During an appearance on the Paul Gallo show, Representative Mark Baker announced that he will run for the office of Attorney General in the November 2019 election.
“It’s no secret that I’ve felt like for some time that the office of the attorney general is not what it should be,” Baker said. “And we’ve made some changes, we were able to pass the sunshine bill in 2012, the Attorney General’s sunshine bill, but we haven’t been able to do as much as what I would want to do, to make it a fair office, to make it a reasonable office, to make it where it’s not the office that affects so much of public policy in the state of Mississippi. I just kind of realized that I can’t do that from the outside in, I’ve got to do that from the inside out.”
Baker has served in the House for 16 years and as the Chairperson of the House Judiciary A committee for the past eight years. He said he believes his time in the legislature, as well as, his 30 years as a practicing lawyer and past experience as a prosecutor and judge have prepared him well for the position of Attorney General. In Baker’s role as part of leadership in the House, he helped craft state budgets focused on living within its means, opposed raising burdensome taxes, passed major educational reforms, and fought to cut taxes that made the state less competitive for the industry.
One of the main things Baker said he would change if elected would be to stop the use of outside counsel being brought in so that the state can save more money.
“I would re-prioritize and re-direct those monies to child protection, protection of the elderly, vulnerable abuse, sex trafficking, and human trafficking,” Baker said. “We’d re-focus that effort. The Attorney General’s office could handle those cases and if you could substitute the fees for an increased settlement, you would have more money to go to the legislature and you’d make your pitch… There are a lot of good lawyers over there and I think it’s just a matter of re-prioritizing and refocusing the efforts of the office. That’s something that starts from the top down.”
