Haley Barbour was elected by his fellow Appalachian governors to be the 2008 States’ Co-Chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. Barbour attended the University of Mississippi in Oxford, but at the age of 21 left in the first semester of his senior year to work on Richard Nixon’s 1968 Presidential campaign and he never took the few final units he needed to graduate. In 1970 he ran the Mississippi Census, and after that, despite his lack of an undergraduate degree, he was admitted to the School of Law at the University of Mississippi, receiving a J.D. in 1973. He worked as a lawyer with the firm of Henry, Barbour and DeCell, and as Executive Director of the Mississippi Republican Party. From 1985 to 1986 he served as Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs under Ronald Reagan. Barbour went on to co-found the lobbying firm of Barbour, Griffith, and Rogers, where he was Chairman and CEO, and which he left to become Chairman of the Republican National Committee, from 1993 to 1997. After that he returned to the lobbying firm and was there for six more years, in 2000 also chairing George W. Bush’s Presidential Campaign Advisory Committee. In November 2003 Barbour was elected Mississippi’s governor, and he was re-elected in November 2007. He is also a Presbyterian Deacon and Sunday School teacher.

 

From his earliest days in politics, Barbour has drawn attention for the extent to which he often goes to get results, as well as his style in doing it, and the at times questionable relationships he has developed over the years, which were especially brought to light when he opened his lobbying firm. Barbour garnered additional criticism when it was revealed that several of his family members and fellow lobbyists had greatly benefited from Hurricane Katrina-related businesses 

 

Since 1994, Barbour has contributed more than $150,000 to various Republican campaigns.

Haley Barbour: The K Street Evil Genius Who took Over Mississippi (Mississippi Times)

Haley’s Shadow Money (by Adam Lynch, Jackson Free Press)

Who Controls Haley Barbour? (yaller dog blog)

Mississippi Governor Barbour Held Stock in Parent of Lobby Firm (by Timothy J. Burger, Bloomberg)

Impeach Haley Barbour (by Steve Clemons, Washington Note)

Barbour Showed Early Talent for Politics (Associated Press)

Mr. Washington goes to Mississippi (by Nicholas Dawidoff, New York Times)

Haley’s Choice: Native Son Comes Home (by Donna Ladd and Jesse Yancy, Jackson Free Press)