Black voters are the overwhelmingly majority of Mississippi Democratic Party’s base. Why is party leadership white?

The party’s leadership has failed to support and devote resources to black Mississippians, who make up at least 70 percent of its voting base. 

This is the third story in a three-part series about the Mississippi Democratic Party.

By Adam Ganucheau | May 29, 2020

Bobby Moak called into the statewide radio show of uber conservative Paul Gallo on Aug. 6, 2016, for what was his first public interview since taking over as chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party.

Moak, the former Democratic leader in the House of Representatives who was defeated by a Republican in November 2015, was pressed for several minutes by Gallo about his position on the state flag, which is the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem.

Many Mississippians believe the emblem is a symbol of hate and shouldn’t represent the state with the highest percentage of black residents.

Gallo: “Let’s play the ‘what if’ game. If Democrats had power in the Legislature and the Governor’s Mansion, what would y’all do about the state flag?”

Moak: “I think one thing that we can’t do is throw red meat issues out there. We’ve got too many issues with education —”

Gallo: “Now you’re just dancing around it, and that’s what people don’t like. Here’s a yes or no question: If you were in total control, would you, through the Legislature, change the state flag?”

Moak: “Paul, I’m not a member of the Legislature —”

Gallo: “No, but you’re the chairman of the Democrat Party, and I think your views are respected or at least you’d like them to be with the people out there. Would the Democrats change the flag immediately if they were in control of the Legislature?”

Moak: “I don’t have a crystal ball, Paul, I have no idea —”

Gallo: “Would you push for that as chairman?”

Moak: “Well let’s just say this. Your same question is that (Republican Speaker of the House Philip Gunn) is in control of the Republican supermajority. He’s stated that (the state flag change) needs to occur, and we haven’t seen that happen. So let’s look in today’s realities, and let’s talk about some issues that are going to make some difference in people’s lives like education, poverty and jobs. Let’s don’t dance around those issues either, Paul. I mean, my goodness —”

Gallo: “I’m asking because we just had a publisher of a newspaper that thinks we need to change the state flag. I think so, too. I’m asking, as chairman of the Democrat Party, are you in favor, yes or no, of doing that, and will you push for it with the candidates you put forth in the next election cycle?”

Moak: “Well first of all, as chairman of the party I don’t put forth candidates. Number two, I don’t set policy, that’s the Legislature. I used to be there—”

Gallo: “Well what do you do?”

Moak: “Here’s what we do, we try to put the structure in place so that good candidates will come forward…”

Six times in four minutes, the brand new chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party refused to say that Democrats should change the state flag if given the opportunity.

“That was the moment I knew the leadership of the Mississippi Democratic Party didn’t represent people who look like me,” said Tyrone Hendrix, a longtime political strategist who worked on the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and helped manage Johnny DuPree’s 2011 gubernatorial campaign.

At least 70 percent of Democratic voters in Mississippi are black, but the top leader of the Mississippi Democratic Party is white.

As white elected officials and voters have ditched the Democratic Party in droves in recent years, white Democrats have maintained their control of the state party. Before Moak was chairman, it was Rickey Cole, a white man. Before Cole, it was Jamie Franks, a white man. Before Franks, it was Wayne Dowdy, a white man. Before Dowdy, it was Cole, a white man. Before Cole, it was Jon Levingston, a white man.

Beginning the evening following the 2019 general election in which the Democratic Party suffered a historic loss, Mississippi Today interviewed more than six dozen prominent Democrats about the past, present and future of the party. In those interviews, a single theme was discussed more than any other: racial tension within the party that has gone ignored by party leadership.

“There’s more racism in this Democratic Party than I’ve seen in the Republican Party,” said Felix Gines, an unsuccessful 2019 legislative candidate who served as chairman of the Harrison County Democratic Party. “I wish I was wrong about that.”

Jared Turner, the only black political fundraiser in the state of Mississippi and one of few in the nation, is considered a must-have consultant for top Democratic candidates in the state. Name a high-profile Democratic campaign in Mississippi since 2007, and Turner likely helped out in some way.

That depth of experience has shown Turner which political strategies work in Mississippi, and perhaps more importantly, which strategies don’t work in Mississippi.

