2003 campaign After two decades in Washington, D.C., Barbour announced his intention to run for governor of Mississippi in 2003. On August 5, 2003, Barbour won the Republican gubernatorial primary over Canton trial attorney Mitch Tyner. Barbour's campaign manager was his nephew Henry Barbour. During the campaign, a controversy arose when Barbour chose to speak at the Blackhawk Rally, a fundraiser for the Blackhawk "council school" in
Blackhawk, Mississippi. Such "council schools", also referred to in Mississippi lexicon as "
academies", were established by the
White Citizens' Council movement in reaction to the demands for racial integration by the
Civil Rights Movement. The Blackhawk rally was hosted by the
Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC). A photograph of Barbour with CCC members appeared on the CCC webpage, and some commentators and pundits demanded that Barbour ask for his picture to be removed from the site, but Barbour refused. Barbour stated that "Once you start down the slippery slope of saying, 'That person can't be for me,' then where do you stop? ... I don't care who has my picture. My picture's in the public domain." Barbour's
Democratic opponent, then-governor Ronnie Musgrove, declined to be critical, stating that he had also attended Blackhawk rallies in the past, and would have done so that year except for a scheduling conflict. Historically, both Democrats and Republicans have participated in Blackhawk rallies. Barbour defeated incumbent Musgrove in the general election on November 4, 2003, with 53 percent of the vote to Musgrove's 46 percent. Barbour became just the second Republican governor elected in Mississippi since
Reconstruction, the first being
Kirk Fordice. Barbour took office in January 2004.
Fiscal matters in 2006 ,
Condoleezza Rice,
Jennifer Granholm and
Sonny Perdue Barbour called several special legislative sessions to force a financial issue. Writing for
Reason magazine in February 2011, Damon Root expressed the opinion that Barbour supports
farm subsidies,
corporate welfare, and
eminent domain. When he took office, the state of Mississippi had run a $709 million budget deficit for the 2004 fiscal year. With bipartisan support, and without raising taxes, Barbour implemented a plan called Operation: Streamline to cut the budget deficit in half. He accomplished this largely by reducing spending on social services, most notably
Medicaid; the 2005 budget drastically reduced coverage for 65,000 individuals classified as Poverty-Level Aged and Disabled (PLAD), most of whom qualified for the federal
Medicare program, and also significantly limited prescription drug coverage. However, the same budget increased the percentage of Medicaid prescriptions that are for generic drugs. In 2005, the state was budgeted to spend a total of $130 million less on Medicaid than in the previous year. This trend continued in the state budget for the 2006 fiscal year. After a long special session, the legislature approved a budget that featured more social service cuts but also increased educational spending. With tax revenues higher than expected during the 2006 fiscal year, due in large part to increased sales tax revenues in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the state achieved its first balanced budget in years. In the 2008 fiscal year budget, for the first time since its enactment in 1997, the state fully funded the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. Building on a 2002
tort reform bill passed by his predecessor, Barbour also introduced a new tort reform measure that has been described as one of the strictest in the nation. Barbour then embarked on a "tort tour" to encourage other states to follow Mississippi's lead. "We've gone from being labeled as a judicial hellhole and the center of jackpot justice to a state that now has model legislation," commented
Charlie Ross, the chair of the
Mississippi Senate's Judiciary Committee. The effectiveness of Barbour's tort reform efforts has been questioned. According to conservative journalist Timothy Carney, he "touts job growth down in Mississippi under his governing, and some of that is due to tort reform, but some of it is due to rank favoritism and special-interest deals more akin to Obama than Reagan — for instance, subsidies for a biofuels plant." On November 6, 2014, it was revealed by federal prosecutors in the FBI's
Operation Mississippi Hustle sting that Epps and a confederate, former Republican state House member
Cecil McCrory, had taken bribes from many for-profit prison operators, consultants, vendors and subcontractors for other prisoner services. The amounts Epps personally received were estimated to be at least $1.47 million in bribes for steering what Assistant US Attorney LaMarca estimated was $800 million in contracts between 2006 and 2014. Epps cooperated with the prosecution and wore a wire for a substantial amount of time before their indictments were made public. Before federal Judge
