, we are left with so many questions. Will we ever learn all that happened behind the scenes on the North Carolina State-Vanderbilt side of the bracket? Eventually, I suspect, the news will leak.
Another question: Had North Carolina State somehow won Friday afternoon’s game, thus eliminating Vandy, would Saturday night’s Texas-Mississippi State winner have been declared the national champion?
We must assume so. As it is, Vandy will have a fresh Jack Leiter to start the championship series. That’s a huge advantage.
On the other side of the bracket: Does State pitch ace Will Bednar Saturday? Surely, the Bulldogs would have much preferred to have Bednar available to open the championship series. Of course, you have to win to get there.
Lemonis wouldn’t say, but I have to believe he goes with his best available and that’s Bednar for certain.
And who does Texas go with? Probably Tristan Stevens, a junior right-hander with an 11-3 record and a 3.23 earned run average, who was mostly ineffective against Tennessee earlier in the week. We can surmise from his numbers he is usually better than that.
Finally, will State pitchers throw strikes?
Where the majority of readers of this column are concerned, that might be the most important question of all.
MOUND BAYOU — For 45 years, Eugene Brown has been the person Mound Bayou residents turn to when they need help.
In 1976, he became an auxiliary police officer and volunteer firefighter. He later stepped into that work full time and was eventually named fire chief, cementing a life of pulling people out of burning homes, wrecked cars and flood waters.
But on June 8, as water began seeping into every room of his house, the unbelievable reality set in that this time Brown would be the one who needed rescuing.
“I’ve been 31 years in this house and I’ve never had this. And I worked the fire department and first responders for years. I was the chief taking care of everybody else. This is my first,” he says, trailing off as he surveys his evacuated home.
Eugene Brown indicates the level that the water reached in his Mound Bayou home during the flash flooding in June. Credit: Kelsey Betz
“Realizing that it happened to me has been the hardest part. I’ve always had love and compassion for people,” Brown continued. “That’s why when they call I go. But when I woke up and looked around I realized it was me this time. They couldn’t call me because I was in the same shape or worse as some of them.”
The heavy rains started on June 7, pounding Bolivar, Sunflower and Grenada counties for 5 days.
According to precipitation reports from the National Weather Service, the worst hit parts of these counties received more than 14 inches of rain. The unusually abundant rainfall makes recovering in an area with high poverty rates a steeper challenge.
“There’s a .001% chance of occurring. That’s a pretty extreme event to get that type of rainfall,” said Marty Pope, senior service hydrologist at the National Weather Service.
Brown’s home flooded almost up to his knees in less than an hour, he said.
“The water just started coming in. In about 30 minutes this (the living room) was completely flooded and in the rest of the house, the water was seeping in through the walls,” he recalled.
That gave him about half an hour to evacuate his wife and wheelchair-bound son to higher ground. First they went to a neighbor’s home across the street. When the water continued to rise, it became clear they would have to leave and book a hotel in nearby Cleveland.
Volunteers gather outside of Eugene Brown’s home in Mound Bayou after assessing the damage and helping clear out the home. Credit: Kelsey Betz
Nearly three weeks later, they’re still staying there.
All around Mound Bayou, others were experiencing the same devastation as Brown.
“The ambulance came maybe three times that day (June 8), but they were not able to make it to some peoples’ homes because of the water. They had to come back later on. And with some of them, they (first responders) had to get a boat to get the person and bring them back to the ambulance,” said Leighton Aldridge, mayor elect of Mound Bayou.
He continued: “We had quite a few families who lost when I say everything — they lost everything.”
Mound Bayou wasn’t the only Delta town affected by flooding. Rosedale, 26 miles west of Mound Bayou, and Shelby six milesnorth were flooded by the heavy downpour as well. Sunflower, Grenada and other surrounding counties were also hit hard.
Volunteer first responders worked to rescue people from their homes day and night throughout the rainfall, Bolivar County Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Lamb said.
“They were jumping in water, boats, and helping people get out of homes, getting pets out of homes. A lot of our volunteers — their homes were flooding. They left their homes to go get other people. So that speaks volumes for them,” Lamb said.
The storms finally relented after five days. A week later, standing water still remained on Brown’s street. Tiny fish, washed up from surrounding creeks, swam in the flood water that lingered outside of his now empty home.
Volunteers, both locally and from faith based organizations around the country, have deployed to the areas ravaged by flooding to help.
Organizers say their greatest need right now is manpower. Anyone wanting to help can call Samaritan’s Purse at 662-402-3454 or C2K Ministries at 262-337-1412.
They moved all of the furniture out of homes to keep it from being destroyed by moisture and mold. When they entered Brown’s home to assess the damage, they wore N-95 masks not out of caution for COVID-19, but to prevent themselves from inhaling black mold spores.
And while the help has been deeply appreciated, it has its limits. Government aid would be needed to help rebuild on a wide scale, but Lamb said it looks unlikely that the county’s damages will meet the thresholds required for federal assistance.
Initial assessments by state officials suggest Bolivar County wouldn’t qualify for Individual Assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which sends direct relief to disaster victims. FEMA considers several factors, such as the number of homes with “major” damage, which means in most cases that water has reached 18 inches or an electrical outlet in a home.
Lamb pointed out that it doesn’t make sense to broadly apply an 18 inch threshold to the entire state given its topographical diversity. Bolivar County essentially sits at the bottom of a bowl, he said; once it starts raining, the water has nowhere to go.
He also said that a home shouldn’t have to have 18 inches worth of water in it to be considered major damage.
