East Mississippi front and center

By Staff
April 6, 2003
On today's front page, Republican gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour offers further details on his belief that education, economic development and protecting U.S. military installations in Mississippi are key issues in this year's campaign. With four months to go before the August party primaries, Barbour has a good grasp of things that are important to East Mississippians.
We were especially pleased with Barbour's willingness to embrace creative thinking in economic development. His idea, echoed a day later by incumbent Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, is to form alliances with neighboring Alabama to aggressively recruit new industry and higher skilled, higher paying jobs.
A new school of thought is emerging that, since East Mississippi and West Alabama are demographically and culturally similar, there is common ground on which both areas can build brighter futures for their residents. Economic development and transportation projects seem ideally suited for such an alliance.
While Musgrove has only lately discovered that East Mississippi exists he's had about three and a half years and, frankly, hasn't done much for this part of the state his help would be appreciated. Barbour, on the other hand, started his campaign by visiting and listening to what East Mississippians have to say.
It doesn't hurt to have both leading contenders for the governor's job attuned to the tremendous potential we think East Mississippi has to become the state's next great growth area.