Henry Travillion Wingate pronounced his sentence in July 2017, Epps asked forgiveness of the many he had harmed. He said, "It comes back to greed. I made some stupid mistakes I will regret for the rest of my life." Judge Wingate characterized Epps' conduct as, "staggering." He continued, "Mississippi is still in shock. It was an act of betrayal. He has bruised the image of Mississippi and given joy to many of the inmates he’s overseen who can now say the head of the state prison system was just as corrupt as any of them." He sentenced Epps to over 19 years in federal prison. On February 8, 2017, Mississippi Attorney General
Jim Hood, a Democrat, announced he had filed civil cases against 15 corporations and individuals who had engaged in contracts with the MDOC and Epps, seeking damages and punitive damages. He stated, "The state of Mississippi has been defrauded through a pattern of bribery, kickbacks, misrepresentations, fraud, concealment, money laundering and other wrongful conduct." He continued, "These individuals and corporations that benefited by stealing from taxpayers must not only pay the state's losses, but state law requires that they must also forfeit and return the entire amount of the contracts paid by the state. We are also seeking punitive damages to punish these conspirators and to deter those who might consider giving or receiving kickbacks in the future." On May 18, 2017, Hood announced that the state had quickly settled the first suit for two million dollars. The defendant was Alere Incorporated, which had purchased the Branan Medical Corporation. Ten lawsuits in bribery schemes remained pending. Those have accused at least 10 individuals and 11 out-of-state corporations of using so-called "consultants" to gain more than $800 million in Mississippi prison contracts. On January 24, 2019, Hood announced his actions had recovered $27 million from those vendors against which he had filed suits. Management and Training Corporation paid $5.2 million. GEO Group paid $4.6 million, with the named defendant being Cornell Companies, which had been merged with GEO in 2010. Wexford Health Sources paid $4 million. Keefe Commissary Network paid $3.1 million. $3.1 million was paid by C.N.W. Construction Company. $750,000 was paid by CGL Facility Management, which provides maintenance services. $32,188 was received from AdminPros LLC, a Medicaid billing service. Insurance agent Guy E. "Butch" Evans paid $100,000.
Hurricane Katrina response The evacuation order for
Hurricane Katrina was issued by local officials more than 24 hours before it hit, and Mississippi activated 750
National Guard troops as of August 29, the day of the hurricane. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck Mississippi's coast, killing 231 people, devastating the state's $2.7 billion-a-year
casino industry and leaving tens of thousands homeless. (see
Effect of Hurricane Katrina on Mississippi). Barbour's response was characterized by a concerted effort at evacuation, tough-minded talk on looters and an unwillingness to blame the federal government. His response was likened, favorably, to that of
Rudy Giuliani in the wake of the
September 11 attacks. Barbour credited the government workers who helped southern Mississippi to cope with the hurricane. Barbour was praised by the coast's citizens as a strong leader who can communicate calmly to the public, and provide "a central decision-making point for when things get balled up or go sideways, which they do", as Barbour says. While the reconstruction process does not dictate how localities should rebuild, Barbour has touted
New Urbanist principles in constructing more compact communities. "They have the chance to build some things very differently," he says. "The goal is to build the coast back like it can be, rather than simply like it was." Barbour is an owner of the parent company of
lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers Inc., and he receives a pension and profit-sharing plan benefits from it. In May 2009, Barbour followed the State Tax Commission's recommendation and signed into law the state's first increase since 1985, from 18 cents to 68 cents per pack. The tax is estimated to generate more than $113 million for the year that begins July 1, 2009.
2007 re-election Barbour announced on February 8, 2007, that he would seek a second term as
Governor of Mississippi. Barbour announced the beginning of his re-election campaign at a series of meetings across the state on February 12, 2007. During his campaign, Barbour signed the
Americans for Tax Reform "
Taxpayer Protection Pledge" and vowed not to institute any new taxes or raise any existing ones. Barbour defeated Frederick Jones in the Republican primary on August 7 and Democrat
John Arthur Eaves Jr. in the November general election.
