… vs. The Lawmaker
David Baria, 55, is banking on his experience as a lawmaker and his track record to secure the Democratic spot on the November ballot. When Baria met with this reporter for an interview in his glass-walled Baria-Jones law firm in Jackson, he was finishing up emails for what he calls “dialing for dollars” for the campaign. His success as an attorney only translates to a certain point when it comes to
elected,” he told the Jackson Free Press. Winning several narrow elections in both the Mississippi Senate and House with Republican finances and endorsements against him, Baria is no stranger to being the underdog. His approach to the job is informed by his experience leading the minority caucus, his full interview with the Jackson Free Press (jfp.ms/baria) shows. “My style of leadership is not to say, ‘Here’s what I think we ought to do, what do you think?’ I say, ‘Here’s the problem, let’s discuss,’ and I take what folks say to me and try to synthesize it and then I try to make the best decision going forward,” Baria told the Jackson Free Press. As the career lawmaker in the run-off election, he is reliant on his political experience and knowledge of policy matters from the Capitol. He has raised about $250,000 in donations and is working with Chism Strategies for his campaign. His law partner, Brandon Jones, is his campaign manager. About the Tax Cut
Howard Sherman, an entrepreneur, is running for the U.S. Senate after learning that the Legislature and Congress cut funding for foster care kids.
order to seal funding for research and projects he was involved in. The entrepreneur, who said he prefers jeans and a T-shirt to his campaign suit, does not believe being a Mississippi native is an important component of the campaign. “The voters voted a week and a half ago, and they said we’re going to pick the guy who wasn’t born here because his ideas are better,” he said. “(Voters said my) view of the future is better, and if they vote for him because he was born here then you’re not going to wind up with these ideas.” Sherman has access to a network of Hollywood powerhouses, demonstrated by Robert de Niro and Alec Baldwin hosting a New York fundraiser for him in May. He also has access to his own personal funds. He has loaned his campaign $650,000 and
raising campaign finances. Baria, who has a long history of donating to the Democratic Party and PACs in federal elections, lives on the Gulf Coast where he lost his home during Hurricane Katrina and soon his first son to an unexpected illness. As leader of the House Minority Caucus, he has had to wage losing battle after losing battle against a staunch Republican supermajority. “I’m not telling anybody that we have been successful with our requests of the speaker (Philip Gunn) because we haven’t, but we get heard. We do have input from time to time, and what I have learned in my time as leader is what (former U.S. Sen.) Trent Lott said is right. It’s like herding cats because you have 47 individually strong personalities. You have to have a strong personality and an ego to get
Sherman and Baria agree that the recent GOP tax cut in Congress benefitted corporations and the wealthy the most— and that it did little to stimulate the U.S. economy. The two candidates have differing views on what could be done next, though. Sherman, who studied economics at Claremont McKenna College, says all fiscal policy is designed to achieve an objective. The only one that the GOP tax cut achieved, he said, was to benefit corporations. “So if they had said, ‘What do we need? Where do we want them to direct that money?’ Because a lot of (corporations) just bought their stock back. A lot of them bonused out CEOs, and they bought yachts from Italy—well that didn’t help the economy at all,” Sherman said. He said that if lawmakers had specifically targeted places that companies had to locate businesses—like the Delta—then they could have given them the tax cut. “Had they said … ‘Pick a plighted part of the state, if you put a plant there in the Delta where unemployment is high, we will give you a tax cut.’ But if you just are simply going to rebuy your stock back, it didn’t do anything for the economy. I’m not saying I’m anti the tax cut; I’m anti an unfocused tax cut,” Sherman said. Baria sees the GOP tax cut as “nothing more than a payback for Republican donors who donated to the president.” He noted that the tax cuts for the middle class are temporary, while the corporate tax cuts are permanent. “I think if you want to do real tax reform that will stimulate our economy, then you give a big tax cut to middleclass America,” he said. “Those folks will take that money and improve their lives by buying a new refrigerator, buying a new car, buying a new house, and that stimulates the
economy,” he said in his interview. Baria said that rolling back the tax cuts for the wealthy would free up funds to use on transportation or education. Immigration in Focus
As the Trump administration continues to separate children from their parents at the southern border, immigration is increasingly becoming an issue that Congress might act on in the future. Both Democratic Senate candidates believe that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, immigrants deserve a path to citizenship or an extension of their status. Sherman said immigration should be a focus point. “If we have a shortage of nurses, then let’s say, ‘Hey, guess what? We’ll bring in 10,000 nurses.’ But if we have an overabundance of construction workers and there are already people having a hard time finding (a job), then maybe we don’t bring in a ton of construction workers,” he told the Jackson Free Press. “I want to bring in—I don’t know what the right number is—if it’s 100,000 or whatever, but maybe we can do it in a way where we don’t create a problem by trying to solve a problem.” At one point, Democrats in Congress were considering a compromise that allowed a path to citizenship for DACA recipients in exchange for Trump’s border wall. Sherman noted the budget deficit when speaking about the wall. “And the border wall, you know, we’re in such a deficit to begin with. I haven’t seen the data that shows me that that’s going to really keep us safe,” Sherman said. “We do need to be kept safe; all it takes is one person getting through, and we’re in jeopardy.” Baria said the concept of the border wall is ridiculous, however. “What we need is an effective means of securing our border with a combination of wall, fence, live security, cameras—a combination of those things, which I think pretty much already exists,” he said. “Could it be improved? Yes. But the Great Wall of China along our southern border is a ridiculous expenditure of money, and it is nothing more than a political ploy.” Baria says the U.S. needs to revamp the entire immigration system and expressed concerns about the cost-effectiveness of locking people up or deporting those who are not criminals. “... I don’t think that it is cost-effective to deport every single person who is here without proper documentation,” he said. “If someone is here without proper documentation and we pick them up because they have committed a crime, I’m for deporting them. … There should be probably some level of crime that we define above
June 20 - 26, 2018 • jfp.ms
hired the Doug Jones campaign team of Joe Trippi and Giles Perkins (Jones’ campaign manager) to run his own. They are also running Democrat Mike Espy’s campaign to fill Sen. Thad Cochran’s vacated seat.
Delreco Harris
Born and raised in California, the son of an Eastern European immigrant mother was raised in a Democratic family, going with them to knock on doors for JFK. Sherman voted as a Republican in California elections around 2000, because California Democrats got “anti-business,” he said. He continued to vote as a Democrat in national elections during that time, however, and after he moved to Meridian, Miss., full-time, he disagreed with Mississippi Republicans. He drafted a 100-day plan he released this month and his anecdotes shared in his full interview (see jfp.ms/ sherman) indicate that he understands the business side of politics. That has included giving campaign donations to candidates in
more RUN-OFF BLUES, see page 14 13