After the 2015 election in which Democrats suffered massive losses, Turner dove into the data. White moderate voters, long the main target of Democratic Party leaders, had all but completed their years-long shift to the Republican Party.

So he developed a theory and became one of the first operatives to share it broadly with prominent white leaders: The Mississippi Democratic Party should not spend another dime on white voter outreach.

“I’m watching Democratic campaigns ignore black voters and spend 90 to 95 percent of their money on reaching white voters, who continue to end up voting for Republicans,” Turner said. “Then after the election, I’m seeing the same people who made those spending decisions blame black voters for not turning out and supporting our candidates. It’s just bullshit.”

Turner continued: “We need an apparatus to actually turn out black voters. Black voters participate in elections more than any other demographic, but there’s a segment who will not turn out unless you have a specific program in place to get them to turn out. There are real gains to be made with them, unlike with white voters, and very few have tried it.”

Few people have tried to run statewide campaigns Turner’s way in large part because they’re received no messaging support from the party, several black candidates and political operatives told Mississippi Today.

Take 2019, for instance: The state party, led by a white moderate, put its messaging behind the top two candidates on the ticket: Jim Hood, a white moderate running for governor, and Jay Hughes, a white moderate running for lieutenant governor.

Meanwhile, the messaging of black statewide candidates like attorney general candidate Jennifer Riley Collins, secretary of state candidate Johnny DuPree, insurance commissioner candidate Robert Amos and treasurer candidate Addie Lee Green were largely ignored by the state party.

“Hood was who he was and what worked for him, and we needed him and the party to be more,” said Pam Shaw, who managed the 2019 campaign of Jennifer Riley Collins. “There were thousands of people who voted for Mike Espy in 2018 who didn’t vote at all in 2019, and I’d argue it’s because they only heard Jim Hood. The numbers are there for Democrats to have success in statewide elections. But the Hood campaign or the party didn’t do the kind of outreach to black voters that would’ve helped him and helped us, helped the ticket.”

Shaw continued: “It all goes back to the tension around how you build your base and what’s your party. Is it building your base around brown or black people, being open and welcome, or is it going to the others? I don’t know that people have made that decision yet.”

One reason white moderates continue to hold the power of the party: Mississippi’s black Democratic voters have never been adequately represented on the state party’s governing body.

Every four years, Mississippi Democrats elect 20 people from each of the state’s four congressional districts to serve on the 80-member executive committee, which is responsible for “any and all affairs of the Democratic Party,” according to the state party’s constitution. Those duties include approving all party financial decisions and electing the party chairman.

The deck is statistically stacked against black Democrats on the executive committee.

A plurality of the state’s Democratic voters live in the 2nd Congressional District, which has been heavily gerrymandered by white, conservative leadership. During the 2016 presidential election, the 2nd Congressional District was home to 43 percent of the state’s total Democratic voters. The next closest district by Democratic makeup was the 3rd Congressional District at 21 percent.

• Congressional District 1: One executive committee seat per 4,197 voters.

• Congressional District 2: One executive committee seat per 9,617 voters.

• Congressional District 3: One executive committee seat per 4,805 voters.

• Congressional District 4: One executive committee seat per 3,875 voters.

In the 2nd Congressional District, which Congressman Bennie Thompson represents, black voters make up about 61 percent of the electorate. The next closest district by black representation is the 3rd Congressional District at 32 percent.

Though the 2nd Congressional District is home to considerably more black voters than any other district, it receives the same number of executive committee seats as the other three congressional districts, each of which represent far fewer total black voters.

Of the 80 executive state committee members elected in 2016, just 42 of them, or 52 percent, were black — about 20 percentage points lower than the overall black voter representation of the party.

“I love this party, and I work hard to help Democrats in Mississippi win,” Turner said. “I’m a political consultant. I don’t work anywhere else. This is how I make my money, it’s how I feed my family. I even take on extra work for little pay just to do some basic stuff that the party itself isn’t doing that it probably should be.”

“I just feel like I’ve been loyal to something that has not been loyal to me,” he said.

Shameca Collins decided to run for district attorney in southwest Mississippi in 2019 because she believed that alternatives to prison could do more long-term good than locking people up and potentially disenfranchising them for life.

