Childers House Web Page

Official Web Page for Congressman Travis Childers: childers.house.gov

Congressman Childers

Clarion Ledger - Newest rep already has clout - Seldom has a member of Congress had so little seniority and so much clout. Democratic 1st District Rep. Travis Childers became the newest member of the House of Representatives Tuesday to rousing applause from Democrats - and glum looks from Republicans. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland has given Childers a seat on the Agriculture Committee and said he's negotiating with him over other committee assignments. Childers said he wants a seat on the prestigious Financial Services Committee - and his status as a symbol of victory for the Democratic Party may help him get it. Political analyst Charlie Cook said winning and holding Childers' 1st District seat "is of enormous significance for Democrats," especially after the GOP tried to link Childers to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. "When you take a good old Southern boy who has never been in the room (with Obama), it's kind of hard to tarnish him that way," Cook said. Childers, who was accompanied to Washington by his wife, Tami, his daughter, Lauren, and his son, Dustin, is living in a hotel. He hopes to travel to the district every weekend to campaign. Wicker, a Republican, helped Davis campaign against Childers. But on Tuesday, he escorted Mississippians to the House gallery to watch Childers take the oath of office. Another Mississippi Republican, Pickering, escorted Childers to the House floor for the first time. But Childers' closest allies likely will be 4th District Rep. Gene Taylor and other conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats who campaigned for him. Rep. Charlie Melancon of Louisiana, another conservative Democrat who campaigned for Childers, said the Blue Dog Coalition, which has limited itself to 47 members, is looking for a way to include Childers in its ranks. "I'd tell him, 'Remember who gave you that voting card,"' Melancon said, referring to the card House members use to cast floor votes. "It wasn't the Democratic Party."

Daily Journal - U.S. Rep. Travis Childers' first speech to the House - "Today, I must begin by thanking God. By thanking my community. And by thanking the people of Mississippi's 1st District. I am humbled by the trust they have placed in me, grateful for their support and committed to working for the people of North Mississippi each and every day. I want to thank my wife, Tami, who has been by my side for 27 years and our wonderful children, Dustin and Lauren. I want to thank my mother, who always believed in me. I want to thank every person who stood with us and has been a part of my life. And I want to let everyone know that I am ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work. As a local elected official, I worked hard and worked with both parties. I focused on balancing budgets and creating jobs. This will still be my approach and these will be my priorities in Congress. I pledge to work as hard as I can to mend our failing economy and help bring down the skyrocketing cost of gas, groceries and health care. I look forward to meeting and working with all of you. And I look forward to standing up for the values of the people who I have the honor of serving. I pledge to work every day for the people of the 1st District of the great state of Mississippi."

Daily Journal - Childers, friends feel emotion at house swearing-in - Newly sworn in U.S. Rep. Travis Childers said he caught his breath Tuesday as he walked out onto the floor of the storied House of Representatives to take the oath of office. "I've got to tell you," he said soon after, "it was about the most humbling a thing as I've ever felt in my life - I couldn't help but think ... when you've been where I've been, it couldn't help but humble you."

Daily Journal - Tidbits from Travis Childers' first day on the job - When Booneville's Travis Childers stepped out onto the U.S. House floor to take his oath of office Tuesday, he was wearing a new grey suit with a purple tie. He told the Daily Journal late last week he planned to wear a bold, red tie. But, that was before his family insisted he buy a new suit. Mississippi’s delegation “dean,” Rep. Gene Taylor of Bay St. Louis, introduced Childers to his new colleagues, noting with amazement that Childers have come to them through the political gauntlet – four wins in four elections in 63 days. Childers said he’s staying in a fancy hotel this week, but that kind of lifestyle just can’t be sustained, so the Booneville real estate businessman will be in his element later this week – he’ll be out looking for a small apartment to live in while he’s doing the people’s business. He’s hoping he can find one with just a smidgen more room than just for himself, in case any family or other homefolks want to come up to stay. Before he was sworn in, he received his member’s pin, which he said is a terrific thing – he doesn’t have to wait in line for security checks back and forth from his Rayborn House Office Building office or elsewhere. Mississippi’s congressional delegation hosted a reception for him and visiting homefolks after his swearing-in Tuesday. Childers said he’ll host a few “mock” swearing-in ceremonies in the 1st District soon. Definitely in Booneville and maybe others in the northwest and southern parts of the district, he said Tuesday.

