Miss. Legislature Will Decide Governor’s Race

JACKSON, Miss. —  With the state government in limbo, the House will convene to pick the next governor of Mississippi for the first time in history today, and a Democrat is almost certain to win.

Lt. Gov. Ronnie Musgrove won the popular vote in the general election Nov. 2 against Republican Mike Parker but did not get the majority needed for outright victory. That sent the governor’s race to the Legislature.

And in a Democrat-dominated House, Musgrove is expected to succeed Republican Kirk Fordice, retaking the governor’s office for the party that has held it during the last century for all but Fordice’s eight years.

The unsettled race comes at a time of turmoil in the governor’s office.

Fordice, a two-term Republican elected on a family values platform, is getting divorced after 44 years of marriage and a very public love affair with his childhood sweetheart.

Musgrove, a small-town lawyer and father of two, declared himself governor-elect one day after collecting 8,300 more votes than Parker. But as the weeks have passed, he has been reluctant to implement his plans.

Parker has rejected calls that he concede, despite a poll of House members showing he cannot win. The former congressman and onetime funeral home owner maintains that his duty is to follow the Constitution.

The governor’s office in Mississippi is “weak already, one of the weakest in the 50 states. This doesn’t help any to have 60 days of confusion,” said Joseph Parker, political science professor at the University of Southern Mississippi.