Mississippi

Is ballot initiative a ‘take your picture off the wall’ issue for lawmakers?

Published

2 years ago

February 15, 2023

Is ballot initiative a ‘take your picture off the wall’ issue for lawmakers?

In Mississippi legislative parlance, there are uncommon points that may “take your image off the wall” on the Capitol.

This refers to points about which voters care so deeply that if a lawmaker doesn’t do proper by them, they may oust her or him within the subsequent election. Their photograph will not be within the framed array of the present Legislature.

Monkeying with state retirees’ advantages, huge tax will increase — there are only some singular points thought of to have such statewide, grassroots gravitas. And typically lawmakers both deal with them like a 3rd rail on a subway, or else snap-to in terms of a vote.

Is restoring voters’ rights to poll initiative — the sidestepping the Legislature and placing a problem on to a statewide vote — a type of take-your-picture-down points?

Some elected leaders and candidates consider so. And a few current public polling and social media outcry would seem to again them up. Some residents teams have tried to arrange members to name and write lawmakers about it. Ought to the Legislature fail once more to revive this proper, it’s going to doubtless be a marketing campaign situation in lots of statewide and legislative races this 12 months.

READ MORE: Restoring Mississippi poll initiative course of survives legislative deadline

A current ballot by Tulchin Analysis for the Southern Poverty Legislation Heart Motion Fund reported 65% of Mississippi voters surveyed help restoring poll initiative rights, and solely 14% opposed. Help crossed get together, age, race and different demographic traces.

There’s little question many Mississippians throughout the spectrum have been hopping mad when the state Supreme Court docket stripped voters of this proper in 2021. This was with a ruling on medical marijuana, an occasion the place voters had taken issues in hand after lawmakers dallied for years on a problem. Legislative leaders have been fast again then with vows they’d restore this proper to voters, repair the authorized glitches that prompted the excessive courtroom to rule it invalid.

However given the way in which they’ve fiddle-faddled on restoring the appropriate for happening two years now, it might seem some legislative leaders don’t see it as top-of-mind for voters, or don’t consider voters are paying lots of consideration to particulars.

READ MORE: Mississippi Supreme Court docket strikes down poll initiative course of

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and his Senate Accountability Chairman, John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, particularly, haven’t precisely tripped over themselves in effort to revive voter’s proper to a poll initiative.

Polk’s preliminary draft of a measure this session basically would have given voters poll initiative rights in title solely. It will have given the Legislature energy to veto or amend residents’ initiatives earlier than they go earlier than voters, form of lacking the entire level of a poll initiative. It additionally would have required, on prime of forcing initiative sponsors to gather greater than double the signatures beforehand required to get one thing on the poll, that sponsors get at the very least 10 signatures every from the state’s greater than 300 municipalities. This might be a close to unattainable job.

Even after making some concessions, Senate Invoice 2638 would nonetheless require about 240,000 voter signatures to place one thing on the poll in comparison with about 107,000 below the state’s earlier initiative course of. The Senate’s calls for for requiring numerous signatures killed reinstatement final 12 months when the Home wouldn’t go alongside.

Polk informed his colleagues if he had his approach, he’d require much more signatures for voters to bypass the Legislature, and he voted in opposition to the measure regardless that he was the one presenting it for a Senate vote.

Many political observers seen Hosemann routing the measure to Polk’s committee once more this 12 months — as a substitute of the Structure or Elections committees — as an indication he’s not all that into restoring poll initiative rights.

Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, earlier than final week’s Senate vote, appeared to warn his colleagues about solely paying lip service to restoring the initiative.

“We’re about to seek out out quickly the place individuals actually are, once we see if we get a official, workable poll initiative course of,” Blount mentioned. “… We should be straight with those who we imply it.”

There are affordable arguments for and in opposition to voter poll initiative.

Voter initiative, a creation of the early twentieth Century progressive motion, gave residents the flexibility to beat the affect of massive cash pursuits on legislatures, and may nonetheless function a beneficial backstop. There are 25 states with some type of voter initiative or referendum (the ability of voters to kill a regulation).

