Kingfish

“Mississippi Republicans who have struggled long and hard to get a Voter ID bill passed only to be backstabbed when in sight of victory.”

-ROM

Sens. Merle Flowers of Southaven, Joey Fillingane of Sumrall and Billy Hewes of Gulfport and Lt. Governor Phil Bryant should be ASHAMED! Political posturing and gamesmanship is not acceptable when it comes to something as important as Voter ID.

We were so close and then we killed it? What gives?
-ROM

Hosemann upset over failed voting bills

By TERRY L. JONES and EMMA JAMES

Editor’s note: This is a corrected version of the story.

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann is still disappointed that members of his Republican Party killed voter identification and early voting bills during the legislative session, he said Friday.

“It was an uneducated, knee-jerk, local reaction to what has obviously been successful in virtually every other Southern state,” Hosemann told the Hattiesburg American editorial board.

With the killing of the bills this legislative session, Hosemann said the state, “lost the opportunity to stop absentee ballot fraud and assisting voter fraud.”

He said the state also missed an opportunity to get past some of the racial battles that have torn the state.

“It means we’re going to spend a whole year or two more ripping scab off things we’ve been trying to put to bed for 50 years,” he said.

The election reform bills were killed last month by Sens. Merle Flowers of Southaven, Joey Fillingane of Sumrall and Billy Hewes of Gulfport.

Hosemann, who also spoke earlier Friday to the Area Development Partnership’s First Friday, said he believes Mississippi will have voter ID and early voting in the near future.

State Rep. Toby Barker, R-Hattiesburg, who attended the ADP meeting, said he shared Hosemann’s disappointment.

“It seemed like very petty reasons caused voter ID to fail,” Barker said. “Everything was in the right place at the right time and it fell through because personal agendas got in the way.”

Hosemann also introduced a wide-ranging agenda for next year that encompasses issues from land management to business law during both of his appearances Friday.

Topping the list is the establishment of business courts in the state. Hosemann hopes to start up at least three pilot programs in Gulfport, Jackson and north Mississippi next year.

Hosemann said the purpose of the business court is to expedite settling lawsuits between companies.

“It’s too expensive,” Hosemann said. “When two companies are fighting it out, they can’t get loans because of a lawsuit hanging over their heads. It holds up business.”

Limited liability laws are also due for an overhaul, Hosemann said, and he hopes to have a bill drafted for the legislature in December that requires limited liability companies to register with the state every year.

“Right now, we currently have more limited liability companies than we do corporations,” he said. “It’s become the way we do business. We want people to come to Mississippi to do business, and the way to do that is to have the best business laws in the country.”

Hosemann is preparing to undertake the reorganization of real property filings in the state. The first meeting of his real properties task force is slated for June 1 and will focus on finding a more standardized system for filing and public access to deeds.

“It’s a massive project, but we are hoping to have legislation drafted for December,” Hosemann said. “We want to lower filing fees and make it easier for the public to access those records.”

Hosemann said his biggest accomplishment since taking office has been the establishment of a Public Policy Department, which provides legislators with in-depth, non-partisan research on public policy.

“It’s a quantum leap forward,” Hosemann said. “Most legislators work for 90 days and then have full-time jobs to go back to. They might not have time to do research on everything that our public policy department can provide to them without a slant. That’s a huge advantage.”

http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=video/video_show.php&id=46628#

This is quite unreal.  Our friend Gilbert is in Iraq promoting the vote.  Interview from Kuwait with WLBT.

Certainly worth a view

-ROM

One of my lobbyist friends gave me this round up of what most consider to be the Haley’s Short list for appointment to the U.S. Senate. 

I can not confirm any of this but here is the latest Jackson GOSSIP!

Chip Pickering – Although he may not want the seat, looking at a Gubernatorial run in 2010, Pickering is the obvious choice to replace Trent Lott and we believe that the appointment is his to turn down

Roger Wicker – Questions linger about his statewide electability and the prospect of a special election in the 1st district is not exciting to anyone

Amy Tuck – Nobody that I have checked with has any idea about her interest but the name has been floated all over Jackson

Delbert Hosemann –  Apparently Eggbert is the new favorite dark horse for this appointment, obvious statewide electability, and positive name id but would he give up his brand new statewide office?

Tate Reeves – Proven statewide electability, prevaling wisdom says that he is a bit too young and untested for the old guard to acceptlet me know if anyone has heard anything else…

-ROM 

We are very proud of how we did in our “Pick em” challenge we NAILED the race for Governor within .3%

We went 7 for 8 on the winners picking Anderson to beat Chaney which obviously never happened

Listed are our predictions followed by actual outcome.  We did purty good I would say.