Daily Journal - Childers draws issues vote as his first - Timing is everything. Otherwise, new U.S. Rep. Travis Childers' first vote in the hallowed House of Representatives on Tuesday would have been in support of Frank Sinatra Day, which was May 13, to mark the issuance of a stamp with the crooner's young face on it. As it turned out, his first vote was for House Resolution 6074, the so-called Gas Price Relief for Consumers Act of 2008, which holds foreign oil-producing counties or cartels liable in U.S. courts for engaging in price-fixing or other anti-competitive activities. It passed 324-84 with 26 members not voting. The Sinatra Day vote was his second. Despite its lack of gravitas, the Sinatra bill, with Childers' support, passed by a hefty 402-3, with 29 non-votes.

The Hill: Some GOPers blame Lott

TheHill.com - Some blame Lott for tough GOP defeat in Mississippi - House GOP leaders have taken the blame for last week’s devastating loss in Mississippi, but in some Republican circles the real culprit is former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss). Lott created the House opening by opting to leave Congress late last year before tougher lobbying restrictions went into effect. After his departure, Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) was appointed to serve out Lott’s unexpired term, which created the need for the special election to fill Wicker’s seat. Republicans were irked that Lott would retire early just to serve his own financial interests. Lott also bucked his own Mississippi congressional colleagues by supporting Greg Davis, the Southaven mayor and former state legislator who lost to Democrat Travis Childers. The rest of the delegation backed former Tupelo mayor and former Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Chairman Glenn McCullough Jr. The senior statesman’s decision to go against his delegation contributed to a bruising, hard-fought primary runoff that left Mississippi GOP voters divided — and, quite possibly, left the stronger general-election candidate on the sidelines. One GOP lobbyist on K Street also cited Lott’s $200,000 gift to his alma mater, the University of Mississippi, as contributing to the perception that he’s not doing everything he can to help House Republican reelection efforts. That money, the source said, would have been better spent on contributions to GOP campaigns across the country.

Pickering and Thompson on First District

Third District Representative Chip Pickering (R) and Second District Representative Bennie Thompson (D) comment on the First District Race in this MPB story. Pickering says, "It is a wake up call not only for us in Mississippi, but nationally as a party as Republicans, what our message is, what our agenda is, and I do think we should look in the mirror." Thompson says, "I think it will be tough to take a seat back from an incumbent, especially one that who is a seasoned politician at the local level, one who has run four times in two months and still has energy at the end of those elections."

Following a House Republican Conference meeting after the Childers victory, Pickering expressed similar thoughts saying, "We're not going to be able to scare people into voting Republicans by being against Barack Obama. You have to have a relevant agenda and a compelling reason to vote Republican."

Rothenberg on Childers and Davis

Stuart Rothenberg - Mississippi Special: Why Childers Won and Why Davis Lost

Coulter on Childers

Ann Coulter - Democrats' Hybrid Pickup Trucks

Childers 54% - Davis 46%

Real Clear Politics - GOP Stunned By Loss in Mississippi

Associated Press - Democrat in Wicker's House seat

Daily Journal - Childers thanks God, family

Daily Journal - Davis resolute about winning in November

National Journal - Make That 236 For Dems

Daily Journal - It's Congressman Childers

The Hill - Childers victory gives Dems a third straight takeover

CQ - House Takeover in Mississippi Shows Good Things Come in Threes for Dems

Southern Political Report - Mississippi: Democrat Childers Wins Congressional Race

Clarion Ledger - Democrat wins congressional race

Human Events - Is Dem Win in Mississippi Shape of Things to Come?

Politico - Democrat Wins Mississippi Special Election

Roll Call: Plenty at Stake in Mississippi

Plenty at Stake in Mississippi
May 13, 2008 - Roll Call
By John McArdle and Lauren W. Whittington,
Roll Call Staff

After back-to-back Democratic victories in competitive special elections this spring Democrats have a golden opportunity today to land a crushing blow to GOP confidence just six months before the November elections.

A win in the special House election taking place in Mississippi’s 1st district would be a hat-trick of historic proportions for a party that is already excited about its prospects for picking up seats in the House this cycle.

For Republicans, the contest for the seat of now-Sen. Roger Wicker (R) is a no excuses affair and a chance for the party to prove that the general election isn’t shaping up to be the doomsday that many insiders are beginning to predict.