Collins, a black Democrat who had been serving as a city prosecutor in Natchez, had considerably more progressive thoughts on criminal justice issues than the 24-year incumbent district attorney, a white moderate named Ronnie Harper who was running for reelection.

“I believe in being tough on crime, but being tough on crime doesn’t mean that you have to destroy lives,” Collins told the Natchez Democrat. “You can’t let people get away with committing crimes, but you can put programs in place that will reform our young men and women before they become another statistic.”

Collins benefited from Mississippi NAACP organization efforts that were already occurring in southwest Mississippi. The NAACP, which does not endorse political candidates, advocates for its members around specific political issues. It is one of several organizations in Mississippi that boosts progressive issues but operates independently of the Mississippi Democratic Party.

The organization’s proven grassroots strategy replicates the successful campaign methods of civil rights groups of the 1950s and 1960s. Last year, NAACP leaders identified key allies at the neighborhood level who could rally around issues that later happened to align Collins’ platform. Over time, those community allies broadened their reach to voters across the district.

“That campaign tradition has continued in Mississippi whether African Americans had a political party engage with them or not,” said Corey Wiggins, the executive director of the Mississippi NAACP.

Many voters in Collins’ district were upset about lengthy pretrial incarceration rates and racial inequity in the criminal justice system, Wiggins said. The NAACP efforts helped show voters that local elected officials were responsible for those frustrations.

That strategy ultimately paid off for Collins as she unseated the longtime incumbent Harper in the Democratic primary.

“By centering people and communities directly impacted by the issues and the policies that are creating havoc in everyday lives of folks, it’s powerful,” Wiggins said. “When you’re talking about issues of racial equity in justice, how do you really get to the core of the ills that we are experiencing? You’ve got to center people to understand that.”

Wiggins continued: “Whether that’s through a grassroots organization, a political party or even a corporate entity, you’ve got to center people. If not, you leave out the most important component of why we’re doing this in the first place.”

Though that grassroots campaign blueprint was literally drawn up in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement, leaders of the Mississippi Democratic Party have made no effort in at least two decades to follow it, several prominent party players told Mississippi Today.

Just twice in the modern history of the Mississippi Democratic Party has an African American served as chairman. From 1987-1994, Ed Cole, a black man, served as chairman. And from 1994-1998, state senator Johnnie Walls of Greenville held the seat. Walls was outspoken during his political career about black Mississippians being underrepresented within the state party. As he considered an independent bid for U.S. Senate in 1984, Walls said black candidates of the Democratic Party “do not receive the same support we give whites.”

Race is a key consideration of the current structure of the party. In 1976, just 44 years ago, the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party merged with the majority-black Mississippi Loyal Democrats to form the modern state party.

Most of the Loyal Democrats had become politically engaged with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which was founded in 1964 by Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker and Bob Moses as a way to obtain political influence in the state. Their founding of that party was spurred by the “regular” Mississippi Democratic Party’s racist policies and exclusion of black voters.

“One thing that people involved in today’s Mississippi Democratic Party tend to forget is that we’re an actual coalition between races,” said David Rushing, who is white and serves as chairman of the Sunflower County Democratic Executive Committee. “It’s delicate. You have to talk and understand where people are coming from to really maintain this coalition. I’m afraid it’s being frayed right now because the state party leadership doesn’t seem to know how to work with the base (of black voters).”

Key strategists who have led the party’s focus on growing support among white moderates agree with Rushing. After the 2019 election in which Democrats earned little white moderate votes, the strategists told Mississippi Today that the party cannot win with that focus. And worse, they say, is the risk of further isolating the party’s base of black voters.

“The party’s gotta tear itself down completely and start back again,” said Michael Rejebian, who managed Jim Hood’s campaign in 2019. “You’ve got some dynamic African American leaders in different parts of the state who are poised to take the reins, get out there, build the party back up and run for office. I think they can win, but that hinges on getting rid of those obstacles that have kept African American leaders from moving into higher positions (in the state party) or state office.”

Moak, who is campaigning to be reelected party chairman later this summer, does not agree with Rejebian or other strategists who have conceded the focus on white moderate appeal can’t win elections. This week, Moak told Mississippi Today that he believes the party should continue focusing on growing its white moderate support.

