Judicial Elections Gone Bad ?

USAToday has an article out today that discusses how a corporate CEO heavily backed (through a intermediary) a candidate for the West Virginia Supreme Court only to have that same judge be the deciding vote on a multi-million dollar case three years later. The story is quite interesting and the decision regarding the propriety of this action has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court and if found improper could very well impact beyond this single case and influence judicial election law and selection across the country (including Mississippi).

Voter I.D.

One of the things that has been near and dear to my heart in the policital process and definitely falls under Mississippi Law is Voter Identification during elections. House Bill 1520 directly addresses this and is co-authored by 57 (I believe) Representatives. However, passage of this bill may not be a reality as the Mississippi House of Representatives is fairly staunchly divided along party (and other) lines and most, if not all, of these authors are Republican.

I additionally direct your attention to a blog post from Rep. Greg Snowden, one of the bills co-authors for his take on the matter. It is partisan but an interesting look into a legislators thougts.

Here, again, Snowden talks about HB 1520 in a post today.

Phil Bryant

I wanted to pass along a nice little editorial from the Daily Journal about Phil Bryant, Mississippi's current Lt. Governor and well rumored to be the front runner for the Republican nod in next elections Governor's race.

Days that will live in infamy.

Today is the beginning of days that could live in infamy for the city of Jackson (see the CL for todays story and a deep archive that goes back the 2 years since the original event). Many are tired of hearing of the exploits of Frank Melton (as am I) but today jury selection begins for his federal trial on charges of violating the rights of a citizen. The trial has stayed in the obscure (which I don't want to discuss here) and nothing with Melton seems as simple as it should be. However, one thing is certain, the largest city in the state and the state capital has its mayor facing indictment and stiff charges which could lead to his ouster. For better or worse this is an event that will live in Mississippi history.

One thing that is for sure by this attorney is that from here (the cheap seats with no inside information) is that Melton appears to be in trouble. The law is pretty clear, one of his 2 body guards has flipped on him, and sympathy for Melton is going to be harder to garner from the whole Southern District than it was for his local (state) trial on his previous run in.