MISSISSIPPI
Population (1994): 2,689,000 (up 3.6%); 1% of U.S. total
Voting-age population: 1,905,000; 1994 turnout, 32%
Median age: 31.2 years.
Median household income: $20,136 ($12,128 below U.S. median)
Unemployment: 5.9% (0.3% above national average, March 1996)
Last presidential election: Clinton (D): 41% Bush (R): 50% Perot (I): 9%
Congressional delegation: Three Democrats, four Republicans
Mississippi--home of the blues...but things are getting better. And not the least for Republicans--Senator Trent Lott is Senate Majority Leader, Senator Thad Cochran heads two Senate agriculture committees--and farming is key in Mississippi--Haley Barbour is G.O.P. chairman, and Representative Roger Wicker was the first president of the Republican class of 1994. For a state with only five congressional districts, Mississippi packs a good deal of political wollop. There is also drama: a party-switching incumbent in the Fourth, an open race in the Third, and two African American firsts--Danny Covington in the Second and Kevin Antoine in the Fourth. Politicians here aren't singin' the blues.
THAD COCHRAN (R) SENATOR
BORN: Dec. 7, 1937, Pontotoc EDUCATION: U of Mississippi, B.A., 1959, J.D., 1965 FAMILY: Wife, Rose; two children RELIGION: Baptist MILITARY: Navy, 1959-61 OCCUPATION: Lawyer POLITICAL CAREER: U.S. House, 1973-78; U.S. Senate, 1978- ADDRESS: P.O. Box 22761, Jackson 39225. Tel.: 601-856-1996
Despite losing his bid for Senate Majority Leader this year, Cochran remains a respected figure on both sides of the aisle. His reputation for intelligent bipartisanship--as chair of two agriculture committees, he mediates disputes between commodity interests--is replicated at home, where his popularity crosses both color and ideological lines. Cochran supports food stamps, rural housing and traditionally black colleges, and his agricultural leadership has earned the respect of the state's farmers.
THE ISSUES
Budget YES Medicare NO Defense YES Abortion NO Guns NO Gays NO Bosnia NO NAFTA YES Welfare NR* (YES) National Service NO (For an explanation of these issues, see the front of this guide.)
QUOTE OF NOTE: "The Federal Government should serve as an impetus for, not an impediment to, state health-care reform. We should do all we can to increase the ability of states to help the uninsured."
JAMES HUNT (D) SENATE CHALLENGER
BORN: Feb. 17, 1926, Ackerman EDUCATION: Reform High School, 1944 FAMILY: Wife, Marlene; one child RELIGION: Baptist MILITARY: Army, 1944 OCCUPATION: Factory worker POLITICAL CAREER: Sought Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, 1994 ADDRESS: P.O. Box 15275, Hattiesburg 39404. Tel.: 601-544-4227
Winning the nomination with 59% of the vote, Hunt, 70, has a simple platform: 1) pay citizens born between 1916 and 1926 the back social-security money owed them; 2) allow registered voters under age 35 to run for any political office; 3) provide safe drinking water to all U.S. citizens; 4) give better benefits to U.S. veterans; and 5) increase Mississippi teachers' salaries. The former textile-plant worker has also pledged to donate $1,000 a month of his congressional pay to the Mississippi Baptist Children's Home and schools for the state's deaf and blind children.
THE ISSUES