staff and wire
PHILADELPHIA — Meridian Day at Mississippi's Giant House Party quickly turned into Mud Day Wednesday as a line of heavy showers moved through the area shortly before noon.
With the heavy rain the dusty landscape at the Neshoba County Fair — already damp from storms the night before and a constant light rain during the morning — turned the grounds into a muddy mess.
A few tents were set up by Meridian businesses around Founders Square for Meridian Day, but the rain sent fairgoers back into cabins and under the pavilion.
Meanwhile, a handful of children raced bottle caps down a rain-fed stream that flowed through the square. The sawdust around the square was peppered with large puddles after the rain subsided.
"The rain seemed to start right as Meridian Day started," said Brandon Pratt, assistant vice president of Community Bank in Meridian. "It was still a good turnout for the Meridian crowd. There were a lot of Meridian people here, the rain just sort of forced people inside the cabins. We still had a good time."
The rain may have kept people inside but it didn't halt the political speeches.
Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant told the audience that writing a state budget this year required tough decisions.
Bryant said he and Gov. Haley Barbour, a fellow Republican, made sure the state was frugal during the recession.
‘‘In looking at the state’s budget, the easy road is spending money we don’t have just so you don’t have to make any cuts or to blame someone else for making cuts later,’’ Bryant said. ‘‘The hard road is being honest and not going into debt and making sure we live within our means.’’
Barbour is scheduled to speak today at the Neshoba County Fair, an annual homecoming that attracts thousands of people to the red clay hills of East Mississippi.
Because there are no statewide or congressional elections this year, there are fewer political speeches than usual under the tin-roofed pavilion on the fairgrounds outside Philadelphia. Heavy rains caused some potential spectators to skip the speeches and seek shelter inside dozens of cabins that line the fairgrounds.
Barbour cannot seek a third term in 2011, and Bryant is among those expected to run for governor. However, neither Bryant nor the other current statewide office holders have been using their speeches to outline campaign plans.
Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, said he knows some political prognosticators were expecting him to say whether he’s running for governor in 2011.
‘‘We’ll wait until next year to talk about that kind of stuff,’’ Hood said in an interview.
Hood said his speech focused on ‘‘what I’m having fun doing,’’ including pursuing cases against people accused of intellectual property theft.
State Auditor Stacey Pickering — whose family fed nearly 300 guests at a cabin Wednesday — said state and local officials need to be careful with the way they spend federal stimulus money. He said federal officials are warning that regulations for the money could change next year.
‘‘We need to make sure that we don’t let the financial house of Mississippi burn down,’’ Pickering said.
Pickering’s office is releasing a performance audit to show how state agencies have been spending the stimulus money so far. He said the document could be posted to the auditor’s Web site later this week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
