Latest news with #EllaHolmes-Hines
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gulfport council member's candidacy challenged. Here's how the commission ruled
Gulfport Councilwoman Ella Holmes-Hines broke into a broad smile after a contentious hearing that affirmed she is an eligible general election candidate for the Ward 3 seat. The Gulfport Municipal Election Commission's decision before a full house on Wednesday means that the city's longest-serving council person will start her eighth term on July 1. She bested two opponents in the Democratic primary and faces no opposition in the June 3 general election. The decision also will allow general-election ballots to be printed so that absentee voting can begin, hopefully by Monday, at Gulfport City Hall. Holmes-Hines said that she hopes to be first in line. The commission also had to decide an election challenge Tuesday involving the Ward 6 seat, ruling that Democratic challenger Carrissa Corbett would be on the ballot with Republican incumbent Flowers. City attorney Jeff Bruni, left, consults with members of the Gulfport Municipal Election Commission during a challenge to the candidacy of Ward 3 City Council incumbent Ella Holmes-Hines, a Democrat. Commission members Stephanie Norris, seated, and Cindy Creel, standing, look on. Elect ion opponent stresses 'democracy' One of her primary opponents, Ronnie Matthew Harris, challenged her right to appear on the general election ballot. Holmes-Hines had failed to file all campaign contribution reports for the past five years as required by law, his campaign noted in the challenge. 'This hearing today is about democracy,' Harris said. ' . . . 'We are not here to be spiteful. What we're here to do is fulfill our responsibilities in running a campaign.' The attorney for Ella Holmes-Hines, Tim Holleman, retorted: 'Democracy is about who has the most votes. That's democracy.' He noted that Holmes-Hines got 55% of the vote in the Democratic primary, while Harris had 29%. They were trailed by Patrick R. White. Holleman also called the election challenge 'bogus.' After hearing from both sides, the commission took a one-hour break so that Holmes-Hines could produce two missing campaign-contribution reports from 2021, as the law allows. Once the commission had the reports in hand, they unanimously declared Holmes-Hines an eligible candidate. Ronnie Matthew Harris, who lost the Democratic primary for Gulfport's Ward 3 City Council seat to incumbent Ella Holmes-Hines, appears Wednesday morning before the Gulfport Municipal Election Commission. Harris challenged her eligibility as a candidate ahead of the June 3 general election. Campaign sign in voting precinct Despite the missing reports, the Democratic Executive Committee, which oversaw the party primary, insisted that Holmes-Hines had met all the qualifications for being on the party's ballot. The Harris campaign had another objection to Holmes-Hines candidacy. She was inside a voting precinct on primary election day with one of her campaign signs, which is prohibited by law. A picture captured the moment. But the city's attorney, Jeff Bruni, noted that the election commission could not delve into primary election issues. The city's election commission runs only the general election. Holmes-Hines told the Sun Herald after the hearing that she was carrying the sign under her arm while outside and about to head to another precinct. The poll workers were having problems with the ballot scanner and asked for her help. She said she forgot the sign was under her arm when she went inside. 'When I hear 'Help', it doesn't matter what I'm doing,' Holmes-Hines said, saying she dropped everything to see what was needed.
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sound Off: March 30, 2025
I'd sure feel a whole lot better about my government if the folks in charge could just, for once in their lives, admit that they might, maybe, possibly have made a mistake. And without the incessant 'But what about the other side ...?' There is a very large dumpster near the street on Tegarden Road. I assume it's for the apartment building adjacent to it. I have reported to the city; it looks like they just moved it back a little. It is an eyesore. If we have an ordinance to not park cars outside of our driveway, surly this too should be considered unacceptable. A Sound Off writer was upset that folks are not mentioning the bungled retreat from Afghanistan when discussing the Signal story. And the more I thought about it, the more I think he's right. But let's not stop with Afghanistan. Heck, let's go back to the Iran-Contra affair. Or Watergate. How about the War of 1812? Where, exactly, should we stop? The rationale Ella Holmes-Hines is using to try to avoid repaying council salary over payments is right out of President Trump's playbook of twisted logic. I have lost almost all hope. The Republicans are too stupid to recognize the importance of universal tax-based health, education, environmental, and other social programs to the strength and vitality of America, plus the importance of democratic allies in this dangerous world, and the Democrats were recently too stupid to recognize the importance of protecting our borders and the price of eggs, and to avoid self-inflicted blood-letting by getting caught up in peripheral cultural issues. Now both sides spawn more and more people who are rigid, angry, insulting, and provocative. The two parties seem like trains speeding toward one another in a tunnel. Can a crash still be avoided? Is it too late? Are compromise and cooperation still possible? Or is widespread political violence now inevitable? DOGE is exactly that. No benefits are being cut, they're actually being improved. According to The Daily Show, President Biden's Build Back Better program spent $42 billion to connect a grand total of zero homes. Some people are in La La Land. The Atlantic most definitely does not operate or program the Signal app. And, the measles outbreak is being caused by unvaccinated Americans following wackos like Secretary Kennedy, not immigrants. And, tuberculosis is a bacterium, not a virus. It takes about six seconds to search the web and find out that the Texas measles outbreak began in a hyper-religious area, where vaccinations are rare. Is illegal immigration bad? Yes. Does it have anything to do with this? No. We have top Trump administration officials sharing war plans by way of text, and they didn't even know they were sharing it with outsiders. When it became known, they have came up with every lie conceivable. Let's not forget the name-calling. They should be telling the world that they should lock themselves up, like they suggested for Hillary Clinton. They put so many lives on the line with this outrageous mistake. I'm just trying to imagine how the folks in the Trump administration and the right-wing media would be reacting if the Signal scandal included Barack Obama, Joe Biden and a bunch of Democrats. I fear for a country that lurches back and forth between two extremes. In the USA it's Donald Trump at one extreme and Bernie Sanders at the other. We've got to find something in the middle or we will tear apart. In that case everyone will suffer for a very long time. Send your Sound Offs to soundoff@
