Mississippi Advisory Opinions April 01, 1992: 19920401 (April 01, 1992)

Advisory Opinion Text

Honorable Jerome Little

West Tallahatchie School District

Route 1, Box 12–G

Tutwiler, Mississippi 38963

Re: Elected Official Serving on Party Executive Committee

Dear Mr. Little:

Attorney General Mike Moore has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. Your letter states:

“Please be advised that I, Jerome Little hereby request an official opinion concerning the following. I am presently a member of the West Tallahatchie School District Board of Trustees and have been considered to be appointed to the Tallahatchie County Democratic Executive Committee on March 7, 1992. I am requesting an opinion whether I would be in conflict of interest if I served on the Democratic Executive Committee of Tallahatchie County.”

In response to your inquiry please see the enclosed copy of an opinion addressed to Mayor Robert Walker, dated August 15, 1990. That opinion states that an elected official may serve on a party executive committee. However, as further indicated in Walker, if a member of a county executive committee qualifies as a candidate for a state or county office he is, by operation of law, automatically removed from the executive committee. See Mississippi Code Annotated § 23–15–263 (Revised 1990).

Sincerely,

Mike Moore Attorney General.