Mississippi’s First GOP Governor in 117 Years Gets Off to Slow Start : Politics: Kirk Fordice shakes up status quo by approach to taxes, environment, racial equality, other issues.

Millionaire businessman Kirk Fordice shook up Mississippi politics last year, breaking a 117-year Democratic lock on the governor’s office to claim it for the Republicans.

Now he’s shaking up the state with a brash, ultraconservative approach to governing that has set some on edge, including blacks and the Legislature.

On his fourth day in office, Fordice said the state might resist--to the point of calling out the National Guard--if ordered by the courts to equalize spending on historically black colleges.

After an outcry, he called the remark “nothing more than a strong metaphor” to show his opposition to raising taxes.

But he failed to mollify, among others, Jesse Jackson, who called Fordice “this mean and insensitive governor” during a weekend voter registration drive. Jackson has blamed low black turnout for Fordice’s victory.

Fordice, 58, also called environmentalists “tree huggers” and stirred up tourism officials with an offhand comment about “fleecing” Yankees in his hometown of Vicksburg.

In a recent interview, Fordice said, “I, as a conservative, am a shock on this whole system, a shock to the media, a shock to the government.”

“Openness and genuineness apparently is a shock. Nobody knows how to deal with that,” he said.

Marty Wiseman, a political science professor at Mississippi State University, said more such shocks could endanger Fordice’s career.

“Some marriages go well the first six months and some get off to a rocky start,” Wiseman said. “If he does this in the (next) six months, there’s not going to be the willingness to forgive.”

Fordice, a construction company owner, spent 30 years behind the scenes helping other Republican candidates before mounting a low-cost, grass-roots campaign against Democratic Gov. Ray Mabus last year.

Mississippians warmed to his promise of change, criticism of professional politicians and vow to run government like a business. He captured 51% of the vote.

In his first month in office, he angered the Democrat-dominated Legislature with a comment that he would “sleep on the sidewalk” if lawmakers didn’t come through with more money to pay his aides and office expenses.

They did, but many legislators resented him for it.

“Nobody has any good feelings toward him. It’s kind of like you’re on pins and needles. You never know what’s going to happen next and what embarrassing statement he’s going to make,” said Sen. Alice Harden, a Democrat who is head of the Legislature’s black caucus.

Harden said the governor’s biggest failure has been in working with people. “It really takes some finessing and I think that is probably the governor’s downfall,” she said.

Lt. Gov. Eddie Briggs, a Republican who has had shaky relations with the governor, said Fordice is still learning the job.

“I think he’s a little uncomfortable with the process and once he learns the process, we’ll be better able to work together as a team,” Briggs said.

The governor, who admits he feels more at home hunting and fishing than in the state Capitol, said his successes over the first six months of his regime may not be glamorous but will stimulate the economy in Mississippi, where one in four residents lives in poverty.

Those successes include luring an underwear factory to the impoverished Mississippi Delta and two steel plants to the Jackson area, he said.

“That justifies all the hard work of having gotten here and all the insults that have come out of the media and everything else,” he said. “We’re getting it done.”