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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
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Imagine being all set to run for president, and your advisers have dug up so much “opposition” dirt on you that they don’t have the courage to present it to you? That, apparently, is what happened with our own Gov. Haley Barbour, according to a new e-book by Politico. And all that opposition dirt (which I’m more than positive included Ronni Mott and Sophie McNeil’s investigation into his pardoning of all those brutal domestic murderers I mean: How do you explain that crap away!?). The Deseret News reports:

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour fully intended to run for president, but the former RNC chair changed his mind after reading his own “oppo,” the opposition research his advisers were able to dig up on him as part of a due diligence practice. The things his staff unearthed were so abrasive, in fact, that his senior advisers felt embarrassed to present Barbour with the research results as a group — and so to maintain professional decorum they insisted on Barbour’s chief adviser, Scott Reed, giving the file to Barbour “privately, just the two of them.”

Ouch.

Previous Comments

Though Ronni and Sophie’s investigation was thorough and hard-hitting, I’m guessing this file is TOO HOTT FOR TV!!! The JFP should dig as much as possible into what these findings were. Also, look into some staff shake-ups around the time Haley decided NOT to run for President. I’m surprised the JFP hasn’t found a deepthroat within the GOP yet. Or would that require hiring a conservative writer?


You’re way behind, Jackson. You haven’t looked at the credentials/education backgrounds of our reporting staff in a while. Let’s just say they come from diverse political backgrounds, which is super. One of them is even a veteran. And if we had a deepthroat in the GOP, we couldn’t tell you about it, now could we?


@DonnaLadd Let’s just say they come from diverse political abackgrounds, which is super.” ….and let me add they have done and continue to do a GREAT job of bringing the facts to print. Thanks to the work of the JFP and other national investigatory political outlets, Haley’s crap was stopped dead in its tracks. He had gone too far, too fast with too much negativity to survive a shot at becomming or shall I say remaining in the race for the GOP. Barbour would have joined the ranks of others who were “top-to-bottom” candidates. This list includes Palin, who never formally announced, Bachman, Trump and the latest to fall from grace, Brother Herman Cain. Barbour’s rap sheet would have made all of the fore-mentioned look like a cake walk in the park. He made a smart move to stay out of the race. “A hint to the wise” apparently became sufficient.


Just out of curiosity, I would like to see some of that ‘oppo evidence’…but since the worst (a presidential run by Haley) did not happen, perhaps it is best that the time and emotional energy we would have had to spend digesting it be used on more constructive ‘what is’ items rather than an array of nightmarish ‘what ifs’. An appreciative ‘thumbs up! GREAT JOB’ for preventing a years-long bad dream…


Haley’s problem is that he is a professional politician, corporate lobbyist, GOP insider, etc and they are the group that have run the country into the ground. He has been a fairly effective state executive but leading the country’s poorest state through the crisis ain’t enough to make him ready to lead the free world. America needs a revolution to put us on a sustainable path not Haley. We need an agrarian revolt that puts people to work as farmers because the manufacturing jobs have gone forever.

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.