This bears repeating, so I am reprinting the first part of last week’s column:
In four days, April 1, Jackson Northsiders will vote in the mayoral primary election. Listen closely:
DO NOT VOTE IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY. VOTE IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY.
There is one simple reason for this: There is only one Republican mayoral or city council candidate. That person, Bruce Burton, is unopposed and doesn’t need your vote.
Meanwhile, there are 13 city council and 13 mayoral candidates running as Democrats or independents. There are three Republican mayoral candidates but none of them stand a chance.
In essence, voting in the Republican primary for Jackson mayor is a waste of your vote.
And not a single vote needs to be wasted in this election. Jackson is falling apart and fresh blood is desperately needed.
The incumbent mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, does not deserve a third term. Not only has his office poorly managed almost every city department, but he is under federal indictment for bribery.
In Ward One, two-term councilman Ashby Foote is running as an independent for the first time. A Republican, Foote is running as an independent to give his constituents the power to influence the Democratic primary.
Many Jackson Northsiders don’t realize that Mississippi has an open primary system. You can vote in any primary you want to regardless of your party affiliation. There is nothing wrong with voting in the Jackson Democratic primary even if you are a registered Republican.
In 2021, Lumumba received 69.2 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary and 69.4 percent of the vote in the general election. Northsiders voted overwhelmingly for Lumumba. We gave him a chance not only once but twice.
Nothing would have made me happier than to see this young man succeed in his job and move Jackson forward. But that just didn’t happen, plain and simple.
Lumumba declared he would make Jackson the most radical city in the world. We laughed and thought it was just a campaign slogan. Not so.
It’s indeed pretty radical to be the only city in the U.S. to go for weeks without any drinking water or garbage pick up.
The list of dysfunction is long: the zoo, the libraries, the streets, the street markings, the garbage contract, the neglected federal grants, the crime rate, etc.
Lumumba’s biggest problem is that he is a radical ideologue in a city that must work hand in hand with a Republican governor and legislature. But instead of pushing his ideological opinions aside for the good of the city, he has bit the hand that could feed our city.
The state legislature, praise the Lord, has overcome its disdain and neglect of Jackson and is now willing to help turn our state capital around. The Capitol Complex Improvement District and the Capitol Police are proof of that. But rather than embrace the help, Lumumba has battled the state for infringing his political power.
We need a mayor who will work with state authorities in a cooperative manner. Jackson is used by the whole state. People from all around the state come to the Jackson metro area for work and entertainment. The City of Jackson is a big part of the metro area and needs to be a beacon of Mississippi’s progress, not an emblem of its problems.
Polls show that Lumumba is still popular with his core radical constituency and could make the runoff. Polls show that John Horhn and Tim Henderson have the best chances of keeping Lumumba from a runoff berth.
If Northsiders turn out en masse and vote for Horhn or Henderson, we could take an early next step to moving Jackson forward.
Longtime friend and Delta farmer Mike Sturdivant did not give me a good report about farming conditions when I talked to him last week.
Prices are down across the board and input prices are still sky high from the recent inflation. As a result, most crops are “under water.”
Underwater means that you can’t make a profit. The cost to produce the crop is greater than the revenue from selling the crop.
This is a bad situation and reverberates throughout the entire Delta, indeed, the entire state.
Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann has been warning folks that this dire ag situation is going to affect state tax receipts. That’s one reason Hosemann has been more cautious than Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker Jason White on his tax cut plan.
Soybeans are the worst off, which is bad, because soybeans are probably the dominant crop in the Delta these days. Rice can still make a profit, if you’re skilled and lucky, but not everybody can grow rice. Corns not as bad as soybeans, but it’s still underwater as well. Cotton is being hurt by the speculators, who are driving down prices with their futures trades.
The Trump tariffs are like pouring salt in a wound. Mississippi farmers export their crops all over the world. When Trump imposed tariffs, other countries retaliated by imposing ag tariffs on U. S. farmers. It’s a perfectly horrible storm for our farmers.
Brazil has also proven to be a tough competitor across the board in all crops.
Sturdivant said one of his banker associates told him, “I don’t know if I’m hurting or helping by lending money.”
Sturdivant, whose family has farmed land around Glendora for generations, said he knows farmers who are 60 years old and can’t make a living. All they know is farming. How are they going to get another job? One friend is selling cars.
Farming can be feast or famine. There are so many variables beyond your control: commodity prices, weather, interest rates, public policy. Lots of uncertainty and stress.
When all the variables align in a good way, it’s a strong, profitable business. But when the variables all align downward, it’s miserable. We should all be praying for our farmers.
