Secretary of State candidate Delbert Hosemann said Wednesday he wants to "completely rejuvenate" how the state businesses deal with each other.

 

The Republican candidate would establish a business court in which a judge familiar with business practices and law would hear only cases involving business matters.

 

"Certain business matters would be put in a court with a judge experienced in business matters," he said during a meeting with the Hattiesburg American Editorial Board.

 

Hosemann said the business court would eliminate many of the civil cases that burden the state's circuit courts.

That would allow the circuit courts to move criminal cases more quickly. Currently, defendants in criminal cases and participants in civil cases can sometimes wait for months or years before their cases are heard.

"The circuit court system has evolved into a criminal court," he said.

A business court would help individuals and companies get resolutions quickly and consistently, Hosemann said.

Hosemann leaned on his own personal business experience - about 30 years as a business lawyer and business owner - to devise his business court plan.

The business court would be funded by filing fees that the participating businesses would pay, he said.

Hosemann said business owners have been receptive of his plan and it has the support of Mississippi Chief Justice James Smith Jr. He expects to present it to the 2009 Legislature.

Hosemann, 60, is a Vicksburg native and an attorney with the Phelps Dunbar law firm in Jackson. He faces Democrat Rob Smith, 56, in the Nov. 6 general election.

And if elected, Hosemann won't give poll workers the opportunity to confuse him with an Eaglebert, Philbert or Englebert Hosemann when he votes, a reference to his amusing television commercials that aired during the primary election campaign.

Hosemann told the board he's strongly in favor of voter identification - but added requiring voters to identify themselves at the polls is just the first step in fixing a broken system.

Hosemann would require voters to carry a photo ID or another form of identification, as "part of an overall voter reform in Mississippi."

He added he would be careful not to discourage voters, especially those over the age of 65.

"I'm not about disenfranchising any voter," Hosemann told the board. "For those (over 65) we have to devise a system to make sure they can vote."

Hosemann would utilize an election task force to lobby the Legislature to begin to make changes in state voting procedures, he said.

"Every election that goes by without voter reform is tainted," he said.

Hosemann would also look to change absentee voting, requiring circuit clerks to keep absentee ballots in their offices, rather than sending them out to each precinct.

Votes should also only be cast where the voter can be seen, Hosemann said, to help eliminate fraud.

Hosemann said he will compile all 16th Section land leases on a public database if he's elected.

"We have got a massive task on our hands," he told the board. "But it is a priority for me ... to get that inventory."

Hosemann would also make a timber management program available to school board members to "give them the right tools" to make better financial decisions regarding 16th Section land, he said.

 

Link to article