[AllPolitics - States]


AllPolitics is presenting the freshmen of the 105th Congress every day between now and January. Here's who we've done so far:

SENATE
Alabama
Jeff Sessions (R)
Arkansas
Tim Hutchinson (R)
Colorado
Wayne Allard (R)
Georgia
Max Cleland (D)
Illinois
Richard Durbin (D)
Kansas
Sam Brownback (R)
Pat Roberts (R)
Louisiana
Mary Landrieu (D)
Maine
Susan Collins (R)
Nebraska
Chuck Hagel (R)
New Jersey
Robert Torricelli (D)
Oregon
Gordon Smith (R)
Rhode Island
Jack Reed (D)
South Dakota
Tim Johnson (D)
Wyoming
Mike Enzi (R)

HOUSE
Alabama
3-Bob Riley (R)
4-Robert Aderholt (R)
Arkansas
1-Marion Berry (D)
2-Victor F. Snyder (D)
3-Asa Hutchinson (R)
California
10-Ellen Tauscher (D)
22-Walter Holden Capps (D)
24-Brad Sherman (D)
27-James E. Rogan (R)
46-Loretta Sanchez (D)
Colorado
1-Diana DeGette (D)
4-Robert Schaffer (R)
Connecticut
5-James Maloney (D)
Florida
2-Allen Boyd (D)
11-Jim Davis (D)
19-Robert Wexler (D)
Iowa
3-Leonard Boswell (D)
Illinois
5-Rod Blagojevich (D)
7-Danny K. Davis (D)
20-John Shimkus (R)
Indiana
7-Edward Pease (R)
10-Julia Carson (D)
Kansas
1-Jerry Moran (R)
2-Jim Ryun (R)
3-Vince Snowbarger (R)
Kentucky
3-Anne Meagher Northup (R)
Louisiana
5-John Cooksey (R)
7-Chris John (D)
Massachusetts
3-James McGovern (D)
6-John Tierney (D)
10-William Delahunt (D)
Maine
1-Tom Allen (D)
Michigan
8-Debbie Stabenow (D)
15-Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D)
Mississippi
3-Charles "Chip" Pickering Jr. (R)
Missouri
7-Roy Blunt (R)
8-Jo Ann Emerson (I)
9-Kenny Hulshof (R)
Montana
At Large-Rick Hill (R)
New Hampshire
1-John E. Sununu (R)
New Jersey
8-William Pascrell Jr. (D)
9-Steven Rothman (D)
12-Mike Pappas (R)
New York
4-Carolyn McCarthy (D)
Nevada
2-Jim Gibbons (R)
North Carolina
2-Bob Etheridge (D)
4-David E. Price (D)
7-Mike McIntyre (D)
Ohio
6-Ted Strickland (D)
10-Dennis Kucinich (D)
Oklahoma
3-Wes Watkins (R)
Oregon
2-Bob Smith (R)
5-Darlene Hooley (D)
Pennsylvania
5-John Peterson (R)
16-Joseph R. Pitts (R)
Rhode Island
2-Robert Weygand (D)
South Dakota
At Large-John Thune (R)
Tennessee
1-Bill Jenkins (R)
9-Harold E. Ford Jr. (D)
Texas
1-Max Sandlin (D)
2-Jim Turner (D)
5-Pete Sessions (R)
12-Kay Granger (R)
14-Ron Paul (R)
15-Ruben Hinojosa (D)
16-Silvestre Reyes (D)
Utah
2-Merrill Cook (R)
3-Chris Cannon (R)
Virginia
5-Virgil H. Goode Jr. (D)
Washington
9-Adam Smith (D)
Wisconsin
3-Ron Kind (D)
8-Jay W. Johnson (D)
Mississippi - 3rd District

Representative-Elect
Charles "Chip" Pickering Jr. (R-Miss.)

Born: Aug. 10, 1963, Laurel, Miss.
Education: Mississippi College, 1981-82; U. of Mississippi, B.A. 1986; Baylor U., M.B.A. 1989.
Occupation: Congressional aide.
Family: Wife, Leisha Jane Prather; four children.
Religion: Baptist.
Political Career: No previous office.
Capitol Office: 427 Cannon Bldg. 20515; 225-5031.

By Congressional Quarterly

Pickering arrived in the House with more clout than the typical freshman. He worked for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., before running for the 3rd District seat in 1996.

Throughout his campaign, Pickering stressed his bonds to the influential Mississippi Republican hierarchy in Washington, including Lott, senior Sen. Thad Cochran and outgoing Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour.

The district, which stretches from the suburbs of the state capital, Jackson, eastward to the Alabama border, had been represented for 15 terms by a conservative Democrat, G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery.

When Montgomery announced his intention to step down after three decades in the House, Republicans covetously eyed the seat, hoping that the district's increasingly Republican-leaning voters would be willing to substitute a conservative Republican for a conservative Democrat on the Hill.

As if to underscore the depth of the Republican Party's strength in the district, nine candidates, including Pickering, plunged into the March 12 Republican primary, while only three Democrats entered their party's race. It was a reversal from earlier decades in the South, when Democratic primaries were the more competitive of the two.

Pickering left his position as an aide to Lott to jump into the contest. Although he was only 32 years old, Pickering's extensive ties to powerful figures in Washington and in Mississippi helped him gain a fundraising lead and run early television advertisements.