ROM PREDICTION:

Governor

Haley Barbour: 58.4%

John Arthur Eaves Jr: 41.6%

Actual:

Haley Barbour: 58.06%

John Arthur Eaves Jr: 41.9%

ROM CALL: CORRECT!!! WE NAILED THE GOVERNORS RACE

Missed it by just under 0.3%

Lt. Governor

Phil Bryant: 56.1%

Jamie Franks: 43.9%

Actual:

Phil Bryant: 58.7%

Jamie Franks: 41.3%

ROM Call: Correct!

Percentage: Missed on the tight side by 2.6%

Secretary of State

Delbert Hosemann: 55.9%

Rob Smith: 44.1%

Actual:

Delbert Hosemann: 58.6

Rob Smith: 41.4

ROM Call: Correct!

Percentage: Missed on the tight side by 2.7%

Attorney General

Jim Hood: 55.3%

Al Hopkins: 44.7%

Actual:

Jim Hood: 59.6%

Al Hopkins: 40.4%

ROM Call: Correct!

Percentage: Missed on the tight side by 4.3%

State Treasurer

Tate Reeves: 60.1%

Shawn O’Hara: 39.9%

Actual:

Tate Reeves: 60.7%

Shawn O’Hara: 39.3

ROM Call: Correct!

Percentage: NAILED THIS ONE TOO Missed on the tight side by 0.6%

State Auditor:

Stacey Pickering: 51.8%

Mike Sumrall: 48.2%

Actual:

Stacey Pickering: 55.2%

Mike Sumrall: 44.8%

ROM Call: Correct!

Percentage: Misssed on the tight side by 3.4%

Insurance Commissioner:

Gary Anderson: 51.0%

Mike Chaney: 49.0%

Actual:

Mike Chaney: 56.8%

Gary Anderson: 43.2%

ROM CALL: Incorrect…

Percentage: Underestimated Mike Chaney by 7.8%

Commissioner of Agriculture:

Lester Spell: 40.4%

Rickey Cole: 39.5%

Les Riley: 20.1%

Actual:

Lester Spell: 50.8%

Rickey Cole: 42.1%

Les Riley: 7.04%

ROM CALL: Correct

Percentage: Quite a bit off, I overestimated the beef plant effect on Spell and though it would push a larger chunk of his votes to Riley I underestimated Spell by 10.4%, was a lot closer on Cole who I only missed by 2.6%

ROM Goes 7 for 8 on 2007 Statewide Races with ON RECORD picks, our margins were closer to correct than any other on-record picks that we can find on the net. We had an average margin of Error on ALL PICKS of 4.08% OVERALL

As the years go on here at ROM we will continue this little exercise and keep a running tally

As it stands ROM’s pick em 2007 average is 88% correct on winners/losers with a 4.08% overall margin of error on the spread.

Not too shabby if we do say so ourself as we did pick 2 races dead on missing the exact percentage by less than 1%

How did ya’ll do?

-ROM 

Mississippi

November 07, 2007 – 12:50PM ET

Governor – General

1898 of 1899 Precincts Reporting – 99%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Barbour, Haley (i) GOP 415,103 58%

Eaves, John Dem 299,763 42%

Lieutenant Governor – General

1898 of 1899 Precincts Reporting – 99%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Bryant, Phil GOP 416,057 59%

Franks, Jamie Dem 292,333 41%

Secretary of State – General

1898 of 1899 Precincts Reporting – 99%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Hosemann, Delbert GOP 410,603 59%

Smith, Robert Dem 291,248 41%

Attorney General – General

1897 of 1899 Precincts Reporting – 99%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Hood, Jim (i) Dem 421,137 60%

Hopkins, Al GOP 285,357 40%

Auditor – General

1897 of 1899 Precincts Reporting – 99%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Pickering, Stacey GOP 385,243 55%

Sumrall, Mike Dem 312,048 45%

Treasurer – General

1897 of 1899 Precincts Reporting – 99%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Reeves, Tate (i) GOP 420,546 61%

O’Hara, Shawn Dem 272,327 39%

Agriculture Commissioner – General

1897 of 1899 Precincts Reporting – 99%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Spell, Lester (i) GOP 356,201 51%

Cole, Rickey Dem 295,021 42%

Riley, Paul CST 49,353 7%

Insurance Commissioner – General

1897 of 1899 Precincts Reporting – 99%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Chaney, Mike GOP 399,966 57%

Anderson, Gary Dem 304,677 43%

Public Service Comm – Central District – General

584 of 584 Precincts Reporting – 100%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Posey, Lynn Dem 117,273 50%

Barbour, Charles GOP 108,459 47%

Dilworth, Lee RP 6,706 3%

Public Service Comm – Southern District – General

683 of 685 Precincts Reporting – 99%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Bentz, Leonard (i) GOP 133,652 56%

Collier, Mike Dem 104,809 44%

Public Service Comm – Northern District – General

630 of 630 Precincts Reporting – 100%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Presley, Brandon Dem 128,670 58%

Murphree, Mabel GOP 94,791 42%

Transportation Comm – Central District – General

584 of 584 Precincts Reporting – 100%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Hall, Dick (i) GOP 121,452 52%

Warnock, Rudolph Dem 110,717 48%

Transportation Comm – Southern District – General

683 of 685 Precincts Reporting – 99%

Name Party Votes Vote %

Brown, Wayne (i) Dem 127,111 52%

Benefield, Larry GOP 115,151 48%

WOW! I will transpose these against my picks from last week and issue my own scorecard soon.

