Gov. Haley Barbour (R) Elected 2003, 1st term up Jan. 2008
Born:	Oct. 22, 1947, Yazoo City
Home:	Yazoo City
Education:	Attended U. of MS; U. of MS, J.D. 1973
Religion:	Presbyterian
Marital Status:	married (Marsha)
Professional Career:	State Dir., US Census Bureau, 1969-70; RNC Committeeman, 1984-98; Dir., White House Office of Political Affairs, 1985-87; CEO, Founder, Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, 1991-present; Chmn., RNC, 1993-97.
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Ronnie Musgrove was elected governor by the Mississippi House of Representatives in January 2000, after leading the popular vote in November 1999 by a 49.6%-48.5% margin. Musgrove grew up in Tocowa, in Panola County; he can remember political discussions at the dinner table with his father, a state highway worker, who died when he was 7. Musgrove says he wanted to become a lawyer because his father had spoken well of the profession. He is the first Mississippi governor not to have lived as an adult during the searing years of the civil rights revolution: The protests when James Meredith integrated the University of Mississippi in 1962, the murder of Medgar Evers in 1963, the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964--all happened when he was younger than 8. Musgrove went to college and law school at Ole Miss, where he was a classmate and friend of the novelist John Grisham--and where his nickname was "Governor," "because Musgrove knew everybody," Grisham says. He worked his way through school selling encyclopedias. After school he practiced law in Batesville. Musgrove was elected to the state Senate in 1987, at 31, and re-elected in 1991. During legislative sessions he was well known for eschewing whiskey for soft drinks and for refereeing high school and community college basketball games. In 1995 he ventured to run for lieutenant governor, and with his strong Southern drawl, elaborate courtesy and high-pitched laugh, and with his emphasis on education and family values beat Republican incumbent Eddie Briggs. In his second month in office, February 1996, he suffered a mild brain injury in an auto accident; for a time it seemed his life was in danger, but he recovered fully.

Musgrove was obviously on the road to running for governor, and he campaigned hard and effectively. In the August 1999 Democratic primary--still the primary of choice of the large majority of voters--he won with 57% of the vote in an eight-candidate field. The Republican primary was between three former Democrats; former Congressman Mike Parker won by a 51%-28% margin over Musgrove's 1999 opponent Briggs. Polls showed the race about even. Parker ran folksy ads featuring endorsements from his relatives, including a distant cousin named Loretta Musgrove, who was shown shelling peas. Ronnie Musgrove attacked Parker's record in the acrimonious House and spotlighted education. Musgrove pledged to raise teacher pay to the Southeastern state average, to put an Internet-connected computer on the desk of every pupil in every grade and to lower class size in kindergarten through third grade from 24 to 15. He opposed abortion and any new gun control law, but did not abandon the Democratic base entirely; he had lots of support from trial lawyers and accompanied Bill Clinton on his July 1999 tour of the Mississippi Delta.

The election turned out to be the closest in Mississippi history. Musgrove won by 8,343 votes out of 764,000 cast. Musgrove ran far ahead of national Democrats in northeast Mississippi, where he carried most counties, and he held down Republican margins in the Gulf Coast impressively. The Delta and the Jackson area split much as they do in national elections, with huge majorities of blacks voting Democratic and huge majorities of whites Republican. But winning the popular vote was not decisive under a Mississippi law passed in 1890 to prevent blacks from winning statewide elections with pluralities. The law said that if no candidate won a majority of the popular vote the winner would be determined by which candidate won the most state House districts. After the tedious tabulation, it appeared that 61 districts voted for Musgrove and 61 for Parker. Under the 1890 law, the decision then went to the state House of Representatives. Democrats had a big margin there, but Parker refused to concede and Musgrove did not choose agency heads or set the details of his legislative agenda. On January 4, 2000, Musgrove was finally elected by a margin of 86-36.

In his first legislative session, Musgrove achieved his biggest goal, a six-year, $338 million teacher pay raise, up to the Southeastern state average. But he had to make some concessions: The first raise came in the 2001-02 school year, and raises were contingent on 5% growth in state revenues--a provision insisted on by Lieutenant Governor Amy Tuck and the state Senate. To avoid antagonizing legislators, Musgrove let pass into law a bill giving them a better retirement system than any other state employees; voters screamed, and Musgrove called a special session to repeal the law. Musgrove also called an August special session to reshape state job development efforts as the Advantage Mississippi Initiative. Musgrove's program to put computers on every desk in every classroom passed and the first were installed in February 2001. He worked to increase the number of children in the CHIP health care program. The state finally settled for $500 million a suit brought in 1975 regarding higher education desegregation; the settlement will pay for extra spending for its three historically black colleges. Musgrove was pleased to announce that Nissan was building a $930 million plant employing 4,000 in Canton, just north of Jackson.

