If anyone was not sure whether or not Haley Barbour is runningfor governor, you can now put him in the “Yes” column. A lettersent out to supporters last week confirms the rumors –unofficially of course.

Barbour, an election mastermind of the highest order, knows howto play the media to his advantage and reap the benefits ofstatewide coverage without spending a penny. A simple leak from anunofficial campaign office in Madison is all it takes to makeheadlines and the six o’clock news — as happened last week.

Be unavailable for comment and you make more headlines aspundits speculate on the obvious — as is happening now and willcontinue over the next week. Then, make the official announcementsometime in February, garnering more statewide headlines. Comeopening day on March 1, name recognition goes through the roof andnot one red cent has been spent!

Barbour is no stranger to politics. His career stretches fromthe Nixon campaign in 1968, to chairman of the National RepublicanParty in 1996. He cut his political teeth on Mississippi politics,as the director of the Mississippi Republican Party as well as inhis first and only statewide election effort — an unsuccessfulattempt to unseat an ailing Sen. John C. Stennis in 1982.

State Democrats are sloughing him off by portraying him as thetypical stereotype of a fat-cat Republican.

The tone of Barbour’s letter sets the stage for the 2003governor’s race. “The current governor will do anything to getreelected … and there is do doubt he will run a very negativesmear campaign, because he can’t get reelected if he has to run onhis record.”

The campaigning has already begun and the political gates havenot even opened yet! It should be an interesting race.

Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, too, is working the media. His 62 percenteducation budget funding call to the legislature is gaining himpositive feed-back. Even The Daily Leader’s Internet poll showsstrong support for Musgrove’s initiative.

But a troublesome spot for Musgrove is the trial lawyers who sostrongly supported him four years ago. Angered over the Tort Reformspecial session, one trial lawyer, John Arthur Eaves Jr., iscontemplating a run for the Democratic nomination. One mightremember his father’s run for governor years ago on the platform ofa $10 car tag.

A bloody battle for the Democratic nomination will only helpBarbour (assuming he gets no real Republican opposition), as hepatiently sits on the sidelines watching a Musgrove / Eavesslugfest in the primaries.

Then, get ready for some real down-and-dirty campaigning inSeptember and October as the trial lawyers supporting theDemocratic nominee take on the business and medical communitiessupporting the Republican nominee.

Write to Bill Jacobs at P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven, Miss.39602.