JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A candidate is leaving a Mississippi Public Service Commission race after the state Republican Party decided last week that he does not meet a five-year residency requirement.
Perry Parker of Seminary said Tuesday that he will not challenge the ruling on his residency, although he disagrees with it.
“I am not appealing for one reason,” Parker said in a statement. “The resources devoted to a long and costly legal process are better spent supporting conservative candidates in Mississippi’s several 2019 elections.”
Parker was one of three Republicans who signed up for the southern district seat on the three-person commission that regulates utilities.
One of the other candidates, Pascagoula Mayor Dane Maxwell, challenged how long Parker had been a resident of the district, which encompasses the southern third of the state. He cited records showing Parker voted elsewhere and hadn’t claimed a homestead exemption for the entire time on property in Mississippi.
Parker said he was registered to vote in Connecticut and California, but has long owned property in Covington County, Mississippi, and has always considered it home.
“I come to politics from an unconventional background,” Parker said. “My work required me to have residences all over the world, many away from Mississippi. However, I am, have been and always will be a citizen of the state of Mississippi.”
Parker had a career in international finance, working in Chicago, New York, London and Santa Barbara, California, before moving back to live fulltime in Mississippi. He also helped found a bank in Hattiesburg. He was one of several candidates who ran for an open U.S. House seat in Mississippi in 2018, losing in the Republican primary.
With Parker out, Maxwell and Diamondhead businessman Kevin Schulz remain on the Aug. 6 Republican primary ballot for the southern district public service commission seat. The current commissioner, Republican Sam Britton, is running for secretary of state.
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