CL – GOP has success – if not unity

GOP has success – if not unity

Pass an on-time, balanced budget with rainy-day funds set aside: check. Limit attorney general’s power to hire outside counsel: check. Target the state’s only abortion clinic: check. And the list goes on.

Not bad for the “Republican Revolution,” as the political power shift in the Mississippi Legislature has been dubbed for the 2012 session.

But while the big picture suggests the GOP takeover was successful – many of the Republicans’ priorities will become law – a close look at the session’s successes and failures shows competing agendas defy party unity and underlying animosity infiltrates the legislative process.

Clarion Ledger
5/5/12