Last year she guided a campaign for stateoffice to victory, traveling into Mississippi’s corners andcrossing its county lines along the way.

    On Thursday, Cindy Hyde-Smith finally capped off her campaign bytaking the oath of office to become Mississippi’s commissioner ofagriculture and commerce. She recited her oath in the House ofRepresentatives chamber alongside seven other statewideofficials.

    With her oath taken, the 52-year-old Hyde-Smith becomes the firstperson from Brookhaven or Southwest Mississippi to hold statewideelected office. She also becomes the first woman to hold thecommissioner of agriculture post.

    But whereas most of the other seven statewide officials she stoodbeside Thursday can put the travels of their campaign behind themand get down to work in Jackson, that isn’t in Hyde-Smith’sfuture.

    She’s hitting the road again.

    “We’re a regulatory agency with a lot of inspectors,” Hyde-Smithsaid in an interview this week. “I want to ride with them and seethose jobs, get my arms around the entire spectrum of what thedepartment does.”

    The department’s inspectors ensure that when a gasoline pumpdispenses a gallon of gas, the consumer is really buying a gallon.Its inspectors guarantee that a pound of potatoes at the grocerystore really weighs in at one pound.

    So after assuming office, Hyde-Smith’s office will be a vehicle fora while. She wants to be involved in the grit of what her agency’semployees do.

    Hyde-Smith said she looks “to get entrenched in the details.”

    It’s not that she doesn’t have larger-scale ideas and policyinitiatives. She has those as well.

    She wants to make sure her office helps to bring Mississippijobs.

    “I am working with the MDA to get with them on building a bridgefrom the Department of Agriculture to the MDA to have a cohesiveeffort to bring jobs to this state,” the new commissioner said.

    She believes cooperation among state officials will be essential toany job-creating efforts.

    “That’s top priority,” Hyde-Smith said. “To get all the folkstogether who are here to create jobs for Mississippi.”

    She also wants to move forward on plans to sell the naming rightsof the Mississippi Coliseum and other buildings at the statefairgrounds. The new commissioner said bringing in “privatedollars” could raise needed revenue.

    She also wants to introduce a new marketing plan for theMississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum in Jackson.

    “A lot of things go on down there that I don’t think a lot ofpeople are aware of,” Hyde-Smith said of the museum.

    The former District 39 senator is also preparing to work with theLegislature on the funding process. She feels well prepared by heryears as a lawmaker and her background on the Senate agriculturecommittee.

    “I think I’m prepared due to the fact that I have been there for 12years and I’m very familiar with the process,” Hyde-Smith said.

    Hyde-Smith hopes her new department can retain the same level offunding it received last year.

    “We have taken cuts since 1996 in most years,” she said. “We haveonly had a 4 percent increase in our budget since then. We havetightened things, and streamlined.”

    Hyde-Smith said the department has cut about as far as it cango.

    “We think it would be a tremendous hardship to have cuts and do thejob we’re mandated to do,” she said.

    Though officially taking office this week, preparations have beenongoing since her electoral victory in November.

    “We took about a week off and then hit the road working,”Hyde-Smith said.

    Hyde-Smith praised Lester Spell, her predecessor as commissioner.Spell chose not to run for re-election this year and endorsedHyde-Smith as his replacement.

    “He has been very helpful,” Hyde-Smith said. “He moved out of thecommissioner’s office and has been working out of a smalloffice.”

    The preparation has been tough, but Hyde-Smith said it is a reliefto finally get down to work after a long campaign, a campaign thatwas far different than her legislative campaigns.

    “Statewide it’s much more difficult than a district-wide race,” shesaid. “It’s nonstop campaigning. It’s been an unbelievablesummer.”

    And though she leaves behind the district she has represented since2000, Hyde-Smith pointed to her life in Brookhaven with her husbandMike and daughter Anna-Michael as providing the best resources shehas to do her new job.

    “We live on a farm. That’s what my husband does full time. He’s abeef producer,” Hyde-Smith said. “We certainly live the life ofcounting on agriculture as your income.”