Charles Pickering speaks to Jones County Republican Women

Former 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Charles Pickering recently spoke to the Jones County Republican Women’s monthly meeting. The Laurel Leader Call reports: Pickering gives ‘State of the Party’ address

“It’s hard to believe it was five years ago that the Senate through a Democratic filibuster forced me to retire over the issue of abortion,” said Pickering, who noted he hadn’t spoken to the group in 20 years.

“For 14 years, I could not participate in politics,” he said. “But, for years before that, as a member of the Mississippi State Senate and chairman of the State Republican Party, I was frequently in front of the Jones County Republican Women.”

Pickering noted that the Republican Party has taken great strides since he entered state politics in the 1970s.

“They accused the Republican Party in Jones County of being a country club party and said we could meet in a phone booth,” he said. “There were two Republican senators out of 52 in the state. We’ve made tremendous progress since 1970. All but one state office is held by a Republican, but we haven’t done that well on the local level.”

Pickering also discussed a pending lawsuit in California regarding same sex marriage.