JACKSON, Miss. — Phil Bryant's administration is going to look at least a little like outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour's administration.
Among 10 agency heads that the governor-elect named Monday, a day before his inauguration, six are holdovers from fellow Republican Barbour's administration, and a seventh returns to the position that he once held.
"The one thing I wanted to do is have a good mixture if those who have served, who have that experience in the past, and those who will lead us into the future," Bryant said after the announcement.
Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps, Public Safety Commissioner Albert Santa Cruz, Bureau of Narcotics director Marshall Fisher and Department of Finance and Administration director Kevin Upchurch are keeping their jobs.
Trudy Fisher remains as director of the Department of Environmental Quality, and Bill Walker remains as head of the Department of Marine Resources.
Robert Latham, a previous director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, returns to the job he held for six years. He started the job in 2000, under Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, and left during the Barbour administration in 2006, several months after Hurricane Katrina struck.
Three other states — Kentucky, Louisiana and West Virginia — also had gubernatorial elections last year, but incumbents won all three, leaving Bryant as the sole freshman governor this year.
Bryant is likely to enjoy a friendly political environment in Jackson, where Republicans have made major inroads in recent years. On the same night Bryant was elected, Republicans won control of the Mississippi House of Representatives for the first time since Reconstruction, and now control both legislative chambers and nearly every statewide office. Attorney General Jim Hood is the only Democrat still holding a statewide role.
The new governor has not announced his full legislative agenda yet, but has said he will push to expand school choice and make changes to the Mississippi budget process by adopting “performance-based budgeting,” which would tie state funding to specific agency outcomes.
Like most governors, Bryant also is expected to focus on job creation and economic development; Mississippi is tied with Rhode Island for the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation at 10.5 percent. As of Monday night, Bryant was making job offers himself, running a search through his transition website for “dedicated, talented and visionary people” to join his administration.
Among 10 agency heads that the governor-elect named Monday, a day before his inauguration, six are holdovers from fellow Republican Barbour's administration, and a seventh returns to the position that he once held.
"The one thing I wanted to do is have a good mixture if those who have served, who have that experience in the past, and those who will lead us into the future," Bryant said after the announcement.
Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps, Public Safety Commissioner Albert Santa Cruz, Bureau of Narcotics director Marshall Fisher and Department of Finance and Administration director Kevin Upchurch are keeping their jobs.
Trudy Fisher remains as director of the Department of Environmental Quality, and Bill Walker remains as head of the Department of Marine Resources.
Robert Latham, a previous director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, returns to the job he held for six years. He started the job in 2000, under Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, and left during the Barbour administration in 2006, several months after Hurricane Katrina struck.
Three other states — Kentucky, Louisiana and West Virginia — also had gubernatorial elections last year, but incumbents won all three, leaving Bryant as the sole freshman governor this year.
Bryant is likely to enjoy a friendly political environment in Jackson, where Republicans have made major inroads in recent years. On the same night Bryant was elected, Republicans won control of the Mississippi House of Representatives for the first time since Reconstruction, and now control both legislative chambers and nearly every statewide office. Attorney General Jim Hood is the only Democrat still holding a statewide role.
The new governor has not announced his full legislative agenda yet, but has said he will push to expand school choice and make changes to the Mississippi budget process by adopting “performance-based budgeting,” which would tie state funding to specific agency outcomes.
Like most governors, Bryant also is expected to focus on job creation and economic development; Mississippi is tied with Rhode Island for the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation at 10.5 percent. As of Monday night, Bryant was making job offers himself, running a search through his transition website for “dedicated, talented and visionary people” to join his administration.
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