The Jones County Republican Women hosted three candidates for statewide office at their meeting last week at The Gables on Bush Dairy Road. Gubernatorial candidate Bill Waller Jr., Attorney General candidate Mark Baker, and Laurel’s own Sam Britton, a candidate for the state’s Secretary of State office, spoke at the event. He has served as a member of the Public Service Commission since 2015.
Britton spoke first, and after recognizing his sister’s support he immediately softened the mood of the room with the introduction of his wife, Robin Robinson.
“Of course there is also one more person I need to recognize, and I recognize her at most every event I attend, and that is my beautiful, dear, bright, smart, intelligent, sexy wife Robin,” he said to hearty laughter from the audience. “Yes, I plan on being married a lot longer than I plan on being a politician.”
Britton then shifted to a little more serious tone as he explained why he is running for Secretary of State.
“When I was a Public Service Commissioner, I had the opportunity to stand against one of the largest public utility companies in the country. They had to write off $6.5 billion. No company writes off $6.5 billion just to do the right thing. Think about the billions of dollars of cost that could have been placed on our utility rates.”
Britton said as he fought for fairness to consumers on the utility rates issue as Public Service Commissioner, he now wants to focus as Mississippi’s next Secretary of State on making sure there is integrity in the elections system, that 16th Section land deals are good for the schools and fair to those who lease the land, and that public policies related to tax structure (including personal property taxes) are set up correctly.
“Get the policies right, and the economy will grow,” offered Britton. “That (policy) doesn’t sound exciting, but things like tax structure, business regulations, the legal and judicial systems, and personal property rights are important.”
Britton believes that conservative pubic policy that aids business and stirs economic growth will produce revenue to fix roads and bridges and fund public education needs.
“Research shows that when you get your policies right, the economy will grow,” he added. “Then your government has money for roads and bridges and education, and there are jobs for individuals. Life is made better. We can achieve it.”
Britton than shared a little about his upbringing, telling how his mother drove a school bus and worked in the school lunch room while his dad worked in the oil patch. Britton followed his parents’ pattern of hard work as a young man, digging ditches on the pipeline before the collapse of the oil industry in the 1980s forced him to look at other occupations. He went to college, became a CPA, started his own small business with a handful of clients, and then grew that small business into a very successful firm.
“Where else but in America can you start out digging ditches and then grow into success?” he asked, explaining how he left the pipeline and later found himself sitting around tables making major financial decisions for corporations. “America is the greatest country in the world.”
Britton believes Mississippi has the people and the resources to climb off the bottom rung of socio-economic indicators and become a powerful influence in the national economy. He said Mississippians, due to their strong work ethic, leave the state and go all over the world and achieve success. He wants to see more of that success occur right here at home, and he pointed out the outstanding safety record of Mississippians operating the Grand Gulf nuclear facility for decades and the fact that 70 percent of non-nuclear ships in the U.S. Navy are made at Ingalls Shipyard in our state as examples of how Mississippians are capable of significant accomplishments here at home.
“You do not want your children and grandchildren leaving to go find jobs. We want to create opportunities here,” he stated.
Baker, a practicing attorney for 32 years who has served in the Mississippi Legislature since 2004 and also has been a judge, told the audience that he is running to “be Mississippi’s first conservative attorney general,” someone who will be a partner to business in Mississippi, not a persecutor of business.
He stated that he has been a supporter of tort reform that has improved the business climate in Mississippi.
“In 2004 Mississippi was ranked 49th in the country from the standpoint of our civil justice system. We were considered a judicial hell hole.”
Tort reform in the state, which he endorsed, has changed some of that.
Baker also announced his support of closing the country’s Southern border in order to slow down the illegal immigration and illegal drug traffic.
“Mississippi needs a partner with the Trump Administration, someone who will fight illegal drugs and illegal immigrants who are coming into our country. On day one as your attorney general, we will enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, and we will begin to interdict, detain and transport illegals in Mississippi. We will get a handle on illegal drugs coming into our state,” he said.
Baker said he was also a proponent of the fetal heartbeat bill that was signed into state law by Governor Phil Bryant. The new law prevents the abortion of a baby once a heartbeat is detected. He told the attendees that current Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood did not even bother to show up in federal court to defend our state when two days after the governor signed the bill, the state was sued.
“It’s unacceptable that we have an attorney general who would not show up.”
Baker, who is endorsed by the National Rifle Association, asserted that if elected as the state’s attorney general, he would defend our state’s religious freedoms, seek measures to protect our mentally ill, and continue to oppose government attempts to change the state flag because such an action would override the voting will of the people of Mississippi.
The last speaker of the lunch hour, former state Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr., said he entered the governor’s race for three primary reasons: improve teacher pay in the state, enhance medical care through a public-private partnership that will increase monies for the state’s 115 hospitals without raising the tax burden on citizens (similar to what Vice President Mike Pence did while governor of Indiana), and correct the road and bridge deficiencies in the state.
Waller Jr. said the state is on the verge of a crisis in education, due to a growing teacher shortage, and that higher salaries and annual pay raises for teachers are necessary.
“I’m going to ask the Legislature to take that up early in their session (if elected governor),” he said.