‘Dirty Politics’: Splitting Madison, Rankin counties judicial district ‘just … – Northside Sun

Speculation about dividing the judicial district that includes Madison and Rankin counties began with a rumor and that’s what it amounts to, according to two state senators.

“There was a rumor started that the state Senate and the lieutenant governor favored splitting the Madison County and Rankin County judicial district and joining Madison County with either Yazoo County or Holmes County, but there is no truth to it,” said Sen. Walter Michel, a Republican who represents District 25, which includes Madison County and a portion of Hinds County.

Sen. Brice Wiggins (District 52-Jackson) said the rumor is just that, a rumor, and there’s no truth to it. He chairs the Senate Judiciary A Committee and as such is among leaders responsible for seeing that judicial redistricting gets done.

“Why somebody is saying that the judicial districts are going to be changed makes no sense to me,” he said. “Nothing has been proposed and done. 

“The (Chris) McDaniel campaign was trying to play dirty politics and certain people fell for it.”

Before the primary election on Aug. 8, Sen. McDaniel, who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor against incumbent Lt Gov. Delbert Hosemann, claimed Hosemann planned to split the 20th judicial district, consisting of Madison and Rankin counties and add in Holmes or Yazoo counties.

Under the Mississippi constitution, judicial redistricting must be done by the fifth year after every census, Wiggins said. 

“The Legislature has to do judicial redistricting and 2024 is the year to do it so there will be a year for any potential candidates to know what the districts will be, should they change,” he said. Judicial elections will occur in 2026.

“Under Mississippi law, the legislation has to look at certain things. A few of those are caseloads, population shifts and other things related to the courts. 

Traditionally and historically judicial redistricting has been done by the Judiciary A committees of the House and Senate.”

During the last session, the Legislature provided $2 million to fund additional prosecutors across the state, including Madison County, and perhaps that fueled the speculation.

“During the past session, it was discussed that judicial redistricting would occur in 2024,” Wiggins said. “That’s where the rumor has come from, I think.”

Wiggins said he’s already asked the Administrative Office of the Courts for data about the courts throughout the state and that he plans to have hearings on judicial redistricting when the session gets underway in 2024. 

“For anyone to say there is a plan in place is false because nothing has been done,” he said.

Data will be the basis for judicial redistricting, he said. 

“The reality is certain parts of the state have had population increases and other parts decreases,” he said. “All of that information will be looked at and a decision will be made based on the data.”

The state has 22 judicial districts and some have remained the same for decades, Wiggins said. 

“What the census showed was a 20 percent loss of population in the Delta while the Gulf Coast has grown by 20 percent,” he said. “Those resources have to be reallocated (for the courts). That’s why the state constitution says you have to redistrict after the census.”

Hosemann posted on Aug. 8 on his Facebook page photos of him with mayors across the Madison and Rankin judicial district, including Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee, Gluckstadt Mayor Walter Morrison, Flora Mayor Les Childress, Flowood Mayor Gary Rhoads, Brandon Mayor Butch Lee, Pearl Mayor Jackson Winham and Richland Mayor Pat Sullivan, and wrote: “I do not support changing the district and neither does any Republican Senator I have talked to.”

Michel said Hosemann wanted to “nip it in the bud by meeting with the mayors” and that the lieutenant governor can’t snap his fingers and make it happen.

“We (the Legislature) will vote on those districts,” he said. “He only votes if there is a tie to break.”

Hosemann also mailed a flier to Madison County voters stating that he does not support changing the judicial district, Michel said. “I’ve got one I saved,” he said.

Michel said he does not favor such a plan and neither does Sen. Josh Harkins (District 25- Rankin) or Sen. Dean Kirby (District 30-Rankin).

Missing from the photos that Hosemann posted on Facebook was Madison Mayor Hawkins-Butler.

She shared an audio clip on her Facebook page on Aug. 8 of Kim Wade, “Radio Strong Man,” on WYAB 103.9 FM. 

Wade said: “The merging of these districts  is primarily to shore up the finances of Holmes County. They are facing a drain as a result of the costs po incarceration, the medical costs for prisoners and the costs of trials in Holmes County. If they merge those two districts, the prosperous county of Madison County will be subsidizing all the crime that goes on in Holmes County.”

Wade went on to say that the merger would result in district attorneys who believe in a “no bond-no bail and catch-and-release program” and that Hoseman wanted to split the judicial district because he was “helping out whoever has donated to his campaign.”

Wade’s video posted on Hawkins-Butler’s Facebook page has had 6,400 views and 225 shares.

Hawkins-Butler also weighed in on Aug. 8 on her Facebook page and encouraged votes for McDaniel, saying Hosemann was “conspiring” to split the Madison-Rankin district.

In a video posted on her Facebook page, Hawkins-Butler said:

“I cannot vote for Delbert Hoseman after I know what was planned for the tri-county. A move to split our district would be devastating for our growth, our future and what we call lawful in our city. Delbert Hoseman has always been a friend of mine but Delbert was meeting with others in Madison County and conspiring to split the district in Madison and Rankin counties. I know that. I cannot trust him. That’s why I am voting for Chris McDaniel for lieutenant governor.”

The video has had 18,800 views and 597 shares on Facebook.

Marty Wiseman, Ph.D., emeritus professor of political science and emeritus director of Mississippi State University’s John C. Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development, was not familiar with the political uproar about the Madison and Rankin counties judicial district but pointed out it’s easy to start a rumor and spread it via social media..

“We live in the age of rumors and the Chris McDaniel and Delbert Hosemann election was a heated one,” he said.

Even so, Wiseman considers judicial redistricting “an amazing issue to get bent out about,” given it’s not top-of-the-mind for many voters other than perhaps prosecuting attorneys, defense attorneys and judges, who know firsthand about its importance to the court system.

Familiar with the ins and outs of judicial redistricting from his days as the head of the Stennis Institute, Wiseman complimented the Administrative Office of the Courts because it “does a heck of a job collecting and analyzing data” about the courts that is used to determine how resources are reallocated.

“Just the regular ol’ going to work person, if they had to look at the data, would have their head explode,” he said.

Wiseman muses that the topic of judicial redistricting is “so far down in the weeds and driven by the data that it’s hard to see how you can make a partisan politics out of it,” but acknowledges it takes little, if anything, for something to start.

“These days candidates can pretty much make up anything and add their own facts around it,” he said. “It’s the times we live in.”