The Clarion-Ledger Editorial, 11/25/7
There are 122 members of the Mississippi House of Representatives who are tasked with electing a House speaker between now the start of the 2008 regular session.
It takes a simple majority or 62 House members to elect a speaker, but it takes far more than that to be effective in governing.
The process of governing in the House is influenced by far more complex issues than merely who supported whom in the speaker’s race. Sectionalism (the Delta vs. the Hills, Jackson vs. the Coast, etc.) and factionalism (evangelicals vs. social liberals, public school supporters vs. private school backers,etc.) and partisanship (Democrats vs. Republicans) are but the more obvious points of division in how the House makes policy.
Magnolia Tribune