“Two inches of water inside your home is a lot of water. That will make the floor come up. People here don’t have $10,000 to replace the floors. Hardly anyone (who the county helped) had insurance. The ones who did didn’t have flood insurance,” Lamb said.
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials told Mississippi Today that although FEMA doesn’t have a hard minimum, a county usually needs at least 50 homes with major damage to receive Individual Assistance. The last assessment in Bolivar County only found 19.
But that could change as FEMA gives the state 30 days — in this case until July 13 — to submit damage reports, and state officials plan to reassess damages as the water recedes.
“Unfortunately in most cases in Mississippi we just don't meet the federal threshold for individual assistance and we have to get creative,” said Todd DeMuth, MEMA’s State Coordinating Officer.
DeMuth alluded to a new program the state Legislature approved in 2018 called the Disaster Assistance Repair Program, which sends up to $250,000 to a county should it not qualify for federal aid. So far, the program has funded almost $3 million in repairs across 22 counties, rebuilding over 800 homes.
MEMA officials said that Bolivar plans to request DARP funds next week, adding that it usually takes about a week for the county to receive the money and that it can immediately utilize the funds.
“We have about $2 million worth of damage in the county,” Lamb said. “But $250,000 in aid would be better than what we have right now.”
He’s concerned about what the after effects will be for the communities who were hit the hardest but aren’t likely to get aid from FEMA.
“There’s going to end up being a lot of vacant homes and a lot of sick people because they’ve already got mold growing in their homes,” Lamb said.
The board that oversees the Mississippi Public Employee Retirement System is pondering whether to increase the amount paid into the pension plan by state agencies, local governments and education entities.
The issue of whether to increase what is known as the employer contribution rate to ensure the long-term financial viability of the public pension plan was discussed recently by the Administrative Committee of the Board of Trustees of PERS, but no action was taken.
But Shelley Powers, a spokesperson for PERS, said the issue “most likely will be revisited” during the Aug. 23-24 meeting or during a special-called July meeting.
The increase in the contribution rate could cost state and local governments an additional ten of millions of dollars annually.
A recent report by the Legislature’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee highlighted the possibility of the employer contribution being increased. The report pointed out that because of multiple factors some warning indicators were “flashing red.”
The system had a full-funding ratio of 58.8% last June, down from 61.3% the previous June. That means that it has almost 59% percent of the assets needed to pay the benefits of all the people in the system, ranging from the newest hires to those already retired. Theoretically it is recommended that a system has a funding ratio of about 80%.
Most state, city and county employees and public educators are in the system that currently has about 325,000 members, including current employees, retirees and others who used to work in the public sector but no longer do. In total, about 10% of the state’s population is in the system to some extent.
Under the state Constitution, the Legislature cannot block a decision of the Board of Trustees to increase the amount paid by state agencies, local governments and education entities into the pension plan. If the Legislature opted not to provide the extra money to pay for any increase, it would just come out of the amount the Legislature budgeted for the agency, taking money from other programs.
In 2018, the board increased the contributions from employers from 15.75% of payroll for each employee to 17.4%. That small increase cost state and local governments, including education entities, an additional $100 million annually.
Traditionally, the state does not help local governments funds their share of the retirement system.
Funding the increase, minus the local government’s share, cost about $76 million in 2018 — $18.1 million for state agencies, $15.9 million for universities, $37.4 million for kindergarten through 12th grade and $4.9 million for community colleges.
Employees in the system pay 9% of their salary toward their retirement. It was increased from 7.25% in the late 2000s. The average yearly benefit from the plan is about $24,400.
In June 2020, according to PERS’ actuary, the plan’s funding ratio was projected to be at 67.6% by 2047 compared to a projection of 83.2% by 2047 made the previous year.
The decline in the funding ratio was attributable to multiple factors, including “less than expected revenue gains.”
Chris Lemonis talks his players during the Bulldogs victory over Virginia Tuesday night at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha. (Austin Perryman/MSU Athletics)
OMAHA — We didn’t have a College World Series last year because of COVID-19. Mississippi State’s Bulldogs, who had competed in the two before that, have returned for this one. State has been to 12 in all.
This one is different.
For starters, there was no opening ceremony. There was no pre-tournament press conference or autograph session. There have been no live post-game press conferences. Practices have been closed to the media. In a pre-CWS email from the NCAA, media actually were urged NOT to cover the CWS.
As is often the case where the NCAA is concerned, there is more than a little incongruity at work here. We’re not having in-person press conferences for safety reasons, yet 24,000 people can cram into TD Ameritrade Park, shoulder to shoulder, with precious few wearing masks. It makes little sense, but then this is the NCAA. Need I say more? After all, this is an NCAA event that makes millions of dollars, yet most of the athletes are not on a full scholarship, and some are not even close.
Rick Cleveland
Your dutiful columnist covered State’s first two games from my living room recliner in Jackson, where, via Zoom, I had every bit as much access to the players and coaches as the media in the press box at TD Ameritrade Park, where I’ll be the rest of the series.
One aspect of the CWS hasn’t changed this year. Mississippi State fans have converged on this clean, sprawling midwestern city in maroon-colored legions that will surely grow this weekend. Dudy North, they call it.
Chris Lemonis, the Bulldogs’s skipper, talked about it Thursday morning during a Zoom media conference when discussing the Tuesday night’s come-from-behind victory over Virginia. “It was a cool thing to look up there and see our people,” Lemonis said. “It looked and sounded like The Dude.”
Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen estimates upward of 5,000 Bulldog fans were in the stadium for the Virginia game — that, despite the fact that State received an allotment of only 600 tickets.
