10/29/08

The Bagman

DeSoto Times - Childers bags groceries on DeSoto stop

Congressman Travis Childers had it in the bag Tuesday — that is, the incumbent Democrat U.S. Representative bagged groceries at Curtis Grocery in Nesbit. Childers said he wanted to bag groceries and work behind the counter at the small rural grocery to demonstrate his connection to the "hard working people of Mississippi."

10/22/08

Childers Staff Salary

Legistorm takes public information on file in Washington, D.C. and puts it online. Courtesy of their database and thanks to an email tip, here is a list of the official staff members of Congressman Travis Childers and their salaries from May 14 through June 30.

Travis Childers
05/14/08 - 06/30/08

Bradford K. Morris
Chief of Staff
$12,402.78

Richard W. Davidson
Deputy Chief Of Staff
$10,966.67

Richard J. Babb
District Director
$7,500.00

Harry D. Fuller Jr.
Field Representative
$5,600.00

Daniel S. Christensen
Staff Assistant
$3,333.33

Jeanette Materio
Senior Legislative Assistant
$2,933.33

Eddie A. Longstreet
Field Representative
$2,916.67

Nissa R. Hiatt
Legislative Correspondent
$2,311.11

Irene K. Miller
Staff Assistant
$2,000.00

Dean A. Lester
Shared Employee
$1,250.00

10/21/08

Turnbow: 2 Polls - Davis 47 Childers 46 & Childers 51 Davis 42

From Turnbow: "I saw two polls this morning from the north Mississippi congressional race between Travis Childers(D) and Greg Davis(R). One had Davis up by a 47-46 margin and the other one had Childers up 51-42."

10/19/08

Earmarks; NRA endores Childers

DeSoto Times Tribune - Davis: End federal earmarks, Childers says earmarks "not necessarily bad"

Davis said the time has come to end earmarks as a means of getting federal spending under control. "We would sign a bill that would ban earmarks," Davis said Friday, echoing comments he made in a televised debate with Childers at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday.

Childers said he does not want North Mississippi to miss out on federal funds for badly needed projects, and therefore is not inclined to categorically ban them. "If every member of Congress were willing to join a pact saying that they wouldn't take earmark appropriations, then I would be the first one to sign on. But if big states throughout the country continue to accept these funds, I'm not going to sit idly by while North Mississippi falls behind. There are legitimate projects in this district that need funding, and I'm going to fight for what's best for this district."




Commercial Appeal - NRA endorses Rep. Childers

Daily Journal - Few watching the House race

DeSoto Times Tribune - Southaven to host Veterans Day luncheon



Just for kicks. Clarion Ledger - Custom of civility goes missing in Senate race

10/16/08

DCCC Attacks Davis

Debate

Daily Journal - Davis and Childers go head to head - But according to Davis, Childers voted 95 percent of the time along party lines, while Childers countered that he holds the second-most independent voting record in the Democratic party. Davis also insisted Childers voted a majority of the time against offshore drilling, while Childers defended his record, saying he voted only against those bills that also authorized other measures he didn't agree with. And Davis attacked Childers for receiving a large campaign contribution from a former board member of Planned Parenthood, which is a pro-choice organization. Childers said that at least Davis was being honest during the debate that the contribution came from a former board member and not the organization itself, which was a claim being made by the Davis campaign, Childers said.

Commercial Appeal - Childers, Davis debate economy - But Davis chided Childers for also voting to bail out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Childers responded by saying that if that bailout plan had not been approved, the home values of residents would have “been deflated and devalued.”

DeSoto Times - Childers, Davis pledge to end negative ads - Davis drew cheers from the crowd when he said if elected his first vote would be against the re-election of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Childers said his votes in Congress since he was elected in May's special election have differed from the Democratic leadership.

Clarion Ledger - 1st District debate not marred by attacks - The bailout is one vote Davis and Childers agree on, but Davis disagreed with Childers' vote to support the government's $200 billion bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "He's taken contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Davis said. "It bailed out the Chinese government - not our own." Childers said bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "is different than the $850 billion bailout. They have over half the mortgages in the country. If we didn't do that, every single one of our homes would have deflated - (the bailout) will pay itself back."