Race and integration Barbour has faced considerable "in-state criticism for his approach to racial issues". Mississippi state Representative
Willie Perkins has "compared Barbour to the southern Democrats who preceded him", saying: "As far as I'm concerned, he has never done anything as a governor or a citizen to distinguish himself from the old Democrats who fought tooth and nail to preserve segregation." Barbour subsequently joined in a petition for a court rehearing of the case that resulted in the original conviction being thrown out. Barbour proved instrumental in winning state legislative support for the
Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Legislation to fund a state museum had been introduced every year since 2000, but died for various reasons. In November 2006, Barbour proposed creating a state commission to develop plans for the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. In his "State of the State" address on January 16, 2007, Barbour said the museum was "overdue, and it needs doing", The proposal won legislative approval, and a site for the museum was selected in March 2008. The project then stalled for three years, however, with museum backers listing lack of direction from the governor's office and Barbour's refusal to spend $500,000 in museum planning funds as part of the reason why. Barbour also declined to name a museum commission to oversee the final push for funding and construction. Following controversy over Barbour's statements on
White Citizens' Councils, the governor again declared his complete support for construction of the museum, in what many political observers felt was an attempt to dampen criticism over his remarks as well as to disassociate himself from Mississippi's racially intolerant past. The museum secured $20 million in funding from the
Mississippi Legislature in April 2011 after Barbour personally testified in favor of its funding. During an April 11, 2010, appearance on
CNN, host
Candy Crowley asked if it had been insensitive for
Virginia Governor
Bob McDonnell to omit mentioning slavery in a proposed recognition of
Confederate History Month. Barbour replied, "To me, it's a sort of feeling that it's a nit, that it is not significant, that it's not a—it's trying to make a big deal out of something doesn't amount to diddly." Barbour continued, "I don't know what you would say about slavery ... but anybody that thinks that you have to explain to people that slavery is a bad thing, I think that goes without saying." In December 2010, Barbour was interviewed by
The Weekly Standard magazine. Asked about coming of age in Yazoo City during the civil rights era, he told the interviewer regarding growing up there, "I just don't remember it as being that bad." Barbour then credited the White Citizens' Council for keeping the
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) out of Yazoo City and ensuring the peaceful integration of its schools. Barbour dismissed comparisons between White Citizens' Councils and the KKK, and referred to the Councils as "an organization of town leaders". Barbour continued in his defense of the Councils, saying, "In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their ass run out of town. If you had a job, you'd lose it. If you had a store, they'd see nobody shopped there. We didn't have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City." Barbour's statement did not address the role of the
white supremacist Council in publicly naming and blacklisting individuals who petitioned for educational integration and how it used political pressure and violence to force
African-American residents to move. This led to a considerable outcry in which critics such as
Rachel Maddow accused Barbour of
whitewashing history. In response to criticism, Barbour issued a statement declaring Citizens' Councils to be "indefensible." In what was speculated to be an attempt at
damage control just days after the interview, Barbour suspended the prison sentences of
Jamie and Gladys Scott, two
African American women who each received two life sentences resulting from a 1993 mugging in which the two women allegedly conspired to steal what amounted to $11. Barbour has denied that there was any connection between the suspension of the Scott sisters' prison sentence and the controversy surrounding his
Weekly Standard interview. Jamie Scott suffered from
kidney failure while in prison, and requires a
donated organ, which her sister Gladys had volunteered to provide. Barbour's decision to release the Scott sisters, however, was contingent upon her consent for the promised organ donation by Gladys Scott, which critics argued amounted to
coercion and raises questions of
medical ethics. The sisters were released in 2011, but by 2018 the transplant had not occurred because of other medical conditions suffered by the intended recipient.