“Our people are getting them directly through Ticketmaster, and through the secondary market (scalpers, StubHub, SeatGeek, etc.),” Cohen said. “I think a lot more are coming this weekend and it’s going to be crazy if we’re lucky enough to get in the championship series. I think we could see more than 10,000 of our people here.”
But even perhaps the most supportive fan base in country presents a tricky problem during the first CWS played during a pandemic.
“We’ve got so many people fans out here and you feel really rude when you can’t sign an autograph or sign a ball for them,” Lemonis said. “We’ve had to tell the players to be careful that we don’t want you signing autographs. For me, the biggest fear is getting a bad test. That’s what you really worry about.”
CWS players are tested every other day while here.
Imagine this nightmare scenario: The Bulldogs get to the best two-of-three championship series next Monday and a key pitcher tests positive. Contract tracing results in his roommate and several others who were in the bullpen with him having to be quarantined. Again, just imagine: You’ve dreamed about this for years, worked you tail off since last fall for this moment, fought through a grueling SEC season, a regional, a super regional, and your bracket of the CWS, and then…
Nobody wants to even think about it.
But Lemonis is right: You have to think about it and protect against it.
The Bulldogs would do well to follow their head coach’s plan Thursday night.
“I’m gonna stay in my room, get on my couch, order some food, and watch the game (Texas-Virginia) tonight,” Lemonis said.
State will play the winner Friday night at 6 p.m. Win that one, and the Bulldogs are in the championship series. This place really would be Dudy Noble North.
Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday announced staff changes, including a temporary chief of staff to replace Brad White, who was recently appointed director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
Reeves has lost at least four senior staffers since becoming governor in January 2020: White, the chief of staff; Parker Briden, a carryover from Reeves’ 2019 campaign who served as deputy chief of staff starting in 2020; Kenny Ellis, a longtime Reeves staffer who served as the governor’s senior policy director; and Renae Eze, another 2019 campaign carryover who served as Reeves’ communications director.
Reeves has also lost several lower-level policy staffers since he took office in 2020.
Liz Welch, currently director of the state Department of Finance and Administration, will temporarily take over White’s duties, Reeves said in a press release on Thursday. A DFA spokeswoman said Welch would continue serving as full-time director of that agency. Welch was former secretary of the Senate when Reeves was lieutenant governor and presided over that chamber, and she was Reeves’ deputy when he was state treasurer.
David Maron, who has been Reeves’ chief legal counsel, will serve as deputy chief of staff and chief legal counsel.
Anne Hall Brashier will serve as deputy chief of staff for policy and legislative affairs. Brashier, who previously worked for U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, joined Reeves’ staff as deputy policy director when he was elected governor in 2019.
Cory Custer will serve as deputy chief of staff for external affairs, Reeves’ release said. Custer is a former Trump administration appointee serving as assistant commissioner of public affairs at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“I am confident that each of these individuals have the credentials and passion to help continue implementing my pro-business, pro-jobs, pro-economic growth agenda,” said Reeves.
He’s been crisscrossing the state for months meeting with local leaders. He’s on track to have $1 million in his campaign coffer this year. He’s taking jabs at Gov. Tate Reeves at every opportunity.
Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn sure shows all the signs of someone strongly considering a gubernatorial run in 2023.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed. A potential internecine GOP battle between Gunn and Reeves has become the buzz of the summer among Mississippi politicos. They appear to be split between calling it a fool’s errand or a golden opportunity to oust an incumbent known more for creating enemies and strong-arming campaign donors than pushing policy and building consensus.
Asked directly about whether he would run in 2023, Gunn told Mississippi Today: “My focus is doing a good job as speaker of the House. I’m traveling the state talking about what we are trying to accomplish legislatively. I do not know what the future holds.”
Note he did not say he isn’t considering a run.
Modern history shows unseating an incumbent governor — especially a Republican — in a primary is a difficult task and a rare occurrence nationwide. The governor in Mississippi is de facto head of the state party, and by custom picks their own party chairman, which Reeves has done. Big money campaign donors are typically reluctant to switch horses midstream.
Gunn, 58, is said to be receiving encouragement to run from many powerful quarters, but so far, those quarters are hesitant to say so publicly. Several declined to speak on the record with Mississippi Today about a possible Gunn challenge.
Reeves, 47, should have every tailwind as the incumbent. But over two terms as lieutenant governor and half a term as governor, Reeves has shown a penchant for hacking people off, even fellow Republican leaders and his own loyalists. He himself has chalked this up to, “I know how to say no to my friends.”
Political acrimony between Gunn and Reeves goes back to early in their first terms as speaker and lieutenant governor, respectively. It reached perhaps a fever pitch in last year’s fight over control of spending of federal COVID-19 relief spending. Gunn accused Reeves of “cheap theatrics and false personal attacks.” Reeves warned that “people will die” because the Legislature wouldn’t let him control the money.
If Gunn were to make a gubernatorial run, he’d have to get cracking early. Despite three terms as House speaker — the third-longest run in state history — Gunn lacks name recognition. The speaker is typically not a household name despite the power they wield at the Capitol.
But as many politicos say, one can buy name recognition with enough campaign cash and media. That would bring Gunn’s first clear-and-present challenge: to raise $3 million to $4 million for a serious primary challenge against an incumbent known for his fundraising prowess.
Gunn would have to be fundraising now — and it appears he is — in order to make a gubernatorial run even a possibility. He would need to make his personal decision by the end of this year or early 2022 to begin quietly convincing movers and shakers who want a change to back him. He would likely need to make a public announcement and begin public campaigning by late summer or early fall of 2022 to build momentum and name recognition.
Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. knows these political considerations intimately. Waller challenged Reeves in the 2019 Republican primary for governor and lost by just eight points in a runoff. In an interview with Mississippi Today, Waller pointed out that Mississippi continues to struggle with poverty, population loss, crumbling infrastructure, lack of economic growth and health and education issues.
“I think the people of Mississippi are ready for a new look, new leadership,” Waller said, acknowledging “there’s certainly some smoke in the air” about Gunn running.
“I think (Gunn) has a lot of attractive features,” Waller said. “He’s young and aggressive… I think he’s been an effective speaker, and he certainly has an eye to addressing some of the problems the state has experienced, an eye to trying to improve the state versus the experience we’ve had with Reeves in the position of lieutenant governor and governor.”
Waller continued: “I don’t know many things that (Reeves) wants to do except defeat Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi… I hope people look at the issues… We’ve got problems.”
When asked if he would run for governor again himself in 2023, Waller said, “I am considering it, but we are undecided.” Asked about the timing of announcing his challenge of Reeves in 2019,Waller said he made a mistake in his last run of waiting too late to get into the race — about six months before the primary — and would not make that mistake again if he runs again.
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, in December 2014. Reeves says the House and Senate have reached a deal on the anticipated special session on transportation. Credit: Rogelio V. Solis, Associated Press
Conventional wisdom is that Gunn would have to first clearly point out Reeves’ faults, then promptly build himself up as a positive alternative. Gunn would have to defend his long record as a lawmaker, but then so, too, would Reeves. Gunn would likely point to Reeves’ history of mostly being against initiatives and killing or co-opting others’ proposals as opposed to offering his own plans to help the state prosper.
Gunn championed changing the state flag to remove the divisive Confederate battle emblem. Early on, Gunn was the lone state elected Republican to do so, and some surmised it would kill any chances he might have for higher office in the GOP. But the legislative flag change turned into a bipartisan movement, and the issue appears to be settled beyond a small, vocal far-right group. Despite waffling on the issue himself, Reeves signed the measure into law and appears to be the recipient of just as much scorn from the old flag supporters as Gunn or other lawmakers.
Recent polling has shown Reeves underwater, with nearly half of Mississippi voters disapproving of the job he’s done. But the same poll showed nearly half disapproving of the state Legislature as well. One difference: Reeves still has relatively strong approval from Republican voters. The Legislature got low marks across the board.
Nathan Shrader, government and politics professor at Millsaps College and a facilitator of the quarterly Millsaps College/Chism Strategies State of the State Survey, said he’s heard the buzz about Gunn but doesn’t see Reeves as vulnerable in a Republican gubernatorial primary.
“I just don’t expect Republican voters to turn on a Republican governor who they generally agree with on policy, who has committed no heresy as far as Republican politics and who has carried the Trump banner,” Shrader said. “… What issue has Gov. Reeves departed from the Republican orthodoxy to the point that it is going to light a brush fire under him? He has been the flag bearer of Trumpism in Mississippi, and that’s what the Republican Party is about here right now. I don’t see that changing much, at least not for the next couple of years.”
Shrader continued: “I do think it would be good for the state to have such a race, two of the highest ranking members of the party offering competing visions.” And, “It would be intriguing, if he’s out there really ramping up or laying the groundwork, how the legislative and executive branch relationship may look for the next two years.”
Gunn, a Clinton resident, has been elected to the House since 2004 in District 56, population of about 25,000. He’s been elected House speaker by the membership of the House since 2012, and he has never run a statewide campaign.
Besides building statewide name recognition, Gunn would have to make political inroads in GOP strongholds such as the populous Mississippi Coast, a region that led Reeves to victory in both the 2019 Republican primary runoff and in the general election against Democrat Jim Hood.
Gunn has been a frequent visitor to the Coast recently, meeting with business, community and political leaders. It’s been part of his statewide tour promoting his proposal to eliminate the state’s personal income tax. Although there is disagreement on particulars of Gunn’s proposal — such as replacing the income tax with increases in sales and other consumption taxes — there are worse messages to approach business and Republican leaders with in such a tour.
Ricky Mathews, a longtime Coast newspaper publisher and media executive, columnist and host of a Supertalk Mississippi radio show, said the Coast “definitely could be in play” if Gunn challenged Reeves in 2023.
“I think (Reeves) is spending a little too much time holed up in the Governor’s Mansion and not spending enough time trying to bring our big three together — the speaker, lieutenant governor and governor — on important issues,” Mathews said.
“… I think (Reeves) has struggled somewhat in the governor’s position, where he doesn’t have the constitutional power he had as lieutenant governor and it requires more of the force of leadership,” Mathews said. “I recall what I have previously written, that one businessman on the Coast told me that when Reeves came into the room, there was a chill. Philip Gunn is the type of guy who lights up a room and can work a room.”
Mathews said he believes Gunn can show a track record of helping the Coast as speaker and that he “empowers his Coast delegation (in the House) and listens to them.”
“I can’t think of one issue where Reeves would have a leg up as it pertains to the Coast,” Mathews said.
Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, one of Gunn’s top lieutenants in the House and a close friend, was guarded with his comments about a potential Gunn-Reeves matchup in 2023.
“We’re blessed in the Republican Party to have more than one leader capable of running our state,” Lamar said. “Speaker Gunn is a fantastic leader. I can also say that Tate Reeves has done some good things for our state as well. He’s inherited a mess and made some excellent decisions as far as agency heads go.”
Lamar continued: “Philip Gunn is one of my best friends, and as quality a human being as there is. He’s a fantastic leader for the state of Mississippi and those leadership traits would certainly carry over to the role of governor should he be elected.
