Just two and a half years into his tenure as 1st District Representative, Travis Childers is comfortable letting his record speak for itself.
Childers is campaigning across north Mississippi leading up to his Nov. 2 showdown with Republican nominee State Sen. Alan Nunnelee. He debated Nunnelee in person in Oxford this week has and made untold campaign stops, but Childers believes he”s accomplished enough since winning a 2008 special election that the citizens of the 1st District know where he stands.
During a Friday visit to The Dispatch office, Childers, a conservative “blue-dog” Democrat, used his record to differentiate himself from Nunnelee.
Touting his independence, Childers pointed to his votes against cap and trade and the 2010 financial regulatory bill as instances in which he voted against the majority of Democrats.
“Some people go to up there (to Washington) from both parties and follow that party line and would follow it into hell,” said Childers. “I said years ago I will listen to both sides and my record reflects that. My opponent hasn”t done that. He”s voted straight party line for 16 years in the state senate.”
Childers also clarified his stance on President Barack Obama”s health-care bill. After initially voting against the bill, he has balked at calls to repeal it stating it has some redeeming qualities which should remain in place.
The positive provisions, he said, include allowing children to remain on their parents” insurance plan until the age of 26, eliminating caps on what an insurance company will pay for treatment, and a health-care insurance exchange.
Originally, however, Childers called the bill “too big” and “overreaching.”
“I thought we should break it into pieces, steps, phases. I thought the American people would understand it if we broke it up. I thought they would comprehend it and accept it,” he said.
Childers also opposed Obama”s moratorium on offshore drilling following the Gulf oil spill.
If re-elected, Childers may return to a House dominated by a majority of Republicans. Regardless, he says he”ll continue to work for north Mississippi.
“I won”t say no to anything. The easiest thing to do in D.C. is sit there, look at the moon and stars and hit the no button. What a cop-out,” he said.
Among his proudest accomplishments, Childers lists his votes for the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit, the establishment of the State Child Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), Medicaid and teacher employment relief funds in August, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Portraying himself as the forthcoming candidate in the 1st District race, Childers challenged Nunnelee to match his transparency.
“I put my foot clearly on base,” said Childers, defending his campaign advertisement accusing Nunnelee of supporting the Fair Tax, which would abolish federal income taxes in favor of a flat tax on goods. “It”s one of the most unfair taxes I”ve ever heard of. But he waffles. He tells tea party folks ”I”ll vote for the Fair Tax.” Then when he sits down with reasonable business Republicans, people who get it, they say ”Look, I don”t need a 23 percent sales tax on a new car, or medication, or groceries.”
“He had someone from the tea party videotaping (their Tuesday debate at the University of Mississippi) and he had all these business Republicans there, so he couldn”t say if he supported it or not. He needs to put his foot on base.”
Childers stated he respected criticism aimed his way from The Dispatch for using an anonymous blog post from this newspaper”s website to tie Nunnelee to the Fair Tax in his advertisement.
Speaking of advertisements, Childers acknowledged the negative tone of the campaign, thus far, which has included attack ads from third-party committees.
Childers acknowledged candidates have no control over third-party ads, whether supporting or criticizing their opponents, but points out that no third parties supporting him are actively “slamming” Nunnelee. He went on to criticize Nunnelee for not condemning the negative third-party ads aimed at Childers.
He accused Nunnelee of further obscuring the issues by focusing on ousting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rather than the 1st District.
“He”s hidden behind her coattails for two years. I don”t know how he does his other job because he”s been running for congress since I got elected,” said Childers.
Childers admitted he would like to see a more conservative Democrat in the speaker”s chair, but stated he wouldn”t be interested in the position as he would rather focus on north Mississippi.
He accused Nunnelee of hypocrisy for using the federal stimulus funds to supplement the state budget while criticizing Childers for supporting the funding.
“If he really thought it was bad, why didn”t he say ”No, thank you.” People would respect him if he said ”We”ll make it on our own.” He used $600 million to balance his state budget,” said Childers.
Job loss and creation also raised Childers” ire.
“If the district is down 22,000 jobs, he was the chairman of the (state Senate) finance committee all this time. What did he do about it? He cut 65,000 people off Medicaid, fired teachers left and right and he hypocritically took those stimulus dollars, rolled up thousand-dollar bills and plugged every hole in the state budget,” said Childers. “He says ”I”m for education.” But he”s going to lay teachers off while we store up millions in recovery money to save for a rainy day.
“Guys, these are rainy days.”
The key to creating new job opportunities, said Childers, lies in tax credits for hiring and purchasing new equipment and funding community colleges which provide job training.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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