The issue of the Mississippi flag was kindled in May 2000, when the state Supreme Court ruled that the flag, which features the Confederate battle cross in the upper left corner, was not legally the state flag, because the 1894 law authorizing it was not included in the full codification in state laws in 1906. Musgrove appointed a commission headed by former Governor William Winter to design a new flag which he and four other statewide officials endorsed, but the legislators decided to send the issue to voters in a referendum in April 2001. Most blacks and many business leaders support the new design, but there was vocal opposition from many whites, and many feared--or hoped--that a large majority of white voters would choose that in the privacy of the voting booth. The new flag design was defeated by a resounding 65%-35%. In 2001 Musgrove started scheduling One on One with the Governor; citizens could line up in the Capitol and talk to Musgrove for five minutes. In July 2001 he got the legislature to repeal the 5% revenue growth requirement for the teacher pay increase.

The big issue of 2002 was the civil justice system. Mississippi had become a trial lawyers' paradise, with huge verdicts awarded by juries in tiny impoverished counties. Doctors were leaving the state because they could not afford huge increases in malpractice insurance premiums, and national businesses were being subject to potentially confiscatory verdicts they could not feasibly appeal. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce ran full-page ads in Mississippi newspapers calling for change. Musgrove, though supported by and generally friendly to trial lawyers, called a special session for September 2002. But he insisted that the legislature first pass his private prisons proposal and that it must consider medical malpractice before product liability. In October he signed a bill limiting malpractice pain and suffering damages to $500,000, to rise to $1 million by 2017; cases would have to be brought in the county where the damage occurred. In December he signed a bill capping punitive damages in product liability cases at $20 million for the biggest firms and at 4% of a firm's net worth for those worth less than $50 million; retailers were protected against liability for products they sold; restrictions were put on where cases could be brought. In November 2002, as the legislature was conferring, a pro-trial lawyer state supreme court justice was defeated. Nonetheless, Musgrove vetoed a second time a bill opposed by trial lawyers capping damages from fraudulent lending. Meanwhile, there were newspaper reports that investigators were looking into allegations that prominent trial lawyers Paul Minor and Richard Scruggs paid off debts owed by two judges and were looking into the pattern of Musgrove receiving big contributions from trial lawyers just before he made judicial appointments.

Just before election year 2003, Tuck announced she was switching to the Republican party; as leader of the state Senate she had pushed for a congressional redistricting plan favored by Republicans, had not endorsed Al Gore in 2000 and favored more changes in the civil justice system than Musgrove. He said he was not surprised. "She was obviously going to be challenged in the Democratic primary. I believe it was a matter of political survival." Musgrove's own survival was also in doubt. There was widespread speculation that Musgrove was seeking to be named president of Delta State University, rather than stand for reelection in 2003, but he ultimately filed to run. Trial lawyer John Arthur Eaves also filed to run for governor in the Democratic primary, but later withdrew from the race. Musgrove's Republican opponent seemed certain to be Haley Barbour, Republican National Committee chairman from 1993 to 1997 and a successful Washington lobbyist. He had run against Senator John Stennis in 1982 and lost 64%-36%. In 2002 he traveled to most of the state's counties and said, "We're in a deep hole and nobody in state government is talking about it." The civil justice system seemed likely to be one of his issues.

Update: March 10, 2004
Haley Barbour, a prominent Washington lobbyist, was elected Mississippi governor in November 2003, making him only the second Republican governor of the state since Reconstruction. The election ended the most expensive gubernatorial campaign in Mississippi history.

Barbour served as former President Ronald Reagan's political director and as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1993 to 1997. Under his leadership, the Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years. Criticized by Musgrove as a Washington insider, Barbour told voters that his contacts with political and corporate leaders could benefit Mississippi economically.

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State Capitol, P.O. Box 139, Jackson 39205, 601-359-3100; Fax: 601-359-3741; Web: www.state.ms.us.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
1999 general	Ronnie Musgrove (D)	379,034	50%
	Mike Parker (R)	370,691	49%
	Other	14,213	2%
1999 primary	Ronnie Musgrove (D)	309,519	57%
	James Roberts Jr. (D)	142,617	26%
	Richard Barrett (D)	32,383	6%
	Other	61,036	11%
1995 general	Kirk Fordice (R)	455,261	56%
	Dick Molpus (D)	364,210	44%