“Charlie and I have been close friends for a very long time,” says longtime Cleveland Legislator, Charlie Capps. “I was chairman of the Appropriations Committee the same time he was chairman of the Ways and Means. I don’t think Governor Barbour could have chosen any other person that fits the job as well as Charlie does. He is knowledgeable about the government, knowledgeable about the Legislature, and he is just an incredibly smart fellow.”
As chief of staff in the Barbour administration, Williams has his work cut out for him, as this position is a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week job. The load is quite heavy to carry.
“A chief of staff really has two roles to play,” says Clarion-Ledger political columnist, Sid Salter. “One is a buffer, especially between the Legislature and the governor in that some legislators will find the courage to say to a chief of staff what they won’t say directly to a governor’s face. The other role is to counsel and be a confidante to the governor. This is a good role that Charlie can play well.”
A Senatobia native, Williams is a 24 year veteran lawmaker from the House of Representatives. He knows every inch of the House (and Senate) and he understands how things work in front of the public, and behind closed doors.
According to many political observers, tapping Williams for this important position was one of the first signs that Barbour’s decision-making abilities were going to be very solid.
By bringing Williams on board, Barbour now had someone who could connect the dots inside of the Capitol.
“There has never been a chief of staff for a governor who knows more about all aspects of state government than Charlie Williams,” says Chip Morgan, executive vice president of Delta Council. “Charlie is well- liked and trusted by agency heads, legislators, and other statewide elected officials.”
Williams’ appointment boiled down to a car ride.
A few days after Barbour was elected, Governor Musgrove invited him to a budget meeting so Barbour called longtime friend, Williams, and asked if he would join him at that meeting. After the meeting, instead of using his security personnel to take him back to his hotel, Barbour asked Williams if he wouldn’t mind driving him there. “I was happy to do this, but I felt that something was up,” says Williams. “On the way to the hotel, Haley said to me, ‘Charlie, I’ve been thinking about something and I want to ask you a question: Would you be interested in coming on board as my chief of staff?’ I told him that somehow, I knew he was going to ask me that question and my response was that I was happy in my current job and that I didn’t see how I could leave what I was doing. Haley said for me to not give him an answer right then, to go back home and think about it. He also looked me dead in the eye and said, ‘Charlie, I really need you to do this.’ Of course, that got me and after he said that, it was hard to say no!”
Raised the son of a local businessman/farmer and county sheriff in Senatobia, Williams comes from a long line of elected officials - his uncle and grandfather were also Tate County sheriffs. Williams’ home in Senatobia was only 30 minutes from Memphis. He and his family spent time in Memphis soaking up what the growing Southern city had to offer. In high school, Williams was a self-described “sports-a-holic.”
After graduating from Senatobia City School, Williams went on to Northwest Community College for two years. Then in the fall of 1964, he transferred to Ole Miss where he received a scholarship and played on the baseball team.
“I went to Ole Miss not long after James Meredith,” says Williams. “So, there was still a lot of talk about civil rights and all of those things. In my mind, those historic years are very memorable.”
After graduating from Ole Miss with a degree in Sociology, he went to work for famed Ole Miss coach, Tom Swayze, assisting Swayze with the baseball team and football recruiting. Swayze was a large influence on the young Williams.
“Coach Swayze was one of the finest people that I have ever known,” says Williams. “He was a first class gentleman in every sense of the word. Everyone thought the world of him; even the baseball coach at Mississippi State admired him. In fact, he and MSU baseball coach, Paul Gregory, went fishing together every summer, although they were big rivals. He was probably the one person on Coach Vaught’s staff that Vaught really depended on for advice, and he was someone that I looked up to. He was a big influence in my life.”
At the College Baseball World Series (1968), several photos of Williams were taken with the Ole Miss baseball team and published in a local newspaper. Two local insurance business owners saw the photos and approached Williams about coming to work for them. He accepted.
“I started working in Memphis in 1970 for Mutual of New York and did that until 1978,” says Williams. “Those early years in the insurance business were great years. I learned a lot about people and about many things.”
In the early seventies, he became active in the Junior Chamber of Commerce, especially in their economic development efforts. During that time, Williams and a group of friends were successful in helping another friend get elected to the Board of Alderman in Senatobia. Williams found that effort of great interest and it sparked his own desire to run for office.