Deesha Philyaw began writing in the early 2000s as a personal hobby. What started as respite from the duties of being a stay-at-home mom to a busy toddler has led Philyaw into literary acclaim, a path she hadn’t quite imagined for herself 20 years ago.
An award-winning writer, Philyaw studied economics at Yale and worked as a management consultant before returning to graduate school and becoming an elementary school teacher. Later, she started a family and decided to be a stay-at-home mom, which led her to writing.
“Our oldest daughter was a toddler who didn’t nap,” Philyaw said. “So, I started grabbing like 30 minutes out of the day just to write, something I could do for myself and sort of lose myself in another world.”
Philyaw, the author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies which won her the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and landed her as a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, will be a featured guest at the Mississippi Book Festival on Aug. 21. Ahead of her first visit to Mississippi, Brown spoke with Mississippi Today about her career and her influences.
Over the years, she wrote dozens of stories based on the nostalgia of her childhood and young adulthood in her hometown of Jacksonville, Fla. Her writings centered Black women, like her own mother and grandmother, and the church, a place she spent much of her upbringing.
“It was a curiosity I had about these women as a child and as an adolescent that rose to the surface when I started writing about them because I was dissatisfied with my own life at that time. And so I thought it was safer to give my dissatisfaction to these characters that I was conjuring up rather than writing about my own life,” Philyaw said.
After she divorced in 2006, Philyaw began writing for a living to support herself and her two young children. She freelanced and published short stories and personal essays on themes like race, parenting, gender and culture in The New York Times, The Undefeated and Ebony Magazine. She also co-authored a book with her ex-husband, Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce.
But it was while she was on hiatus from working on a novel when Philyaw’s agent encouraged her to focus more on the “church lady stories” – the short stories she began writing all those years ago about Black women and the church.
“(My agent) sort of saw them as church lady stories. I wasn’t thinking of them in that way. But then I did get really intentional,” Philyaw said. “I already had a couple dozen stories in the pipeline with various degrees of completion that could be a part of such a collection…Finishing the collection felt like something I could do. And I did.”
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Philyaw’s award-winning book which published in 2020, is a collection of nine short stories, a sort of fine-tuned culmination of the stories she began writing years ago, exploring the themes of Black women, sex and the Black church.
Philyaw said she wanted Black women to see themselves reflected in the characters and stories in her book, which also grapples with themes of motherhood, personal freedom, agency, identity and truth.
“(The title) just seems to fit,” Philyaw said. “The stories are the kinds of things that Black women whisper amongst ourselves. So, those are the secrets about how we navigate our full humanity, our full sexuality, our full sexual lives in the face of the church’s teachings, which are, in many ways, antithetical to freedom, in particular, sexual freedom.”
Though the short stories center Black Southern church women, Philyaw said people of many different backgrounds can relate to and identify with the stories in The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. Philyaw’s book is also being adapted for television for HBO Max by actress Tessa Thompson.
“So many of us have these struggles, trying to reconcile the reality of our lives and the complexity of who we are with these sort of oversimplified structural rules that the church gives,” she said.
Philyaw was recently named the 2022-2023 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
And as the 2022-2023 Grisham Writer-in-Residence, Philyaw is returning to her home region of the South for the first time in over 30 years, she said, following in the footsteps of other Southern writers like Maurice Ruffin, Jesmyn Ward and her dear friend Kiese Laymon.
“We’ve survived the pandemic. (Kiese) is one of the many people I can’t wait to hug again because we didn’t know if we were going to get to do that again,” Philyaw said. “Mississippi has this long, complicated literary legacy, and to be in the place where so many of the complex and beautiful stories have been told by complex and beautiful people, I’m excited about that. And the food.”
In this episode of The Other Side, Secretary of State Michael Watson said he believes Gov. Tate Reeves should call a special session of the Legislature to address issues created by a Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Initiative 65 medical marijuana program and Mississippi voters’ right to ballot initiative.
Geoff Pender: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Other Side podcast. This is Geoff Pender with Mississippi Today. I’m joined today by my fellow political reporter, Bobby Harrison.
Bobby Harrison: [00:00:18] Hey Geoff.
Geoff Pender: [00:00:18] Hey Bobby. And our guest today is Secretary of State Michael Watson. He has been secretary of state since 2020. He formerly served as a state senator for District 51 I believe from 2008 to 2020, and pails from beautiful Pascagoula. Welcome Mr. Secretary.
Michael Watson: [00:00:42] Thank you, Geoff and Bobby. Great to be with you both.
Geoff Pender: [00:00:45] Well, let’s get started. There’s been a lot of stuff in the news that you you’ve had a keen interest in recently, the Supreme Court ruling and the issues with our state voter ballot initiative and the medical marijuana ballot initiative that passed, but got struck down.
So where do things stand with that right now? And what are you advocating happens now?
Michael Watson: [00:01:08] Yeah. So I mean, a few things, you know, you’ve got the Supreme Court case of medical marijuana, and we have talked a little bit about, you know, what that looks like as far as a special session whether or not the Legislature would come in.
Obviously the governor would have to call that in. And on the other side initiative process you know, the court struck that down, but the process itself is still technically alive. And so we’ve got a few initiatives that are still out there. You know, depending on if the Legislature comes in and changes the rules or, we have some type of special election to change the constitution in the provisions, in which we saw dealt with. I was thinking about Supreme Court case. You know, that could happen prior to the year running with folks, getting their signatures. So those are still technically alive, but we’ve got a lot of conversation to be had in Jackson at the Capitol, as well as again, if the Legislature changes the initiative process by amendment to the constitution, then that would have to go to a vote.