10/15/08

Union Bosses and a Debate

Bobby Harrison - State elections more competitive than usual for Democrats - The Web site lists the race between 1st District U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, a Democrat, and Republican Southaven Mayor Greg Davis as competitive, but leaning toward the incumbent.

DeSoto Times - Childers courts union workers - Although Mississippi’s First Congressional District is not a heavily-unionized region like its neighbor to the north, U.S. Rep. Travis Childers is courting union workers who live in DeSoto County but work in Memphis. Clay Davis of Hernando, a retired electrical worker and a member of Local No. 474 in Memphis, said his electrical workers union is staunchly behind Childers. Davis, no relation to Childers’ Republican opponent Greg Davis, is a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “I just got a letter from 474 plugging for Travis and Ronnie (Musgrove),” Clay Davis, a Childers supporter, said Monday. “Travis Childers is strictly for organized labor.” His big support comes from trial lawyers and unions,” Greg Davis said. “Our campaign would never court people that we don’t philosophically agree with.”

Commercial Appeal - House candidates Childers, Davis set to debate today - Rep. Travis Childers, D-Miss., and Republican opponent Greg Davis, the Southaven mayor, meet in Oxford this afternoon for a debate that both candidates say will focus on the issues and not personal attacks. But in saying they intend to stick to the high road, each candidate blamed the other for starting negative campaigning.

10/12/08

On Again

North Miss. congressional race is on again - Associated Press

Like many other members of the fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats in the House, Childers recently voted against a $700 billion bailout for the financial sector. "It was unfair to ask north Mississippians who didn't do one thing to cause that problem, to ask them to tack on another $2,800 worth of debt on every man, woman, boy and girl to bail out Wall Street," Childers, 50, said by phone between campaign stops late last week. In a separate interview, Davis said that if he had been in Congress, he also would've voted against the financial bailout. He said he would've gone a couple of steps further than Childers, by opposing procedural moves that allowed the bill to come up for votes in the first place. "That's a huge difference there," said Davis, 42.

Childers sponsored a bill seeking to make the District of Columbia expand the rights of its residents to buy and own firearms, including semiautomatic weapons. The bill was backed by the National Rifle Association and opposed by the District's only delegate to Congress. It passed the House 266-152 in September, but is unlikely to be considered by the Senate before this session ends. "We just felt like if they could stop the law-abiding people in D.C. from having a gun, then they could do it in Tupelo, Mississippi - or Batesville, Mississippi, where I am today," Childers said Friday. "We just felt like that D.C. was thumbing their nose at the Supreme Court." Davis said he wonders if the legislation is just "a political game." "Kind of strange, I think," Davis said. "Why are we doing city-specific legislation? If we are going to protect gun owners as a whole, then we should've made the same rules apply nationwide."

10/5/08

Childers brings AFL-CIO tactics to Mississippi 1

Meet Your Release Staff: March Cochran, USW - Mississippi AFL-CIO - The son and grandson of union aluminum workers in Muscle Shoals,Ala., Mark Cochran carries the values and spirit of a union household to every shop he visits and every volunteer he enlists as USW’s Mississippi coordinator for Labor 2008. His work helped Democrat Travis Childers win a congressional election last year in a district that has historically voted overwhelmingly Republican.

Leafleting USW shops—from paper mills to facilities producing air conditioners and golf club shafts—Cochran and his volunteers have been confronted by security guards and escorted of plant properties. “Anywhere we’ve been turned away, we’ve returned to get the job done,” says Cochran.

Mississippi is not used to having a high level of coordination between local unions on political campaigns. “But we’re here to stay,” says Cochran. It’s a serious message from the father of three who played two years of football at the University of North Alabama.

As a member of the Alliance (CWA, USW, IFPTE, UAW), Cochran is working with AFL-CIO affiliates to introduce Sen. Barack Obama, Rep. Travis Childers and former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove to the sizeable numbers of unionists who work in southern Tennessee, but live in Mississippi.