BY Dr. Marty Wiseman

  With the millennium and the century drawing to a close I suppose that it is only fitting that the 1999 gubernatorial election provide us with one of the greatest living civics lessons in the storied history of Mississippi government.  In addition, as happens more often than not in the world of politics those lessons are full of ironies. Before we try to sort out some of the unusual circumstances that have visited us as we struggle to move someone into the Governor's mansion, we should perhaps review the numbers as they stand at the time this article is being written.
  Approximately 755,000 of those eligible to vote cast a ballot in the gubernatorial election.  Of that number 49.5% voted for the Democratic candidate Ronnie Musgrove.  The Republican candidate Mike Parker received 48.6%.  The first irony in this election is that the math would have produced a clear majority of 50% plus one if it were not for the fact that two fringe candidates Jerry Ladner and Helen Perkins combined for a mere 1.9% of the total vote.  That thin slice of the electorate has caused us to wear out the tabs on our copies of Mississippi's 1890 Constitution.  As it is we find ourselves (at this writing) in the Constitutional "double bind" of neither candidate owning a majority of the popular vote and faced with the potential of the trailing candidate in the popular vote having a majority of the electoral vote.  For those of you who like the majority of us did not know that we even had an electoral vote in Mississippi elections, there is one electoral vote for each district of the Mississippi House of Representatives.  That means that there are 122 electoral votes from which a majority must be drawn to elect a governor.  Here is where the 1890 Constitution comes into play.  Section 140 specifies how a governor will be selected.  The bottom line is that, "The person found to have received a majority of all electoral votes, and also a majority of the popular vote, shall be declared elected."  Section 141 states that if no person shall receive such majorities then the Legislature will decide between the top two candidates based on the popular vote.  Thus, the Constitution is fairly unambiguous in its delineation of the steps to be followed.  Whether or not Republican candidate Mike Parker concedes is immaterial to the course that must be taken to constitutionally conclude the election . The political saga revealed by the election of 1999 is likely to continue for awhile and it had its beginnings nearly one hundred and ten years ago.
  The much maligned 1890 Constitution was written during the Redeemer Period following Reconstruction.  This era was one in which the old south interests picked themselves up out of the dust of the Civil War and began to reassert their power which had been non-existent since early in the war and reconstruction.  With the 1890 Constitution, agrarian interests sought to impede the progress of a new industrial class.  Above all, however, was the desire of white citizens to fend off any electoral power that may have been gained by newly enfranchised black voters and thus to clearly reestablish an all  white power structure.  If we "fast forward" to the modern era we find a number of those ironies mentioned earlier.
  Arguably, in the Pre-Fordice days the Gubernatorial candidate who did the most to keep alive the possibility of there one day being a Republican in the Statehouse was Gil Carmichael.  A perpetual centerpiece of Carmichael's campaigns was the need to scrap the anti-business, anti-black 1890 Constitution.  In 1999 it is this same constitution that is keeping alive the slender hopes of another Republican candidate's ascension to the Governor's chair.  In yet another irony the Democratic candidate Ronnie Musgrove appears poised to win the popular vote and legislative fight based on no small contribution from the Democratic black vote originally marginalized if not totally eliminated by the 1890 Redeemer constitution.  In summary, the Democrats are seeking to hang on by  the strength of votes that they once sought to prevent and the Republicans are struggling to gain the Governorship by using the "flawed" document that they have for so long tried to replace.
  Both of these struggles have merit.  For those who believe in the sanctity of the Constitution, "warts and all", Parker's insistence on staying the course is in fact keeping the faith with that document.  For those who believe that, above all else, the majority should rule the Musgrove position and his claim to be Governor-elect is logical and proper.   A campaign that officially began on March 1, 1999 may end in the new millennium.  There are two things that we do know for sure from this marathon.  When we can't decide who the winner is between the Democrat and the Republican, even after the votes are counted, then we clearly have a two-party system.  In addition, there are times when something must be put to the sternest test to expose its flaws. This test of Mississippi's oldest Constitution may mean that Gil Carmichael finally gets his wish.  In the process we all get a civics lesson before it ever makes the textbooks.