So we’re, we’re still actively following each of these issues.
Bobby Harrison: [00:02:10] And Mr. Secretary, just to be clear to background for people which, you know, better than anybody. The initiative process was struck down by the Supreme Court and a lawsuit over to America medical marijuana that was passed by voters back in November, that ballot initiative was. And what was challenged in the courtroom was the fact that language in the constitution about an initiative process says that the signatures to place an issue on the ballot have to be gathered equally from five congressional districts. That was put into the constitution in 1992, I believe. And in 2000, we lost a congressional district based on the census. So now we just have four.
So it’s mathematically impossible to do what the constitution calls to be done. And in the past it’s been ruled that just collect those signatures from the four districts. That was just kind of like a common sense type thing to do. But the court said no, that the language had to be rewritten. Am I correct in that?
And just tell me your impressions of the court ruling. And I mean, you kind of argued that it should just go the way it’s been going for the past 10 years. So just using the four districts togetherto get signatures. So I don’t know if there’s a question in there, but comment on it.
Michael Watson: [00:03:21] Sure. Bobby, a few things there to unpack kind of as an attorney. What the ruling said was basically, look, you’ve got to have signatures from the old five.
The constitution says you know, one fifth of the 20%, which makes it unworkable. However, It didn’t strike the process itself. They basically said, look, you know, and this is me paraphrasing. The process is still there, but you’re never going to be able to get that to a ballot because there’s a question about where the signatures need to come from.
And until that is dealt with, you know, in theory, again, it’s unworkable. However, the other portions of the constitution are still there dealing with the initiative process. So we’ve got some, you know, initiatives, we’ve got heck five or six that are still alive technically. And again, once you get through the process of having it published and getting the title in summary, you publish that and then you’ve got a year once you start collecting signatures. So again, in theory, If the Legislature acted and the constitutional provision was changed and then adopted by the people of Mississippi within a year timeframe, however, that may happen, you still could technically get some of these amendments that are still alive to the ballot.
So we’re going to watch that closely. You know, clearly, if the Legislature doesn’t act any time soon that year time is going to lapse and then absent some type of language in an amendment in statute, in the constitution provision that would allow them to rescue those initiatives.
They would die if that year time lapsed. So it’s confusing a little bit, and it’s tough to kind of get down into the weeds. But again, the process is still there. It’s just unworkable with the signature requirement as is .Now, you’re right. We were right dead middle of the case. We did argue there’s a statute out there that, that you know, basically says, hey, you’re the five congressional districts.
It’s still a statute it’s still in law. So our argument was for the purposes of, you know, gathering signatures from congressional districts, we’re going to refer to this statute. As you know, there are other board commissions out there that still refer to the five congressional districts. Again, the court struck down the initiative process with the signatures coming from the old five congressional districts because there now are four congressional districts. So there’s some confusion there too. And I think you’re going to see that walked through by the Legislature once they address that, and we’ll see what they do with it.
Geoff Pender: [00:05:47] You touched on something just then that I’ve seen some other people questioning. These five districts are still used for some other purposes Now perhaps their accompanying laws are such that this ruling wouldn’t automatically hamper that. Or can you explain that? How can those five districts still be used for things such as board appointments, judicial, the community college board? How does that work? How can they still be used?
Michael Watson: [00:06:16] That’s a great question. And the one that we’re still asking too. I got a call the other day from some folks over at wildlife. Some of their commissioners, same kind of situation. So I think again, when the Legislature comes in to address that, whether that’s in a special session or, you know, first of next year when they address this provision, I think they’re going to have to look at that across the board.
Well, it doesn’t just impact signature gathering for initiative process. It also applies to many of these boards and commissions. So do we need to reword those? Do we need to restructure those? What does that look like? So it’s a great question, Geoff, and one that I can’t answer for you.
Geoff Pender: [00:06:52] The only explanations I’ve heard on that is it some of those other accompanying laws dealing with board, whatever, that their wording is a little different.
They say districts as they existed in such and such time and date. If that were something that would prevent problems with those, then one might ask the question: well, why couldn’t you come back and just change the accompanying statute? Maybe even, I don’t know, without going through amending the constitution or an election or whatever. But would that be possible?
Michael Watson: [00:07:31] I think so, via statute. Now the initiative process, you know, clearly that was in 2733 in the constitution. So you’re going to have to amend the constitution for that purpose. But as far as these other boards and commissions, and you’re right, some of them did say, you know, as drawn in so-and-so date.
And I think that was part of the argument from the other side against our position at the hearing. You know, look, it wasn’t spoken to specifically. That’s a moving target in a sense that if congressional districts change, then so does signature gathering requirements. And obviously the court found that to be a compelling argument, and that’s what they ruled.
Bobby Harrison: [00:08:10] Interestingly, the Court of Appeals judges, the court right below the Supreme Court, is they’re elected from those old five congressional districts, but they did change the law in that instance. They call them Court of Appeals districts instead of congressional districts.
But I mean, I’ve read the law concerning the wildlife board and the community college board and they don’t change. I mean, it just says the five congressional districts. It doesn’t make any reference to how they existed at any such and such time. So there’s a lot of inconsistency there it seems like.
Michael Watson: [00:08:40] Yeah, definitely. Being a former legislator, you know, sometimes we will. amend a code section. And our legal services, they do an outstanding job. And many times you’ve got to change provisions in other statutes, just because you tinkered with one here, it impacts something over there. And that’s what we’re seeing.
