Earlier today, in front of friends, constituents, and supporters, state Senator Chris McDanielannounced his bid for the Republican nomination in next year’s United States Senate election. While McDaniel’s campaign enjoyed their time in the headlines, a war has broken out which will test many political and personal friendships.

We already saw Marshall County Republicans declare their opposition to the incumbent McDaniel is challenging. In fact, McDaniel will soon speak at an event hosted by Marshall County Republicans. That was just the beginning.

Take state Senator Josh Harkins (R-Flowood), for instance. Josh is a member of the Tea Party Senate Conservative Coalition, of which McDaniel is the leader. Josh’s father is the Chairman of the Rankin County Republican Executive Committee.

Having a senator and party chairman of one of Mississippi’s largely populated – and Republican – counties in possibly two separate camps, the Harkins family may be split between loyalty to the party’s longtime incumbent or personal friendships. History buffs out there should be catching onto the historic parallels taking place here. This is just one example of many that are likely to occur.

We also have no word that the Mississippi Republican Party has coalesced behind the Republican incumbent. No mention of “We expect and encourage him to run again with our full support.” With factionalism breaking out among Mississippi Republicans, this could be the Republican leadership not wanting to subject themselves to further criticism from an already skeptical Tea Party base.

We have not received confirmation that the Republican incumbent is running for reelection to the seat he has occupied since 1978. For now, McDaniel is the only one doing the talking; thus, he is in the driver’s seat.

For those tracking the battles of the Republican Civil War, put this one in the Tea Party column.

Friends,

These are frustrating days for our country’s political system. The Tea Party has consumed what was once known as the Republican Party. Rather than work with Democrats to find solutions to our problems, the Tea Party has taken our country hostage and refuses to listen to reason.

Mississippi’s Tea Party leadership is more focused on what they oppose rather than what they support. Gregg Harper, Roger Wicker, and Phil Bryant get their marching orders from Tea Party bosses and shrug their shoulders to the needs of average Mississippians. Enough is enough!

Mississippi needs your help! The time to act is now!

As we prepare for elections in 2014 and 2015, we must have a strong firewall in Rankin County to help our candidates. The Tea Party will have to break a sweat working to win votes in Rankin County! They have taken our county for granted long enough.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE $5, $10, OR $20 TO THE RANKIN COUNTY DEMOCRATS!

In 2012, President Obama increased his 2008 vote totals in 31 of our 53 precincts. The President received 616 more votes than he did in 2008 while Mitt Romney received 304 more than John McCain. This is with 3.5 percent fewer voters turning out. There is a political shift taking place in Rankin County, and the tide is turning in our direction. We need your help to speed things up.

PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR FRIENDS IN RANKIN COUNTY BY DONATING $5, $10, OR $20 TODAY!

Don’t want to donate online? No problem. Please make checks payable to Rankin County Democrats and mail them to Post Office Box 54361, Pearl, MS 39288.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.  Check out our website for news and event updates.

Thanks for all that you do to make Mississippi a better place.

Your friend,

Ryan Brown, Rankin County Democratic Party Chairman

We are happy to send our congratulations to Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree on his successful re-re-election last week! It was a tough campaign, to say the least, and we are delighted at the outcome!

There are many exciting events coming up in October! Mark your calendars now! As always, everyone is welcome to our gatherings!

Tuesday, October 1, will be a monumental day for our country. On that day, the health insurance marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act will go online! Mississippi’s Tea Party leadership is hoping for failure, but their delay tactics will not work. Be sure to check out www.healthcare.gov for more information about Mississippi’s health insurance marketplace and how you or someone you know can apply for coverage.

Congressman Bennie Thompson and the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center will host an Affordable Care Jubilee Friday, October 4, from 1:00 pm until 6:00 pm at the Comprehensive Health Center in Jackson. If you need to apply for coverage or learn more information about the insurance marketplace, you are strongly encouraged to attend.

Our monthly Breakfast with Democrats will be Saturday, October 5, at the Flowood Corner Bakery next to Dick’s Sporting Goods. We will get underway at 8:30 am.

The Rankin County Federation of Democratic Women will host a representative of Ready for Hillary on Thursday, October 10. It will be held at Pearl City Hall beginning at 6:00 pm.

Immediately following the Ready for Hillary event, the Rankin County Democratic Executive Committee will hold its quarterly meeting in the same room we will meet for the Ready for Hillary event.

United States Senator Bernie Sanders, Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, will be in Jackson for a town hall event at the Jackson Medical Mall Wednesday, October 16, from 5:30 pm until 7:30 pm. Please attend and help welcome the senator to Mississippi. If you plan to attend this free event, please RSVP HERE.

