Government of Mississippi

As with all other U.S. states and the federal government, Mississippi's government is based on the separation of legislative, executive and judicial power.

Executive authority in the state rests with the governor of Mississippi, currently Phil Bryant (R). The Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, currently Tate Reeves (R), is elected on a separate ballot. Both the governor and lieutenant governor are elected to four-year terms of office. Unlike the federal government, but like many other U.S. States, most of the heads of major executive departments are elected by the citizens of Mississippi rather than appointed by the governor.

Mississippi is one of only five states that elects its state officials in odd numbered years (The others are Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Virginia). Mississippi holds elections for these offices every four years in the years preceding Presidential election years. Thus, the last year when Mississippi elected a Governor was 2007, and the next gubernatorial election will occur in 2011.

Legislative authority resides in the Mississippi Legislature, which is the state legislature. The Legislature is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives. The lieutenant governor presides over the Senate, while the House of Representatives selects their own Speaker. The state constitution permits the legislature to establish by law the number of senators and representatives, up to a maximum of 52 senators and 122 representatives. Current state law sets the number of senators at 52 and representatives at 122. The term of office for senators and representatives is four years.

See also: List of Governors of Mississippi; List of Lieutenant Governors of Mississippi; State Treasurer of Mississippi; Mississippi Attorney General; and Mississippi general election, 2007

Judicial branch

Supreme judicial authority rests with the state Supreme Court, which has statewide authority. In addition, there is a statewide Court of Appeals, as well as Circuit Courts, Chancery Courts and Justice Courts, which have more limited geographical jurisdiction. The nine judges of the Supreme Court are elected from three districts (three judges per district) by the state's citizens in non-partisan elections to eight-year staggered terms. The ten judges of the Court of Appeals are elected from five districts (two judges per district) for eight-year staggered terms. Judges for the smaller courts are elected to four-year terms by the state's citizens who live within that court's jurisdiction.

Federal representation

Mississippi has two U.S. Senate seats. One is currently held by Thad Cochran (Republican) and the other is held by Roger Wicker (Republican) who was appointed on December 31, 2007 by Mississippi governor Haley Barbour due to Trent Lott resigning on December 18, 2007 and who was elected to finish Lott's term on November 4, 2008 (see United States Senate special election in Mississippi, 2008).

As of the 2001 apportionment, the state has four congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives, currently Gregg Harper (Republican), Bennie Thompson (Democrat), Steven Palazzo (Republican), and Alan Nunnelee (Republican).

(See: List of United States Senators from Mississippi; List of United States Representatives from Mississippi; Congressional districts map)

Politics

Federal politics

Mississippi vote
by party in presidential elections

Year	GOP	DEM	Others
2008	56.2% 724,597	43.0% 554,662	0.8% 10,680
2004	59.4% 684,981	39.8% 458,094	0.8% 9,290
2000	57.6% 573,230	40.7% 404,964	1.7% 16,732
1996	49.2% 439,838	44.1% 394,022	6.7% 59,997
1992	49.7% 487,793	40.8% 400,258	9.6% 93,742
1988	59.9% 557,890	39.1% 363,921	1.0% 9,716
1984	61.9% 581,477	37.5% 352,192	0.7% 6,523
1980	49.4% 441,089	48.1% 429,281	2.5% 22,250
1976	47.7% 366,846	49.6% 381,309	2.8% 21,205
1972	78.2% 505,125	19.6% 126,782	2.2% 14,056
1968	13.5% 88,516	23.0% 150,644	63.5% 415,349
1964	87.1% 356,528	12.9% 52,618	0.0% 0
1960	24.7% 73,561	36.3% 108,362	39.0% 116,248
1956	24.5% 60,685	58.2% 144,498	17.3% 42,966
1952	39.6% 112,966	60.4% 172,566	0.0% 0
1948	2.6% 5,043	10.1% 19,384	87.3% 167,763
1944	6.4% 11,601	93.6% 168,479	0.0% 0
1940	4.2% 7,364	95.7% 168,267	0.1% 193
1936	2.7% 4,443	97.1% 157,318	0.2% 329
1932	3.6% 5,180	96.0% 140,168	0.5% 686
1928	17.9% 27,153	82.1% 124,539	0.0% 0
1924	7.6% 8,494	89.3% 100,474	3.1% 3,494
1920	14.0% 11,576	84.0% 69,277	2.0% 1,639

Mississippi white residents, as in the rest of the South, long supported the Democratic Party. The policies of Reconstruction, which included federally appointed Republican governors, led to white Southern resentment toward the Republican Party. Following the Compromise of 1877, federal troops enforcing the provisions of Reconstruction were pulled out of the South. The Democratic Party regained political control of the state, partly by using methods designed to suppress black voter turnout, which had understandably favored Republican candidates and the party of Lincoln.