There are some boards of commissions that were changed. There are some that weren’t or some maybe they weren’t intended to be changed, but it’s caused some confusion now. So we’re going to have to go in, or excuse me, the Legislature’s going to have to go in and correct many of those, in my opinion.
Bobby Harrison: [00:09:12] Mr. Secretary, you referenced that as a former legislator, and you’re also a former Constitution Committee chair in the Senate. And I’m asking a question I really don’t know the answer to, but I mean, one thing that came up into court arguments was the fact that the Legislature had a chance to change this and they did not change it.
I mean, I think part of it was just the legislators didn’t think it was a big deal, but didn’t you introduce a bill, not a bill but a constitutional resolution, to change it one time? I may be wrong about that, but I think you did.
Michael Watson: [00:09:40] No, you’re you’re correct, 2015. And you know, I think the Legislature had been kind of rested on the idea that we’d had a couple of other provisions, initiatives that have gone through and didn’t see an issue with it.
So maybe there was no immediacy to address it. You know, again you know, I saw the language. I saw that there could be an issue, and that’s why we had that drafted and then tried to get that done. You’ll recall, you know I was chairman of constitution, and the former lieutenant governor maybe he didn’t think that was such a big deal.
So we’ll see. It has to be dealt with now. And we tried to do it back then, but it is what it is.
Geoff Pender: [00:10:19] Looking forward a little bit, there’s already been some talk. And I know this has been a debate for many, many, many, many years, but in your mind, as they address the ballot initiative process, are there changes they should make, improvements?
There’s been talk of a allowing voters to change or create statute, but not amend the constitution. Perfect world, having a magic wand, what would you like to to see done as they address this?
Michael Watson: [00:10:50] Yeah, we’ve been proactive on that, Geoff, and I think it’s a two-step process. Number one, obviously people need to have a way to have their voices heard if the Legislature is not reacting or, you know, performing their duties in a sense.
And we’ve seen this provision mechanism happen numerous times, obviously voter ID, eminent domain and then now Initiative 65. So it’s been a successful provision and used by Mississippians. And I think they deserve and need that. My hope is again, a two-step process. Number one, let’s go ahead and fix what we have to reflect the four congressional districts.
Let’s get that in and get that voted on. And number two, I think it’s going to take a little bit of time to kind of flesh this out in the sense of we’ve seen other states where they do allow their constituents, their citizens to amend statute. They do allow for their citizens, you know, to amend the constitution.
So do we want both? And if you go back and look originally, I think it was in 1916, we amended our constitution to add both, where you could amend statute and amend the constitution.
Bobby Harrison: [00:11:56] Oh, both were in the original constitution? I did not know that.
Michael Watson: [00:12:01] 1916 we added that to the constitution. Now it was struck down. I believe it was the Powers case in 1922 if I’m not mistaken. You can go back and kind of dig through that, which by the way, the Powers case is one of the reasons that we decided not to ask for a rehearing. But we could talk another hour about that. But again, that was in our constitution, and they amended it back in 1916. So that’s been thought through before. You know, are there different hurdles for a statutory as opposed to a constitution?
Do you want those? Is it just the statute? Is just a constitutional amendment? So that’s something that we’re digging through. We’re looking at all of the other 50 states trying to get an idea of what’s worked well in these other states. And is this something that we need to add here in Mississippi?
So again, I think it’s a two-step deal. Let’s fix what we have. And then let’s take some time to make sure we get it right. And then ultimately, you know, do we want to change it to a statutory and that constitutional initiative process? So we’re going to do our homework and present a plan to the Legislature.
And obviously they’re the ones that have to make that change moving forward.
Bobby Harrison: [00:13:04] Well, staying on the issue of the Legislature. There’s a couple of different issues here. Would you prefer a special session to go ahead and get this done? And if there was a special session would you just want to take up the medical marijuana issue and wait on the the overall ballot initiative issue or what’s your position?
Michael Watson: [00:13:18] All the above. You know, I believe that we should go into a special session for numerous reasons. Number one: so many folks came out of medical marijuana. It clearly passed with a strong majority of Mississippians voting. Matter of fact just this past week, a very close family friend of mine whose mother is now battling stage four cancer couldn’t eat, was in pain and they were able to get her some. I’m not sure if it was gummies or brownies. I’m not too familiar with that industry, but she was able to ingest that and then, you know, was able to eat and get her appetite back. So Mississippians voted for that, and I think you can help so many people.
So I would like to see the Legislature come in and handle that as quickly as possible while they’re there. Let’s fix this provision so we can go up for a vote. And then, you know, as we’ve mentioned before, the other initiatives that had passed there’s questions out there, whether or not they can be challenged. I think that they would both stand a challenge, but why waste that time?
Why put that risk out there when you could go ahead and address those? There’s statute and do it in a special session. So you’ve got four things that you could fix pretty quickly in my mind. And you get some, you get some relief, the Mississippians who clearly voted strongly for it. You get the process back before the people for the constitutional provision.
Now, the question is, would you call a special election, which they have done before? You may recall back in 2001. Or do you wait to 2022? And if they waited to 2022,then obviously that would take the immediacy out of fixing that provision. So those are decisions that the governor is going to have to make whether or not he calls the special session, and if he does what he includes. But as far as I’m concerned, I would say, yes, let’s do it, the will of the people into statute and get some relief to people who desperately need it.
Bobby Harrison: [00:15:08] My math showed, and it’s scary to say my math. People who know me know my math is usually not too good, but my math showed that a special election would cost somewhere around $1.5 million roughly. Would you concur in that or would you say my math’s wrong?
