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EspañolHALEY BARBOUR
'Haley Reeves Barbour' (born October 22, 1947) is the current Republican governor of Mississippi. He gained a national spotlight in August 2005 after Mississippi was hit by Hurricane Katrina. Since then he has been mentioned as a possible 2008 vice presidential candidate. Barbour has ruled out any desire to run for President, and has announced his intent to run for re-election as Governor in 2007.[1]
Early years
Barbour, the youngest of three sons, was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, where he was raised, to Grace LeFlore Johnson and Jeptha Fowlkes Barbour, Jr. [1] His father, a lawyer, died when Barbour was two years old. He attended the University of Mississippi in Oxford but skipped the first semester of his senior year to work on Richard Nixon's 1968 election campaign. He never earned a bachelor's degree. At the age of twenty-two, he ran the 1970 census for the state of Mississippi. He enrolled at the University of Mississippi Law School, receiving a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1972. Subsequently he joined his father's law firm in Yazoo City. [2]
Lobbying career
In 1991, Barbour helped found Barbour Griffith & Rogers, LLC [3], a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm, with Lanny Griffith and Ed Rogers, two lawyers who formerly worked in the George H. W. Bush administration. In 1998, ''Fortune'' magazine named Barbour Griffith & Rogers the second-most-powerful lobbying firm in America. [4] In 2001, after the inauguration of George W. Bush, Fortune named it the most powerful. [5] The firm has made millions of dollars lobbying on behalf of the tobacco industry.[6]
RNC Chairman
In 1993, Barbour became chairman of the Republican National Committee. In 1994, during his tenure as RNC chair, Republicans captured both houses of the United States Congress, taking the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years.
1982 campaign controversy
In 1982, Barbour was the Republican candidate for United States Senate but lost to incumbent Democrat John C. Stennis. [7]
During this failed bid for Senator a controversy arose at a campaigning stump. According to the New York Times, in the presence of the press an aide was complaining to Barbour that "coons" were going to be at a campaign stop at the state fair. Barbour warned the aide, in front of reporters, that if the aide persisted in racist remarks, he would be "reincarnated as a watermelon and placed at the mercy of blacks." [8]
2003 campaign controversy
After two decades in Washington, D.C., Barbour announced in 2003 his intention to run for governor of Mississippi. On August 5, 2003, he won the Republican gubernatorial primary over Canton trial attorney Mitch Tyner.
A photograph of Barbour with members of The Council of Conservative Citizens members appeared on their CCC webpage, and some commentators and pundits demanded that Barbour ask for his picture to be removed from the site, but Barbour refused. The CCC was in the past a proponent of segregation. Barbour stated that ""Once you start down the slippery slope of saying,'That person can't be for me,' then where do you stop?... I don't care who has my picture. My picture's in the public domain." Barbour's Democratic opponent, Governor Musgrove, declined to be critical, stating that he had also attended Blackhawk rallies in the past, and would have done so that year except for a scheduling conflict.[9]
2007 re-election
Barbour announced on February 8, 2007 that he would seek a second term as Governor of Mississippi. He defeated Frederick Jones in the Republican primary on August 7, and will face Democrat John Arthur Eaves, Jr. in the November general election. Eaves is an attorney who lost a bid for Congress in 1996.
Governorship
Haley Barbour with Condoleezza Rice and other Governors
Barbour defeated incumbent Democrat Ronnie Musgrove in the general election on November 4, 2003, with 53 percent of the vote to Musgrove's 46 percent. Barbour became just the second Republican governor elected in Mississippi since Reconstruction, the first being Kirk Fordice. [10] He took office in January 2004. He announced the beginning of his re-election campaign at a series of meetings across the state on February 12, 2007.