Every Democrat interviewed for this series said that the Mississippi Democratic Party should be as diverse and as broadly inclusive as possible, particularly regarding race. But most people interviewed said that for the party to build a winning strategy for the future, the majority of its focus should be on supporting its base of black voters.

“The party doesn’t have to be all black. It doesn’t even have to be black dominant,” Hendrix said. “But it should be led by people who have the general belief that the party should reflect both the demographics and the positions on the issues that a majority of Democrats in the state of Mississippi have. Right now, that’s just not happening.”

“The Mississippi Democratic Party is at the point that if it doesn’t change, it will die,” he said.

Editor’s note: Read part one and part two of our three-part series about the Mississippi Democratic Party.

The post Black voters are the overwhelmingly majority of Mississippi Democratic Party’s base. Why is party leadership white? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Southern Miss athletics

Southern Miss plays home football games at The Rock, but league foes from a time zone away rarely bring many visiting fans.

The first thing I’d do as commissioner of Conference USA? I’d blow it up.

It doesn’t work.

It didn’t work long before the pandemic. It certainly won’t work now.

Most of all, the economics don’t work. There’s too much travel, not nearly enough revenue.

In many ways, the league was designed – and has been altered over the years – with TV markets in mind. That’s why FIU and FAU were accepted as members in 2013, to regain the Florida TV market lost when first South Florida and UCF exited. That’s why UTSA was accepted in 2013. San Antonio is a big city with lots of TVs.

Rick Cleveland

But the various networks have not been impressed. Big city teams do not necessarily translate into big TV contracts. People in Florida prefer to watch the SEC Gators and the ACC Seminoles and Hurricanes. Folks in Texas tune in to Texas, Texas A&M and TCU. For Conference USA, FIU, FAU and UTSA added little other than acronyms and airfare expense.

Conference USA stretches three time zones from El Paso to Miami, 1,932 miles by highway, more than 1,600 miles by air. That’s too far. The league goes as far north as Marshall in Huntington, West Virginia, with intermediate stops in Charlotte, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Norfolk, Virginia. It’s too spread out, it makes no sense.

This is Mississippi Today and we are much more interested in Southern Miss. The geographic nightmare that is CUSA really makes no sense for the Golden Eagles, who along with UAB, are the only original members remaining in the league.

In its wildest dreams, Southern Miss would prefer to be in the SEC and share in its riches. That’s not going to happen. Secondly and more realistically, USM would prefer to be in the American Athletic Conference with former CUSA mates such as Memphis, Houston, UCF, East Carolina and Tulane. That probably isn’t going to happen, either. The AAC still longs for the lucrative TV deal that hasn’t materialized and the Hattiesburg market adds little to that. Besides, Memphis (22-40-1 against USM in football), Tulane (8-23 against the Eagles), UCF (2-6), East Carolina (12-27) and Houston (5-9) got tired of getting their brains beat in back in the day. They are 49-105-1 all-time against Southern Miss. Most of those schools have only nightmares about Hattiesburg.

The best remaining alternative for Southern Miss is a more regionalized league with more natural rivalries and less travel – a bus league, for lack of a better term, that includes teams that make sense from CUSA and the Sun Belt Conference.

We can quibble about the exact makeup, but I’d take Southern Miss, UAB, Louisiana Tech, Rice, North Texas and Middle Tennessee State from CUSA. I’d take Arkansas State, South Alabama, Louisiana, Troy, Georgia Southern and Georgia State from the Sun Belt. Crank up the buses. Save the airfare. It makes sense and would save dollars, thousands and thousands of dollars.

Look at Southern Miss’s 2020 football schedule, assuming there is a 2020 season. On Oct. 17, the Golden Eagles fly more than 1,000 miles to play UTEP in a CUSA league game. That same day, Coastal Carolina flies more than 900 miles to play Louisiana in a Sun Belt game. The expense of both trips is enormous. And how many USM fans do you think will make that trip? How many Coastal Carolina fans will go all the way to Lafayette? Not many is the answer to both questions.

Clearly, it would make more sense for Southern Miss and Louisiana to be in the same league playing one another. They have a long, shared athletic history. They’ve played 51 times over the years. They are three hours apart by bus. It’s an easy trip for fans.

Surely, Coastal Carolina could have better rivalries with, say, Charlotte, Old Dominion and Marshall of Conference USA.

