This was just emailed in and it looks bogus. I doubt the Log Cabin Republicans are getting involved in the Mississippi Republican Primaries. Smells like someone is up to some dirty tricks. The letter is not mentioned on their website: LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS
And the signature and the name of the executive director do not match.
We don’t appreciate this kind of dirty, nasty, underhanded politics so we are here to call this out, that’s why blogging can be a force for good. If this letter is in fact fake and if anyone else received this please let us know.
**Update 7/28** Max Phillips was endorsed by the Clarion Ledger: READ HERE
The Neshoba County fair coverage seemed to be uneventful with all candidates staying civil AP COVERAGE HERE
Alan Lange the very accurate and respected handicapper at YallPolitics picked Max Phillips to win in a close race with Cindy Hyde-Smith running second READ HERE
Cindy Hyde-Smith was endorsed by outgoing Ag Commissioner Lester Spell
There are 2 active campaigns, Max Phillips and Cindy Hyde-Smith who look ready to duke it out for the Republican nod on August 2nd.
The amount of emails and traffic from our original post on this race received leads us to believe that there is a lot more interest in this race than most political insiders might think.
A breakdown of where the race stands right now:
Campaign finance numbers have pulled close to equal with Max Phillips continuing to hold a slight edge.
After exhaustive conversations with everyone who would speak to us off the record about the race (GOP county officers, local officials, Tea Party reps, Republican hacks and a couple lobbyists) our notes revealed common themes and phrases, the most common of those are as follows:
Cindy Hyde-Smith: is actually somewhat despised by the grass-roots because they resent the fact that she changed parties only to run for this office, she is essentially a Democrat in a Republican primary, but was an early Jackson Lobbyist favorite who was fading fast until she infused her campaign with $40,000 personal contribution and pulled in some money from Labor Unions. Hyde-Smith seems to have the support of Democrats, Lobbyists and Labor Unions but we don’t see any Republican groups supporting her right now and have a hard time imagining any Conservative backing someone who was in the same party as Barack Obama only 6 months ago, has only been in elected office as a Democrat and voted for the beef plant.
***Updated*** Cindy Hyde-Smith released her ad today 7/15/11
not too shabby really, for a normal Commissioner of Ag candidate it’s par for the course, it does some tricks to hide the fact that Cindy was not born on a farm, says “born in a Christian household” and that her daughter will be “a 5th generation farmer” and she calls herself a Republican which is a recent development but we digress.
***Updated Again*** After further review we feel that Cindy Hyde-Smith should be chastised for this screen shot, it it blatantly misleading, her father was a truck driver and not a farmer, this is trying to be too cute and this screen shot is a lie, decide for yourself:
The above statement is false and misleading
ROM Overall Grade D- for attempting to mislead voters into thinking she is a farmer.
****ANOTHER UPDATE****
This video was emailed to us from a well known Mississippi politico apparently someone is not too happy about Cindy Hyde-Smith and her resume inflation, so much so that they made a little video about it.
Max Phillips: Grassroots favorite and Tea-Party backed candidate who’s campaign stumbled and failed to gain momentum out of the gate has apparently righted the ship has put some money in the bank and has been quickly gaining establishment backing and winning back early Hyde-Smith backers.
And in the biggest news out of this race in cycles Max Phillips has just released his first campaign advertisement. (you heard it right folks a real TV ad in an Ag Commissioners race) We did not expect to see anything substantial out of either campaign until the last week or so.
It can be viewed here:
The ad is surprising if not shocking in how good it is for Ag commissioner candidate, it’s very funny, has great visuals, real talking points and even has a subtle highlight of the difference between the candidates (Cindy Hyde-Smith does not seem like the type to get her boots dirty). It looks to be as well produced as anything around the state right now.
If Max Phillips can raise enough money to keep this on the air he may be able to win this without a runoff. If nothing else this is going to force Cindy’s hand. We will see what she can come back with. (*update* we have seen and it is posted above… Yawn)
ROM Overall Grade: A+
This race should be an easy one to call although it’s far from over, electing a Democrat who is funded by labor union money in Republican primary to this office would truly be an embarrassment to Conservatives across the state. ROM pulls the trigger in it’s first race of the year and officially endorses Max Phillips for Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce in the August 2nd Republican Primary.