During his campaign, Barbour signed the Americans for Tax Reform "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" and vowed not to institute any new taxes or raise any existing ones. [11]
Barbour vs. The Partnership
Barbour's taxation policies have not been without contention. In March 2006 Barbour vetoed a bill that would lower grocery taxes, while simultaneously raising tobacco taxes.[12] Mississippians pay some of the highest grocery taxes in the nation.[13] The "Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids" insinuated that Barbour's lobbying-era affinity with the tobacco industry may also explain his 2006 proposal to dismantle Mississippi's controversial youth-tobacco-prevention program, called The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi. [14] The Partnership is a private, non-profit group which receives $20 million annually and is led by former Attorney General Mike Moore. Moore created the organization when he, representing the State of Mississippi, settled a multi-billion dollar suit with the tobacco industry. According to the suit, the funds were to offset the extra costs incurred by Medicaid while dealing with smoking related illnesses. Opponents have consistently claimed that Moore uses the organization to further his political ambitions. The Partnership regularly offers up huge grants to political organizations such as the Legislative Black Caucus. Many point to even more facts such as The Partnership not allowing a public audit which in turn permits the group to have no public accountability of its expenditures of state funds. In 2006, Judge Jaye Bradley, the same judge that awarded Moore the annual $20 million in 2000, vacated her previous decision. Bradley claimed she did not decide against The Partnership because of its inability to perform but because she believes that the state legislature is the only body that can legally decide how state funds can be delegated. Following the decision, Barbour stated that it says a lot about Judge Bradley “…that she is a strong enough person to have the gumption to vacate her own order. The only way for the state to spend state funding is for the Legislature to appropriate it through the legislative process." [15]
After an appeal by Moore, Barbour went on to win a Mississippi Supreme Court battle that prevented the tobacco settlement moneys from funding the program, maintaining that is unconstitutional for a judge to award state proceeds to a private organization. Barbour's lawyer stated The Partnership was "the most blatant diversion of public funds to a private corporation in the history of the state of Mississippi" as The Partnership refuses to allow a state audit of its expenditures of the state's money. [16]
Barbour has received his share of criticism for his refusal to approve a bill to increase the cigarette tax and decrease the grocery tax passed the state House of Representatives. Mississippi currently has the third-lowest cigarette tax and the highest grocery tax--while being the poorest state in the country. Barbour stated that the lack of revenue generated after the tax swap would quite possibly result in bankrupting the state government which was already fragile due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. The House of Representatives could produce no figures to dispute this fact. Also, in his successful 2004 campaign, Barbour ran on the platform that he would veto any tax increase. [17]
Hurricane Katrina response
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into Mississippi's coast, killing 231 people, [18] devastating the state's $2.7 billion-a-year casino industry and leaving tens of thousands temporarily homeless. [19] (see Effect of Hurricane Katrina on Mississippi). Barbour's response was characterized by a concerted effort at evacuation, tough-minded talk on looters and an unwillingness to blame the federal government. [20] His response was compared, favorably, to that of Rudy Giuliani in the wake of the September 11 attacks. [21] [22]
Barbour credited the countless government workers who helped southern Mississippi cope with the hurricane. But Barbour was praised by the coast's citizens as a strong leader who can communicate calm to the public and provide “a central decision-making point for when things get balled up or go sideways, which they do,” as Barbour says.
Barbour was blunt with the facts about the utter devastation of the coast, but his own demeanor in public appearances suggested that the state would summon the will to rebuild. Mississippi also reopened all of its public schools by November 2005.
While the reconstruction process doesn’t dictate how localities should rebuild, Barbour has touted New Urbanist principles in constructing more compact communities. “They have the chance to build some things very differently,” he says. “The goal is to build the coast back like it can be, rather than simply like it was.” [23]
The evacuation order was issued by local officials more than 24 hours before the hurricane hit, and Mississippi activated 750 National Guard troops as of August 29, the day of the hurricane. [24][25][26]
Infant mortality
In 2005, Mississippi had the highest infant mortality in the nation, and some public health workers blame Barbour's budget cuts. Barbour promised to cut Medicaid, and his administration required face-to-face meetings and stricter documentation for annual re-enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP. The face-to-face meetings were to prevent fraudulent claimants from costing Mississippi taxpayers millions of dollars annually. Non-elderly enrollees dropped by 54,000 from 2005 to 2006. Mississippi Medicaid director Robert L. Robinson said that correlation between the decline in Medicaid enrollment and infant mortality was "pure conjecture." In Mississippi, infant mortality jumped from 9.7/1,000 in 2004 to 11.4/1,000 in 2005, compared to the national average of 6.9/1,000 in 2005. The New York Times compared Hollandale County with Sharkey County, where the infant mortality for blacks was 5/1,000 from 1991-2005. In Sharkey County, The Cary Christian Center runs an intensive home-visiting system using local mothers as counselors, and buses pregnant blacks to pre- and post-natal classes[27].
Other actions in office
Barbour has been praised for translating his lobbying skills into success at winning over a legislature dominated by Democrats. He has called several special legislative sessions to force an issue [28][28].