Basketball travel is an even worse. Last season, Southern Miss made a two-game CUSA road trip to Marshall and Western Kentucky. It was more like an odyssey. The Golden Eagles took a bus to New Orleans on a Wednesday to fly to West Virginia, by way of Chicago. From Chicago, they flew to Charleston, West Virginia, and then bused from there to Huntington for a Thursday night game. Then, they bused from Huntington, to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to play WKU on Saturday. They bused back to Hattiesburg after the game. The players missed three days of classes. That’s just nuts.

Why didn’t they charter, you ask? Can’t afford it.

Baseball teams face the same dilemma, the same travel nightmares. So do women’s basketball and softball teams.

This pandemic is going to change so much about so many facets of life, including athletics. Already, universities around the country are discontinuing sports because of economic realities. Finding ways to cut costs has become more essential than ever, especially for schools not in the power conferences.

There will never be a better time to make this happen. Unless it was 10 years ago.

The post It’s past time for radical change in Conference USA appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Top strategists say Mississippi Democratic Party’s focus on white moderates can’t win elections. Will anything change?

A political identity crisis within the Mississippi Democratic Party is harming candidates up and down ticket. 

This is the second story in a three-part series about the Mississippi Democratic Party.

By Adam Ganucheau | May 28, 2020

Michael Rejebian will be the first one to tell you that the political strategy he carried out for Jim Hood, the Democratic nominee for governor in 2019, was a failure.

The campaign, which had been heralded as the Democratic Party’s best shot at the Governor’s Mansion in at least 16 years, focused most of its resources on targeting independent white voters, particularly in northeast Mississippi. Hood, a pro-life and gun-toting moderate, had won four attorney general races in large part by appealing to those voters.

But that focus drew criticism from Democratic voices several times during the 2019 campaign who said Hood should have been doing more to appeal to the party’s black, more progressive base. Late shifts in strategy occurred before the election, but those moves proved futile.

On Election Day, Hood lost all but two counties in northeast Mississippi, and he ran below targets in majority-black Democratic strongholds. He lost to Republican Tate Reeves by about five points.

“Continuing to focus on moderate white voters as a means to secure future electoral success assumes that there are enough moderate white voters to make that happen,” Rejebian, Hood’s campaign manager, told Mississippi Today this week. “And, more important, it discounts the potential future strength of African American voters.”

“The Democratic Party in Mississippi has reached its crossroad,” Rejebian said, “and now it’s going to have to make some tough decisions if it’s to even have a future.”

Bobby Moak, the current chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, disagrees. In an interview this week, Moak touted statistical gains made in 2019 with white moderate voters in suburban and university counties, and he said the party should double down on its efforts to attract white moderates.

“We see a lot of independents who want to come back,” Moak told Mississippi Today this week. “They’re coming back as you saw in the post-election analysis precinct polling in 2019. In different areas of the state, you saw 8-15 percent of voters come back to the party who had not historically been there in the last eight or 12 years.”

Moak continued: “We’ve brought back independents into the fold, we’ve brought back white voters. There’s one thing I believe in, and that’s that we will not stand if we stand alone. We have to have all of us: blacks and white and every mix of moderate or far left or far right Democrats. You have to have all of those folks coming in.” 

Rejebian and Moak’s clashing of ideals illustrates a political identity crisis within the Mississippi Democratic Party. 

As national Democrats struggle over whether certain progressive messages are too far left for average Democratic voters, Mississippi Democrats are struggling over whether certain conservative messages are too far right for average Democratic voters.

Political moderates like Moak have maintained the most power within the state party despite the fact that most moderate voters have left the party in recent years. Meanwhile, more progressive candidates and voters, who make up a majority of the party’s base, are on a limb. This unaddressed tension has left the party with no clear platform, and Democratic voters are receiving mixed messages from their candidates.

And every Mississippi Democrat, regardless of political bent, is losing the messaging battle versus the top-down Republican Party, which has implemented a clear platform and featured politicians who consistently fall in line with the values of their party leaders.

“What 2019 showed us is that if Mississippi voters are going to respond to a candidate who runs on conservative principles, they’ll vote Republican,” said Marvin King, a political science professor at the University of Mississippi. “At least in the short term, there’s not a path for Democrats in Mississippi to have success at the statewide level. So right now Democrats have to build for the future, and they should ask themselves how they want to lose.”

