(Note: these learning modules encompass the actual class lectures, and are designed for those students who have to miss class through no fault of their own, and also as a refresher for all students. Bold print in the notes are what the professor writes on the board.)

LEARNING MODULE: WEEK 4, Federalism

Remember that the states came together to form the union and the federal government, so they are important entities. Most criminal laws are state laws; when Judge Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault decades later, a prosecutor questioning him before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee literally read the state statute governing sexual assault to him, section by section. He was warned that in that state there was no statute of limitations for that crime, and he was under oath and could be charged with perjury. He denied every charge. You get your driver’s licenses, marriage licenses, hunting licenses from your state. Each state had their own shelter-in-place order at the start of the Coronavirus crisis.

Each state has their own state constitution. Like the federal level, each state has three branches of government, but how members of each branch are selected and how they operate differs for each state. We will take Mississippi as one case study, showing the possibilities.

Executive- like many states affected by Jacksonian democracy, Mississippi likes to have a more direct democracy, so the state lets voters independently elect all 8 of its top executive branch officials. So we voters have to learn about the candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and so on. This of course weakens the chief executive, the governor, but it does ensure that these public officials can make their own independent judgments on important issues. Political opponents have attacked Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden accusing them of politicizing the Justice Department in their hiring (and in Trump's case firing) of the Attorney General. Mississippians don’t have to worry about that. Indeed, the previous state Attorney General was a Democrat, while the governor was a Republican.

Legislature- like all except one state, Mississippi has a bicameral legislature. Unlike some states with staggered terms, Mississippi elects all of its state senators and state house members at the same time (for four-year terms). Unlike most states holding their elections in even numbered years like the federal government, Mississippi has its state elections (executive and legislative) in the year before a presidential election. Like the federal level and most states, the lieutenant governor is the presiding officer of the senate, but unlike some states our lieutenant governor exercises more power. Mississippi senators adopted senate rules that gave him the power to assign members of committees and to choose committee chairs, and much power over actually presiding over the daily operations of the senate. They felt that since he or she was the only one of their institution elected statewide, that he or she could best make these critical process decisions in the best interests of the state. In the 1980s as a few Republicans started to get elected to the legislature from this historically Democratic state (due to the Civil War), Democratic party lieutenant governors made some of them committee chairs, based on their qualifications and expertise in relevant areas. When the first Republican was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1991, he faced a Democratic-controlled state legislature, but he maintained the bipartisan tradition of appointing committee chairs of both parties, and the senate did not change its rules to strip him of this important power. When the Republicans gained control of the state legislature after the turn of the century, the Republican lieutenant governors have continued this bipartisan tradition of committee assignments. Perhaps Congress can learn from Mississippi, since Congress is very partisan, and whatever party has a majority of lawmakers in that chamber, that party votes by itself and makes only its party members committee chairs.

Judiciary- many states, including Mississippi, let the people elect their state judges. So, like the state executives, the states often have a more direct democracy compared to the federal government.

Elections. How do states select public officials? Each state is different, based on its constitution and state laws, of course. Each state has a general election, usually held in November, every two or four years (statewide officials have four-year terms, state house members have 2- or 4-year terms). All of Mississippi’s executives and legislators have 4-year terms, all elected the year before the presidential election. Most states elect their statewide executives in the even numbered year between presidential election years, to insulate them from the distraction of presidential politics, so Mississippi goes even further. Most states, like Mississippi, let the political parties choose their own nominee for each office, and only that nominee is placed on the general election ballot. Those states have earlier, primary elections, run by each political party. Southern states like Mississippi, that historically were one-party states, have a runoff primary election; if no candidate gets a majority vote in the first party primary, there is a runoff primary between the top two candidates. States also vary regarding voter registration procedures. Most states require registering to vote a month or so before the election; a few have election-day registration; some have mail-in voter registration. Some states require that one choose a party when registering to vote, and those people can vote only in that party’s primary. In most states, like Mississippi, you do not have to indicate a party when registering to vote, so in those states you can vote in either party’s primary. Some southern states, including Mississippi, have a modified system, whereby you can vote in either party’s first primary, but you cannot then vote in the other party’s runoff primary. Our state law regards the two primary elections as being one. Obviously, everyone in all states can vote in the general election. A few states (like Louisiana) do not have separate primary elections. They just let candidates file to run and indicate their party, and they place all of those candidates with their party designations on one ballot. Everyone votes using that one ballot that lists multiple Democrats and Republicans (and other minor parties and independents), and if one candidate gets a majority of the vote, they are elected. If nobody has a majority, there is then a runoff election between the top two candidates. Complicated, isn’t it? That is federalism- each state is important; each state does things the way they want. Then you get into each state specifying the requirements for voting. You have to be at least 18 in each state nowadays. Some states disqualify anyone who was ever convicted of a felony, unless they have had their voting rights legally restored. In Mississippi, a former felon can petition the state legislature (starting with his/her own legislator), or they can be pardoned by the governor. Some states with Democratic governors have enacted mass pardons, arguing that many felons are lower income minorities who did not receive adequate legal representation, plus they have served their time. Some states, like Mississippi, require voter identification in order to vote (argument of preventing voter fraud, versus yet another unnecessary hassle suppressing the turnout of minorities).