Pickering's name also resonated in the district and across the state. A generation earlier, his father, Charles Pickering Sr., now a federal judge, had been a key player in the rebirth of the Mississippi Republican Party. Haley Barbour had been executive director when Charles Pickering Sr. chaired the state Republican party.

The Pickering-Barbour connection resurfaced in 1996: Barbour's nephew, Henry Barbour, served as the younger Pickering's campaign manager.

Though he was the top vote-getter in the primary, Pickering ended up in an April 2 runoff with Bill Crawford, a former state representative. In the runoff, Pickering claimed that he was the truer conservative, and he criticized Crawford for having supported Democrat Ray Mabus in the state'S1987 gubernatorial contest.

Crawford, meanwhile, presented himself as the truer Mississippian and charged that Pickering had raised much of his money from outside the state.

Pickering defeated Crawford and moved on to face Democrat John Arthur Eaves Jr., a lawyer who had also grown up in a political family. His father, John Arthur Eaves Sr., twice ran for governor of Mississippi.

As in the primary, both candidates touted their conservative values, including their opposition to gun control and abortion rights. Again, Pickering stressed his connections in Washington, and once more he overcame charges of being an outsider to Mississippi concerns.

He defeated Eaves convincingly, pulling in more than 60 percent.

Pickering had worked on telecommunications issues as an aide to Lott, and he sought a prized seat on the House Commerce Committee.

But instead, he will sit on the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and Transportation and Infrastructure committees, both of which should be useful assignments for the 3rd District, which includes both suburban and rural areas.

Pickering was only 3 years old when Montgomery, known as a champion of veterans' issues, was first elected to Congress. Pickering said he hopes to serve with the same dignity and values espoused by his predecessor.

But he stressed different themes, saying that while Montgomery's generation focused on the challenge of fighting the Cold War, he hoped to focus more on issues like telecommunications in order to provide economic development for his district.

© 1997, Congressional Quarterly Inc. All rights reserved.

Montana - At Large

Representative-Elect
Rick Hill (R-Mont.)


Born: Dec. 30, 1946, Grand Rapids, Minn.
Education: St. Cloud State U., B.A. 1968.
Occupation: Surety bonding and insurance company owner; insurance agent.
Family: Wife, Betti; three children.
Religion: Assembly of God.
Political Career: Mont. Republican Party chairman, 1991-92.
Capitol Office: 1037 Longworth Bldg. 20515; 225-3211.

By Congressional Quarterly

Hill brings a decidedly more conservative viewpoint to Congress than the man he succeeded in the House, liberal Democrat Pat Williams.

But Hill will likely find himself occupied with some of the same issues that Williams worked on in Congress, even if their approach to those matters differs greatly.

Hill says that with nearly one-third of Montana's land owned by the federal government, his primary focus in Congress will be to improve the management of those lands, repair deteriorating parks and protect the state's oil, gas and coal resources.

He also wants to work on resolving decades-old conflicts over wilderness lands. He says the federal government has held up numerous cases involving wilderness lands while at the same time failing to manage the land properly. Hill also supports the idea of earmarking park fees to support infrastructure improvements, particularly at Yellowstone National Park, instead of spending the money on operations.

Hill says he supports timber harvesting as a land management tool and allowing exploratory drilling for oil and gas along the Rocky Mountain Front without opening the area to wholesale development.

Hill will be in position to work on these issues as a member of the Resources Committee.

Hill, the former state Republican Party chairman, generally follows a conservative line.

He opposes abortion, except to save the life of the woman, and says he would back a ban on certain late-term abortions. He supports term limits and promises to serve only three terms, or six years.

He also supports a balanced-budget constitutional amendment. To help curb federal spending, Hill says Japan and Germany should contribute more of the cost of maintaining U.S. troops in their countries. He also supports the abolition of federal highway demonstration projects and a phaseout of farm subsidies.

Hill began the race for Congress long before Williams announced that he would retire after 18 years. He faced two opponents in the primary, one of whom, Dwight MacKay, was backed by GOP Sen. Conrad Burns. After polls showed him trailing his primary opponents, Hill managed to pull ahead in the final days by pouring $100,000 of his own money into television ads.

Hill emerged on top again in the general election after a hard- fought battle with Democrat Bill Yellowtail, a former state senator and former regional director for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Montana has been a competitive arena for both parties in congressional elections, and the race remained close through much of the fall, only turning Hill's way toward the end.

Throughout the campaign, skeletons came tumbling out of both candidates' closets. Weeks before the primary, Yellowtail revealed that 20 years earlier he had slapped the woman who was his wife at the time. He also had his state Senate wages garnished for failing to pay child support and had burglarized a camera store as a student at Dartmouth College.

Despite his promise not to use Yellowtail's past as an issue in the general election campaign, Hill did say that a candidate's handling of his family responsibilities reflected on his integrity, and the Republican touted his own efforts in raising his sons after his divorce. But about a month before the election, Hill's campaign was rocked by local news reports that revealed he had an affair while still married to his first wife, which she said led to the couple's divorce in 1980.

Hill also was attacked in a TV ad campaign by the AFL-CIO, which claimed he supported cuts in student loans.

But Hill managed to overcome the negative publicity by out- fundraising his opponent. He had more money to spend on television ads and claimed Yellowtail was "a dangerous liberal."

© 1997, Congressional Quarterly Inc. All rights reserved.


To purchase CQ's authoritative New Member Special Report, a comprehensive first look at the new 105th Congress, visit the CQ Mall.




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