“Do you want to lose on Democratic principles,” King said, “or do you want to lose on something you’re not?”

Janis Triplett Patterson, a retired community college professor from Booneville, saw the effects of this identity crisis play out down ticket last year as she ran for the state House of Representatives.

Running as a first-time candidate, Patterson was offered no policy guidance from the state Democratic Party. Using other statewide campaigns as an unofficial guide, she centered her messaging around three positions that have become standard for Democrats in Mississippi: expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, fully funding public education, and devoting more funding to the state’s crumbling roads and bridges.

But when voters would press her on more sensitive political issues in private gatherings, she opened up about her support for tightening gun restrictions and “empowering a woman’s ability to make health care decisions with doctors as opposed to being criminalized for them.”

“I didn’t go out of my way to talk about those things publicly, but when people asked I was always going to tell the truth. I knew that could lose me some points, but so be it,” Patterson said. “I told people that I was a Democrat and that I was not going to play both sides. I stand for the things I believe in, and I think I did that my entire campaign. Maybe that wasn’t the best strategy to take, I don’t know. But I ran for the reasons I believed were right.”

As Patterson implemented that strategy, Hood targeted those same voters in her district with advertisements featuring his pro-gun and anti-choice viewpoints, hoping to swing more white moderate voters — particularly in northeast Mississippi —  his way in the governor’s race.

In the end, Hood’s strategy performed no better than Patterson’s. On Election Day, Hood received just one vote more than Patterson in that House district, where both candidates handily lost to their Republican opponents.

Voters in that district associated Hood’s and Patterson’s candidacies, even though the two candidates had policy diversions. But neither ultimately got enough votes to win because they were both Democrats.

“The party is in a terrible conundrum. Trying to find an ideological lodestar they can follow to victory is elusive,” said King. “They don’t have the numbers to win on the left, even though the left makes up the numerical majority of the party. But the moderates in Mississippi are conservative enough that they’re not going to vote Democratic.”

King continued: “It’s got to be disappointing if you’re a Mississippi voter who’s fairly progressive. You look at the top of the ticket and say, ‘I don’t like what I see here.’ They’re not enthusiastic about campaigning for or donating to candidates. I think the party would do better if it’d double down on the policy preferences of the majority of its voters, and they can build on that. But if your focus isn’t on generating passion among your base, then you don’t have a chance.”

A look at the Mississippi Democratic Party’s platform, adopted in 2016, would do little to help voters understand what the state party actually stands for.

Take health care, an issue that has stirred intense debate at the national Democratic Party level, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many high-profile progressives at the national level want “Medicare for All,” and others want to focus on expanding the Affordable Care Act to cover more Americans.

In its platform, the Mississippi Democratic Party doesn’t set itself apart from any other party or group on the issue of health care. Noticeably absent is specific mention of expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, a banner achievement of former President Barack Obama and a prominent campaign platform that most moderates and progressives in Mississippi share.

“We believe accessible, affordable, high-quality health care is part of the American promise, that Mississippians should have the security that comes with good health care, and that no one should go broke because he or she gets sick,” reads the complete health care platform of the Mississippi Democratic Party.

Several other key issues that Democrats champion during campaign season are ambiguous in the party platform. Issues like infrastructure, education and economics mention few, if any, specific policy positions. The issue that perhaps splits Mississippi Democrats the most — abortion — landed an open-ended, 14-word sentence in the 2016 platform: “We support a woman’s right to privacy in making her own health care decisions.”

Moak, the party chairman, said he does not believe the state party should take the lead on issues that candidates champion publicly; instead, he said elected officials should draw their own lines and expect party support.

“You have to realize you will not keep all the factions satisfied, okay, that’s just a fact of political life,” Moak said. “The party is not here to set policy positions. That’s for our elected officials whether at the city, county or state level. The issues they want to push is when the party needs to come in and say, ‘Let’s do this.’ You get behind them.”

Moak continued: “(Elected officials) are looking at things from a bigger view than we are, and they should have more information than the party has. And the party needs to back them up.”

