Pickering at Rounsaville DC event

Roll Call - Pickering Will Appear at Ex-Aide’s Fundraiser - Rep. Chip Pickering (R) hasn’t officially endorsed any GOP candidate in the crowded race for the House seat he is vacating at the end of his term, but he is scheduled to appear as a special guest next week at a fundraiser for John Rounsaville, his one-time aide. The $250-a-head event will take place in Washington, D.C., next Monday and, according to an invitation that went out last week, will feature several prominent Washington lobbyists with Mississippi connections.

After leaving Pickering’s office, where he served as deputy chief of staff, Rounsaville worked as a policy adviser to Gov. Haley Barbour (R). In 2006, he was appointed as a Mississippi state director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Rounsaville resigned that post last fall in order to run for Congress.

Of the eight Republicans in the open-seat race, Rounsaville is one of four frontrunners. The others include state Sen. Charlie Ross, who is being backed by the powerful Club for Growth; wealthy businessman David Landrum; and Rankin County Republican Party Chairman Gregg Harper, who held a fundraiser last month that was attended by one of the state’s biggest political names, former Sen. Trent Lott (R).