Recent editorials from Mississippi newspapers:
Nov. 26
The Greenwood (Mississippi) Commonwealth on GOP races:
Rumors that Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann is considering running for lieutenant governor against fellow Republican Tate Reeves next year may or may not have much validity.
Our guess is Hosemann probably is considering it, meaning he hasn’t fully decided, which also means he’s just as apt to run for re-election to his current office as to jump into a race against a strong incumbent.
One thing seems clear, though.
Both Hosemann and Reeves, who aren’t that far apart philosophically, aspire to be governor. In seeking that goal they are adversaries. Neither is willing to take on Gov. Phil Bryant next year, but they have their eyes on 2019, when the incumbent governor won’t be in the race.
Whether they face off in a lieutenant governor’s race in 2015, the governor’s race in 2019 or neither, something else is clear. The rumors of a Hosemann-Reeves contest, plus the recent heated Republican primary in the U.S. Senate race, are harbingers of things to come.
As the state tilts more to the GOP, there are going to be more elections where Republicans will be running against each other, just as politicians did when winning a Democratic primary was generally considered to be tantamount to election. Back then, there could be four or five serious contenders for governor in a Mississippi Democratic primary. Meanwhile, Republican primaries, when there was one, were pretty low-key.
That’s changed now. In the future, we suspect, there will be more Republican primaries that are heated, such as the one this year between U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran and state Rep. Chris McDaniel. Hopefully, though, they will be lacking some of the drama, such as surreptitiously taking pictures of nursing home residents and people getting locked up in a courthouse.
Online:
https://www.gwcommonwealth.com
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Nov. 26
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo, Mississippi, on county growth:
Oxford and Lafayette County have received national coverage in praise of the quality of life they offer in a small-city, rural-county setting, their successes building on that asset reflected in a steady population growth projection by the Census, median residence values in Oxford more than twice the statewide average, and wide-ranging economic development.
Two recent announcements reflect the positives of Oxford and Lafayette County’s public and private-sector leadership, approaching opportunities with an open mind and enthusiasm for innovation in seizing the day.
As Oxford-based reporter Errol Castens wrote, “The proof is in Fiscal Year 2014’s revenues from the ’tourism tax,’ as revealed at Wednesday’s Tourism Council meeting. From October 2013 through September 2014, the 2 percent levy on lodgings and restaurant meals and drinks brought in record amounts. For the second year, the food-and beverage tax topped $2 million, its $2.3 million outpacing the previous year’s yield by almost exactly 10 percent. The hotel-motel tax also set a new high with just over $235,000, but the increase in that category was a more modest 3 percent growth.”
Further, the state has given approval to the Plein Air commercial district in Taylor’s status as a qualified resort for sale of beer, wine and spirits. That will empower private development in the small and popular south Lafayette County community to attract more entertainment investment. Plein Air is a carefully controlled residential/commercial development which seeks to strengthen its attractiveness with a more diverse economic base.
It will become Lafayette County’s third location outside the city limits of Oxford to acquire resort status; the Ravine Restaurant and The Colonel’s Quarters have been approved to serve legally licensed hard liquor, wine, beer and light wine outside the Oxford city limits.
Lafayette is legally wet for alcohol and wine, but only Oxford has had legal beer.
In addition, new hotel rooms by the score are nearing completion, strengthening tourism prospects.
Oxford’s political and civic leadership readily acknowledges that the anchor for economic growth remains the University of Mississippi and all of its intellectual, organizational, financial and human assets.
The university holds literally hundreds of events bringing people to Oxford every year, and the academic links to economic development will define longer-term prosperity.
Oxford sells well as a progressive Southern small (and growing) city of more than 20,000, a far cry in so many ways from the stuff of William Faulkner’s fiction and the almost self-destructive era of desegregation.
The new Oxford has the aura of history and the energy for what’s ahead.
Online:
https://djournal.com
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