By Allen Roark DBJ Contributing Writer

Former Mississippi State Auditor and Clarksdale attorney, Pete Johnson, was recently selected by President George W. Bush as federal co-chairman of the newly established Delta Regional Authority. The DRA is a government organization aimed at providing multi-state region federal assistance.
“I am honored by the President’s confidence in me by nominating me for this position,” Johnson says. “I look forward to the confirmation process and working with the governors of the eight states of which I will be concerned with.” If confirmed, Johnson will work with the governors of the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee, one of whom will be named a co-chairman along with him. $20 million was appropriated by Congers for the DRA, but money could not be spent until a federal co-chair was named. Mississippi has 45 counties eligible for development funds from the Authority.
“I first learned that my name had been tossed around for this job in late January,” Johnson recalls. “I had not sought the position and was somewhat surprised that my name was even included.
“The Congress has set out very clearly that the DRA is to be a vehicle that will channel money into the most poverty-stricken region of the United States,” Johnson says of the organization’s mission. “This money will enable the region to stimulate economic growth and raise the people out of the cycle of impoverishment.”
Johnson says his role, as the first employee of the DRA, will be to oversee the operations of the organization and to ensure that it carries out it duties and responsibilities in the fashion Congress intended. Johnson also hopes that the DRA headquarters, as yet unknown, will be in his hometown of Clarksdale.
“In discussing the situation with the staffs of Senators Cochran and Lott, I expressed my strong thoughts that our location should be in Clarksdale,” Johnson says, “and I believe that is a distinct possibility. This agency should not be put in Washington, D.C. The delivery system should be in place where the people in need are located.”
A lifelong Delta native, Johnson is a graduate of the University of Mississippi and the Jackson School of Law, now the Mississippi College School of Law. When he served as State Auditor, Johnson switched party allegiance from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. In 1992, Johnson was appointed by President George Bush as State Director of the Farmers Home Administration. DBJ