But with so few prominent Democratic elected officials in recent years, the party has provided little policy or messaging backup, more than a dozen candidates and elected officials told Mississippi Today.

Jay Hughes, the white moderate who unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor in 2019, agrees. Like Rejebian, Hughes acknowledges that his 2019 strategy of appealing to white moderate voters cannot be a winning strategy moving forward.

“I couldn’t have been more of a moderate if I tried,” said Hughes, who lost the lieutenant governor’s race by about 20 points in 2019. “We need to admit that what we have isn’t working. It’s time to try something different and start from scratch.”

Editor’s note: Read part one of our three-part series about the Mississippi Democratic Party.

The post Top strategists say Mississippi Democratic Party’s focus on white moderates can’t work. Will anything change? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Senate has put the brakes – at least for the time being – on the House plan to allow Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann to reconvene the Legislature at any time this year.

The House took up and passed the unprecedented proposal with no dissenting votes Wednesday to essentially keep the Legislature in session until Dec. 31 to deal with matters pertaining to the coronavirus, though they would only be in Jackson when jointly called by the two presiding officers – Gunn in the House and Hosemann in the Senate.

Senate President Pro Tem Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, said the Senate would not take up the proposal this week.

“We are seriously considering it,” Kirby said. “I think there are some questions by some senators. They want to talk about it.”

The proposal would essentially strip Gov. Tate Reeves of what has traditionally been one of the most coveted powers of the state’s chief executive – the sole authority to call legislators back in special session once they adjourn the session for the year. Reeves expressed no opposition to the House plan when he was asked about it Wednesday. But on Thursday various senators and others said Reeves was in the Capitol expressing his opposition to the proposal to members of the Senate.

It would take a two-thirds majority to pass the proposal in the Senate. The governor would not have the ability to veto the joint resolution.

The 2020 session already is unprecedented because of the recess legislators took in March because of safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 session was scheduled to end in early May, but because of the recess is scheduled end July 12.

The Constitution limits the Legislature to 125-day sessions in the year after statewide elections – such as 2020 – and to 90 days in other years. But the Constitution also allows the Legislature to extend the session for 30 days at a time. Under the House resolution, the session would be continuously extended in 30-day increments for the rest of the year, though, they would only return to Jackson when called by Gunn and Hosemann – presumably to deal with coronavirus-related issues.

The issue is the latest power struggle between the Republican Reeves and and the Republican-controlled Legislature. Earlier this month they were engaged in a conflict when Reeves claimed he had sole authority to spend $1.25 billion in federal funds provided to the state to deal with coronavirus-related issues. The Legislature maintained it had spending authority under the state Constitution and eventually Reeves acquiesced.

Sen. Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, said Thursday he had discussed the issue of extending the session with Reeves. He said he also had spoken with members of Mississippi’s U.S. congressional delegation who told him there was a possibility the state could receive additional federal funds to deal with revenue shortfalls caused by the coronavirus economic slowdown. For that reason, McMahan said perhaps the Legislature should take measures to ensure its ability to reconvene to appropriate those funds.

“I would probably vote for it,” McMahan said.

Of maintaining the ability to return to Jackson, Sen. David Parker, R-Olive Branch, said, “In normal times, my opinion would be in no way we do this. Unfortunately, right now is not normal” and legislators need the ability to reconvene.

Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, the minority leader, said, “I think we are facing unprecedented times that call for unprecedented measures. We are facing a budget shortfall of between $100 million and $800 million. I think it is the right thing to do.”

But Sen. Chris Johnson, R-Hattiesburg, said he most likely would oppose the measure.

“I think it is premature to extend the session for the remainder of the year,” Johnson said. “If we do our job now, it seems likely that we will not need to come back. The governor can always call a special session if the need arises.”

Sen. Lydia Chassaniol, R-Winona, said legislators are supposed to be part-time and have other business and family obligations that could be impacted if the House proposal passed. But she stressed members are willing to work.

House Pro Tem Jason White, R-West, said the extension would not cost any additional funds. The Legislature receives $10,000 per session, regardless of length, and $1,500 per month out of session. The Legislature could still draw the $1,500 monthly benefit if the session was extended, but the members were not in Jackson. When legislators are meeting in session in Jackson, they also receive per diem.

