Jackson Free Press

Mississippi Republicans are still painting the state red in celebration of the party's recent electoral successes. The GOP is maintaining control of the governor's mansion, the lieutenant governorship, the state Senate and every statewide constitutional office except one.

To add insult to an injured—if not mortally wounded—state Democratic Party, Republicans not only wrested the Mississippi House majority from Democrats, who held power there since the dismantling of slavery in the late 19th century, but even enticed a couple of Dems to switch parties last week.

Members of both parties credit the election of Gov. Haley Barbour eight years ago with spurring the Republican tsunami. What Democrats might do to stem the tide is mostly unknown. What is known is that rebuilding the party will not be easy.

Speaking before a gathering of the civic organization Jackson 2000 last week, state Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, said that Democratic members of the House and Senate would need to change their strategy in the event of a Republican-controlled Legislature by becoming more combative and using the rules to cause gridlock if necessary.

"In a two-party system, the party that's in the minority serves as a check for those that are in the majority. It's their job to keep the other side honest," said Rickey Cole, executive director of Mississippi Democratic Party.

Tactics that minority parties employ to slow legislation include insisting on recorded roll-call votes instead of voice votes or asking the clerk to read a bill in its entirety.

State Rep. Kelvin Buck, a Democrat from Holly Springs, doesn't believe that becoming more combative is necessarily in Democrats' best interests. "I don't see how much more contentious it could be," Buck said of the party's relationship with its Republican colleagues.

Some evidence exists that the working relationship between the parties might not be as acrimonious as many people anticipate. Democratic State Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, sees opportunities for building coalitions around key issues, as long as Republicans don't overstep their bounds, and will even support a moderate House Speaker.

"I'm going to support the majority party, but I'm not going to support one of these far-right kooks. A far-right government would be genocide for public policy," Holland said.

Progressive-minded Mississippians fear that such a far-right agenda would include redrawing a more GOP-friendly electoral map when the Legislature takes up redistricting again next year, consolidation of school districts and expanding charter schools. Before Republicans captured the House, split majorities in the Legislature seemed to ensure that no redistricting deal could be struck, which would force a three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., to decide the issue.

Education is a theme around which collaboration seems possible. Gov.-elect Phil Bryant recently spoke to business leaders about pursuing partnerships with Mississippi's colleges and universities to create vocational-technical programs for high school dropouts, which could draw Democratic support.

State Sen. Gray Tollison, one of two Democratic legislators to switch parties in the past week (Rep. Donnie Bell of Fulton was the other), named education as one of the reasons for his defection. He said he was impressed by the work Senate Republicans were doing on the issue as well as by the ideas of incoming Republican senators Brice Wiggins of Pascagoula, Josh Harkins of Flowood and Chris Massey of Nesbit. And despite his departure from the Democratic Party, Tollison has championed progressive causes such as clean energy and could prove a valuable ally to his former party on some legislation.

If the parties don't learn to cooperate, it will be a long four years, and the uphill struggle against Republicans may not be the Democrats' most vexing.

The state party has little money and great difficulty raising it, nor is it likely that Democrat-friendly groups will pour much money into the state. "We have to get organized; our party is in shambles right now," said Horhn, adding that the Democratic National Committee "wrote off" Mississippi in the recent election, declining to support Democratic office seekers.

Just as important as raising money and getting help from outside groups is attracting young people to the party, said state Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson. "Republicans are good at attracting young people," Brown said. "We don't have a very good farm team."

Hope might lie in grooming young Democratic mayors in the mold of Johnny DuPree of Hattiesburg and Connie Moran of Ocean Springs, Hohrn said. Both mayors lost their bids for statewide offices to Republican foes last week, DuPree to Bryant in the race for the governor's mansion and Moran to Lynn Fitch for the treasurer's job.

In the meantime, Democrats will have to focus on moving forward with an agenda regardless of the Legislature's political makeup.

"We know that when the Legislature convenes, there will be 80 or more members who are Democrats," Cole said. "We will be speaking up loudly and clearly for the hundreds of thousands of citizens who voted for Democrats."

Previous Comments

ID

165422

Comment

Methinks we need a new politics and ultimately a new 'social contract'. Young occupiers know that both political parties are corrupt. Other moderate students know that too and alienate themselves from being recruited by the traditional parties. I hope the Democrats and our President in particular hears the OWS petitions for change and redress. If Obama with his 'Aloha spirit' articulates the new message of the alienated youth it could be the game changer. Obama might create the new political association of the next century which might win global appeal if it changes our oil economy to a more European-styled efficiency. Obama is smart enough to engineer it, but he would need to clean out the White House of the traditional ivy-league (financial) types that he feels so comfortable with.

Author

Aeroscout

Date

2011-11-17T10:23:58-06:00