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Press statement from the Mississippi Democratic Party: Recent press accounts of $510,000.00 in “unexplained loans” to the Amy Tuck campaign raise serious questions that must be answered: 1) Does she still owe the debt? 2) Is she paying off the debt? 3) Has the debt already been paid off? 4) If there were personal loans made to her, who provided those personal loans? 5) What were the terms of any personal loan agreements? 6) If the loans were secured, who secured the loans? 7) Were there written or verbal promises or commitments made in exchange for the loans? 8) Did the bank give Tuck the same consideration that would have been given to an individual of comparable financial standing who was not a candidate for high public office? 9) Do the loans or the repayment of the loans involve anyone giving or donating $200.00 or more to Tuck or to her campaign? 10) Was the money loaned from Tuck’s personal assets? If so, will those assets be publicly disclosed? 11) What does Tuck mean exactly when she says that she is “honoring financial commitments over time?” Does that mean quid pro quo arrangements or political paybacks? 12) Were any legislators, lobbyists, state or federal officials, or other prominent public figures involved in helping Tuck secure or pay these mysterious loans?

Tuck’s refusal to come clean about the details of these loans and obvious hiding of the sources of these funds “creates questions about her capacity for uncompromised service,” according to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

“$510,000.00 is a mighty big pile of money for most of us average Mississippians,” said Rickey Cole, Chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party. “Tuck’s failure to come clean and tell the full unvarnished truth about these shady dealings just proves once again what Mississippi Democrats learned the hard way: YOU JUST CAN’T TRUST AMY TUCK.”

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Previous Comments

I don’t know who I’ll vote for Lt. Guv this year (fairness does compel me to admit that I voted for Tuck in ’99). Blackmon & Roberts are both very good challengers with Blackmon having the edge for the Democratic nomination because of her Senate experience based solely on my own judgment. “Campaign debt is almost a way of life nowadays,” according to I think MSU political science Prof. Wiseman, but there looks to be a wrongly attributed source in this Clarion-Ledger article. If I remember correctly, Cole was a political science major at MSU, so he should recognize that campaign debt– for lack of a better word– happens.


Amy Tuck has and always will be a CROOK.


Kate, I personally don’t believe that politicians deserve personal attacks, either, although they should certainly be open to serious scrutiny. Perhaps you can explain what you don’t like about her?

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.