Hood, Reeves call each other unethical. Here's what to know about their claims

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Attorney General Jim Hood have adopted similar messages as they fight to become Mississippi's next governor: The other guy is unethical or has conflicts of interest. Vote for me instead.

But they may cancel each other out. Both Hood, a Democrat, and Reeves, a Republican, have long faced criticism over their actions surrounding campaign finance, state contracts and pet projects.

Most recently, the candidates traded attacks about a frontage road, a television ad and lucrative state contracts for trial lawyers. And in most cases, their claims are accurate. 

What does Jim Hood say? 

The latest barrage of allegations came last week, as Hood hammered Reeves for filming part of a public education commercial at the private New Summit School in Jackson.

The ad promotes a Reeves plan to increase public teacher pay by about $4,000. Hood also proposes raising teacher pay, and says due to inflation teachers make less now than when Reeves entered office. 

"This makes my blood boil," Hood said at a news conference. “You know, for somebody who hasn’t done anything for public education for the past eight years to go to a private school talking about public education and teacher pay — he’s not funded public education or given teachers raises.”

Hood criticized the lieutenant governor for accepting campaign contributions from top people at the New Summit, and for steering more than $1 million in state funds to a company affiliated with the school. At a debate last week, Reeves pointed out Hood also received some campaign funds from the school's leaders. 

"Everything is transactional with him," Hood said, calling for Reeves to pull the "phony" ad down.

Then Hood released his own ad going after Reeves's proposals, saying they were "last-minute promises on education." 

A day later, Hood doubled down on his transactional description of Reeves at a state Capitol news conference.

"It's time for us to throw the money changer out of the temple — I'm talking about Tate Reeves," Hood said, calling out Reeves's campaign donors and what he claimed was their influence on several pieces of legislation in the Senate. "We've got to drain this swamp over here ... He's been transactional. Every bill he's passed, it's been to get campaign contributions back." 

Government transparency and campaign finance reform are a central theme of Hood's campaign.

The Legislature should be subject to open records laws, he has said, and gifts to legislators banned. He's also advocated for outlawing campaign contributions during the legislative session, and banning corporate contributions. 

What does Tate Reeves say?

Reeves has a simple rebuttal to Hood's attacks: trial lawyers own Jim Hood. 

In recent days the Reeves campaign pointed to a 2009 Wall Street Journal editorial, which describes Hood's practice of outsourcing major state cases to private lawyers, who earn a hefty cut of any settlement.  

The ethical problem, the editorial explained, is that these legal firms are "only too happy to return the favor to Mr. Hood via campaign contributions." It found 27 firms that had worked with the AG who gave a total of $543,000 to Hood's campaign over two election cycles.

And other campaign donations from trial lawyers to Hood were effectively routed through the Democratic Attorneys General Association, the editorial claims. 

A 2014 New York Times analysis of trial lawyer-attorney general relationships nationwide found Hood accepted nearly $400,000 from trial law firms over the prior decade, more than any other AG.

One senior partner at a Houston firm gave $125,000 to Hood's campaign after the firm filed suit for Mississippi against drug company Eli Lilly, the report said. In another prominent case, a Louisiana firm and Mississippi attorney Joey Langston, a Hood contributor, received $14 million in legal fees after Hood hired them for a state lawsuit.

Langston later served jail time for conspiring to bribe a judge in another case. 

“The business community in Mississippi is scared to death of having a trial lawyer as governor,” Reeves said at their first debate, arguing that's why he's been so successful raising money for his own campaign. Reeves also released a TV ad about Hood's relationship with trial lawyers. 

The practice continues. Mississippi has paid out more than $115 million in attorney fees to private firms since 2009 for help with big cases, according to state records. And prominent lawyers still cut Hood's gubernatorial campaign some of its largest campaign checks.

Still, Hood often points to massive settlement payouts these high-profile AG cases bring back into Mississippi's coffers. The Times story found Hood's office won $400 million for the state thanks to lawsuits filed with private attorneys. 

What other ethics issues have they faced?

The ethics back-and-forth began when Hood attacked Reeves earlier this year over a now-halted frontage road designed to connect Reeves's gated Flowood neighborhood to a nearby shopping center. 

A 2018 Clarion Ledger investigation found the road project was fast-tracked because of political pressure, and Hood pledged to look into the matter.

But then Hood continued investigating Reeves over the road even as their gubernatorial race heated up this summer — more than a year after the probe began. Hood said he even wrote the investigative report himself.

This prompted sharp criticism from the Reeves campaign, saying Hood's direct involvement was "beyond a conflict of interest" and "abuse of power." 

The candidates lobbed attacks about the road during their first debate earlier this month. And both launched TV ads about it. 

“The fact is, the emails were there, the evidence is there,” Hood said. “He went after a state agency to build a road from his gated subdivision.”

Reeves fired back: “The attorney general abused his office investigating his political opponent and everybody knows it."

Early this year, Reeves also faced ethical questions when he quietly helped tuck language into a budget bill to fund a $2 million private school education program, which sends children with special needs to private schools.

Lawmakers were surprised when they discovered the last-minute budget line item. The organization Empower Mississippi pushed for the funding — and had donated $45,000 to Reeves since 2015. 

In 2004, not long after Hood took office, he criticized certain types of political donations and issued a stern warning that he would prosecute those who sidestep Mississippi's campaign finance laws.

He said companies and others should not be able to funnel their political donations to candidates through political action committees, labeling the practice "money laundering."

But it turned out Hood himself benefited from such donations. Two Mississippi law firms gave the Democratic Attorney General Association a combined $150,000 one day in 2003. The next day, DAGA reported, it cut a $150,000 check for Hood.

Lt. Gov. preview:Hughes, Hosemann Mississippi lieutenant governor race: What you need to know

Frontage road:Governor's race: After investigation, Hood uses frontage road in attack ad against Reeves

Education:Hood says Reeves ad filmed at private school is 'phony'

Contact Luke Ramseth at 601-961-7050 or lramseth@gannett.com. Follow @lramseth on Twitter.

​​​​​​​