No doubt in local GOP camp they'll be backing Barbour

By By William F. West / community editor
Feb. 19, 2003
It doesn't take long to find out why Kris Gianakos is backing fellow Republican Haley Barbour for governor over Democratic incumbent Ronnie Musgrove.
The bottom line, Gianakos said, is leadership. "One has it one doesn't," he said.
Barbour, of Yazoo City and a former GOP National Committee chairman, was in Meridian on Tuesday to announce his candidacy for governor. It was one stop on a statewide campaign kick-off tour.
Gianakos chairs the Lauderdale County Republican Executive Committee, but his interest in the governor's race is hardly confined to politics.
Gianakos, a former longtime Air Force fighter pilot, said he's also concerned about the status of Mississippi's military bases which face possible closure under another round of Defense Department-mandated shutdowns coming in 2005.
Gianakos said he's unhappy with Musgrove's decision in November to fire Mississippi's longtime base closure consultant, Barry Rhoads. Musgrove replaced Rhoads with Jefferson Government Relations, whose leaders include Holly Springs native and former longtime Democratic activist Wilson Golden.
Gianakos said Musgrove made the change purely because he wanted someone he liked but that the move was illogical and hit Mississippi's military communities "out of the blue."
The state Legislature earlier this month rebuffed Musgrove's move and appropriated $283,000 to pay Rhoads, who is working with the Mississippi Military Communities Council, through the Institutions of Higher Learning. Musgrove said he would not veto the bill.
Other Republicans in Lauderdale County support Barbour for varying reasons.
Bill Phillips, a former credit union president, said, "We're all ready for a change."
Meridian City Councilwoman Barbara Henson, a Republican, said she's known Barbour for many years and has great confidence in him.