MS-Sen: Barbour Fought The Law, And The Law Won

Good news from Mississippi: a county judge has ruled that Haley Barbour is breaking the law and must schedule a special election for Trent Lott's Senate seat within 90 days.

A Hinds County Circuit judge ruled today that Gov. Haley Barbour exceeded his constitutional authority by setting the special election to replace former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott for November [...]

DeLaughter voided Barbour's proclamation that scheduled the election for Nov. 4, 2008.

In his order, DeLaughter said the election should be held "within 90 days of the governor's Dec. 20, 2007 proclamation of writ of election...on or before March 19, 2008.

Hood cited Mississippi Code 23-15-855, which applies to U.S. senator vacancies. He and Barbour have differing interpretations of that statute.

Good for Attorney General Jim Hood for pursuing this in the interest of justice and the rule of law. DeLaughter's interpretation that the election must be held within 90 days of Lott's resignation means that there's only a little more than 60 days left. I expect appeals, but this could be a slingshot of an election, and Ronnie Musgrove, the Democratic former governor, is the only candidate with the statewide recognition in a quick-strike race. (Musgrove is a very conservative Democrat and is likely to be infuriating in the Senate, but it'd be good to reduce that vice-lock on the South that the Republics have).

UPDATE: Here's Gov. Musgrove talking about his effort to be elected to the Senate.