-ROM
***Updated*** Dr. Dannie Reed is still around, we had not seen a sign or an ad or a piece of mail or a strong fundraising report so we mistakenly assumed that he was not pursuing the race with real vigor he dropped by and added a comment so we felt obliged to include it in the post out of equal time/fairness or whatever.
From Rep Dannie Reed: “That (sic) is Dr. Dannie Reed, Doctorate of Agriculture Real Experience (sic) , servicing and developing farmers and Ag. as a County Agent. Elected Twice as a Republican, never lost, unoposed (sic) second race. But worked every day and not a lobbyist . The people will see who is the best,”
Seems like our hard partying friend Ricky Dombrowski just can’t get it together, last night he was late filing his periodic campaign finance report , it was due by 5:00 PM to the Secretary of States office but it did not arrive by fax until 1:28 AM on March 11th from Election Impact Group (a one man “group” consisting of Howie Morgan) according to the fax time stamp printed on the top of his report (LINK) (due to the photo we recently posted (LINK) we can only speculate as to what he was doing up so late). One would think that someone running for Secretary of State, the office that is in charge of this kind of thing might know that.
So we took a look around and found out that Ricky seems to have a problem getting things in on time, most notably Ricky Dombrowski was late paying his taxes for THREE YEARS IN A ROW (among other things, more on that later), see the below article from the Sun Herald Archives:
QUOTE: “Shoot, I hate it more than anybody because I’m an elected official and it gets written up in the paper if I don’t pay them,” he said. “. . .The point is, they get paid.” — Gulfport Councilman Ricky Dombrowski, on being late paying his taxes for the third year in a row.
Sun Herald, The (Biloxi, MS)
August 19, 2003 Page: A2
2 COUNCIL MEMBERS LATE WITH TAXES SAVANT, DOMBROWSKI WILL PAY THEM
Author: MIKE CUMMINGS/THE SUN HERALD
GULFPORT — Gulfport City Councilmen Ricky Dombrowski and Kim Savant are late in paying their property taxes for a third consecutive year, records show.
Savant currently is behind $6,204 on three properties.”They’re my commercial properties,” he said. “They’ll be paid before the first of the year. They always are.”
Last year, Savant was late paying $453 for a single property. He was behind $2,711 for a climate-controlled warehouse in 2001. Two years ago, Dombrowski was late paying $4,179 on four properties. He was behind $3,170 on two properties last year. The current list shows Dombrowski has a tax liability of $4,597 on five properties, including his West Gulfport glass shop.
“I don’t have the money to pay it,” Dombrowski said, adding that he will pay the tax charges plus any penalties once he has the money.
He said his glass business is owed about $40,000 from customers. He said he made a decision to pay off his suppliers but hold off on paying some of his property taxes until he had the money to cover them.
“It’s not a great business decision, but it’s not a bad business decision,” he said.
Dombrowski said he also is trying to sell the beachfront water slide he owns and could use the proceeds to cover the delinquent taxes.
“Shoot, I hate it more than anybody because I’m an elected official and it gets written up in the paper if I don’t pay them,” he said. “. . .The point is, they get paid,”
The taxes, for the year 2002, were due Feb. 1. The delinquent properties are scheduled to be auctioned on Aug. 25. But property owners have two years to reimburse (with interest) anyone who pays the balance and retain their property.
Councilman Billy Hewes also is listed this year for a tax liability of $1,016.54 for a property on Klein Road, but he said he sold the property more than a year ago.
“Apparently, they haven’t gotten it converted at the courthouse yet,” he said.
—Mike Cummings
(EMPHASIS ADDED)
Sounds like a great candidate for Secretary of State.
Short answer is probably not, but after qualifying as a surprise yesterday we will be covering him because he looks like fun. And we have pictures! (See below)
Just a little digging on our new and exciting single issue revenge candidate Ricky Dombrowski and he looks less and less like a serious candidate and more like some dude with an ax to grind.
It remains to be seen if he is serious about making this run or just wanted to grab a headline.
Regardless, he looks like he’s probably a fun guy to hang out with.
Is that a stripper pole? And/or an actual stripper? And is he giving me the middle finger?
