The next drama …

JACKSON – With the hotly contested election for House speaker concluded, the next round of drama in the Capitol will come when House Speaker Billy McCoy and new Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant make their committee appointments.

Bryant is expected to make his Friday. McCoy could make his as early as Friday.

Bryant has promised to be bipartisan, though, the key committee assignments – Appropriations and Finance – are expected to go to fellow Republicans.

McCoy faces much tougher choices. He has just won a tough re-election campaign as speaker by a mere one vote.

Does he reward the people who stuck with him or does he bypass some of those people to give members who tried to beat him committee chairs?
       
The dynamics in the House and Senate are different. The lieutenant governor is given the authority to govern the Senate by the members through their rules. Both Democrats, who are in the majority, and Republicans voted to give the lieutenant governor that authority.

In the House, McCoy is governing because a whisker-more than half voted to give him that power.

Plus, the House and Senate have roughly the same number of committees, though, there are more than twice as many House members as senators – 122 to 52. Bryant can make everybody in the Senate either a committee chair or vice chair.
       
There are too many House members and too few committees for McCoy to
pull off that feat.
       
By the way, look for Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, to get either Appropriations or Finance in the Senate.

- By Bobby Harrison

Read more from Bobby Harrison on the 2008 session in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal newspaper.

Senate passes resolution to shorten session

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The Mississippi Senate passed a resolution Wednesday that would shorten the 2008 legislative session from 120 to 104 days.

The resolution passed unanimously and now goes to the House for consideration.

Lt. Gov.-elect Phil Bryant had wanted to shorten the session to 90 days, saying he and Gov. Haley Barbour, who won a second term last year, didn’t need a lot of time to prepare their legislative agendas.

Senate President Pro Tempore Billy Hewes, R-Gulfport, said Wednesday that it might be difficult to fit all the legislative action into 90 days, but he said it could completed within 104 days.

He said lawmakers had voted to shorten the session in the past and “it worked out pretty doggone well. Everybody was able to get back home and saved the state a lot of money.”

The shortened session would save about $500,000, Hewes said.

Speaker vote roll call …

Mississippi House roll call for speaker of the House

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The Mississippi House on Tuesday, on a 62-60 vote, elected Rep. Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, for another four-year term as speaker of the House, the chamber’s presiding officer.

Voting for McCoy were 62 Democrats and 0 Republicans. Voting for Rep. Jeff Smith, D-Columbus, were 13 Democrats and 47 Republicans.

VOTING FOR MCCOY

Democrats (62)

Arinder, Morton; Bailey, Greenville; Banks, Jackson; Bell, Fulton; Blackmon, Canton; Broomfield, Moss Point; Brown, Jackson; Buck, Holly Springs; Burnett, Tunica; Calhoun, Jackson; K. Campbell, Jackson; Clark, Pickens; Clarke, Jackson; Cockerham, Magnolia; L. Coleman, Mound Bayou; M. Coleman, Jackson; Compretta, Bay St. Louis; Dedeaux, Perkinston; Dickson, Macon; Duvall, Mantachie;

Eaton, Taylorsville; Ellis, Starkville; B. Evans, Monticello; J. Evans, Jackson; Flaggs, Vicksburg; Fredericks, Gulfport; Gardner, Batesville; Gibbs, D-West Point; Harrison, Columbus; Hines, Greenville; Holland, Plantersville; Holloway, Hazlehurst; R. Huddleston, Sumner; Jones, Pascagoula; Lane, Waynesboro; Malone, Carthage; Mayo, Clarksdale; Moak, Bogue Chitto; McBride, Courtland; McCoy, Rienzi;

Middleton, Port Gibson; Moss, Corinth; Myers, McComb; Norquist, Cleveland; Peranich, Pass Christian; Perkins, Greenwood; Puckett, Hatley; Reynolds, Charleston; W. Robinson, Bolton; Scott, Laurel; F. Smith, Carthage; Sullivan, Okolona; Thomas, Indianola; Straughter, Belzoni; Walley, Leakesville; Warren, Mount Olive; Watson, Hattiesburg; Whittington, Schlater; Ward, Ripley; Stringer, Montrose; Wooten, Jackson; Young, Meridian.

Republicans (0)

VOTING FOR SMITH

Democrats (13)

Bondurant, Grenada; Bounds, Philadelphia; Espy, Clarksdale; Gadd, Hickory Flat; Johnson, Natchez; Nicholson, Little Rock; Nowell, Louisville; Parker, Lucedale; Patterson, Biloxi; M. Rogers, New Albany; Shows, Ellisville; J. Smith, Columbus; Stevens, West.

Republicans (47)

Akins, Oxford; Aldridge, Tupelo; L. Baker, Senatobia; M. Baker, Brandon; Barker, Hattiesburg; Beckett, Bruce; Bennett, Long Beach; Byrd, Petal; T. Campbell, Meridian; Carpenter, Burnsville; Chism, Columbus; Currie, Brookhaven; Denny, Jackson; Ellington, Raymond; Fillingane, Sumrall; Formby, Picayune; Frierson, Poplarville; Gipson, Braxton; Guice, Ocean Springs; Gunn, Clinton;

E. Hamilton, Olive Branch; F. Hamilton, Hurley; Horne, Meridian; Howell, Kilmichael; M. Huddleston, Pontotoc; Ishee, Gulfport; Janus, Biloxi; Jennings, Southaven; Martinson, Madison; Mayhall, Southaven; McGee, Brandon; Mims, McComb; Monsour, Vicksburg; Moore, Brandon; Morgan, Morgantown; Palazzo, Biloxi; Pigott, Tylertown; Read, Gautier; Reed, Ackerman; R. Rogers, Pearl;

Snowden, Meridian; Staples, Laurel; Turner, Baldwyn; Upshaw, Diamondhead; Weathersby, Florence; Woods, Byhalia; Zuber, Ocean Springs.