When Barbour took office, the state of Mississippi had run a $709 million budget deficit for the 2004 fiscal year. With bipartisan support, and without raising taxes, Barbour implemented a plan called Operation: Streamline to cut the budget deficit in half [30]. He accomplished this largely by reducing spending on social services, most notably Medicaid; the 2005 budget drastically reduced coverage for 65,000 individuals classified as Poverty-Level Aged and Disabled (PLAD), most of whom qualified for the federal Medicare program, and also significantly limited prescription drug coverage. In 2005, the state was budgeted to spend a total of $130 million less on Medicaid than in the previous year [31] [32]. This trend continued in the state budget for the 2006 fiscal year. After a long special session, the legislature approved a budget that featured more social service cuts but also increased educational spending [33]. With tax revenues higher than expected during the 2006 fiscal year, due in large part to increased sales tax revenues in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the state achieved its first balanced budget in years [28]. In the 2008 fiscal year budget, for the first time since its enactment in 1997, the state has fully funded the Mississippi Adequate Education Program [35] [28].
Building on a 2002 tort reform bill passed by his predecessor [37], Barbour also introduced a new tort reform measure that has been described as one of the strictest in the nation . Barbour rarely made a speech during his gubernatorial campaign without mentioning this subject and was able to convert political support into law, overcoming the resistance of House Democratic leaders, who argued that further legislation would disenfranchise people with legitimate complaints against corporations [38] [39]. Barbour then embarked on a "tort tour" to encourage other states to follow Mississippi’s lead. "We’ve gone from being labeled as a judicial hellhole and the center of jackpot justice to a state that now has model legislation," says Charlie Ross (R), the chair of the state Senate Judiciary Committee[23].
Under Barbour's leadership, Mississippi has enacted some of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the US, including a complete ban (with exceptions only in cases where the woman's life is threatened or she has been raped) in the event that the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade [41].
Footnotes
1. http://www.wargs.com/political/barbour.html
2. USA Today Campaign 2004 Mississippi Governor Retrieved May 10, 2007
3. Barbour, Griffith & Rodgers website
4. Time-Warner article on Barbour, Griffith & Rogers
5. Fortune magazine naming Barbour, Griffith & Rogers most powerful lobbying firm in America
6. Big Tobacco's 1997 Congressional Lobbying
7. [http://en.allexperts.com/e/h/ha/haley_barbour.htm Haley Barbour at AllExperts
8. Age Issue Is Focus of Mississippi Race Howell Raines
9. Barbour won't ask CCC to take photo off Web site
10. http://www.encyclopedian.com/go/Governor-of-Mississippi.html
11. http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=13792
12. Legislature should override pro-tobacco Barbour
13. Clarion Ledger article: Grocery, cigarette tax shift passes
14. Gov. Barbour’s Proposal Would Destroy One of Nation’s Best Tobacco Prevention Programs, Help Big Tobacco At the Expense of Mississippi’s Kids
15. No Moore Partnership?
16. Tobacco Wars
17.
18. http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/state/15388820.htm
19. Governor: Worse than Camille
20. Science Daily article on Barbour's reaction to Hurricane Katrina
21. WJLA.com article on Katrina reaction
22. Opinionjournal.com article on Katrina reaction
23. Steady in a Storm: Reassuring and rebuilding Mississippi after Katrina
24. Defenselink.mil report on National Guard activation
25. Homelandresponse.org report
26. Washington Post article on National Guard reaction
27. [2]In turnabout, infant deaths climb in south, by Eric Eckholm, New York Times, April 22 2007.
28.
29.
30. Gov. calls for cost-cutting Andy Kanengiser
31. Medicaid bill goes to Senate Pamela Berry
32. In Mississippi, Soaring Costs Force Deep Medicaid Cuts Shaila Dewan
33. Mississippi lawmakers pass .6 million (sic) state budget Geoff Pender
34.
35. A Win for Mississippi
36.
37. Gov. signs business tort reform bill Patrice Sawyer
38. Face-Off: The Battle for 'Tort Reform' Donna Ladd
39. Tort Reform: Myths and Realities Donna Ladd
40. Steady in a Storm: Reassuring and rebuilding Mississippi after Katrina
41. MS: Criminalize Abortion If R v. W Overturned
External links
★ Mississippi Office of the Governor Haley Barbour 'official state site'
★ Follow the Money - Haley Barbour 2006 campaign contributions
★ National Governors Association - Mississippi Governor Haley Reeves Barbour biography
★ New York Times - Haley Barbour News collected news and commentary
★ On the Issues - Haley Barbour issue positions and quotes
★ Project Vote Smart - Governor Haley Barbour (MS) profile
★ SourceWatch Congresspedia - Haley Barbour profile
★ Haley Barbour for Governor 'official campaign site'
'Articles'
★ Barbour showed early talent for politics ''AP'', November 5, 2003
★ Campaign 2004 - Haley Barbour ''USA Today''
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