Analysis: No Single Route to Judgeships in Miss.
Then there are the nontraditional routes to getting a judicial appointment.
One way is to publicly criticize the governor. It seems counterintuitive, but it apparently works. An example of this came just this past week, when Barbour appointed Malcolm O. Harrison to fill a vacant circuit judgeship in Hinds County.
Harrison, 40, has been the county’s prosecuting attorney since 1999 and has had a private law practice in Jackson. He is also past president of the Magnolia Bar Association, a black attorneys’ group.
In February, Harrison criticized the lack of diversity in Barbour’s first 20-plus judicial appointments. There were no black appointees at the time, in a state with a 37 percent black population.
“The Republican Party in Mississippi doesn’t believe diversity is important, especially not in the judiciary in Mississippi,” Harrison told AP in February.
Barbour appointed Harrison to serve the final 14 months of a four-year term started by Bobby DeLaughter. Harrison said he’d begin serving this week. DeLaughter resigned July 30 after pleading guilty in a federal corruption case, and the circuit judgeship sat vacant until Barbour announced Harrison’s appointment.
Harrison said he plans to run for a full, four-year term in the November 2010 general election.
Another nontraditional way to snag a judicial appointment from Barbour is to be a rising star in the Democratic Party – the kind of politician who has good fundraising connections and enough charisma to make Republicans’ knees knock with fear.
The prime example of this is Randy “Bubba” Pierce, an attorney and certified public accountant from Leakesville.
In early 2005, Pierce was serving his fifth year as a Democrat in the Mississippi House of Representatives. He had moved up quickly in the 122-member chamber and held one of the most prestigious chairmanships as head of the Education Committee.
Emily Wagster Pettus
Memphis Daily News
10/30/9
Magnolia Tribune