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While the Mississippi Department of Employment Security has received more than 290,000 jobless claims as COVID-19 ravaged the nation’s economy, the number of people actually receiving unemployment benefits remains a mystery.

For weeks, the employment office has failed to respond to several public records requests and questions from Mississippi Today, including how many unemployed people it has paid during the pandemic. Officials at the agency say they’re too busy to comply with the Mississippi Public Records Act.

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The state recorded an unemployment rate of 18.8 percent in the week ending May 2.

Federal data shows about 30,000 jobless Mississippians on average have filed new unemployment claims each week since the beginning of the economic crisis on March 15. As of May 23, about 200,000 people were still filing weekly claims, which is how they notify the department they’re still unemployed. But the agency has not said how many people they’ve officially approved and of those, how many have actually gotten their money.

Applicants face several hurdles in actually receiving the much needed funds, even when they meet all requirements for either traditional unemployment or the expanded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance passed by Congress.

Claimants must answer an exhaustive list of questions when applying and if they make one wrong entry — selecting “leave of absence” instead of “laid off,” for example — their claim may be flagged with an issue.

The employer may object to the claim, triggering an investigation in which an agency investigator would have to conduct further interviews with the employer to make a determination on the claim within 14 days. Employment Security officials told lawmakers during a hearing on May 7 that the agency had nearly 44,000 pending issues — a “startling number,” said Benefits Payment Chief Jeff Rhodes.

Claimants may also get locked out of their account, which requires them to get through clogged phone lines to an agency employee who can reset their password.

Even if applicants receive a notification saying they’re approved, and even if they can see a balance of funds in their account, they could wait weeks before receiving a direct deposit or their debit card, which allows them to access the money, in the mail.

The state recorded an unemployment rate of 18.8 percent in the week ending May 2 — the eighth highest in the country — up from 15.6 percent in April and 4.8 percent in March.

Historically, unemployment benefits have only reached a fraction, sometimes less than 10 percent of all jobless people looking for work in the state. This could be because they don’t qualify under federal or state guidelines, they exhausted the 26 weeks allotted or they simply didn’t bother to apply for the meager benefit of between $30 to $235 a week in Mississippi, the lowest in the nation. In light of the pandemic, Congress increased the weekly benefit by $600, making it more enticing to jobless workers. The bump is set to expire July 31.

Mississippi Today has three pending requests with the employment agency dating back to March 26, April 6 and April 13 for various records. State law requires agencies to provide records with seven business days of a request, 14 if they request an extension, unless the information is exempt.

“Due to MDES’s critical and heightened responsibilities during the COVID-19 Emergency, we will not be able to re-direct critical resources at this time due to the allocation of time needed to properly respond to certain items in your request,” Employment Security’s communication department said in an emailed response on April 22. “We ask for your patience and understanding.  Please be assured that when normal business operations return (or when the disaster declaration has ended), we will address all such requests.”

Mississippi State Health Department took a similar approach to dealing with requests from newspapers during the pandemic, including a request from Mississippi Today for more comprehensive demographic data on COVID-19 cases.

“As you are aware, MSDH is working around the clock to keep the citizens of Mississippi safe during this pandemic,” the department’s COVID-19 Incident Commander Jim Craig said in an April 15 letter to the news organization in response to requests from April 3 and April 6. “As a result of the necessary work that must be done to combat COVID-19, we do not have the capacity or resources to respond to your specific requests at this time.”

The Health Department recently agreed to release the names of long term care facilities where residents and staff tested positive for COVID-19 after a judge ruled in favor of Hattiesburg Publishing Inc., owner of the Pine Belt News, saying that the department must follow the Act and either supply the information or provide a specific reason the information is exempt under the law.

Mississippi Today also recently inquired about a work program that Employment Security runs, for which it received more than $700,000 from Mississippi Department of Human Services since October. The money came from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a federal welfare grant that has been the subject of a massive alleged embezzlement scheme over the last three years.

Unemployment officials said it would not answer any questions about how it runs the program, who it serves or their outcomes, instead referring all questions to Human Services. Human Services, which is still responding to public records requests, did provide its $1.3 million subgrant and scope of work with Employment Security to Mississippi Today.

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The post How many jobless Mississippians are receiving unemployment benefits? State employment office won’t say. appeared first on Mississippi Today.