We didn’t do half bad!

-ROM 

John Goodman’s Fearless Forcast (link)

Blogger John Goodman at PearlMississippiCPA has some good predictions out. We really enjoy his blog as a whole.

We are collecting blogger predictions here so we can go back and decide who gets the “ROM Pick’em award” for 2007, that will go to the blogger who most closely predicts Tomorrow’s outcome.

All that said we think that John Laid out the case for Mississippians to elect Delbert Hosemann tomorrow better than we ever could, and we have been trying since late July.  Mr. Goodman is an election commissioner and understands how elections are run, we feel this gives him a unique perspective on the SOS race and so we feel that his column on the race warrants a re-post.

-ROM

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Delbert Hosemann for Secretary of State

It is rare when a race for lower state offices has such a great contrast. Usually, it is Tweedledee versus Tweedledum. But that is not the case for the Secretary of State’s race. While I have been a very strong supporter of Secretary of State Eric Clark, perhaps one of the most honorable and decent men ever in Mississippi politics, he is not running for re-election. So the choice is between Republican Delbert Hosemann or Democrat Robert Smith.

I’m voting for Delbert Hosemann. I know him and I can tell you he is a fine person and is well-qualified for the post. He’s been active in local affairs and has been active in a lot of charitable organizations. I have listened to him on talk radio (WJNT 1180 rocks!) and he is very well-informed on election matters.

The main issue this race has is a very sharp contrast on the matter of voter ID. Hosemann is for voter ID; Smith is against it. This may shock Smith, but there is voter fraud in this state. Has he ever heard of Noxubee’s Democratic primary races? In Smith’s home county of Rankin, there were MORE votes for the liquor referendum in 1980 than there was in the Presidential race. There was a lot of talk of voter fraud, but nothing was ever done.

In the Laurel Leader Call of October 7, 2007, Smith said voter ID would stop people from voting. He said he was most concerned about elderly people voting in 2008 due to possible re-registration due to party affiliation. In the Hattiesburg American of September 19, 2007, Smith also stated many older black Mississippians say providing voter identification is a reminder of the Civil Rights Era when the state used poll taxes to keep blacks from voting.

Delbert Hosemann has responded that he has encountered very little opposition to voter ID. In the Biloxi Sun Herald he has stated he would make certain nobody would be left out from voting. He said 97% of the people in the state have a driver’s license. As for the other three percent, he would find some other form of identification for them. In the Laurel Leader Call of September 29, 2007, Hosemann said he would lead the fight to pass a state constitutional amendment voter ID program, which would ensure only citizens would vote.

Smith has also come up with a plan to bring all the circuit clerks and county election commissioners together and come up with a better plans and various plans to conduct elections. Newsflash Smith: HAVA (Help America Vote Act) throws cold water on such plans to conduct different modes of voting in various counties. You can’t use lever machines and punch card machines. 492 people CANNOT be in charge of elections (82 circuit clerks and 410 election commissioners). You can’t have different counties have different voting systems and performance levels. There is only one boss: The Secretary of State. If different counties have different voting systems, the Secretary of State can be hauled into Federal court for violating the equal protection clause. Has Smith even READ HAVA? When the county clerk messes up (and that has been known to happen), the citizens will be calling the Secretary of State’s office–not the circuit clerk.

(I’m a municipal election commissioner and I can tell you that office has radically changed since HAVA took effect. Other than conducting elections (not primaries–only general elections), the municipal election commissioners don’t do a thing. Before HAVA, we used to meet at least three times a year to clean up the voter rolls. Under HAVA, we can no longer do that.)

Smith has no plans for bringing Mississippi up to code with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He has gone on record saying we should have BOTH electronic and paper ballots for the voter to choose between. Is this guy NUTS? As an election commissioner, that would be total chaos. It is a recipe for disaster and total confusion. Does Rob Smith know ANYTHING about how an election is run? Is he ignorant or just plain stupid?

Smith is also not a friendly person. I have had people tell me he is cold and caustic when they dealt with him when he was in the State Senate. I’ve talked to him in the past and found him to be a cold, aloof individual. What happens when he has to deal with angry voters if he puts some of his nutty ideas into effect (If the Feds don’t stop him.)? Is he going to flip them off?

