AGO 000007531.

• Case Date: August 15, 1990
• Court: Mississippi

Mississippi Attorney General Opinions 1990. AGO 000007531. August 15, 1990DOCN 000007531 DOCK 1990-0610 AUTH Phil Carter DATE 19900815 RQNM Robert Walker SUBJ Elections - Party Executive Committees SBCD 66 TEXT Mayor Robert M. Walker Post Office Box 150 Vicksburg, Mississippi 39181-0150Dear Mayor Walker: Attorney General Mike Moore has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. Your letter states: "Pursuant to our conversation of August 3, 1990, I am herewith requesting some assistance from the Office of the Attorney General. My concern centers around the legality of elected officials holding positions on political party executive committees. I would appreciate it if you would address the following points: 1. The legality of an elected official holding an executive committee position with a political party. (It would help if you would address the legality of a municipal official serving on a county executive committee and a county official serving on a municipal executive committee.) 2. If the response to any part of point one (1) is affirmative, please address the consequences of being elected to an executive committee while holding an elected position, or the effect of being on an executive committee and want to run for an elected office. While the points raised may seem simple, your response will clear up something that is very important to a number of people." Mississippi Code Annotated 23-15-263 (Special Pamphlet, 1989) provides in part: "(1) The county executive committee at primary elections shall discharge the functions imposed upon the county election commissioners, except as to revising the registration and pollbooks, and shall be subject to all the penalties to which county election commissioners are subject, except that Section 23-15- 217 shall not apply to members of the county executive committee who seek elective office. (2) A member of a county executive committee shall be automatically disqualified to serve on the count executive committee, and shall be considered to have resigned therefrom, upon his qualification as a candidate for any elective office. The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to a member of a county executive committee who qualifies as a candidate for a municipal elective office." Section 23-15-217 (1) provides in part: "A...