However Mississippi’s type of authorities, similar to the nation’s, is a consultant democratic republic, not a direct democracy the place main coverage or spending is determined by a majority vote of the plenty. Our founding fathers have been simply as afraid of the “excesses of democracy” as they have been of despotic kings, and so they believed democracy ought to be tempered by way of legislative illustration, protecting of minority rights, and checked by the judicial and government branches.

Polk warned final week that out-of-state pursuits can spend massive quantities of cash and harness social media campaigns to co-opt the poll initiative course of and pressure coverage that isn’t actually grassroots.

The problem, because it did final 12 months, will doubtless come all the way down to Home-Senate negotiations on a last model of restoration late within the legislative session.

And given its remedy to date on Excessive Avenue, reinstatement of voters’ proper to take issues into their very own arms is much from sure.

However any lawmakers concerned in killing or watering down such rights are taking a danger. And voters may take their photos off the Capitol partitions.

READ MORE: 5 causes lawmakers won’t wish to restore the poll initiative

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Mississippi

Arizona State eyes first win against an SEC opponent vs. Mississippi State

Published

3 hours ago

September 5, 2024

Press Room

Arizona State eyes first win against an SEC opponent vs. Mississippi State

Mississippi State at Arizona State, Saturday, 10:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)

BetMGM College Football Odds: Arizona State by 6 1/2.

Series record: First meeting.

WHAT’S AT STAKE?

Arizona State and Mississippi State both had dominant wins in the season-opening weekend and now have a tougher challenge when they face each other on Saturday night. The Sun Devils are trying to build off an impressive 48-7 win over Wyoming and prove they might be a factor in the Big 12 race. Arizona State has never beaten an SEC opponent. Mississippi State plays its second game under new coach Jeff Lebby. The Bulldogs beat Eastern Kentucky 56-7 in their season opener..

KEY MATCHUP

Mississippi State QB Blake Shapen vs. the Arizona State defense. The Sun Devils scored a touchdown on the second play of their opener when Zyrus Fiaseu picked off a pass and returned it to the end zone. It was one of two interceptions on the day for Arizona State. Shapen had a great debut against Eastern Kentucky but will face a much tougher defense on Saturday.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Mississippi State: Shapen had a terrific first game with the Bulldogs, throwing for 247 yards and three touchdowns while also running for 44 yards and a TD against Eastern Kentucky. The 6-foot-1 senior played the previous three college seasons at Baylor with mixed success. Shapen has thrown a TD pass in 12 consecutive games dating to this time at Baylor in 2022.

Arizona State: RB Cam Skattebo led a balanced rushing attack against Wyoming, gaining 49 yards and scoring a touchdown. Skattebo was a do-it-all player for Arizona State last year, spending time at quarterback, running back and receiver. The Sun Devils might not need him to be as versatile this season, but he’s still a threat from just about anywhere on the field.

FACTS & FIGURES

Mississippi State had six different players score touchdowns against Eastern Kentucky. … The Bulldogs’ 93.7 passing grade in the opener was the second-best mark in all of the FBS, trailing only Purdue, according to Pro Football Focus. … Mississippi State’s Kevin Coleman Jr. returned five punts for 117 yards last week. … Arizona State was credited with just two missed tackles on defense in the opener, tied for the third-lowest tally among FBS schools. … Skattebo is 270 rushing yards away from reaching 3,000 in his career. He is 342 all-purpose yards away from reaching 4,000 and 202 receiving yards away from reaching 1,000.

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Mississippi

How Mississippi State football is preparing for Arizona State weather, late kickoff

Published

10 hours ago

September 5, 2024

Press Room

How Mississippi State football is preparing for Arizona State weather, late kickoff

STARKVILLE — Mississippi State football is preparing to play a team that, at least through one game, looks vastly improved from last season.

Coach Jeff Lebby admitted on Monday, and Bulldog players have noticed it too after Arizona State (1-0) thumped Wyoming 48-7 in its opener.

MSU (1-0) must also factor in the late kickoff that is scheduled Saturday (9:30 p.m. CT, ESPN) at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Mississippi is hot, but so is Arizona — a different kind of hot, too.

Modifications and remedies are being made, such as the team leaving Starkville on Thursday instead of how it normally would on a Friday for a Saturday game.

