Chip Pickering - Career Paths: How they got where they are

A native of Laurel, Mississippi, Pickering grew up on his parents' catfish farm and was an "all-stater" in football. The town was once known for being a hotbed of Klu Klux Klan activity, and his father, U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering -- whose nomination to a federal appeals court was rejected by a Senate committee earlier this year -- once testified against the Grand Wizard as a young prosecutor. His father also was chairman of the Mississippi GOP, and has been credited with the rebirth of the state party.

Pickering received a bachelor's degree from the University of Mississippi and then went to Baylor University in Texas to get a business degree. He served also as a Southern Baptist missionary in communist Hungary, where he says he was the "first full-time presence by a southern Baptist missionary behind the Iron Curtain in Budapest."

He later came to Washington to work for the first Bush Administration in export promotion at the Agriculture Department, and eventually went to work for home state Sen. Trent Lott, who rose to majority leader.

When Mississippi 3rd District Democratic Rep. G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery decided to retire in 1996, Republicans hoped they could recapture the seat. The area, in east central Mississippi, was becoming steadily more conservative.

Pickering -- who was then 32 years old -- jumped into the race, along with nine other Republicans. Throughout the campaign he stressed his contacts in Washington, including Lott and outgoing Republican Party Chair Haley Barbour, who had been executive director of the state GOP when the elder Pickering was chair. Henry Barbour, Haley's son, was Pickering's campaign chair.

With a fundraising lead, he began advertising earlier than most of the other candidates, and came out first in the primary with 27 percent of the vote, enough to propel him into a runoff with former state Rep. Bill Crawford. Pickering portrayed himself as the truer conservative and accused Crawford of having supported Democrats in the past. He won that race with 56 percent of the vote.

In the general election, Pickering faced Democrat John Arthur Eaves Jr., another political son -- Eaves' father, John Arthur Eaves Sr., had twice run for governor. Pickering stressed his Washington connections and conservative issues. He beat Eaves with a solid 61 percent of the vote.

He won convincingly in 1998 and 2000, with 85 percent and 73 percent of the vote, respectively. This year is tougher. Redistricting paired him with Democratic U. S. Rep. Ronnie Shows in what is now a competitive race.

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group