Ellington

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Six-term incumbent Thad Cochran is telling Mississippi business leaders that he will be in line for a committee chairmanship if Republicans regain control of the Senate.

But speaking Wednesday in Jackson, Cochran stopped short of saying he would chair the Senate Appropriations Committee, a powerful spending committee he once led. He says it's too early to know who would lead which panel.

His Democratic challenger in Tuesday's election, former U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, says the country is trillions of dollars in debt because nobody in Washington can balance a checkbook.

Childers says he'd use his private business experience to help control federal spending.

The two Senate candidates spoke to hundreds of people Wednesday at Hobnob, a casual gathering sponsored by the state chamber of commerce, the Mississippi Economic Council.