Ellington

Rep. Chip Pickering has big, conservative shoes to fill. His father, Charles Pickering, is a conservative and a judge—respected by many, scorned by others. The father headed the campaign of the first President Bush in Mississippi, and was, later, the second President Bush's controversial choice for a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals seat. The son has spent much time defending his father's honor and arguing that he has changed with the times since his past connections with segregationists. "I grew up in a political family, and all of that contributed to what I am doing today," he says.

The younger Pickering is a staunch social conservative in his own right. A former Southern Baptist missionary, he is currently serving his fourth term representing Mississippi's 3rd District. Pickering was first elected to Congress in 1996, at age 33, after working with the first Bush administration and on Sen. Trent Lott's staff from 1991 to 1995. His opponents are Independent Jim Giles and LaMonica Magee of the Reform Party.

JFP: What has been your greatest accomplishment?

Chip Pickering: Building up the infrastructure and the institutions in Mississippi. Everything from our highways to our hospitals and health care and to our military bases, our universities, our research institutions. All of those represent the foundation of economic growth and development and opportunity for Mississippi for the long term.

Why did you attend the Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner commemoration in Neshoba County?

It is very important for Mississippi to be able to move forward and until we acknowledge and seek justice for past wrongs we are not able to come together as a state with a spirit of unity that I believe is critical to our success and to how the rest of the country sees Mississippi. ... It is the right thing to do morally and spiritually but also has practical benefits economically as we try to expand businesses across the state and recruit investors to our state. This will make us more effective as a state.

What are your ideas for keeping jobs in the state?

Number one, you have to look at making sure we have fair trade laws so that we are not at a competitive disadvantage with Mexico or Canada. We have to make sure as we do see low-skill, low-wage jobs go to other countries that we have an educated and trained work force to replace those old jobs with high-wage, high-skill, high-benefit jobs. Like we have with Nissan. I think this state is doing a great job of trying to reform our work-force training.

Jim Giles said he regards tort reform as a ploy to help the rich get richer. How do you respond to that?

I do think that every person, whether low income or high income, that is wronged or harmed needs to be made whole again. They need their rights to a jury trial protected. They need economic compensation. But we have limits on every part of life. We have limits on criminal penalties on jail sentences. At a period of time we had businesses say that there is too much risk here and that hurt the quality of life of all Mississippians. The reform that just passed (damage caps) will protect the basic rights of individuals to be made whole but at the same time put reasonable limits on the exposure businesses will have and make it possible for doctors and hospitals to stay in Mississippi.

Most of the gun-related crimes in Chicago are committed with guns from Mississippi. What should Mississippi do to help regulate this problem?

Now the greatest thing that Illinois or Chicago can do is to aggressively enforce their own laws. Many other states that have adopted aggressive enforcement of laws related to guns have seen the most effective reduction in crimes using a gun. I don't think that it is possible or constitutional to try to restrict guns or access to guns, but I think it is possible to strongly punish those who use guns wrongly. ... [W]hat happens in Illinois should be taken care of there. ... I am a purist when it comes to the Second Amendment. The purchase of guns is not the problem, but the misuse of them.

Has the Bush administration been fiscally responsible?

It is a tough question. When I first went to Congress we had deficits and we had had deficits for over 30 years. We came to balance and surplus, but as President Bush took office he was hit with two great challenges: one a recession and, second, Sept. 11 which created a tremendous strain on the economy. Then we had the build-up and response militarily. I think when you have a recession, then war, deficit spending has been historically appropriate and effective for coming out of recession and fighting in a conflict as the one we face today. Over the next four or five years we will return to balance. Bush has pledged, and the House has adopted spending limits that will halve the deficit. But we do need to go back to balance ... . I believe it is morally wrong to pass one generation's debt to another generation. I believe it is reasonable that we have deficit spending today, but years from now if we are successful in the situation in Iraq then we should go back to the policies we had in the late '90s of balanced budget and surplus as we prepare for the aging of America in 20 and 30 (years) and beyond.

With limited military personnel, how can young Mississippians be assured that the draft is not a possibility?

We are beginning to see stability come to Afghanistan. We will be having elections in Iraq in January. I believe within the next year we will see if we stay the course, and if Bush is elected that will speed the process, we will be able to withdraw. We are able today to fight with a smaller force because of our technology and the modern armed services. We will not go back to a draft. This is a promise from the president that we will continue to fight with a voluntary force.

With the recent mutiny of sorts by local soldiers over lack of equipment to complete missions, what should be done to assist these soldiers who are refusing to complete missions that they call a "death sentence"?

I visited in Walter Reed Hospital with many our wounded Mississippians because their vehicles were damaged and their wounds resulted from explosive devices. I am not on the ground; I don't know the particulars of the case so I will leave it in the hands of the military leaders. My job has a congressman is to make sure that they have the equipment needed to carry out their mission. But the investigation of whether or not orders should have been obeyed I will leave up to the commanders.

Do you support the governor's plan that has been delayed to transition Medicaid recipients to Medicare?

Judge Wingate has put that issue back before the Mississippi Legislature next year. What I would like to do in Congress, serving on the Health subcommittee, is to make sure that Medicaid and Medicare continues to be able to provide the services to Mississippians in an affordable, accessible way. I worked on the Medicare Modernization bill that will help Mississippi receive a much larger benefit than any other state in the country. I think that the governor and the state Legislature will be able to work it out in a way that Mississippians will be happy about. The challenge will be trying to maintain the level of health care in Mississippi, and I will do my part to bring in the federal dollars.

How can the public school system improve under No Child Left Behind while it is underfunded?

No Child Left Behind has increased funding in Mississippi by 44 percent. So over the last three years we have increased about 50 percent. We created new standards and more accountability. We are seeing the beginning signs in improving test scores. These are all good signs. Rod Paige is the Mississippi-born Secretary of Education who is administering No Child Left Behind and is a graduate of Jackson State, so we have a friend in this administration that will try to make sure that we have the funds we need in Mississippi and will make sure No Child Left Behind is working.There are some areas of No Child Left Behind that can be improved. As we go into the next Congress we will try to increase funding but also to make necessary changes where we see are a problem for our teachers and our schools.

When you are the happiest, what are you doing?

I am with my five boys, hunting fishing, coaching football. Just spending time with my boys.

Facts cited by Rep. Pickering have not been verified. Visit his candidate page at jacksonfreepress.com/politics.

Previous Comments

ID

77890

Comment

See Rep. Chip Pickering's page on the JFP Politics Blog.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2004-10-30T14:07:50-06:00