State general elections will be held this Tuesday, November 5.
Because Mississippi has so many electoral districts where one party dominates, most elections were effectively decided in the primary.
The race for agriculture commissioner could be interesting: Neither Republican Andy Gipson nor Democrat Ricky Cole had opponents. Gipson gained publicity as a Bible-thumping conservative in the House before he was appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant to be ag commissioner when Cindy Hyde-Smith was appointed to the U.S. Senate. Neither one has run for statewide office, although Cole was the Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman from 2001 to 2004.
Cole promises to cut the sales tax on Mississippi-produced food. He wants Mississippians eating more locally produced food and hopes to expand local food supply networks.
Gipson promises to battle wild hogs and promote food exports abroad. He’s promoting a food branding campaign called “Genuine MS.”
Expect Republican Mike Chaney to win again as insurance commissioner. Everybody likes Mike, who is about as pleasant and affable as it gets. He’s a clear-headed, calm moderate.
The race for Central District highway commissioner will be a tight one between Democrat Willie Simmons and Republican Butch Lee. Simmons, a three-term member of the state Senate, is currently head of the Senate transportation committee, so he comes with experience. He represents the Delta. His district includes Indianola and Cleveland. His website promises to increase transportation infrastructure funding by $3,000,000,000 annually. Let’s hope that’s a typo.
Butch Lee, Brandon’s mayor, doesn’t list any positions or issues on his website. Listening to him on the radio, he acknowledge MDOT needs an additional $350 million a year for maintenance but won’t clearly come out in favor of the gas tax. Looks like he’s got the makings for a good politician.
Which brings us to the big races: Expect Republican Delbert Hosemann to be our next lieutenant governor, despite his talented and formidable Democratic opponent Jay Hughes from Oxford. Hosemann should make an excellent lieutenant governor.
Democrat Jim Hood versus Republican Tate Reeves. So tight. Are the tort wars far enough behind us to allay the fears of businessmen? The governor makes a lot of appointments. How is Hood going to fund all his promises?
Yet Reeves doesn’t have the political guts to make the hard decisions that our state so desperately needs. He won’t get behind the no-brainer gas tax, which just about every state in the nation had managed to adjust except Mississippi. He turns his nose up at a billion a year in federal Medicaid money that the working class desperately needs while our rural hospitals struggle to survive. And the Republican boondoggles over the past decade have made the Democrats look naive.
Given that so many elections are decided in the primary, you would think the turnout for the general elections would be lower. But that was not the case in 2015 when 576,775 Mississippians voted in the primaries and 718,185 voted in the general.
It’s all about the turnout. Are Mississippians happy with the state of affairs? If so, Reeves wins. Are voters tired of Republican monopoly and want to send a message like they did in Louisiana? If so, Hood wins.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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