Michael Watson: [00:15:28] You got that one about right Bobby. We’ve shot at between $1 to $1.5. And so it’s better to err on the side of the conservative nature there and say $1.5 would get it done.
Bobby Harrison: [00:15:38] Changing the topic real quick. I know you’re busy, so we won’t keep you much longer. One of the ballot initiatives deals with early voting. I think you’ve gone on record in the past that you might be willing to look at some type of expanded early voting in Mississippi, but you’re dead set against expanded mail-in voting. Would you like to see something done on that issue during the upcoming 2022 session?
Michael Watson: [00:16:00] Yeah, so I’m a thousand percent against universal vote by mail. I think that’s a terrible idea. And one that we could see much more fraud involved with that. So I’m totally against that. On the other piece, I believe the last conversation that I had dealing with that was, look, there’s an initiative out there.
And by the way, it’s still out there, Initiative 78, which is one of the ones that I mentioned. You know,if the Legislature acted, if there was a special election in theory, they still could get their signatures within the year process and put that on the ballot. So I gotta be careful with that one.
Obviously we oversee that initiative process. But with that being on the plate there, my conversation, the last one we had anyway, was basically, look, if this is coming before the people, perhaps the Legislature should be proactive and look at what other states have done, Florida, and several others who have done it and done it well and successfully without the fraud. How have they done it, and is that something that we should look at in Mississippi? I think we owe it to Mississippians to have an open mind, to at least listen, to do our homework and form our opinions based on that homework that we have done. So other states have done it andhave gotten it right. I would say this, Bobby, some of the, not some of, most of the studies that I’ve seen, that basically said there is no increase in turnout with early voting.
It’s basically just a convenience issue. So I’m still old school in the sense that I love Election Day. And I think that is, I don’t think, I know that it’s the safest way to vote. So that’s my preference. But if there is a conversation, if there is an appetite, it is something that Mississippians deserve us to sit down and listen and do the homework and make sure we’re making wise decisions for our state.
Bobby Harrison: [00:17:41] Some people have said that the Legislature should address medical marijuana, which I think what you’re saying on early voting prior to the initiative, so that what some people saw problems with in the medical marijuana initiative could have been ironed out through the legislative process, but they chose not to take it up.
Michael Watson: [00:17:58] Yeah, absolutely. Bobby, you see this in the number. We’ve got five or six initiatives that were before us. So I think that’s a national trend that you’re going to see more folks going in that direction. So if you’re seeing that, you know, public sentiment grow in certain areas and yeah, I think it is the Legislature’s job to listen and respond.
That’s why we’re elected or elected to do the will of the people. And, that was one of the reasons we had that conversation, but you’re right. Same thing with medical marijuana. I think, you know, everybody kind of saw that thing from the ground up, just that train left the station. Perhaps the Legislature should have done something prior to, and I think that’s where we find ourselves now. Let’s get it right.
People want it Mississippi so we needed to be responsive to that. And again, that’s one of the reasons I said, let’s go ahead and have a special session and get it done.
Geoff Pender: [00:18:43] Mr. Secretary, your office deals with many, many different things. A lot of people may not realize some of the business responsibilities. Just real quickly, looking at the coming legislative session and all, what are some other issues that are top of mind or that you might be pushing for with the Legislature?
Michael Watson: [00:19:04] Yeah, Geoff, that’s a great question. And really quickly, just so people know, elections obviously is the face of the office, but then we have business services. So your LLCs, your corporations, your nonprofits, your cemeteries, your sports agents.
And I could keep going down that list, but those are filed with our office. We have the APA, the Administrative Procedures Act so rules and regs are under our office. We really impact your lives just about every facet, whether you know it or not every day. And then we have public lands. So we’ve got 16 section lands.
Then with education, we’ve got Tidelands along the coast. We’ve got forfeited properties. It’s a big office, and it has a big impact. So you’re right. We’re looking at several different things, right? One of the things that I’m really excited about, we’re working through with DOR. And I learned this, Alabama does this.
So every year LLCs and others have to file your annual report. It’s not that big of a deal. It’s a quick, easy kind of thing to do. It’s free. It doesn’t, you know, there’s no cost to it, those that are in Mississippi. But what if you could do that on your tax return? So it just knocks out one more step that you have to do as a business.
You could just do your filing. It’d be intertwined with your tax return. A DOR would send us that information. Again, just one less step that somebody has to have as a small business, just kind of hanging over their head. Not a big deal, but again, if you can make it easier for businesses, that’s something that we want to do.
So we’re looking at that. We’ve got some issues that have arisen in the scrap metal area. So we’re doing some homework and research in that. You may see some of that coming forward. As you know, again, elections. We had two big pieces last year that we’re going to come back with this year on dealing with voter roll maintenance.
And that’s been a big topic of conversation with S1 and HR1 as well as our proof of citizenship legislation. So we’ve got a bunch of things out there be it business, be it land. We’ve got some 16 section land questions on the ag side. Should we extend those leases to give farmers more time with the leases to invest in the land to get better returns? Many questions out there. We’re looking at some conservation ideas.
So you’re going to see a very active Secretary of State’s office. Again, coming from the Legislature and understanding that process really kind of gives me a leg up to understand how to get things done over there. So we’re going to be active and you know, we’re going to work hard for Mississippians.
Geoff Pender: [00:21:16] Well, we appreciate you joining us today. We’ll be staying in touch as some of these things progress or don’t as the case may be whether there’s a session or not. Again, thank you for joining us.
Bobby Harrison: [00:21:29] Appreciate it, Mr. Secretary.
Michael Watson: [00:21:30] You got it, Bobby. Thank you guys.
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