Wicker for Senate

GULFPORT -- Making stops in South Mississippi on Thursday, the eve of Hurricane Katrina's three-year anniversary, U.S. Senate candidate Roger Wicker touted his record on storm recovery.

Late last year Wicker was appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour in the wake of Trent Lott's retirement, until an election could be held. Wicker faces former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove on Nov. 4.

Wicker, who was representing a north Mississippi district in the U.S. House of Representatives when he was appointed, said he played a large role in getting Katrina-relief money. He said he and Mississippi Republican Rep. Chip Pickering went door to door talking to the speaker of the House and the leadership of the conservative caucus, who aren't always receptive to funding requests, to make the case for $5 billion in storm-recovery funds, just before the measure passed.

"Almost everything that we have been able to do from the federal level has my fingerprints on it in terms of Katrina relief," Wicker said in a meeting with the Sun Herald.

In the race to replace Lott, Musgrove has painted himself as a fiscal conservative. Wicker's campaign is hitting Musgrove over what he sees as Musgrove's failed record as governor. Musgrove has portrayed Wicker as purveyor of pork-barrel spending and an integral part of what he characterizes as a broken system in Washington.