Sun Herald: Musgrove touts record

Ronnie Musgrove is finding life in politics to be not much different than when he left. In 2003 Musgrove faced a political animal he was not prepared for. Haley Barbour launched an $11.3 million campaign designed to mislead Mississippians on the economic record of Ronnie Musgrove. That figure does not recognize the soft money that flowed into the opaque Barbour campaign's coffers. The previous high in a governor's campaign was $4 million.

Roger Wicker is attempting the same narrative as Barbour. Ronnie Musgrove is not taking this sitting down. The Sun Herald just posted this piece.

At a press luncheon Monday in Jackson, Musgrove said Wicker is wrong to claim there was a budget deficit when Musgrove left the governor's office. Musgrove says he balanced the state budget every year as required by law, and he got legislators to enact the largest teacher pay raise in state history.

"I understand that during the political season all types of accusations and statistics are thrown around. But one thing always stays constant. That is the truth," Musgrove said in the prepared text of a speech he delivered at a luncheon sponsored by the Capitol press corps and Mississippi State University's John C. Stennis Institute of Government.

Musgrove said Mississippi had about the same number of jobs when he left office as when he became governor - and his term included the national economic drop that occurred after the terrorist attacks on America in 2001.