Chip Pickering
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Charles Willis Pickering, Jr., usually known as Chip Pickering (born August 10, 1963) has represented Mississippi's third Congressional district (map) as a Republican in the United States House of Representatives since being elected in 1996. The district is based in Meridian and stretches from the Alabama border to the Louisiana border, including areas such as Starkville, Natchez and part of Jackson.
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Early life and career
Pickering was born in Laurel. His father is Charles Pickering, Sr., a notable judge and early leader in the Mississippi Republican Party. He graduated from Baylor University in 1989, serving as a Southern Baptist missionary to Hungary. Soon after his graduation, President George H. W. Bush appointed him as a Department of Agriculture liaison to the former European Communist countries. After returning to the United States, he served as a staffer for Senator Trent Lott from 1992 to 1996.
After a year as a staffer for the Senate Commerce Committee, he returned to Mississippi to run as the Republican candidate for the 3rd District. Congressman Sonny Montgomery, a 30-year Democratic incumbent, was not running for reelection. The 3rd had always been a rather conservative district; it actually elected a Republican in the 1964 elections (in which Barry Goldwater won an unheard-of 87 percent of Mississippi's popular vote, due to the state's racist voting tendencies). He was unopposed for reelection in 1998 and defeated token Democratic opposition in 2000.
In 2002, Pickering was pitted against fellow Congressman Ronnie Shows, a Democrat from the neighboring 4th District, after Mississippi's sluggish population growth cost it a House seat. Shows' Jackson-based district was merged with Pickering's district in a way that strongly favored Pickering. Pickering defeated Shows by winning over 60% of the vote in the new 3rd District. In 2004 with no Democrat in the race, Pickering faced Jim Giles (I), a virulent racist and political gadfly, who received 40,426 votes.
Pickering is arguably one of the most conservative members of the House. He has risen rapidly through the chamber's ranks, and currently serves as vice-chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. He was mentioned as a candidate for the Senate seat of his former boss, Senator Trent Lott, had Lott opted to retire in 2006. However, numerous critics have raised questions about Pickering's ethical fitness for any public office due to the controversial nature of several of his activities that became public knowledge.
Improper pressure on drug regulators
In a letter written in Pickering's office, and with the assistance of a Bayer lobbyist who was a longtime Pickering friend, 26 House members argued that the poultry medicine was "absolutely necessary to protecting the health of birds." Donald Kennedy, a former FDA commissioner, said: "I never received any letters like that when I was in the position of making a quasi-judicial decision, and should not have. It is clearly improper."
PAC Money
According to the Federal Election Commission, Pickering receives most (two out of every three dollars) of his campaign donations and financing from Political Action Committees (PACs).
He has accepted $11,565 from Tom DeLay's PAC and has Donated $1,000 to Help Tom DeLay fight multiple felony indictments.
He Voted 95.13%of the time with DeLay (2,286 of 2,403 votes).