Rep. Marion Berry (D) Elected 1996, 5th term
Born:	Aug. 27, 1942, Bayou Meto
Home:	Gillett
Education:	U. of AR, B.S. 1965
Religion:	Methodist
Marital Status:	married (Carolyn)
Professional Career:	Pharmacist, 1965-67; farmer, 1968-present; AR Soil & Water Conservation Comm., 1986-94, Chmn. 1992; Special Asst. to the Pres., Domestic Policy Cncl., White House, 1993-96.
DC Office	2305 RHOB20515, 202-225-4076; Fax: 202-225-5602; Web site: www.house.gov/berry
State Offices	Cabot, 501-843-3043; Jonesboro, 870-972-4600; Mountain Home, 870-425-3510.
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The Mississippi Delta, the flat, mushy, river-crossed lowland on both sides of the great river, was some of the country's first industrial farmland. This land was uncultivated in most of the 19th Century, when plows were still pulled by mules and muddy flatlands were impassable. Then, about a century ago, big landowners used machines to drain the marshlands and persuaded poor blacks to move here to tend fields of cotton, rice, and later, soybeans. The results were bountiful agriculture and impoverished people. Around 1940, the Delta began to change slowly: the first minimum wage and war industry jobs up North drew young people out of the Delta and the mechanical cotton picker forced many off the farms. But this land--stretching flat as far as the eye can see, past rows of telephone poles and ribbons of asphalt that shimmer in the heat--remains poor by national standards and the people are undereducated and underemployed. Local rice farmers are among the largest recipients of federal farm subsidies: three farms in Phillips and Arkansas Counties that were among the top five subsidy farms in the country received $105 million from 1996-2001. The local rice fields also attract enough ducks to make Arkansas the nation's most productive for mallard hunters. But there are signs of change in the region. Several big auto parts plants have been built in Marion, across the Mississippi River from Memphis, and Arkansas is hoping that Toyota will choose the site for its seventh North American plant.

The 1st Congressional District of Arkansas includes most of the state's Delta lands and stretches west to the cool green Ozarks. The largest city in the district is Jonesboro, whose cheap labor and flat land has made it an industrial hub for food-processing companies like Nestle and Frito-Lay. The Delta with its large black population is the most Democratic part of the Arkansas; some of the hill counties are ancestrally Republican, and there is a Republican trend in Jonesboro and in Lonoke County, which is part of the Little Rock metro area. The result is that the 1st District is closely divided in national politics: it voted 50%-48% for Al Gore in 2000 but 52%-47% for George W. Bush in 2004.

The congressman from the 1st District is Marion Berry, a Democrat who was first elected in 1996. He is the type of folksy small-town southern Democrat that was prominent in Congress when Democrats were in control: "a pharmacist and a farmer, the owner of a loud laugh," profiled the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Berry grew up in Bayou Meto in Arkansas County in the Delta. When his rice-farming father suggested that he study something else, he earned a pharmacy degree in Little Rock, where he made some political connections, and then ran a pharmacy for two years. He also has been a family farmer since 1968, with a net worth of more than $1 million; he and his family have received more than $100,000 annually in federal farm subsides since 1996. As governor, Bill Clinton, when advocating changes in the state's water policy, appointed him to the Arkansas Soil & Water Conservation Commission in 1986; in 1993, as president, Clinton appointed him White House liaison to the Agriculture Department. Berry returned to Arkansas in 1996, after Congresswoman--now, Senator--Blanche Lincoln announced she would not run for re-election because she was pregnant with twins. Berry had tough opposition for the seat. Against Tom Donaldson, a 28-year-old deputy prosecutor in Crittenden County (Marion, West Memphis) who spent little money but ran rural radio ads criticizing Berry for accepting farm subsidies, Berry won the primary runoff by only 52%-48%. In the general, Berry faced Republican Warren Dupwe, a former Jonesboro city attorney. They sparred over Medicare; both candidates opposed abortion rights and gun control and favored a balanced budget. Berry outspent Dupwe nearly 2-1 and, in a district that has never elected a Republican, won 53%-44%.

Berry's cooperation with Democratic leaders earned him a slot on the Appropriations Committee. His voting record is moderate (especially on cultural issues) to liberal; a Blue Dog Democrat, he supported the balanced budget amendment and said he wanted to pay off the national debt and save Social Security and Medicare. He voted against Republican tax cuts because they are "just borrowing money from our children and grandchildren." With his background, Berry was a natural as co-founder of Democrats' Prescription Drug Task Force and he has pursued his interest in health care. He complained that Republicans put in loopholes to his proposal to allow the re-importation of prescription drugs from other nations. He eagerly stepped forward to criticize George W. Bush's Medicare/prescription drug bill. In October 2003, he was one of three House Democrats appointed to the House-Senate conference committee, all of whom complained of being shut out of the negotiations in which they said that they could be helpful. The enacted bill was "the sorriest piece of legislation" that Congress ever enacted, Berry said. "It is nothing but an expedited way to make it legal to cheat and steal from old people." He visited Cuba with Lincoln to promote an end to the trade embargo, so that Arkansas farmers could sell rice and feed products there. He actively supported the nuclear waste depository in Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and argued that additional nuclear waste from two local Entergy Corp. reactors could be dumped into the Arkansas River.

Berry has declined opportunities to run statewide, citing health and family responsibilities. He has been reelected easily: In 2004 he won 67%-33%, carrying all 26 counties. After the election, he criticized the Democrats' presidential nominating process for favoring Northeast liberals; he also said presidential nominee John Kerry "would have made a good president, but was a lousy candidate."

Committees

• Appropriations (29th of 29 D): Energy & Water Development & Related Agencies; Homeland Security.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	60	37	100	45	22	11	45	36	9	53	--
2003	85	--	100	40	--	28	47	48	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	59%	--	41%		57%	--	42%
Social	55%	--	45%		52%	--	48%
Foreign	73%	--	25%		68%	--	30%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers N 6. Ban Human Cloning Y		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Fund Iraq War N 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Marion Berry (D)	162,388	67%	$947,839
	Vernon Humphrey (R)	81,556	33%	$23,836
2004 primary	Marion Berry (D)	unopposed
2002 general	Marion Berry (D)	129,701	67%	$1,315,408
	Tommy Robinson (R)	64,357	33%	$142,244
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (60%); 1998 (100%); 1996 (53%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 127,179 (52%) Kerry (D) 115,994 (47%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 109,160 (50%) Bush (R) 105,547 (48%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the First District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 1
• District Size: 17,521 square miles
• Population in 2000: 668,360; 44.5% urban; 55.5% rural
• Median Household Income: $28,940; 18.5% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 35.0% blue collar; 48.8% white collar; 16.2% gray collar; 13.8% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 80.2% White, 16.6% Black, 0.3% Asian, 0.4% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.9% Two+ races, 0.0% Other, 1.6% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 15.3% USA, 7.5% Irish, 6.8% German
• Click here for statewide demographic data.