The stakes really are that high today in what is being called a tossup race between Southaven Mayor Greg Davis (R) and Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers (D).

As of Sunday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was approaching the $2 million mark in independent expenditures spent this year on a seat that, during Wicker’s seven terms, was safely in the Republican column.

The National Republican Congressional Committee had dropped more than $1.27 million in independent expenditures in the 1st district as of Friday and has worked to bring key party celebrities leading up to today’s vote. On Monday, Vice President Cheney made a campaign stop for Davis in Southhaven and Wicker, former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and popular Gov. Haley Barbour (R) all have stumped for Davis.

Meanwhile the conservative political group Freedom’s Watch has also played heavily in this race with about $450,000 in ad buys and Davis and Childers’ recent Federal Election Commission contribution reports read like a veritable Who’s Who of Members of Congress and political action committees.

In the three weeks since the first ballot of the special election — where Childers outperformed Davis but came up just 410 votes shy of locking up the special election outright — Republicans have actively tried to turn this runoff into a purely partisan battle rather than a contest between two conservative candidates.

“In the first vote, turnout was down for us and turnout was up for Travis,” Davis spokesman Ted Prill said on Monday. “I think we’ve righted that ship. We’ve not only given them a reason to vote for us but also given them a reason to vote against Travis. We really didn’t have a lot of time to do that last time around” due to the fact that the special election was held just three weeks after the primary runoffs in April.

The Davis campaign has run ads blasting Childers for his ties to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and for not condemning the words of Obama’s controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The NRCC has been happy to do the same.

Childers acknowledged Monday that the campaign has turned decidedly negative but said Davis and the national Republican interests are to blame.

“They are running scared,” he said, because Democrats have outperformed Republicans in the both primary elections and Davis came in second on the first special election ballot.

But like the first round of the special election, the two candidates’ names will appear on the ballot today without their party affiliations — a decided advantage for Childers.

Another theme that has emerged in this race is the regional battle between Davis’ base in DeSoto County — the suburban Memphis county that is the district’s most populous Republican stronghold — and Childers’ base in and around Tupelo, where Wicker is also from.

During Wicker’s time in the House the district was described by many Republicans in the state as a Tupelo seat and Democrats would be happy to let that trend continue now that Childers has emerged as the Tupelo candidate.

In the primary race, the primary runoff and the first ballot of the special election — all of which have taken place over the last nine weeks — Davis has consistently churned out enough votes in DeSoto to make up for his shortcomings elsewhere in the district.

Although he won 81 percent in Desoto three weeks ago and turned out about a third of his district vote total there, Republican sources say he’ll have to do even better there today if he hopes to catch Childers.

Childers won 16 of the district’s 24 counties on the first runoff ballot in April, earning 49 percent to Davis’ 46 percent.

“We’ve always said we are the rural county candidate in this race and of the 24 counties 20 of these counties are clearly still rural counties … and that’s a complement not an insult,” Childers said Monday.

In the final days of the runoff, the Davis campaign has also turned a good deal of attention to Lee County, the strongly Republican county where Tupelo is located.

Lee County had been Wicker’s base during his time in the House but Childers took 58 percent of the vote there three weeks ago.

Some Mississippi political insiders have attributed Davis’ underperformance in Lee County to residual bad feelings left over from his nasty primary against former Tupelo Mayor Glenn McCullough (R) in early April.

“I think that the biggest problem for Greg Davis is that at no point in the campaign was there a real clear of coming together of the rift that occurred in the primary,” said Richard Forgette, the chairman of the University of Mississippi political science department.

By contrast, Childers primary campaign against state Rep. Steve Holland (D) was a generally positive affair and Holland, who is also from Tupelo, has emerged as a vocal cheerleader for Childers’ campaign since the special began.

Davis’ spokesman said the Southhaven Mayor has set his sights on boosting his Lee County numbers this time around and is confident those efforts will pay off today.

Davis “has gotten to know Highway 78 between Southhaven and Tupelo real well,” Prill said.

Wicker, Barbour and Mississippi Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant (R) were all stumping for Davis Monday in Tupelo but Childers is also trying to pick up votes in Davis’ backyard. Over the weekend, he landed the endorsement of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, a major paper in DeSoto County.