The disputed 2020 presidential election in my opinion shows the wisdom of federalism. Because of the coronavirus scare, many states changed their election rules during the election year, permitting people to vote by mail instead of in-person, and permitting them to drop their ballots into drop boxes in the community. President Trump and many Republicans feared that left-wing organizations were engaged in ballot harvesting, going door-to-door and collecting Democratic ballots. After losing in November, Trump filed 62 lawsuits alleging vote fraud, but he lost 61 of those cases. He then tried to get state election officials in states like Georgia that Biden narrowly won to "find" more Trump votes to counteract what he thought were fraudulent Democratic votes. He also tried to get state legislative leaders to call their legislatures back into special session and appoint Trump slates of electors, though Biden had been declared the winner of these states by the state Secretaries of State and governors. Since elections are run by state governments, and all of these state officials were elected by their states' voters, all of these state officials refused Trump's pressure campaign. Each state ended up sending only one official slate of electors to Washington, and those votes were eventually counted on January 6, and Biden was declared by Congress to be the elected President. Also, notice the beauty of an independent state and federal judiciary, as the courts rejected Trump's lawsuits. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court with three Trump appointees even refused to hear his final appeals. After the election, some states at the urging of Republicans passed laws that they argued upheld election integrity, and national Democrats were angered at what they saw as attempted voter suppression (turnout in 2020 had been very high), so they attempted to pass a federal law that would increasingly nationalize election laws. That bill died in Congress, and currently both parties are seeking to nationalize their preferred voting procedures.

This whole subject of Federalism is not my research area, so I don’t know much about it, and it won’t be on the test. Our political science department has a Masters and a PhD program with professors that are experts in this area, and the students get some great jobs (one directs the federal Stennis Center for Public Service in the Research Park and another directs the state Stennis Institute of Government on campus). But I do know a lot about Political Leadership, which is a higher-level undergraduate class that I teach, and Mississippi provides some great lessons for the rest of the country. Our leadership accomplishments include:

1) Governor William Winter in 1982 got the state legislature to enact a landmark Education Reform Act that improved public elementary, secondary, and higher education. He held public meetings in communities across the state, had teachers and respected community leaders show up, and built support. Winter went against the conservative, small government status quo of powerful legislators at that time, and addressing the legislature pounded his fist on the podium, and said, “It’s boat rocking time in Mississippi.” When the legislature killed his program on a deadline date for legislation to be considered, the Clarion-Ledger newspaper (which won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on education problems in the state) published the names and faces of legislators opposing education reform, calling them a “Hall of Shame.” Winter called a special session of the legislature (state legislatures do not meet the entire year), and the Act passed.

2) The 1987 Highway Bill passed by the state legislature during Governor Bill Allain’s governorship. Mississippi used to only have 2-lane roads, except for the federal interstates, the four-lane road on the Gulf Coast, and the four-lane road between Starkville and Columbus. Businesses hated them, and people died on them (I totaled the first new car I was able to buy, fortunately I was wearing seat belts). In 1987 the business community created an interest group- AHEAD- advocating highways for economic advancement. They got the legislature to pass an increase in the gas tax to four-lane one thousand miles of roads by the year 2000. Allain, who had campaigned against new taxes, promptly vetoed it. The legislature worked together across party lines, decided it was in the best interests of the state, and overrode his veto by a two-thirds vote in each chamber. One of those legislators who showed such positive leadership was Truman Scholar and lawyer Scott Ross from West Point, one of my alumni who at the time was the youngest man ever elected to the legislature (he later became a College Board member, and then mayor of West Point).

3) The 1992 Tax Hike for Education at all levels, plus the university library bond bill. Mississippi elected its first Republican governor since post-Civil War Reconstruction, Kirk Fordice in 1991, because of public dissatisfaction with the recession (Democrats had controlled state government). Fordice was a very conservative Republican, a construction company owner, and he wanted to cut taxes. But the recession was so bad that public schools were talking about cutting back to a four-day week, and universities were threatening to kill about 10% of their degree programs. The state legislature looked at what was best for the state rather than blind partisanship, dealt with criticism that too much money was put into less essential programs, and passed a general tax increase (earmarking 90% of the new funds for education). Fordice promptly vetoed the bill, and the legislature overrode his veto. Many Republicans, including state senator Roger Wicker (who is now a U.S. Senator) from the pro-public education town of Tupelo, supported the bill and the veto override. One pro-education state senator who had just been elected was lawyer Amy Tuck from Maben, another of my alumni; she was at the time the youngest woman ever elected to the legislature, and she then became the only two-term woman lieutenant governor in the state's history.

4) Hurricane Katrina. Do any of you remember anything about it, even stories from your parents? That hurricane was so devastating that like the recession of 1991, I feared that our higher education system was going to be wrecked, just from a loss of funds. One of my college rock climbing buddies from the Sanderson Center went back home to the coast after her grandmother was drowned! Being an Army brat who had grown up in New Orleans, I watched the television scenes of people there on their roofs from the massive flood, and I heard of the miserable refugee-type conditions of people living in the convention center for weeks. Hopefully, one of you is reporting on Governor Haley Barbour’s book, America’s Great Storm. He did a great job working with our congressional delegation in Washington, to ensure that Mississippi not only didn’t lose any tax revenue, but it ended up with more than it had expected! Our own former Senator Thad Cochran, who chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, was of great help, as was his Chief of Staff. Do you know who that person was? Take a guess? The Chief of Staff was Dr. Mark Keenum, who is today MSU’s university president, and has been for ten years. Haley Barbour’s book has some great leadership lessons, that I talk about in my Political Leadership class. Louisiana, on the other hand, had a mayor and governor who were leadership disasters, and the people of that state suffered.

Final subject, if time permits. How do you think that your local, state, and national leaders acted during the Coronavirus Crisis? How would you rate the leadership of our nation’s Presidents, our Congress, our (or your if you are from out-of-state) governor, and your mayor? What specifically affected you the most in that whole crisis, and how do you think they did?