D.C. Group Fires At Childers, Again

If you got the mailer last week, you know that DC Vote has taken aim, again, at U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, D-Booneville.

DC Vote is asking selected 1st District voters to send Childers a postage-paid card, telling him to stop spending his time on District of Columbia issues and take care of Mississippi issues.

"Mississippians aren't focused on what a small group of people in Washington are saying," Childers said Friday in an e-mail to the Daily Journal.

He said north Mississippi is always his priority.

DC Vote and a letter to the editor in Sunday's Journal are displeased that Childers introduced a bill to overrule a District of Columbia gun ban. The National Rifle Association gave Childers its endorsement a few months ago.

Childers faces Republican Alan Nunnelee of Tupelo on the Nov. 2 general election ballot, along with seven other independents and non-mainstream party nominees.

Ilir Zherka, DC Vote's executive director, said his group is focusing on Childers because of his leadership for the House bill, and he said the mailer's timing with the upcoming election is coincidental.

"This is a legislative fight," he said Friday.

In the letter, well-known civil rights activist and NAACP chairman emeritus Julian Bond asks why Childers is so interested in D.C.'s business.

"While many people have different opinions about guns, I believe most Americans agree that local communities ought to retain the local power to decide local issues," Bond wrote. "Congressman Childers would never allow the federal government to single out Mississippi and dictate what the local laws ought to be. Childers should show Washingtonians the same level of respect."

Bond also criticizes Childers for helping stall legislation to give D.C. residents full voting representation in Congress.

"We are Americans. We want the federal government to treat us equally," Bond notes. "Rep. Childers should focus on his congressional district and the people who elected him."

Nunnelee campaign adviser Morgan Baldwin said about the DC Vote effort, "We have no relationship with this group and I really don't have any insight into their reasoning."

When DC Vote went after Childers a few months ago, Nunnelee reacted by saying, "If they dislike Travis Childers, they will really dislike Alan Nunnelee."

DC Vote's mailer asks recipients to send the postcard back to Childers' office to tell him they disagree with what he's doing.

"We haven't gotten any postcards in either of our offices, that I know of," Dana Edelstein, Childers' campaign communications director, said Friday.

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