Any Republican wanting a statewide office in Mississippi has to shake lots of hands and wear out plenty of shoe leather in Rankin County, one of the top vote producers for GOP primaries.
Three of the eight current statewide elected officials have roots in Rankin. Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant lives near the Ross Barnett Reservoir. Treasurer Tate Reeves graduated from Florence High School. Agriculture Commissioner Lester Spell is a former mayor of Richland.
Bryant, Reeves and Spell are all Republicans — although Spell only became one in 2005, a decade after being elected statewide as a Democrat.
While Spell appears unlikely to seek a different office, it’s a safe bet that Bryant and Reeves are setting their sights higher.
Republican Gov. Haley Barbour is limited to two terms and can’t run again in 2011. Bryant, the first-term lieutenant governor, is already jockeying to move up when Barbour moves out.
Reeves is in his second term as treasurer and hasn’t revealed his political plans for 2011, telling The Associated Press last week that it would be “a disservice to focus on anything other than the current job at hand.” Many Republicans see him as a potential candidate for governor or lieutenant governor.
Bryant and Reeves both say they’re fiscal conservatives. Both want voters to show identification at the polls. Both praise Barbour and criticize Democratic President Barack Obama.
But, Reeves and Bryant have vividly contrasting styles and personalities.
Bryant, 54, is a former state auditor who wears cowboy boots with jeans or business suits. He’s comfortable grabbing a microphone and stepping out from behind a podium to give a speech. Bryant’s cell phone ring tone, for a long time, has been the theme song to “Dukes of Hazzard.”
Reeves, 35, appears to be every bit the banker — the job he held before being elected treasurer in 2003. He looks comfortable in a pinstriped suit, or in khakis and a golf shirt. During speeches, he often sticks close to his prepared text. The former Millsaps College basketball player is a number cruncher who’s easily conversant about bond ratings and financial markets.
It’s no secret in political circles that Reeves and Bryant are not close friends.
During his speech July 30 at the Neshoba County Fair, Reeves took what many saw as a direct jab at Bryant, though he never called the lieutenant governor by name.
“We still have some officials railing against taxes and spending at TEA parties and then turning around and supporting higher taxes and higher spending when they think no one else is looking,” Reeves said. “To those, I say you can’t have it both ways. Voters are smarter than that.”
Bryant, of course, has spoken this year at rallies for TEA — Taxed Enough Already. The gatherings have attracted anti-Obama conservatives who are upset about government spending.
Asked to respond to Reeves’ statement at Neshoba, Bryant issued a brief written statement: “We are going to abide by Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment and not speak ill of another Republican.”
As the Senate’s presiding officer, Bryant has supported tax increases that Barbour signed into law this year. One was a $90 million annual tax on hospitals to help pay for Medicaid. The others were Mississippi’s first cigarette excise tax increases in a generation — 50 cents a pack on all brands and another 25 cents on cheaper cigarettes.
If Bryant and Reeves both run for governor in three years, their home base of Rankin County could be the first test of their contrasting personal and political styles. And it could become a place to either uphold or ignore Reagan’s 11th commandment.
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Bryant, Reeves show contrasts in GOP
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