“For our guys, just knowing exactly what we are getting into,” Lebby said. “We continue to talk about that through yesterday and this morning and (are) having those conversations to understand what it’s going to look like late in the week. We got to do a great job from a preparation standpoint of how we are hydrating, how we are eating and how we are resting to give us the ability to go on the road on this flight and be able to be at our best Saturday night.”

Just this week, Phoenix broke a record with its 100th straight day of 100-degree temperatures. According to AccuWeather, the high on Saturday in Tempe will be 107 degrees with a low of 86. The temperature should dip to around 91 near kickoff with a humidity of 24%.

“Coach Lebby has already been harping on that,” tight end Justin Ball said. “We’ve already been hydrating and making sure we are getting rest every single day. We leave on Thursday, so we already talked about the plan to make sure we are hydrating the entire plane ride there, making sure when we get there we get acclimated as quickly as you can and just staying together. Making sure we’re focused, make sure we keep the goal first and then execute the game plan.”

MORE: Jeff Lebby says Mississippi State football didn’t put on a good enough show. Here’s how he’s wrong

Mississippi State played well the last time it played in Arizona

The Bulldogs played Arizona in Tucson two seasons ago. They squandered a pedestrian Wildcats team 39-17. Kickoff for that game was at 8 p.m. PST though the temperature was 84 degrees at game time.

Not many players remain on Mississippi State’s roster from that 2022 season. But the ones who are, like linebacker Nic Mitchell, can benefit from the experience and also share it with teammates.

“We know it’s going to be a long flight, so we know we got to be hydrated,” Mitchell said. “It gives people experience that have done it before and they can tell the young guys how it’s going to be in the flight, how you got to hydrate and stuff like that.”

Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.

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Mississippi

Playing for Mississippi State not an option for Arizona State back Kyson ‘Sipp’ Brown

Published

17 hours ago

September 4, 2024

Press Room

Playing for Mississippi State not an option for Arizona State back Kyson ‘Sipp’ Brown

Sophomore running back Kyson Brown is one of the faster players on the Arizona State football team. But Brown seems to have a little more pep in his step this week. Why? Well, the Sun Devils (1-0) are set to take on Mississippi State (1-0) at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Mountain America Stadium.

Sure an SEC opponent is enough to get any athlete fired up. But the 6-foot, 200-pounder hails from Tupelo, Mississippi, which is where he got his nickname, Sipp. Tupelo is 67 miles north of the Mississippi State campus in Starkville that Sipp has visited a handful of times.

“I have family, growing up they were all Mississipp State fans and some Ole Miss fans,” he said. “Some of my family are debating whether they want to cheer for me or not. It’s going to be good. A lot of hometown friends. Got a couple guys I went to high school with there. It’s going to be good seeing those guys and hopefully, we compete at a good level and get the W.”

Brown, a mechanical engineering major, is enrolled in ASU’s Barret honors program, He emerged as one of the team’s most improved players. He saw some time on special teams as a true freshman in 2023 and has set himself up for a bigger role, although the ASU backfield has a lot of depth.

In the last week’s 48-7 win over Wyoming, Brown pitched in with six rushing attempts for 25 yards and two receptions for 73 yards. His 68-yard touchdown reception was the longest play from scrimmage that ASU had on the night.

“It felt amazing just to get back in the end zone again,” Brown said. “You come out of high school, you know I’m used to being in the end zone every game, all the time. That play, I knew — once I made the first guy miss — I knew I wasn’t going to let anybody catch me.”

Brown lived in Mississippi until moving to Lancaster, Texas, outside of Dallas, after his sophomore year of high school. He sat out junior year after the transfer. As a senior he averaged 9.5 yards per carry, finishing with 707 yards and 11 touchdowns on 74 carries while adding 14 receptions for 168 yards and two touchdowns.

Sitting out his junior year hurt his recruiting, but he still had notable offers from Purdue, Missouri and Houston. The balance of his options were lower-profile schools. Mississippi State didn’t offer.

He is happy with the end result. A place on the ASU football roster. In the offseason, he worked on his agility, flexibility and catching the ball, which was evident in his recent scoring play.

“We all have the big-play potential,” he said of his fellow running backs. “I feel my role is to make plays, wherever they put me be able to perform.”

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