The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal Editorial, 9/21/8
The Mississippi Supreme Court turned out not to be the soft touch Gov. Haley Barbour might have expected, and as a result the state will be spared any additional turmoil – and negative national publicity – about a ballot battle that never should have happened.
Eight of the nine justices on this court with a decidedly conservative majority agreed that the governor and Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann had not followed state law in determining that the special election between Ronnie Musgrove and Roger Wicker be placed at the bottom of the Nov. 4 ballot.
The governor’s case – and Hosemann’s recommendation – were based on a contention that the law was ambiguous on special elections. So they chose to ignore the law requiring “national” elections to be high on the ballot and bumped the Senate race to the bottom.
The Supreme Court disagreed, calling the law “clear and unambiguous.” But even if the governor and secretary of state believed otherwise – that the law didn’t apply to special elections – why would they choose to bury the most significant Senate election in Mississippi in a generation at the bottom of the ballot? Even the governor’s lawyer admitted it didn’t have to be there.
Magnolia Tribune
