(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.)
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 to him the state statute governing
sexual assault, 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, and hunting licenses from your state. Each state had their
own shelter-in-place order regarding the Coronavirus virus, and each state has
their own governing body for their public universities.
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, secretary of
state, treasurer, 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
Obama, Trump, and Biden, accusing them of politicizing the Justice Department
in their hiring and firing of the Attorney General and the operations of the
U.S. Justice Department. 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/her 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 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 Republicans 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, even
appointing some African American Democrats as chairs. Congress should learn from Mississippi, since
Congress is very partisan, and whatever party has a majority of lawmakers in
that chamber, that majority party votes to make 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, 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 in insulating the
state from national forces. 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 of 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 California) 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). California requires
that the top two candidates then run in a final election, while Louisiana
historically skipped the final election if one candidates received 50% of the
vote. 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.
Many 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 are
seeing mass pardons, arguing that many felons are 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). A final note is that each state
specifies by law the requirements for a political party to exist, such as
requiring that it have a state executive committee and a party committee
existing in all counties; therefore, if Elon Musk actually had tried to create
a new America Party, to be nationally competitive and to also nominate
Congressional candidates, he would have had to organize that party in each of
the states.
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 a month before the election instead of in-person on election day, 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 had 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 to just 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 unsuccessfully
attempted to pass a federal law that would increasingly nationalize election
laws. Republicans are currently trying to do the same.
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 Master’s
and a PhD program with professors who 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 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, and fortunately I was
wearing my seat belt). 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 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 Amy Tuck from Maben, another of my alumni; she was at the time
the youngest woman ever elected to the legislature, and she later became the
only woman two-term Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi.
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 usually received! 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 since 2009. Haley Barbour’s book has some great leadership lessons that I
talk about in my Leadership class. Louisiana, on the other hand, had a mayor
and governor who were leadership disasters, and the people of that state
suffered.