New Mexico News
| MEET ROBERT PIDCOCK, DEMOCRAT |
| Posted by () on May 21 2008 at 4:00 PM |
Robert Pidcock is a 51-year-old lawyer and a political newcomer. He has raised only a little more than $10,000 for his campaign and, having never been in public life, his name is the least known of the four Democrats running in the primary election.
But Pidcock, who has a college degree in government and economics as well as a law degree, says he is the most qualified to go to Washington and develop budgets and make laws.
"If I'm thinking about the person I want in Congress, it's all about making laws. That's what Congress does," Pidcock said. "I've spent a career interpreting laws."
At candidate forums, Pidcock is reserved and tends to talk in detail about government programs and ideas for reforming them, while some of his opponents tend toward a more rallying style.
"Yeah, these people will jump up and down and they'll raise their voice and they'll shake their fists and stuff," Pidcock said. "But when the election is over, you've got to go govern in Congress. To me, this is ultimately about the issues."
Pidcock was raised on a farm in southeastern Ohio and joined the Army as a path to college. In the Army, he repaired top-secret encryption equipment and, after his discharge, worked for National Cash Register and Motorola while taking college classes at night. When he enrolled at the University of Texas as a full-time student, he worked nights as a traveling janitor to pay his way, making a 100-mile circuit every night cleaning telephone company offices.
Pidcock's modest upbringing in Appalachia influenced his politics. He favors a constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget and believes federal help programs should be retooled when they become relied on as a way of life.
While Pidcock has never been politically active, he has always loved thinking about and talking about government and politics.
Deciding to run for political office was an outgrowth of those interests and came from "a profound realization that government had to do better, that our government just doesn't reflect the citizens in its goals and its operations and it doesn't support the people of this country."
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