Lloyd Gray 6/15/09

Stephanie Rebman 6/16/09

Mike Tonos 6/17/09

By Patsy Brumfield

Daily Journal

The Ethics in Government Act requires that all members of Congress, and certain key staffers, file annual financial.

Following is information from reports filed by Mississippi Sens. Thad Cochran of Oxford and Roger Wicker of Tupelo, and 1st District Rep. Travis Childers of Booneville. The reports cover calendar year 2008.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are paid $174,000 annually. They also receive an allowance for staff and supplies.

Sen. Thad Cochran

Cochran is a full-time senator whose stock portfolio was busy during 2008, his report shows. He owned some 90 named stocks, some which yielded interest and some which yielded none during 2008.

Among his stocks were Trustmark National Bank, Regions Financial and Bank of New Albany. He also listed cash assets from $15,000 to $50,000.

His report shows numerous purchases, as well as stock sales, especially in the energy and financial fields.

Among his assets, he lists a "cabin" in Oxford valued between $250,000 and $500,000 and a retirement home in Manassas, Va., along with a New Albany real estate partnership, Clayton Family LLC.

As for reimbursed travel, Cochran reported only one, a round-trip air fare from Washington to Boston, lodging and meals for himself to the John F. Kennedy Center Library's Profiles in Courage award ceremony in March 2008. Former Mississippi Gov. William Winter was honored at the ceremony.

He also noted membership on two nonprofit groups - Andrew Jackson Council of Boys Scouts of America and the Profiles in Courage Awards Committee - board membership for the U.S. Naval Academy, the Smithsonian Institution and National Museum of American History, and an ex-officio membership on the board for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

He reports no compensation from any of these positions.

Sen. Roger Wicker

Wicker and his wife, Gayle, own property in Virginia and Oxford, while Gayle Wicker owns two properties in Tupelo, his 2008 financial report shows.

The Tupelo properties are valued between $100,000 and $250,000 each, and rental income from one ranges from $5,000 to $15,000 a year.

The jointly owned properties bring rental income from $5,000 to $15,000 each in Oxford and Alexandria, Va. The third piece rent lists from $1,001 to $2,500 a year in Virginia.

Gayle Wicker works for the University of Mississippi, but her salary is not required to be listed.

Wicker, serving his first full six-year term in the office after 13 years in the House, also reports his wife's investment of $500,000 to $1 million in Hilliard Lyons Government Fund Inc., as well as sale of property at 710 N. Gloster in Tupelo from $50,000 to $100,000 and sale of Schering Plough Corporate Stock from $15,001 to $50,000.

His report also shows the Wickers have three 30-year mortgages on the Virginia and Oxford properties. One Alexandria mortgage is $100,000 to $250,000 and the second is $250,000 to $500,000, both with Chevy Chase Bank.

The Oxford mortgage with BNA Bank is for $250,000 to $500,000.

Wicker reports stock holdings, chiefly by his wife. Most of them yielded no income, but a few provided small dividends or interest.

Rep. Travis Childer

Childers divested himself of two businesses last year on advice from the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, annual financial reports show.

Childers, a former Prentiss County chancery clerk, ended his connection with Travis Childers amp& Associates Realty and with Pickwick Premier Properties.

Childers' report shows income, other than his congressional pay, from five sources, plus a notation that his wife, Tami, received a salary from Landmark Nursing Center Inc., a Booneville nursing home they operate. Her salary amount was not required for the report.

Childers' non-congressional pay came from the Prentiss County Board of Supervisors, as its clerk, $22,383; rent from a Gatlinburg, Tenn., property, $5,329; Yellow Creek Port Authority director fee, $350; Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Office fees, net $38,857; and Prentiss supervisors, $2,352 in commissions.

Childers resigned as chancery clerk late last spring after he won the congressional seat in a special election.

He also listed assets and unearned income as interest from bank accounts, as well as rental properties and Landmark Nursing Home.

That part of the report shows Childers holds 20 pieces of property, including two lots at Pickwick Lake in Tishomingo County, half-interest in a cabin at Eastport at Iuka, four lots at J.P. Coleman State Park, timberland and mineral rights to 700 acres.

Childers, a longtime real estate businessman, also owes eight mortgages to Farmers amp& Merchants Bank in Booneville, as well as one in Twin Oaks Subdivision.

As for employment positions, he shows that in 2008 he was a partner in DLP Enterprises, Twin Oaks Development; proprietor of Travis Childers Realty amp& Associates and Pickwick Premier Property; an officer for Landmark Nursing Center and Landmark Community; and a director of Yellow Creek Port Authority.

Contact Patsy R. Brumfield at (662) 678-1596 or patsy.brumfield@djournal.com.