Hosemann is intelligent, friendly, well-informed, witty and a very hard worker. I know he will do an excellent job and continue the great work Secretary of State Eric Clark has done.

The choice is so easy even a caveman can do it: Please vote for Republican Delbert Hoseman for Secretary of State on November 6th.

David Hampton Predictions

Hattip MS Smitty

I’ve tried not to make political predictions, since I predicted Jimmy Carter would beat Ronald Reagan in Mississippi. So many people cut that column out and sent it to me with the HA HA HA note, I think circulation went up. I kept them as a reminder not to do predictions in print. But I can’t help myself. Here goes:
Governor, Haley Barbour; Lt. Gov., Phil Bryant; Attorney General, Jim Hood; Sec. of State, Delbert Hosemann; Auditor, Stacey Pickering; Insurance Commissioner, Mike Chaney; Ag Commissioner, Lester Spell; Treasurer, Tate Reeves.
This is not our endorsement list, but who I think will win. Politics is not fair and the best person does not always win. But those not on the list can console themselves that I have a lousy track record for picking winners.

Columbus Commercial Dispatch Releases Statewide Endorsements 

Our choices (11/5)

Endorsements

Governor: Haley Barbour, Republican

Lt. Governor: Jamie Franks, Democrat

Sec. of State: Delbert Hosemann, Republican

Atty. Gen.: Jim Hood, Democrat

State auditor: Mike Sumrall, Democrat

State treasurer: Tate Reeves, Republican

Ag Comm.: Rickey Cole, Democrat

Ins. Comm.: Mike Chaney, Republican

With the statewide elections only a day away, it’s going to be up to the voters to sift through the candidates’ pitches and make their decisions, hopefully based on informed opinions.

The Commercial Dispatch has presented our readers with detailed information about the candidates for local, district and state offices. We done profiles on each local and area race and produced a voters’ guide on the local candidates before the first primary election.

We’ve had editorial board meetings with most of the state candidates and presented reports on those meetings for our readers. And we’ve seen them in public appearances.

Now, as yet another service to our readers, we’d like to present a slate of who we think are the best candidates for the top statewide offices:

Governor: Incumbent Republican Haley Barbour is the best choice, as we stated in an editorial in Sunday’s Dispatch. Barbour has proven his leadership and deserves another four years at the helm of our state.

Lieutenant governor: Democrat Jamie Franks is our choice for the state’s second highest elected office, for reasons we outlined in our Sunday editorial. We like Franks for his independent streak and bipartisan outlook. He will provide a check and balance for Barbour, who is the most powerful governor we can remember in Mississippi.

Secretary of state: Republican Delbert Hosemann deserves to be Mississippi’s next secretary of state. Hosemann, who undoubtedly has the best campaign ads this season, is not a career politician. He simply wants to serve Mississippians and clean up our elections.

Attorney general: Incumbent Democrat Jim Hood has done a good job and should have a second term in office.

State auditor: Although both candidates seem well qualified, Democrat Mike Sumrall, who has served 24 years in the state auditor’s office, is the better pick, based on his experience, in this closely fought race.

State treasurer: Republican Tate Reeves has been a good state treasurer and has only token competition from perennial candidate Shawn O’Hara. Reeves should be elected to a second term.

Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce: We’d like to see Democrat Rickey Cole have a chance at this job. The nefarious beef plant has left a bad taste in Mississippian’s mouths when it come to the incumbent in the position and it’s time for a change in this office.

Commissioner of insurance: In the wake of the insurance mess created by Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi’s longest serving state office holder, George Dale was ousted from this office by Gary Anderson in the primary. We like both candidates in this race, but we think Republican Mike Chaney is the better choice for the prudent approach he promises to take in restabilizing the insurance industry in the state.

These are our picks for the top eight statewide offices. It’s a bi-partisan ticket, with four Democrats and four Republicans. We aren’t interested in supporting any particular party; we’re just looking for the best candidates to serve Mississippians for the next four years.

These are our suggestions, and now it’s up to you, the voters, to go to the polls and vote your convictions. The polls will be open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Vote responsibly.

Common Sense FTPW has on-record predictions

Our buddy Kingmaker is on record for tomorrow.

Governor: Strong hold GOP (Barbour)

Lt. Gov: Strong hold GOP (Bryant)

Atty Gen: Strong hold Dem (Hood)

Sec. of State: Gain GOP (Hosemann)

Treasurer: Strong hold GOP (Reeves)

State Auditor: Hold GOP (Pickering)

Ins. Commish: Gain GOP (Chaney)

Ag. Commish: Gain Dem (Push in reality) (Cole)

He has some good commentary on this post at the link above.

-ROM