Campaign ’10: Get ready to hear Speaker Pelosi as issue
U.S. Rep. Travis Childers’ effectiveness as a conservative Democrat in a more liberal political party will be a campaign theme in 2010’s election, say two men who want his job.
“Washington is no longer a place for a conservative Democrat,” says state Sen. Alan Nunnelee of Tupelo, a Republican who’s gearing up to win a primary fight to face the Democratic nominee.
“I serve with a number of conservative state legislators who are able to hold fast to their conservative values yet still serve as a Democrat. That is not the case in Washington, and it is certainly not the case in the (Nancy) Pelosi-led House of Representatives.”
In a meeting with the Daily Journal editorial board on Tuesday, Booneville resident Childers said he’s not backing down from a fight to win re-election. In 2008, he fought through five separate votes to take the seat vacated by Republican Roger Wicker of Tupelo, who resigned to be appointed to the U.S. Senate.
Nunnelee’s remarks came Tuesday as Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith switched to the GOP, a party he said is “more in tune with my beliefs and convictions.”
Childers defended his vote for House speaker, saying he had two options: California Democrat Pelosi or GOP Rep. John Boehner of Ohio.
“Why would anybody in north Mississippi ask me to vote for the Republican leader who has just spent $2 million to degrade me and my family?” he said, referring to his hard-fought win for a two-year term in November 2008. “Had I voted for John Boehner, what would he have done for me? Nothing.”
NE MS Daily Journal
12/26/9
Magnolia Tribune