Ho Humm… at least we know he has the good judgement to drink Miller Lite (it’s triple hops brewed, if you didn’t know).
Good luck Ricky, we can’t wait to see your campaign ads.
To note: After consulting a lawyer it is obvious that this image falls under “fair use” for political commentary and we were served with a false DMCA notice, so we would have a legal case of perjury against the filer, anyway its not worth going to court over when all you have to do is move the picture from wordpress servers and put it over at photobucket. We aren’t professional bloggers so it took us a while to figure that out.
Republicans are running for all eight statewide offices in Mississippi this year, but Democrats are running for only five.Both major parties are fielding candidates for governor, attorney general, treasurer, agriculture commissioner and insurance commissioner.
Democrats don’t have candidates for lieutenant governor, secretary of state or auditor.
Tuesday was the qualifying deadline for statewide and regional offices, and it brought few surprises. Although former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove had been rumored as a potential candidate for lieutenant governor, he did not enter the race. Musgrove, a Democrat, was lieutenant governor from 1996 to 2000 and governor from 2000 to 2004.
This year’s party primaries are Aug. 2, and the general election is Nov. 8.
Democrats dominated Mississippi politics for generations, but Republicans began gaining momentum in 1991 with the election of businessman Kirk Fordice as governor. The GOP now holds seven of the eight statewide offices, with Attorney General Jim Hood as the lone Democrat.
Hood is seeking a third term, and his only opponent is Republican Steve Simpson, who recently resigned as state public safety commissioner.
Mississippi Democratic Party chairman Jamie Franks said Tuesday he’s disappointed the party doesn’t have a full slate of candidates.
“This is going to be a year of rebuilding,” Franks said in an interview.
Republican chairman Arnie Hederman in a statement that the GOP expects a “spirited” primary.
“We are confident that come August we will have a ticket of tested and proven conservatives to carry our message forward against the big-spending Democrats in the fall,” Hederman said.
Republican Gov. Haley Barbour can’t seek a third term.
The four Democrats who qualified to run for governor are William Bond Compton of Meridian, who ran a low-budget campaign for governor in 2007; Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree; attorney and businessman Bill Luckett of Clarksdale; and Guy Dale Shaw of Coffeeville, a former Yalobusha County tax assessor.
The Republican candidates for governor are former state employee James Broadwater of Byram; Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant of Flowood; businessman Dave Dennis of Pass Christian; Pearl River County Supervisor Hudson Holliday of Poplarville; and businessman Ron Williams of Moss Point.
William D. Oatis is running as an independent for governor. His city was not immediately available. Shawn O’Hara of Hattiesburg is running as a Reform Party candidate for governor.
O’Hara also signed up to run this year under two different party labels for state treasurer – as a Democrat and as a Reform Party candidate.
O’Hara has been a perennial fixture in Mississippi politics the past two decades and has run unsuccessfully for a host of offices, from governor to congressman to mayor. In 2007, O’Hara signed up to run for all eight statewide offices, two regional offices, two legislative seats and eight Forrest County offices. The Democratic Party told him to pick one race to run in. O’Hara appealed to circuit court, and a judge eventually told him to pick one. O’Hara ran for treasurer and lost.
This year, O’Hara faces Ocean Springs Mayor Connie Moran in the Democratic primary for treasurer. The open state treasurer’s race also attracted three Republicans – Lynn Fitch of Madison, director of the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System; Lucien Smith of Jackson, an attorney and former budget adviser to Barbour; and Lee Yancey of Brandon, a state treasurer and money manager for a Jackson-area financial firm.
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann of Jackson attracted a last-minute Republican primary opponent.
Gulfport City Council president Ricky Dombrowski said Tuesday during a news conference on the coast that he’s challenging Hosemann because he’s upset about Hosemann’s handling of tidelands leases in the city’s small craft harbor. The secretary of state’s office oversees leases of public lands, including tidelands. Dombrowski said he believes the city should not have to share revenue with the state.
You watch the video, you look at the evidence, you look at Childers body language. Travis Childers is a Liar. The Obama Endorsement letter has been posted on just about every well read political blog in Mississippi and we have a screen capture here.
