Former Assistant US Attorney Mike Hurst is planning a campaign event in Jackson County and you’re invited – if you can cough up the dough.
Hurst is running on a platform of rooting out public corruption. Geoff Pender reports in today’s Clarion Ledger:
“I’m hopeful because the FBI has as its No. 1 priority in the nation for criminal investigations is to go after public corruption,” Hurst said. “If it’s the No. 1 priority for the FBI, I think it’s good enough for the attorney general’s office. There’s going to be a change in that office, and it’s going to make public corruption a No. 1 priority.”
Public corruption is priority numero uno and in that effort Hurst’s campaign is enlisting some odd bedfellows in Jackson County.
A friend sends in the below. It appears the Jackson County Economic Development Foundation board members are now backing Mike Hurst for AG against Jim Hood.
In the materials, Hurst boasts about his prosecution of Chris Epps and Kim Savant. Slabbed has linked former Department of Corrections Commissioner Epps and Scott Walker to a hinky proposal for the construction of the Jackson County ADC. Slabbed has also linked Kim Savant and Scott Walker to John McKay’s advocacy for a catfish pond cum unpermitted sand mine.
Your correspondent has previously pointed to documents revealing back-room dealings between the JCBOS and the JCEDF. (Recall that Chris Anderson was former Chair of the JCEDF until he fled Jackson County.)
Who are the familiar names?
- Royce Cumbest – Brother of Barry Cumbest, President of M&M Bank, JCEDF board member
- Jerry St. Pe – Father of SRHS executive Laurin St. Pe, father-in-law of Dogan & Wilkinson partner Amy St. Pe, business partner with Robert Wilkinson, beneficiary of federal, state, and Jackson County corporate welfare, JCEDF board member, member Gulf Cost Business Council
- Nathan Bosio – Partner at Dogan & Wilkinson
- Jim Estabrook – Dogan & Wilkinson client, beneficiary of Jackson County corporate welfare, Chairman of the Board Hancock Bank, JCEDF board member, member of Gulf Coast Business Council, car dealer
Hurst is also running on his prosecution of employer immigration crimes in Mississippi. You might think that such a candidate would distance himself from someone who as owner and director of Signal International would have profited by his shipyard’s side-stepping Mississippi workers and instead engaging in labor trafficking. Signal is thought to have saved as much as $8 million in labor costs by importing Indians instead of hiring Americans in Jackson County, Mississippi. That plan backfired when a federal jury awarded $14 million to the trafficking victims. Yet, Hurst allows Jerry St. Pe to sign a letter seeking financial support for his campaign.
It is ironic that the The Jackson County Good Ol’ Boy Network has lined up behind an anti-corruption candidate. Maybe they are betting that Hurst will turn out to be a Stacey Pickering type. Let’s hope they are betting wrong.
This will mark Hurst’s second fundraiser in Jackson County this month.
Mike Hurst is the man hand picked by the state Republican bosses.To sponsor or fund his campaign is no different than buying insurance and paying the premium. He will be owned by the same people currently in control of all that is wrong in the state. Just another Stacey Pickering but with a law degree. I have news for Mike Hurst and those that want to see him in the top state law enforcement position in the state,ain’t gonna happen. He will not be able to beat Jim Hood no matter how much money he raises because the people do not want a club member looking into the actions of his supporters who are also members of the same club.With Mike Hurst in the AG’s office these supporters listed having nothing to fear and will continue to pillage our state.
You may be right, but I don’t see Jim Hood in Jackson County bringing anyone to justice or striking fear into the SRHS principals. So what would be any different with Hurst in office?