Mississippi Advisory Opinions November 12, 1991: AGO 000005512 (November 12, 1991)

AGO 000005512.

Dear Mr. Burgoon:

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

"The Board of Supervisors of Leflore County, Mississippi, instructed me to request a written opinion from the Attorney General regarding the following:

On October 7, 1991, being the day prior to the second primary, the chairperson of the Republican Executive Committee and the chairperson of the Democratic Executive Committee joined with a candidate for the office of Circuit Clerk and filed suit in the Chancery Court of Leflore County against the Circuit Clerk alleging fraud and irregularities in the handling of absentee ballots and obtained a Temporary Restraining Order without notice whereby all absentee ballots were seized from the Circuit Clerk and Registrar and placed into the possession of the two executive committees.

On October 21, 1991, the Circuit Clerk instituted suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi against both the Republican and Democratic Executive Committees and their respective chairpersons alleging, among other things, voting irregularities and challenging the election of the candidate certified by the respective executive committee. On said date, the Circuit Clerk also filed with the Democratic Executive Committee a complaint contesting the makeup of the respective executive committees and questions the authorization for their respective chairpersons to file the suit in Chancery Court seeking the restraining order.

Thereafter, the two executive committees and their respective chairpersons requested the Board of Supervisors to financially underwrite the legal representation of the committees and their chairpersons in defending the suit.

Please advise whether public funds may legally be utilized to provide legal representation to the county executive committees of the Democratic and Republican parties and their chairpersons where it is alleged that the respective committees were not properly or legally constituted and that their respective chairpersons were not authorized by their committees to file suit against the Circuit Clerk and Registrar.

If in fact public funds can be utilized to provide representation for the Republican and Democratic Executive Committees on the basis that the committee members are acting as quasi-public officials in conducting primary elections, are not these quasi- public officials entitled to representation by the State's Attorney General?"

Mississippi Code Annotated Section 19-3-47 1 (b) (Supp. 1991) provides in part:

"The board of supervisors shall have the power, in its discretion, to employ counsel in all civil cases in which the county is interested, ...."

In response to your first question, the above quoted statute bestows discretionary authority upon county boards of supervisors to employ legal counsel in civil cases in which the county is interested. Therefore, upon a finding of fact that the county has an interest in a particular case, the board of supervisors would be authorized to employ legal counsel to represent the county and that interest. It does not authorize the county to financially underwrite legal representation of the political parties and their partisan concerns. Although political parties are certainly regulated by state law the party executive committees are essentially partisan organizations, not public officials.

In response to your second question, while the Attorney General is required to represent the State and State Officials and does act in matters of statewide concern (See MCA Section 7-5-39) we find nothing that entitles local party executive committees and/or their members to such representation. The matter you present does not appear to present an issue of statewide concern.

Sincerely,

MIKE MOORE, ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY: Phil Carter Special Assistant Attorney General PC:mfd