Like many candidates, Bill Waller Jr. has started making his tour of newspaper offices to talk with editorial boards. On Monday, the Republican candidate for Governor arrived at The Dispatch where he spent a lot of time in the newspaper lobby.
He wasn’t being kept waiting. Instead, he was captivated by the old chalkboard mounted on the lobby wall. On it, the results of the 1971 Democratic Party run-off had been posted and it was of particular interest to Waller, then a student at Mississippi State.
In the waning years of Democratic Party dominance in Mississippi, winning the Democratic Party nomination was tantamount to winning the general election. It wasn’t until 1991 that a Republican — Kirk Fordice — won the Governor’s race. A Democrat has won just once since.
The political landscape was much different 48 years ago.
The tally of the 1971 GOP run-off showed both the local and state-wide results of what would be one of the biggest upsets in state politics in the past 50 years — Bill Waller’s upset of Charles Sullivan in the Democratic run-off. A few months later, Waller easily defeated Charles Ever to win the governor’s seat.
As Waller Jr., the governor’s son, studied the board, he no doubt was struck by the similarities between his father’s race and his own.
In 1971, conventional wisdom said Sullivan, the state’s four-time Lt. Governor, would easily move into the Governor’s office, but Waller, running on a comparatively moderate platform, won by roughly 60,000 votes, upsetting the establishment candidate.
Aside from the change in party affiliations, the narrative for the governor’s race this year is much the same as it was almost a half-century ago.
Waller, who retired in December after serving for 21 years on the Mississippi Supreme Court — the last 10 as Chief Justice — will take on GOP establishment candidate Tate Reeves, now in his second term as Lieutenant Governor, along with political newcomer Robert Foster of DeSoto County in the Republican Party.
Nine candidates, including Attorney General Jim Hood, will compete for the Democratic Party nomination.
Waller is focusing his campaign on three issues he believes Reeves has under-supported or ignored — health care, roads/bridges infrastructure and education.
Waller said Reeves’ efforts in leading the Senate to fund the state’s failing roads/bridges system are inadequate. In 2017, Reeves and House Speaker Phillip Gunn put together a $1.1 billion roads/bridges package three years after a Mississippi Economic Council report stated that $4.5 billion would be needed to restore the infrastructure to good working order.
One of the bigger policy differences between Waller and Reeves is in the healthcare front. Although there have been some rumblings in the state GOP that the party may be open to expanding Medicaid, Reeves has held the establishment line. Waller, by contrast, said he favors expanding Medicaid. With four of the state’s eight rural hospitals in danger of closing, Waller said expanding Medicaid is the best option in keeping those hospitals in business.
Waller also said he supports significant raises in teacher pay to bring the average pay to the regional average. This session, the Legislature passed a $1,000 pay raise, which Waller believes to be inadequate.
Waller said he also believes Mississippi’s economic development strategy needs to be overhauled. Since taking over the Senate in his role as Lieutenant Governor almost eight years ago, the state has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives to attract new business. Waller said he believes the focus should shift to providing support for those businesses and industries already doing business in the state.
Although Reeves will have the support of Mississippi’s Republican orthodoxy, Waller believes the contrasts he offers to Reeves on this issues will prove to be a winning strategy.
Whether a more center-right Waller can upset the GOP hierarchy represented by Reeves is an open question.
But, as the old chalkboard in The Dispatch lobby attests, it’s happened before.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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