My Landslide's Bigger Than Yours

The day after Frank Melton won the Democratic primary with 63 percent of the vote, The Clarion-Ledger called the victory of the candidate they endorsed a dramatic “landslide” on page 1. Four days later, the newspaper’s lead editorial bemoaned the re-election of Ward 3 City Councilman Kenneth Stokes, and belittled any notion of a Stokes “landslide.” A little box next to the editorial stated: “Landslide? Incumbent Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth I. Stokes won with more than 73 percent of the vote against strong challengers. Unfortunately, only 6,295 ward residents showed up to vote.”

Thus, the reasoning goes, it couldn’t have been a landslide. Except. Let’s go to the adding machine.

Turns out that a higher percentage of eligible voters turned out in Stoke’s ward (34 percent) than did in the overall primary, which drew a piddly amount of only 44,556 voters. In the mayor’s race, only 33 percent of eligible voters were motivated to show up.

That is, Melton won the Democratic nod with 27,982 votes cast in a city with an estimated voting-age population of 131,713. That’s only 33 percent, of which Melton took 63 percent, while Stokes garnered 73 percent of Ward 3’s 34 percent total turnout.

Guess whose landslide is bigger than someone else’s landslide. Just sayin’.

The Prince of Bon Air
Mayor Johnson celebrated the groundbreaking of the Bon Air Housing Project May 9. The project, which will include the construction of 38 new homes, is located on the corner of West Capitol Street and Calhoun Street, across from Barr Elementary School. The area is unrecognizable from what it was five years ago. Once laden with drug activity and dilapidated homes, the area now features new street lighting, new water and sewer lines and empty lots soon to contain new, energy-efficient homes for low to middle income households. The street itself is slated for reconstruction.

“Children in these new homes will be able to play in their yards. Neighbors will be walking down streets lined with trees, greeting one another under ample lighting. The community will be enhanced by this project,” Johnson said.

A Windfall for Education?
Attorney General Jim Hood reached a $100 million settlement with MCI for taxes owed to Mississippi by WorldCom, since purchased by MCI. Hood said he intended for the state Legislature to immediately use the money, available in its entirety 10 days from his May 9 press conference, to help legislators solve their budget problems.

The settlement was the result of a $1 billion suit against the defunct WorldCom. Some legislators are eager to put it to use.

“There is absolutely no reason why, given the information contained in this settlement, we can’t fully fund MAEP and provide adequate funding for our state agencies,” said Rep. George Flaggs. “I call on Gov. Barbour, Lt. Gov. Tuck and Speaker McCoy to provide the leadership necessary so that our citizens can be relieved of this budget impasse.”

Others, like Rep. Mary Coleman, D-Jackson, warned that the money was only a one-time fixer-upper and that the bigger problem of a budget impasse still needed dealing with. “I think we need to sit down and look at our tax structure and come up with some long-term solutions, because it’s not fair to keep workers and teachers in limbo,” Coleman said.

Dems: Medicaid Funding Now!

The Mississippi State Democratic Party recently called on Republicans in Congress to restore Medicaid funding. Democrats say the state stands to lose $151,967,000 in Medicaid funds. The party asserts that as Medicaid is becoming more important, the Republican Congress has outlined a budget framework to cut billions from the program—a total of $10 billion over the next five years.

“While our state is already straining to cover the costs associated with Medicaid, Republicans in Washington and here in Mississippi are undermining this vital program by cutting needed funding. As a result, our representatives in Mississippi will be left to pick up the tab,” said State Democratic Chairman Wayne Dowdy. “It is unconscionable that because of the fiscal recklessness of Republicans in Congress, including massive tax giveaways for the wealthy and big corporations, the uninsured and those without little or no access to health care will suffer as a result.”

Faced with the $10 billion cut, Dowdy explains that state governments are now being forced to consider proposals to both limit the scope of services offered, and to have beneficiaries pay more for their care to make up the difference.

Of History and Art
On April 21, in Jackson’s beautifully renovated Union Train Station, honorary chairmen Morgan Freeman and Bill Luckett, partners in Clarksdale’s Madidi restaurant and Ground Zero Blues Club, unveiled the 2005 list of Mississippi’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places, compiled by the Mississippi Heritage Trust. The duo was chosen because of their commitment to Clarksdale’s preservation and restoration.

This year’s endangered places list includes the Old Bridgeport Road, a part of one of the state’s early major roads, in Bolton; the Bryant Grocery and Meat Market in Money—the site of the infamous supposed “insult” that led to the murder of Emmett Till; the Flannegan-Lowry House in Jackson, a planter’s cottage, threatened by the expansion of the Baptist Medical Center; Jackson’s old Municipal Library, where nine Tougaloo students sat-in in 1961; Natchez College, set up in 1885 as the site of a private higher education for African Americans; the old Pascagoula High School; the Sun-n-Sand Motor Hotel, a downtown Jackson landmark; Tippah County Jail, a unique example of Art Moderne architecture; the Wilkes Home in Wilkesburg; and the old Woodmen of the World Building in Columbus.

Each site on the 2005 list was also presented individually in artwork created by 10 area artists: Celeste Brignac, Tony DiFatta, William Goldman/Enhanced Mixture, Kenneth Humphrey, Ron Lindsey, Stephen Little, Frank McGuigan, Bill Nelson, H. C. Porter and Wyatt Waters.

COMMENTS

Stringfellow today:

Eric Stringfellow
It is time for Moore to shut it down. The chief's leadership was a key theme in Frank Melton's landslide win over Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. in the Democratic primary.

<grin>

  Posted by: ladd on May 12, 05 | 10:21 am