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Ray Mabus: Sixtieth Governor of Mississippi: 1988-1992
By David G. Sansing
Although Ray Mabus was the youngest governor in America at the time of
his inauguration on January 12, 1988, he had accumulated an impressive
record of public service and academic achievements.
Born October 11, 1948, in Choctaw County, Mississippi, Raymond Edwin Mabus had earned
three degrees: a bachelor of arts from the University of Mississippi,
summa cum laude; a master’s in political science from Johns
Hopkins; and a law degree from Harvard, magna cum laude. He had
been offered a Fulbright Scholarship, had held a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship,
and had traveled widely throughout Europe, the Middle East, Russia, and
Latin America.
In addition to a two-year tour of duty in the United States Navy aboard
a guided-missile cruiser, Mabus had also served as a law clerk in the
United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and as a legal counsel to
a subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee. As legal counsel to
Governor William Winter, he was instrumental in the drafting and enactment
of the Education Reform Act of 1982, a stricter law against driving under
the influence of alcohol, and an open records law.
In 1983 Mabus was elected state auditor in his first campaign for public
office. As state auditor, Mabus became a highly visible and sometime controversial
public figure. He vigorously enforced the state’s financial documentation
laws and held public officials to a strict accounting for the expenditure
of state funds.
In 1988, while not yet forty years old, Ray Mabus was elected governor
on the slogan, “Mississippi Will Never Be Last Again.” The
campaign was long and vigorous. After emerging as the Democratic nominee,
Mabus overcame strong opposition from Republican Jack Reed in the general
election.
Soon after his inauguration, Governor Mabus presented a comprehensive
and ambitious legislative package to the state legislature. Among Governor
Mabus's most significant achievements were a teacher pay raise which temporarily
brought Mississippi teachers up to the Southeastern average; a reorganization
of the executive branch of government, although it was less comprehensive
than he had proposed; and a law providing for the unit system of county
government. His legislative proposals for educational reform, which he
pushed in regular legislative sessions and in a special session, were
enacted but not funded.
Because of the gubernatorial succession amendment ratified in 1987, Governor
Mabus was eligible for a second term. However, his effort to become the
first governor to serve two successive terms in over one hundred years
was not successful. Governor Mabus won the Democratic nomination but lost
to Republican Kirk Fordice in the 1991 general election.
Governor Mabus was appointed U. S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia by President
Bill Clinton and served in that position from 1994 through 1996. He returned to Mississippi and was engaged in business in Jackson until his appointment in May 2009 as the 75th U. S. Secretary of the Navy by President Barack OBama.
David Sansing, Ph.D., is history professor emeritus, University of
Mississippi.
Posted January 2004; updated May 2009
Sources:
Mississippi Official and Statistical Register, (1988-1992),
111.
Brinson, Carroll. Our Time Has Come, Mississippi Embraces Its Future
(Jackson, 1988).
Mullins, Jr., Andrew P. Building Consensus, A History of the Passage
of the Mississippi Education Reform Act, 1982 (n.p., 1999).
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