Haley Barbour

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Haley Barbour
63rd Governor of Mississippi
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 13, 2004
Lieutenant	Amy Tuck (2004-2008) Phil Bryant (2008-present)
Preceded by	Ronnie Musgrove
Born	October 22, 1947 (1947-10-22) (age 60) Yazoo City, Mississippi
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Marsha Barbour
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Presbyterian

Haley Reeves Barbour (born October 22, 1947) is an American politician currently serving as the 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 won re-election as Governor in 2007.^[1] Under Mississippi's term limits, Barbour cannot run again for Governor in 2011 when his term ends.

Prior to being elected Governor, Barbour worked as a lawyer and lobbyist, and also served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1993 to 1997, during which the Republicans captured both the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives for the first time since 1954.

[edit] Early years

Barbour, the youngest of three sons, was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, where he was raised, to Jeptha Fowlkes Barbour, Jr. (1913 – 1950) and wife Grace LeFlore Johnson (1918 – 1973).^[2] His father, a lawyer, died when Barbour was two years old. He attended the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, 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.^[3]

[edit] 1982 campaign

In 1982, Barbour was the Republican candidate for United States Senate but lost to incumbent Democrat John C. Stennis.^[4]

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."^[5]

[edit] Lobbying career

In 1991, Barbour helped found Barbour Griffith & Rogers, LLC ^[6], 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.^[7] In 2001, after the inauguration of George W. Bush, Fortune named it the most powerful.^[8] The firm has made millions of dollars lobbying on behalf of the tobacco industry.^[9]

[edit] Vioxx Case

Plaintiffs' lawyers in some unspecified year's federal Vioxx trials subpoenaed Haley Barbour, the former lobbyist whose clients included major drug companies. The suits include an estimated 45,225 plaintiffs, and Merck has agreed to let another 14,450 sue after their statute of limitation expires. Suits may center around plaintiffs who had strokes or heart attacks after taking the painkiller.^[10] On Friday November 9th, 2007, Merck agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle most claims.^[11]

[edit] 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.^[12][13] In 1997, Barbour ceased being chairman of the RNC.

[edit] 2003 campaign

Main article: Mississippi gubernatorial election, 2003

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.

During the campaign a controversy arose when Barbour chose to speak at the Blackhawk Rally, a fundraiser for the Blackhawk "council school" in Blackhawk, Mississippi. Such "council schools," also referred to in Mississippi lexicon as "academies," were established by the White Citizens' Council movement in reaction to the demands for racial integration by the American Civil Rights movement. The Blackhawk rally was hosted by the Council of Conservative Citizens (abbreviated CCC or CofCC). The key element of Citizens' Councils has traditionally been opposition to racial integration in public schools.

A photograph of Barbour with CCC members appeared on the CCC webpage, and some commentators and pundits demanded that Barbour ask for his picture to be removed from the site, but Barbour refused. [6] 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.^[14]

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.^[15]

[edit] 2007 re-election

See also: Mississippi gubernatorial election, 2007

Barbour announced on February 8, 2007 that he would seek a second term as Governor of Mississippi. 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.^[16]

He defeated Frederick Jones in the Republican primary on August 7 and Democrat John Arthur Eaves, Jr. in the November general election.

Governor Barbour received four notable Democratic endorsements, including Xavier Bishop, Mike Espy, Brad Dye, and Bill Waller.^[17] Bill Waller and Brad Dye are conservative Democrats who served as Governor and Lt. Governor of Mississippi. Xavier Bishop is a long-time Democrat activist and the Democratic Mayor of Moss Point. Mike Espy is a former Democratic Congressman from the 2nd District of Mississippi and served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Bill Clinton. He noted Governor Barbour's competency and character as reasons for his endorsement.^[18]

[edit] 2008 Presidential Campaign

During the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, Governor Barbour has been often considered as a potential vice presidential running mate. The committee to draft Haley filed with the Federal Election Commission on December 12, 2007.^[19]

[edit] Governorship

Haley Barbour with Condoleezza Rice and other Governors

Barbour took office in January 2004.

[edit] 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.^[20] Mississippians pay some of the highest grocery taxes in the nation.^[21] 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.^[22] 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."^[23]　 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.^[24]

[edit] Hurricane Katrina response

See also: Criticism of government response to Hurricane Katrina

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into Mississippi's coast, killing 231 people,^[25] devastating the state's $2.7 billion-a-year casino industry and leaving tens of thousands temporarily homeless. ^[26] (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.^[27] His response was compared, favorably, to that of Rudy Giuliani in the wake of the September 11 attacks.^[28][29]

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.^[30]

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.”^[30]

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.^[31][32][33]

[edit] 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.^[34][35]

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.^[36] 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.^[37][38] 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.^[39] 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.^[40] 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.^[41][42]

Building on a 2002 tort reform bill passed by his predecessor,^[43] Barbour also introduced a new tort reform measure that has been described as one of the strictest in the nation.^[30] 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.^[44][45] 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.^[46]

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.^[47]

[edit] Criticisms

Barbour has been accused of personally profiting from Katrina recovery by steering contracts to his own lobbying firm.^[48] He has also 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 assertion. Also, in his successful 2004 campaign, Barbour ran on the platform that he would veto any tax increase.^[49] The criticism was compounded by the fact that he broke his anti-tax pledge by advocating higher hospital bed taxes.^[50]

Fred Thompson's campaign finance investigation found that Barbour, as RNC chair, was involved in illegally raising money from overseas sources.^[51]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] 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
• Haley Barbour for President unofficial campaign site
• Haley for Vice President Official Vice Presidential Campaign Site

Articles

• Barbour showed early talent for politics AP, November 5, 2003
• Campaign 2004 - Haley Barbour USA Today

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