Warren-Yazoo Mental Health Director Don Brown, left, listens as Republican gubernatorial nominee Haley Barbour speaks at the health-service complex Monday. (Melanie Duncan ThortisThe Vicksburg Post)

[8/26/03]Republican nominee Haley Barbour might have been expected to carry Warren County in November gubernatorial balloting, but he scored a significant boost here Monday when Don Brown, who formerly headed Warren County’s Democratic Executive Committee, pledged his support.

Brown is also president of the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce and works as director of Warren-Yazoo Mental Health Service. He introduced Barbour at his Monday morning meeting with a small group at the health service’s offices on Wisconsin Avenue.

Afterward, Brown said he would support Barbour for governor above Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, the Democratic nominee for election Nov. 4.

“I’m making a choice based on individuals, not on political party,” Brown said, adding that he intends to support the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, Barbara Blackmon.

The county’s current Democratic executive committee chairman, Mary Katherine Brown, responded to word of Brown’s endorsement by calling for his resignation from his continuing membership on the city and county Democratic executive committees.

Don Brown responded by saying he would give up his position on the county executive committee, which has 36 members, and that of the city, which has three.

Warren County has favored GOP nominees in the past three state elections for governor. The first two were for the election and re-election of Vicksburg resident Kirk Fordice, and the third was a 55 percent margin for Mike Parker, who lost to Musgrove.

Brown said criticism that Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who worked for many years in Washington, D.C., has taken for not being in touch with Mississippi “is just a smokescreen.”

“We’ve got a national Republican leadership, and having (Barbour as governor) won’t hurt us a bit, that’s for sure,” he said.

Included in the group of about 12 who attended Barbour’s morning meeting were several black leaders of businesses and nonprofit organizations. Barbour spoke in detail on several issues, including economic development.

Musgrove’s campaign cites as one of the major accomplishments of his administration the deal the state struck to get Nissan to locate north of Jackson, in turn attracting suppliers, among which are two new Warren County employers.

Barbour said he supported the Nissan deal, despite its large price tag.

He cautioned, however, against “having an economic development strategy to go out and find more Nissans. We need to remember that small businesses create most of our jobs, and that when we’re doing economic development, are we watching out for the interests of small businesses, are we making it easier for the small businesses that are here to grow?”

Barbour also spoke about how he would give higher priority to streamlining the way the state administers and provides job-training programs.

“Our community colleges are very good at job training,” yet tens of millions in federal money that has been allocated to the task has been left unspent for inefficiencies that could be eliminated, Barbour said.

“We’re not managing all these streams of money well enough and not leading it well enough that we end up getting the one-stop shopping, coordinated, seamless network like states such as Texas and North Carolina have,” he said.

In response to a question on special legislative sessions such as the one that Musgrove called last year on tort reform, Barbour discussed how he might have handled some dealings with the Legislature differently, possibly avoiding some special sessions with more timely communication.

“I think what the Legislature needs is leadership,” he said. “You know, the governor can’t dictate to the Legislature, but the governor can lead and the governor has got to be out front leading.”

Barbour also returned to the topic of what he calls lawsuit abuse, saying that if elected he would begin working on his first day with the Legislature to seek further reform of the state’s civil liability system.

“The problem we’ve got with our state right now is that the system has gone way beyond fairness to plaintiffs to gross unfairness to defendants,” he said. “The main thing I think we need to do is to reform our rules of joinder and venue: that is, who can be joined together as parties in the lawsuit and where the lawsuits are tried.”

Later, Barbour spoke to an audience of about 150 people at the Vicksburg Exchange Club’s luncheon meeting. There, he repeated proposals he had outlined for dealing with problems in such areas as public education and public safety.

“He wants to change the subject; I want to solve the problems,” Barbour said of Musgrove.

“I don’t think we have ever had a clearer choice in a governor’s race.”

Barbour said he was also to make campaign stops in Port Gibson, Fayette and Meadville later in the day.