Mississippi voters will have the opportunity to elect incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran or Erik Fleming for the United States Senate Nov. 4.
Cochran, a Republican, said he should be elected because he is qualified to continue to serve based on his performance in the Senate.
“I believe that my experience equips me to do things that will benefit our state economically including better opportunities for the future,” he said.
Fleming, a Democrat, said he should be elected because he is tired of Mississippi being the last state in everything that is supposed to be good and the top state in everything bad.
“[Cochran] had a chance for 30 years, for three decades – since I was 13 years old – to move this state in a direction where it will be better off for its people,” he said. “Instead, the people of Mississippi have done what they’ve always had to do – they’ve had to be resilient … they’ve had to make a way when government was either in the way or not helping them at all.”
Cochran began his career in the Senate after representing Mississippi’s fourth congressional district in the House of Representatives for six years.
“One of the first major legislative challenges we had was writing a comprehensive farm bill that provided support for producers of traditional agriculture commodities,” Cochran said. “I really learned a lot about our state and how dependent we are on a strong and economically healthy agriculture sector.”
Cochran became chairman of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations after the department’s creation.
“It has enabled us to provide research and teaching experiences on college campuses designed to improve our ability to protect our homeland,” he said.
Fleming represented parts of Hinds and Madison counties in the House of Representatives from 1999 to the start of the 2008 session.
He said he has had a role in passing about 20 bills in the House, including the Mississippi Clean Air Act.
“I am now introducing more bills than any other member during the time that I was there,” Fleming said.
Cochran said he wants to continue to work to improve education and economic opportunities for the people of Mississippi.
“I think making sure we have well-qualified instructors and leaders for our universities and colleges is a very important responsibility [of] government officials in our state,” Cochran said.
Fleming said if elected, his top priority would be to eliminate the tax on overtime pay.
“I pushed that [eliminating the tax] in the state legislature and really ramped up pushing that after Katrina hit because I felt that if we had eliminated the tax on overtime pay that would have created an instant economic boost for folks on the Gulf Coast,” he said. “I think those kinds of tax breaks are what’s needed for the people of this state, more so than a periodic stimulus package.”
He said Cochran has voted to cut Pell grants and decrease the interest rate on student loans.
“My thing is, don’t cut Pell grants, don’t increase student loan rates, decrease them, and make sure that tax credits are available for either college students or parents of those college students to be able to take care of those tuition costs,” Fleming said.
Original publication date: 10/21/08.