Other second term activities In September 2008, some
Democrats accused Barbour of trying to influence the outcome of the 2008
Senate race by placing the candidates at the bottom of the ballot. Since Mississippi electoral law mandates the placing of federal elections at the top of the ballot, Barbour was ordered by a
circuit court to comply with the ballot laws. In April 2009, Barbour joined a conservative policy group to discuss Republican policies in town hall meetings. The group also included former
Massachusetts Governor
Mitt Romney, former
Florida Governor
Jeb Bush,
Louisiana Governor
Bobby Jindal, and Senator
John McCain. On June 24, 2009, Barbour assumed the chairmanship of the
Republican Governors Association, succeeding South Carolina Governor
Mark Sanford. On October 29, 2009, Barbour endorsed Texas Governor
Rick Perry for the Texas Republican gubernatorial nomination. On March 3, 2010, Barbour and his wife participated in events with First Lady
Michelle Obama, promoting the
Let's Move! anti-obesity campaign. In March 2011, Barbour drew criticism for his role in allowing the release of a convicted killer eight years into a 20-year sentence. In prior years, Barbour had used his powers as governor to release five other killers. Pardons by governors are not uncommon; the issue in this case is the number of pardons compared to former governors. Previous governor Ronnie Musgrove issued only one pardon, for a man convicted of marijuana possession; Governor
Kirk Fordice, who preceded Musgrove, issued only two full pardons for convicted murderers. Harry Bostick, whom Barbour pardoned, had been convicted of DUI three times, and at the time of his pardon was being held for (and subsequently pleaded guilty to) the DUI killing of Charity Smith. On January 11, a Mississippi judge temporarily blocked the release of 21 inmates who had been given pardons or medical release. Attorney General
Jim Hood argued the Mississippi Constitution says any inmate seeking a pardon must publish their intentions at least 30 days prior to the hearing in a newspaper in or near the county where the person was convicted. Hood also criticized Barbour for failing to notify or speak with the families of victims before granting the pardons. He responded to criticism of his actions, saying that 90% of those involved had already been released from prison, many years earlier; he acted in order to allow them to find employment, get professional licenses, vote and hunt. On March 8, 2012, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the pardons, which had been challenged based on the argument that many of them did not follow a requirement in the state constitution to publish notices in newspapers for 30 days. The Court wrote "we are compelled to hold that – in each of the cases before us – it fell to the governor alone to decide whether the Constitution's publication requirement was met." The court also said it could not overturn the pardons because of the constitution's separation of powers of the different branches of government.
Speculated 2012 presidential campaign After he visited Iowa in 2009, there was speculation that Barbour might run for
the Republican nomination for U.S. president in 2012. An advisor of Barbour stated, "When he surveys what most Republicans consider to be a weak field, he sees no reason he couldn't easily beat them. He's a better strategist and fundraiser than any other candidate currently considering running—and just as good on television and in debates." While considering a potential run, Barbour stated forthrightly in February 2011, "I'm a lobbyist", and said that his
K Street past prepared him for the job. Statistician
Nate Silver argued that "Barbour may have difficulty appealing to voters outside the South, especially after his recent comments about the civil rights era."
Salon.com noted that "Barbour has some serious baggage ... he's lobbied on behalf of the Mexican government for amnesty. There's also the issue of his freighted racial history, and whatever pragmatic concerns it raises for November-minded Republicans." Timothy Carney, reflecting on Barbour's history as a lobbyist, concluded: "If the Tea Party still has some wind, it's hard to see how Barbour gets anywhere near the GOP nomination."
Public image Barbour maintained a positive approval rating in his state during periods when he was governor. A July 2010
Rasmussen Reports poll found that Barbour had a 70% approval rating in Mississippi.
Awards and honors In 2009, Barbour was awarded the Honorary Patronage of the
University Philosophical Society,
Trinity College, Dublin. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency headquarters building in Pearl, MS was named in his honor on January 5, 2012. On October 18, 2012, The Center for Manufacturing Excellence at the University of Mississippi in
Oxford, Mississippi was named in his honor ==Post-gubernatorial career==