November 12, 2015
Mississippi has earned a D- grade on the Center for Public Integrity's 2015 http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/11/09/18437/mississippi-gets-d-grade-2015-state-integrity-investigation">investigation of state government transparency and accountability issues. The state's overall rank nationally is 33rd out of 50 states.
After this year's election, it should come as no surprise that Mississippi was ranked last in the campaign-finance category.
As early as the primary elections, disputes over personal campaign-finance spending raged. For example, Stacey Pickering, the state's auditor, used http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2015/aug/05/mystery-guy-wins-democratic-primary-governor-audit/">campaign-finance money to buy an RV and a garage door. He said at the time that the FBI was not investigating, despite reports to the contrary.
Advocacy organizations played important roles in the campaign-finance game too--especially in DeSoto County where four Republican legislators were ousted for their anti-charter school views when Empower Mississippi, a pro-charter organization, funded their opponents' successful http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2015/aug/12/empower-pac-helps-oust-anti-charter-republicans/">campaigns.
The only regulations in place in Mississippi state law limit corporate donations to candidates or political parties. Individuals, lobbyists, political initiatives or political action committees are not limited in their spending on candidates or campaigns, an important factor in the Initiative 42 public-school funding campaign and the "Vote No" anti-42 campaign this last election. Dark money--donations made through or by organizations with no transparency about motivation or primary sourcing--influenced http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2015/oct/10/web-national-state-pacs-and-pics-fight-initiative-/">both sides of the Initiative 42 debate.
Mississippi also received failing grades in the following categories: public information access, electoral oversight, executive accountability and judicial accountability.
The report stated that Mississippi could rise from its last-place rank if legislators would examine and update campaign-finance laws in the state.
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