In 1890, the elite white-dominated Mississippi legislature created a new constitution, the first in the South of what were called disfranchising constitutions. They contained provisions, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, that in practice effectively disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites. When Mississippi's constitution passed a Supreme Court challenge in Williams v. Mississippi (1898), other Southern states quickly included such provisions in their own new constitutions. By 1900, these measures effectively disfranchised nearly all black voters in the state. When the grandfather clause was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Guinn v. United States (1915), Mississippi and other states which had used it quickly passed other statutes to restrict black registration and voting. Disfranchisement of blacks and poor whites continued for six decades.

However, the Democrats' growing support for civil rights caused chagrin among many conservative white Democrats. The first sign of this discontent was in the 1960 presidential election, when a slate of unpledged Democratic electors won a plurality of the state's vote. These eight electors then cast their electoral votes for conservative Democratic Senator Harry F. Byrd. It was the first time the official Democratic candidate hadn't carried the state since the Reconstruction era. In 1964, the state swung over dramatically to support Barry Goldwater, who took an unheard-of 87 percent of the state's popular vote (before most African Americans could vote) in the midst of Lyndon Johnson's 44-state national landslide. Since then, Republicans have largely dominated the state's federal politics even though Democrats still nominally have a large majority of registered voters. Since 1964, Mississippi has supported a Democrat for president only once, in 1976, when a son of the South ran. That year, Jimmy Carter narrowly carried the state by two percentage points (15,000 votes).

During the fall of 1963, civil rights activists registered 80,000 black voters in Mississippi for the straw Freedom Vote, to demonstrate the people's ambition and eagerness to vote. In 1964, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) was formed, creating a list of candidates to challenge the official, all-white slate of the state's Democratic Party. The MFDP also mounted protests at the national convention, where they demanded to be seated as official delegates. Not until the late 1960s, following passage of the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 under President Lyndon Johnson, would most African-American men and women have the chance to vote in Mississippi and other Southern states.

On September 26, 2008, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain debated at the University of Mississippi in the first presidential debate ever hosted in Mississippi. It was also the first official debate for the election. The debate focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

Further information: [[:Political party strength in Mississippi]]

State politics

Mississippi has 82 counties. Citizens of Mississippi counties elect the members of their county Board of Supervisors from single-member districts, as well as other county officials.

(See: List of counties in Mississippi)

For 116 years (from 1876 to 1992), Mississippi was essentially a one-party state, electing Democratic governors. Over the same period, the Democratic Party dominated state and federal elections in Mississippi. From 1877 to 1959, the Republicans only fielded a gubernatorial candidate twice. However, most Democrats, especially in rural areas, are very conservative by national standards. In 1991, Kirk Fordice became the first Republican to win the governorship since 1976. Since then, Republicans have done very well at the state level. They have held the governorship for all but one term, though it would take another decade before they won control of one of the state legislative chambers. However, in 2011, the Republicans took control of the state house, in the process winning complete control of state government for the first time since 1876.

On some social issues, Mississippi is one of the more states in the US, with religion often playing a large role in citizens' political views. Liquor laws are particularly strict and variable from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Liquor sales are frequently banned on Sunday. Many cities and counties allow no alcoholic beverage sales ("dry"), while others allow beer but not liquor, or liquor but not beer. Some allow beer sales, but only if it is not refrigerated. In 2001, Mississippi banned adoption by same-sex couples and banned recognition of adoptions by same-sex couples which were done and recognized in other states or countries. In 2004, 86% of voter turnout amended the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage and ban state recognition of same-sex marriages which were done and recognized in other states and countries.

At the same time, Mississippi has been one of the more innovative states in the country, having been the first state to implement a sales tax and the first state to pass a Married Women's Property Act. Also, Mississippi has elected more African-American officials than any other state in the United States. Mississippi is one of only a few states to have decriminalized the possession of marijuana, so that possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana is punishable only by a fine of $100 - $250 for the first offense with no jail time.

External links

• The Constitution of the State of Mississippi
• Mississippi, American Law Sources On-line
• Mississippi Code of 1972
• Historic Codes of Mississippi, State Law Library of Mississippi