Bill Luckett and the Ghost of Mike Sturdivant
Jan 06, 2011 09:08 Filed in: Politics Subjects Mississippi/Jackson
The JP has been receiving email fliers from Bill Luckett for Governor for a number of months. Finally, I went through his web site in an effort to discover what makes him different from all the rest of the gubernatorial wannabes, but was unsuccessful. At the best, his web site seem free of the usual obnoxious right-wing propaganda and he seems like a nice, intelligent, and honest man. At the worst, the web site lacks any substantive commitment beyond jobs, education and new perspectives in leadership. The fact that he is not a career politician cuts both ways; while he may not be a creature that crawls in the usual swamp of Mississippi politics, he will have to master that very swamp before he can bring about substantial change in education, government and the state’s economic wellbeing.
Luckett reminds me of Mike Sturdivant, a wealthy businessman and plantation owner from Glendora who lost the Democratic nomination for governor in 1987 to Ray Mabus , who went on to defeat Tupelo industrialist Jack Reed in the general election. Sturdivant, who by all accounts was an intelligent and reasonably progressive person, similarly ran as a non-politician who promised to bring new perspectives to the governor’s mansion. Mabus, who had gained a reputation for fiscal rectitude as state auditor, easily crushed Sturdivant, who spent more than a million dollars of his own money on his campaign.
Mabus, who also campaigned as a fresh face in Mississippi politics, turned out in the end to have few new ideas worth considering, and was turned out of office by disappointed voters in favor of Republican businessman Kirk Fordice, who rode the right-wing wave that was then inundating the nation.
But I digress.
I’m interested in knowing more about who this Bill Luckett really is. Given the fact that 90% of Mississippi whites voted for an elderly and semi-senile former prisoner of war over a bright, highly educated former head of the Harvard Law Review (who just happened to be African-American) in the last presidential election, there is little hope that the swamp of Mississippi politics will ever be drained—or even penetrated—in the near future. But I rejoice that someone is trying. If you have knowledge about Bill Luckett that would help the readership of the JP, put it in the comments.
Luckett reminds me of Mike Sturdivant, a wealthy businessman and plantation owner from Glendora who lost the Democratic nomination for governor in 1987 to Ray Mabus , who went on to defeat Tupelo industrialist Jack Reed in the general election. Sturdivant, who by all accounts was an intelligent and reasonably progressive person, similarly ran as a non-politician who promised to bring new perspectives to the governor’s mansion. Mabus, who had gained a reputation for fiscal rectitude as state auditor, easily crushed Sturdivant, who spent more than a million dollars of his own money on his campaign.
Mabus, who also campaigned as a fresh face in Mississippi politics, turned out in the end to have few new ideas worth considering, and was turned out of office by disappointed voters in favor of Republican businessman Kirk Fordice, who rode the right-wing wave that was then inundating the nation.
But I digress.
I’m interested in knowing more about who this Bill Luckett really is. Given the fact that 90% of Mississippi whites voted for an elderly and semi-senile former prisoner of war over a bright, highly educated former head of the Harvard Law Review (who just happened to be African-American) in the last presidential election, there is little hope that the swamp of Mississippi politics will ever be drained—or even penetrated—in the near future. But I rejoice that someone is trying. If you have knowledge about Bill Luckett that would help the readership of the JP, put it in the comments.
blog comments powered by Disqus