GWC – Barbour feeling Musgrove’s pain
When Haley Barbour unseated Ronnie Musgrove as governor in 2003, the Republican challenger had a lot of things going for him.
Most of these were of his own making. His experience in leading the national Republican Party made it possible for him to overwhelm Musgrove in raising campaign funds to a level never remotely approached before in Mississippi. Because of his party connections, Barbour was able to bring in some of the national stars of the GOP to tout his candidacy, including a then-popular sitting president. Barbour himself was an effective campaigner, good on his feet and in a crowd.
But it didn’t hurt, either, that Musgrove’s term coincided with a significant recession. Barbour took every chance he could, hammering the incumbent for the 30,000 jobs lost in the state during Musgrove’s four years in office.
Now the tables have turned. With the state stuck in an even deeper recession, some 60,000 jobs have been lost since Barbour took office in 2004. If economists’ projections are right, there will be more shedding before employment starts turning around. The jobless rate, which averaged 6.4 percent in Musgrove’s last year, is now 9.5 percent.
Read more at The Greenwood Commonwealth
10/2/9
Magnolia Tribune