Does anyone really think that the campaign manager has not been on the internet in a week, nor did they bother to check to see if there were any facts associated with an attack ad that is running against them.
Notice Childers does not reject the endorsement.
Notice how he fidgets when he has to answer questions about it.
This is a really dumb move, the Davis campaign won this one boys, take your lumps and try to change the subject, we know when someone is lying and yall are full of it. Anyone think we can trust Travis Childers or his campaign manager anymore?
By Kenny Goode
The Banner-Independent
The pastor of a small, predominantly black, church in the Frankstown community said his congregation is prepared to fight eminent domain proceedings when the issue comes before a judge next month in Booneville at the Prentiss County Courthouse.
Court date is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 18 at 9 a.m. Plaintiff in the case will be Prentiss County.
“And we have retained Attorney Steve Farese of Ashland to represent us,” said the Rev. Henry Da-
mons of Ruben Chapel Church. The county will be represented by Attorney Frank Russell of Tupelo. Rev. Damons said the 240-member congregation of Ruben Chapel Church is resigned that their church, which was founded an estimated 80 years ago, will likely have to move to another location so the runway at the Booneville-Baldwyn Airport can be extended 1,000 feet. “Even though the church was there first and even
though it means some of the congregation’s deceased loved ones in the adjacent cemetery will have to be disinterred and moved elsewhere.”
He said the church has been a focal point in the community since 1925 with even earlier records indicating members attended church services nearby in a building known as the Lincoln School, which no longer exists.
Rev. Damons continued, “We also disagree on what Prentiss County officals are trying to give us, monetarily, for the property. We’d rather lose the church in court than to give it to these people who are supposed to represent all of Prentiss County.”
The minister said, if and when the church relocates closer to Baldwyn, the money offered by the county would not be enough to construct a new church. “We will be going into debt by probably $150,000 because of having to move.”
News of eminent domain proceedings were announced in a press release last week from Glen Green, president of the Prentiss County Board of Supervisors.
Rev. Damons said it was his understanding that quite a number of landowners were less than pleased with the amounts they received but he could only speak for Ruben chapel Church. “The law states the government has to give a fair market value and as County Board Attorney Joey Langston has stated so eloquently,’A fair market value is a fair market value in the hearts and minds of the jury’.”
He added, “I think the elected officials are trying to sell to the public that this is the right thing to do all in the name of progress. But, it’s not… It only benefits a few so we’ll leave it up to a jury.”
In his opinion, Ruben Chapel’s minister said he does not foresee any great amount of industry being brought into this area by the extension of the runway airports are the county needs to fill the in-
dustry facilities it already has first.”
The minister said perhaps the greatest issue, rather than getting enough money to rebuild, is regarding the removal of graves, which he estimates to be about 12
he added, “At the start of this, the negotiators wanted us to remove the graves. Some of those are unmarked and have been there a long time. You are talking about caskets which will have deteriorated and, in some cases, there will be nothing left but bones. It is going to be a horrific challenge.” And he disputes the county’s figures regarding number of affected graves and predicts if the project goes forth, that some unmarked graves are even likely to be blacktopped over by the runway itself.
He said all aspects will ultimately be aired in court – including his allegations that many of those involved in the proceedings have had a personal conflict of interest.
He concluded, “That is what we are going to do. I could not sleep at night if we allowed the county to bulldoze this congregation.”
ROM- This get’s worse and worse for Travis Childers the more we uncover, thanks to the great investigative reporting by BarneyFife.
The Banner-Independent is tough to find online so we appreciate that hard work finding this article, this is a killer, the pastor is on record saying that this expansion only benefits a few.
Travis Childers was the Chancery Clerk and Joey Langston was the Board Attorney. We have previously established their friendship, the fact that they were business partners and we have a lot of emails ect. that encourage us to keep digging because there is no doubt from the people of Prentiss county that this proceeding was pre-arranged and Langstons “gift” was the same kind of payoff that he is now infamous for.
Below are somewhat shocking photos of the Travis Childers and Joey Langston project to extend the Booneville Airport Runway so that Joey Langston (who was the board Attorney at the time) could land his 5 million dollar private jet. During the process Childers and the county bulldozed a church that sat on this spot and dug up at least 8 graves.