It is going to be a busy and exciting month! We look forward to seeing you soon!

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.  Check out our website for news and event updates.

Support your Rankin County Democratic Party by investing $10, 20, or even $100 by clicking HERE!

Speaker Philip Gunn, Tea Party leader

Earlier today, Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) offered his thoughts about the activation of the health care marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act which goes into effect October 1.

There are so many inaccuracies in his statement it is difficult to know where to begin. If someone were to rewrite it to reflect reality, it would look something like this:

Thanks to my refusal to pass a state-based health insurance plan that Commissioner Mike Chaney and his staff worked on for months, health care premiums are among the highest in the nation. We could have had a solution tailored to Mississippi to fix our health care system, but I was beholden to my tea party base to allow that to happen.

What Gunn refuses to admit is that his own actions during the June special session have resulted in the federal government managing Mississippi’s health insurance marketplace. Democrats in the Legislature offered an amendment to establish a state-based exchange, but Gunn and his loyal Tea Party followers in the House defeated it. You can check out the vote for yourself here.

Gunn goes on to say that the law hasn’t fulfilled its promises. The thing is: the bill hasn’t fully been implemented yet! He’s admitting defeat before anything has happened. He makes a point that health insurance premiums will be among the highest in the nation. Commissioner Chaney noted that this is the case because there is no competition among Mississippi’s health insurance companies to bring down costs.

Once again, Gunn reminds us that he, Governor Bryant, and their Tea Party colleagues do not care to learn the facts about the law and how their abdication of power to the federal government has us in the position we find ourselves today. If Gunn is truly looking for Mississippi solutions, perhaps he should not be part of the problem.

Dr. Rodney Hunt, founder of the Mississippi Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (MFIRE for short), penned an article in Friday’s Clarion-Ledger titled “Would amnesty solve Republicans’ problems with Hispanic voters?”

Since his group has the word “enforcement” in its title, how do you think he answered that question?

Dr. Hunt spends the first 2/3rds of his column on stats regarding the number of Hispanic voters and how they lean Democratic.  Then he hits us with this:

Most grassroots conservatives understand that legalization of 11 million illegal aliens would forever transform our country from one that is divided almost 50-50 to a nation of one-party rule by the liberal coalition. This will result in national policies being determined by progressives and consistent losses for conservatives.

That’s about as clear an admission one can get that to “conservatives” like Dr. Hunt immigration reform isn’t about morality, it’s about winning elections.  And if Republicans can just keep non-whites from voting, they can win.

Maybe Chief Justice Roberts can repeat for us his bedtime story about race no longer being an issue in our elections.

Data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau tells a story we often hear: Mississippi ranks as the poorest state in the United States.

A breakdown provided by the Mississippi Economic Policy Center highlights some very troubling numbers.

• Mississippi has had the largest increase in poverty among states from 2011 to 2012.
• Total poverty increased from 20.6% in 2007 to 24.2% in 2012
• Child poverty increased from 28.9% in 2007 to 34.6% in 2012.
• Median income dropped over $3,000 in the last five years from $40,240 to $37,095.

First, we send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to former Chairman John Tyson. Look forward to seeing you soon, Mr. Chairman!

This month, we hosted a Democrats on Tap happy hour at Hal and Mal’s. Thanks to everyone who joined us for the lively debate!

The Rankin County Federation of Democratic Women held a meeting at the Pearl Library August 6. Their special guest was Sherika Harvey, Chairperson of the Mississippi Democratic Party’s Young Democrats Committee. We appreciate her coming by to update us on the exciting work taking place to energize and organize young people across the state.

The Federation’s next meeting will be Tuesday, September 3, at the Pearl Library beginning at 6:00 pm. All are encouraged to attend!

Be sure to join us for our next Breakfast with Democrats Saturday, September 7, at the Flowood Corner Bakery beginning at 8:30 am. Everyone is welcome!

Mark your calendar for Wednesday, October 16. US Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders will be in Jackson for an event with the Mississippi Democratic Party. Stay tuned for details.

This edition of “Senate Conservative Coalition Opposes:” takes a look at the effort of a state senator to ban a book from being used in classrooms across Mississippi.

Senator Angela Hill, a member of the tea party Senate Conservative Coalition, took to Facebook to blast the book The Bluest Eye as having material that may be objectionable to high school juniors.