Meanwhile Lott, who supported Davis during the primary, spoke at the state Republican convention over the weekend and on Mississippi talk radio Monday about the need for Republicans to look beyond regional conflicts.

Brian Perry, a Mississippi political consultant who was at the Republican convention, said that Lott was encouraging Republicans in the eastern part of the district to join Republicans in DeSoto county in voting for Davis “because in the end it’s that conservative Republican ideology that wins. ... If they don’t support Davis and Childers gets in it would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

On Capitol Hill, another special election loss would deliver a devastating blow to Republican morale.

House GOP leaders are slated to begin rolling out a set of agenda and message items on Wednesday, the same day they may be forced to explain a loss in Mississippi — which would be the third special election loss for the GOP this year.

Privately, many Republicans are waiting to see what reasons the NRCC will give if the party fails to hold the Mississippi seat, after Republican leaders clung to the argument that their nominees in the two previous special elections were seriously flawed.

While the GOP candidates in Illinois and Louisiana carried personal and political baggage, geography would appear to be Davis’ biggest handicap. Some wonder whether losing Mississippi will serve as a wake up call that the problem might not be the candidates, but the party brand.

“Sooner or later that flawed candidate excuse is going to come down to there’s an R after the name,” said one GOP aide.

There has been talk that a loss tonight could prompt growing calls for more drastic changes at the NRCC, however the consensus now among most Republicans on the Hill is that the time has passed to be able to make major structural changes.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) warned the GOP Conference last week that the loss in Louisiana on May 3 should serve as a wake up call for Members to get serious about what is at stake this fall or suffer major losses at the polls.

Some Republicans are also hoping that the results in Mississippi will spur GOP Members — rank and file and ranking committee members alike — to get more active in giving and raising money for the financially handicapped NRCC. Party leaders have been frustrated by a largely laissez faire attitude toward pitching in to help with fundraising for the cause thus far.

“What I hope comes out of it is that Members — more than they have done so far — start picking up the phone and donating some money,” said the GOP aide. “Are you going to grab a bucket and start bailing water out of the boat or are you going to drown?”

DCCC Hits Greg Davis With KKK

RightOfMississippi: DCCC Tries To Launch An All Out Race War In MS-01

Y'all: MS-01 - Greg Davis (R) vs. Travis Childers (D) - West vs. East - Vets vs. Ag - and the last minute desperate tactics . . .




(Images from RightofMississippi)

As ROM points out, the DCCC says "Greg Davis wanted to honor the founder of the KKK with a statue in Southaven" and also said the statue was of "the first Grand Wizard." But in reality, the statue was of Jefferson Davis who was not the founder and never in the KKK. In fact, another place that has a statue of Jefferson Davis is the United States Capitol Building. Jefferson Davis is one of the two statues representing Mississippi, along with James Z. George. Furthermore, Senator Thad Cochran uses the desk of Jefferson Davis in the Capitol, one of two "heritage desks" (the other goes to Massachusetts Senior Senator and belonged to Daniel Webster).

ROM further notes that the "founder of the KKK statue" (Nathan Bedford Forrest) was wanted by the Mayor of Horn Lake.

So the DCCC has attacked the wrong mayor for the wrong statue.


UPDATES

The Hill - DCCC links Davis to KKK founder’s statue - The DCCC stood by the flier. “The flier is factual, a part of the public record, and has been in the press many times -— voters deserve to know Davis's record,” DCCC spokeswoman Jennifer Crider said in a statement. Childers spokesman Terry R. Cassreino distanced the campaign from the mailer: “It’s not from our campaign, and we know nothing about it. We are totally focused today on reminding as many voters as possible to get out and vote.”

Michelle Malking (HT: Y'all) - Dirty race-card tricks in Mississippi: The KKK ploy

Davis on Veterans

Politico - Davis promised seat on Veterans' Affairs - Republicans have promised Greg Davis a spot on the Veterans' Affairs Committee should be win next Tuesday. Veterans' Affairs isn't always the most coveted committee on Capitol Hill, but the congressional district includes Columbus Air Force Base, and veterans account for nearly 12 percent of the population.

Another election tomorrow

WREG-TV Memphis: VP Cheney Visits Southaven

NPR Morning Edition: Democrats Aim to Take Mississippi Seat from GOP

PalmBeachPost.com: Mahoney chief-of-staff helping Childers

SwingStateProject: MS-01 The Final Push Begins