What gets me about these photos is that not only were some graves disturbed and relocated but now the entire cemetary is blocked off by the airport fence. Who wants to go pay respects in a graveyard when you have to dodge landings by trial lawyers private jets?
ROM- It appears that Travis Childers and Joey Langston partnered together or made a back-room deal to raze a church and re-locate some graves so Langston could land his $5 Million Dollar private Jet.
DJounal- BOONEVILLE – Negotiations have been under way for more than a year between Prentiss County and a church that stands in the path of lengthening the Booneville-Prentiss County Airport runway.
Having reached an impasse, county officials have begun eminent domain proceedings to acquire property where Ruben Chapel CME Church and a small cemetery now stand.
Trustees of the church have received papers summoning them to court in September, said the church’s pastor, Rev. Henry Damons Sr.
“We’re praying we do not have to go to trial, and that this be settled without going to court,” Damons said.
At issue is conflicting appraisals of the property by representatives for the county and the church.
The church’s appraiser, Jack Sabely of Pontotoc, has said the fair market value of the property is $285,000, although to rebuild will cost the church $340,000.
The latest offer the church received was $180,000 from attorney Tyler Moss on behalf of the county, and members of the church voted to not accept the offer.
“All we’re asking for is a fair market value, and they claim they don’t have the money to give us what we have as the appraised value,” Damons said.
Information was not immediately available as to what other property owners may be subject to the eminent domain proceedings.
However, Chancery Clerk Travis Childers said Friday that settlement had been reached with at least one other property owner earlier in the week.
ROM- So basically the county (Travis Childers) was trying to low-ball this minority church in order to lengthen the airport runway at the request of the Langston’s so they could land their private jet. Then threatened to seize the land through eminent domain when the congregation balked.
DJournal- Charitable donation The Rev. Henry Damons had a situation back in 2006. His Ruben Chapel CME Church and Prentiss County were at loggerheads over a year-long dispute.The county wanted the church property so it could extend the Booneville-Baldwyn Airport.It planned to take the property by eminent domain, raze the church building and relocate eight graves from the property.The problem was simple: The fair market value of Ruben Chapel’s building wasn’t enough to pay for a replacement facility. And so the congregation balked at the legal proceedings.Joey Langston broke the stalemate with a $40,000 donation through The Langston Fund, a charitable organization he and Tracie set up in 2002.Today, Ruben Chapel is about two months from completing the new building alongside Highway 45 on the Prentiss County side of Baldwyn.“Joey came through for us,” Damons said. “It’s a win-win for Prentiss County and the church.”He described Langston as a “kind man” who does a lot for his community. “Everyone is satisfied,” he noted. Besides his benevolence, Langston was interested in the case because his law firm has a large plane housed at the airport, although media reports late last week said the $5 million jet is up for sale.The plane has been used in the Corporate Angel Network, which ferries cancer patients to treatment centers across the nation.
ROM- So was this “charitable donation” really as charitable as reported or is this the same kind of operation that Joey Langston is now infamous for? It APPEARS that when Langston needed a longer runway he called his old buddy Travis Childers who was more than happy to bulldoze a church and dig up the final resting place of Mississippi citizens to make it happen for his old friend and business partner. Childers and the county also had the audacity to try and seize the church under eminent domain.
When the congregation balked at the low offer (too low to rebuild) Langston came in to “save the day” with a “donation”. My gut tells me that this was all worked out ahead of time between these “business partners” and “good friends” but of course we will never know.
Digging up graves, bulldozing churches, bags full of cash, private jets, pulled hamstrings, this is getting FUN!!!
Feel free to comment
-ROM
P.S. Bardwell our Hamstrings are REALLY sore after this one. Put us on the IR!!! Hopefully a real reporter can pick up where our resources (google, gossip and rumors) have left off and figure out what really went down.
“FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden in Jackson declined to say what the agents took when they executed a search warrant at Langston’s office early Monday.
Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers, who is close friends with Langston and his family, reacted to the search with some cynicism. “This is America,” he said. “People are supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, but high-profile people sometimes don’t have that luxury.””
“Close friends” and business partners, seems like they may be closer than Oscar De La Hoya and Oscar the Grouch but I suppose everyone is 6 degrees apart anyway.
Right of Mississippi 
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