“This book is indeed on the Common Core’s list of exemplar texts for the 11th grade. I would hardly call it ‘exemplar’!! I looked it up, printed it, just in case they remove it in the future off the Common Core Appendix B list of Exemplar Texts for ELA. There is much more objectionable material as people finally review it after it has been already adopted. WE CAN UNADOPT IT. Help me do it.”

Hill noted that the book was on a reading list proposed by Common Core education standards, standards that have been adopted by local education officials across the country. She went on to say that there is content in the book not suitable for the eyes of youngsters. On top of that, she goes as far as suggesting that this book not be allowed in schools. This backward mindset is reminiscent of cries for prohibiting books like The Catcher in the Rye in the 1960s.

According to Random House, this particular novel has been published since 1970. Educators and school administrators have had ample time to know what is in this book. It seems Senator Hill is missing a broader point about what books are designed to do. They are meant to challenge us to think critically about a litany of issues: the plot, the complexity of the characters, the environment in which those characters live, economics, and education.

In this instance, is Hill intentionally frightening parents into thinking that teachers are peddling smut to children? Does she really think educators and school board leaders, including ones that may sit with her at church, sit around and think “You know what would be funny? Seeing kids freak out when they read this book.” It may behoove the senator to read the book for herself to understand what the author is trying to convey before attempting to discredit it.

Hill and the Senate Conservative Coalition oppose Common Core standards for reasons that we will delve into in subsequent posts. No doubt, she and her tea party colleagues will continue their drumbeat of opposition in the months to come. Rest assured we will continue to monitor this debate.

Stay tuned for the next installment of “Senate Conservative Coalition Opposes:”

The Clarion-Ledger reports this morning that a number of senators are renewing a push to enact a statewide ban of texting while driving.

In a recent Senate Transportation Committee meeting, proponents of the legislation discussed why the bill was needed to help save lives and urged more discussion on how to limit distracted driving.

During the course of the meeting, Senator Josh Harkins had the following remarks:

“It’s not just texting. Where do you draw the line? A distracted driver is a distracted driver whether it’s someone on the phone, or eating, or looking at a magazine or reading a newspaper. You’d be surprised at what you see people doing.”

Harkins’s comments certainly don’t indicate how he would vote if a bill was before him. He seems to be taking a “why not ban everything or nothing” approach to what an individual can do in his or her personal vehicle.  Let’s take a quick look at his record to follow the trail of breadcrumbs to see what he may do.

During the 2012 Regular Session, his first year of service in the legislature, Harkins filed two bills that stand out. His first bill, S. 2881, would have required some minors who operate motor bikes to wear a helmet or pay a fine. The second bill, S. 3034, would allow the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department to use radar to enforce speeding laws. One could argue that these two bills would allow law enforcement to enhance its public safety capacity, thus increasing the scope of government. It should be noted that he did not file either of those bills during this year’s session.

What happened in the course of a year that has Harkins offering bills that would expand the role of government to questioning why such bills are needed? Does it have anything to do with him joining the Senate Conservative Coalition, a caucus of tea party-minded members?

Hopefully, Harkins will keep an open mind as the debate over texting and driving continues. After all, he has a record to defend and a lot of drivers along Lakeland Drive to keep in mind.

Senator Nancy Collins (R-Tupelo) issued a memo this week to state agencies encouraging them to proactively submit 2014 legislative proposals by October 1, 2013.

Any state agency, department, or group that wishes to propose legislation for the upcoming Session that would most likely be assigned or double referred to the Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Committee need to submit the proposed legislation and other issues to me by October 1, 2013. I understand this may be difficult due to busy schedules, but the committee can do a much better job with legislation if there is adequate time to study your proposals and hold hearings if necessary.

Her reasoning seems pretty clear: don’t let what happened to me happen to you.

Collins, you may recall, authored legislation this year related to the state’s public retirement system, PERS. Within moments of the bill hitting the hopper, retirees, soon-to-be retirees, and current state employees across the state were up in arms over what Collins’s bill could do to undermine their retirement plan. If Collins plans to reintroduce her PERS bill again, is she planning a public hearing between October 1 and the start of the 2014 Regular Session?

A concern about her memo is what she is likely to do with legislation that is not presented to her by the deadline she has instituted. If, for example, a state agency has a situation develop during the holidays and needs to get a bill through the legislature, will Collins reject the bill and point to the deadline? What about non-state agencies wanting bills moved through her committee? Are they subject to this October 1 deadline? If not, why not?

With this memo, Collins is working to avoid repeating her mistake of dropping a legislative bombshell on the public. A popular refrain we heard from her political party in recent years is that Americans are tired of having bills “shoved down our throats.”