That 1975 race was hard fought. But, the 31 year old Williams prevailed with just over 100 votes. He would stay there in the Mississippi House of Representatives for the next 24 years.
“The day I was sworn-in, was only the second time I’d set foot in the State Capitol,” says Williams. “It was an eye-opener to say the very least. At that time, I didn’t have any ideas whatsoever that I would spend the next 24 years in the Legislature.
“I have to say that the Speaker of the House then, Buddie Newman was not only a great friend, he was a great leader and teacher to me,” says Williams. “He and his wife had lost a son about 20 years prior to that who would have been about my age. I always felt that they had a special place in their heart for me.”
Williams says that during his time in the Legislature, some of his best memories are of working on bills which put into place the programs that provided job opportunities. “The area of education was also important to me although I was never on the Education Committee,” says Williams. “A lot of time on the Ways and Means Committee, I provided help to raise the money to put into education in Mississippi. The Institutions of Higher Learning, community colleges, and agricultural research were areas that were also close to my heart.” Williams says that Delta legislators, Sonny Meredith, Will Green Poindexter, Charlie Deaton, and Charlie Capps, were just a few of his many friends during his terms in the Legislature.
Toward the end of Williams’ career in the Legislature, a number of people began asking him to consider running for governor. Just entering his early fifties, Williams began thinking about what he wanted to do in the long-term. “I had always said that I’d get out ten years too soon before I’d stay a day too long,” says Williams. “It had gotten to the point where everything started falling into place. Governor Fordice was leaving, somebody else was going to follow him as governor and if I didn’t do this at that time, then I didn’t want to wait until I was 65 years old to give it shot.” Williams had been told by a number of people that Mike Parker wasn’t going to run. So, he felt that the timing was right. In the end, he ran and fell short in the primary as the Republican nominee.
“I wouldn’t take anything in the world for the experience I received in that primary race,” says Williams. “A lot of people thought that I couldn’t walk away from that race, but I did. No regrets, and no hard feelings toward anyone.”
Haley Barbour was honorary co-chair for Williams’ campaign. Williams returned to Senatobia focusing on his insurance business and he also began to take on a few clients in order to lobby on their behalf in Jackson. Then, in 2001, he received a phone call one morning from Tunica County Administrator, Ken Murphree. Ken called and asked if I could come over to Tunica County and take a look at all of the progress that they were making there,” says Williams. “I drove over there and we rode around for about three hours. At the end of our meeting, Ken said that he really needed someone to help him in Tunica County because there were many things taking place there very quickly. I told him that if I knew of anyone, I’d send them his way. He responded, ‘No, that isn’t really what I’m thinking of. I’m thinking that you need to be the one to come over here and help me.’ I was really shocked. I went back home, talked to my wife about it, and the next morning I went
back over there at 8:00 a.m. and told him I was reporting for work.” In Tunica County, Williams was involved in just about everything that was taking place there in regard to economic development. He makes a special note of his involvement in the new Tunica County Airport, the Tunica National Golf and Tennis Center, the new Tunica River Park, expansions to the Battle Arena, the museum, and the Tunica County Administration Building.“I was very happy with that work and the people I worked with there were absolutely wonderful,” says Williams. “That was a job that I loved going to every morning. No two days were alike because we had so much going on. But, when Haley called on me to be his chief of staff, it was just something I felt I had to do.”
“Charlie is an interesting figure in government in that he can pretty effectively bridge the gap between the Buddie Newman era when you had a powerful speaker through the the House revolt of 1987 and a more collegial rules-bound operation of the House under Speaker Tim Ford,” says Salter. “We seem to be gravitating back toward a very strong speaker now. So, Charlie will be invaluable to Barbour in that he understands both ways to run the House.” Having been on the job for only nine weeks, Williams says that he has been pleased with the progress the Barbour administration has been able to make in a short time, noting several new manufacturing announcements for the Delta such as Textron in Greenville (over 500 jobs), Faurecia in Cleveland (over 250 jobs), and the latest announcement of FedEx’s new expansion in Olive Branch that will create over 450 jobs.
“The Delta is extremely important to Governor Barbour,” says Williams. “He’s a Delta boy himself and he knows what the challenges are there. Governor Barbour is fully prepared to face those challenges and we’ll be spending a lot of time in the Delta on those issues.”
“Charlie is a player,” says Salter. “He has been well chosen for the job and he’ll be very effective.” DBJ
