Tuesday, March 25, 2008
- McComb Enterprise-Journal
Sen. Roger Wicker visited city and county officials Monday in Magnolia and Pike County, campaigning to stay in the vacated seat of former Sen. Trent Lott.
After Lott’s resignation in December, Wicker was appointed to the post by Gov. Haley Barbour, but he will need to convince voters he should remain there through a special election in November.
Making his case Monday, Wicker, R-Miss., touted the ways federal officials can work with local leaders to fund projects, promising he would “fight for Mississippi’s fair share.”
“This is something that I’ve done for 13 years,” Wicker said, referring to his time as a U.S. representative. “The local needs of a county and city have not changed. They need grants ... and ways the federal government can be a partner to provide a better environment for job creation.”
Wicker also pointed to energy prices, military policy, Social Security and education as key national issues he intended to focus on.
“People are concerned with energy prices, and it’s not only management,” Wicker said.
Wicker said he’d visited a manufacturing plant and found employees questioning high oil and gas prices.
“Every worker on the line is feeling a pinch,” he said. “What they didn’t understand is why we don’t drill in Alaska. ... They found a very receptive ear in their new senator on that issue.”
Wicker was equally concerned with foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing voters to rally behind American troops.
“We need to realize that each and every one of them is a volunteer because they remember 9/11 and they want to get to the fight,” he said. “There’s a group of young people that understand that we are facing a world-wide threat. ... In the face of these sacrifices and in light of these successes, the question is, ‘Do we still throw up our arms and just quit? Say, 60 days and we’re out?’
“I think the American people are going to say stay the course,” Wicker continued. “Get the job done, but make sure we don’t waste the sacrifices that have been made.”
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