Cochran ties Alexander for low ACU score

thehill.com ^ | 2/27/14 | Alexandra Jaffe

[cotton1706]

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) is tied with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) for the lowest rating of any Republican facing a primary challenge this cycle on a new conservative scorecard.

The scorecard, from the American Conservative Union (ACU), gives both Cochran and Alexander a 60 percent for 2013.

That puts the two eight points behind the next highest GOP senator facing a primary, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, and 24 points behind Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who also has a primary challenger.

Cochran is considered the most vulnerable Republican senator in a primary this cycle; he has faced heavy attacks from national conservative groups, which point to Cochran’s votes to raise the debt limit, among others, as evidence he’s not conservative enough.

He received the third-lowest score on the Club for Growth’s annual scorecard, released last week, and the Club has been hitting him with ads on TV and radio. His challenger, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, has the backing of most of the prominent national conservative groups.

Cochran’s 2013 ACU rating actually marks a slight improvement from 2012, when he scored only 52 percent.

But the ACU pointed to Cochran’s 5-year average rating, during the Obama presidency, as particularly troubling.

Cochran’s rating for that period was just 63 percent, putting him more than 20 percent behind Roberts and more than 30 percent behind Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell during the same period.

"I think Thad Cochran is in big trouble with his Obama-era rating. It's just poor and on this grander scale, he gets a D-minus. Over the last five years, he has shown a penchant for big government,” ACU Executive Director Dan Schneider told The Washington Post.

[cotton1706]

Both can be removed from power in the primaries this year, Cochran in June and Alexander in August.

[GeronL]

I still think we can find a way to improve these rating systems. A guy who spends his time helping the left and then votes symbolically against something gets a good grade?

[Red Steel]

Taking out 1 of 2 here would be good. Both gravy.

[swamprebel]

Thad needs to learn how to play well with the tea party grassroots. If he can’t, he’s been in DC for 30 years, so perhaps he should take this opportunity to retire!

[Verginius Rufus]

ACU? I didn't think either one had attended Australian Catholic University.

Meanwhile, no one has ever been allowed to look at Obama's transcripts.

[vetvetdoug]

Cochran's campaign, run by Senator Wicker's son in law, has gone negative running ads on Supertalk Mississippi radio often. The establishment GOP has uncorked the genie. I only wish the GOP had done the same to Obama during the Presidential election.

[Impy]

In more MS news, Rat Gene Taylor has switched to the GOP and running in the primary against the man that beat him in 2010, Steve Palazzo. Is this a first?

I’ve heard people are dissatisfied with Palazzo but this could send the Tea Party back into his arms.

And former rat Rep. Travis Childers is running for the Senate in the rat primary. So is Bill Marcy, a Black man, whom I thought was a conservative Republican. WTF?

[Viennacon]

I read about Marcy. He’s running I think so that even if Cochran wins,conservatives can vote the Dem in good conscience that he is more conservative than Cochran. He’s a mole essentially.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I think Childers was recruited to keep Marcy from taking the nomination. MS Dems obviously don’t like Black people winning nominations for high office.

[Impy]

Oh good. So long he’s not really a rat. The Elbert Guillory maneuverer.

Unfortunately I’m certain Childers will win the rat nomination now.

[AuH2ORepublican]

I read that Marcy was going to run as a Democrat so that he could be “Plan B” to replace Cochran with a conservative in case McDaniel couldn’t beat Cochran in the GOP primary. But I just checked The Green Papers and Marcy isn’t listed anymore—maybe he dropped out when Childress (who would trounce Marcy in the Democrat primary) filed to run.

[BillyBoy]

>> MS Dems obviously don’t like Black people winning nominations for high office. <<

Ironic, since white Dems in MS seem to be an endangered species. But given their actions over the past 150 years, it's not surprising they don't want blacks in power!

DJ, you could probably find the info on this.... in the MS legislature, what's the racial breakdown of the Democrat caucus and are their any white Dems representing a traditionally black district, or vice versa? I'm betting there's a few white Dems holding office in a majority black district, but no black Dems elected in a majority white district.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I don’t know where to find the racial demographics for legislative districts. I can only answer the racial breakdown in the Dem caucus:

Out of the 20 Dem State Senators, 12 are Black and 8 are White.

Out of the 57 Dem State Representatives, 37 are Black and 20 are White.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Looking at the MS state senate members and the counties represented, and using common sense to estimate which parts of each county they represent, I am certain that every black Democrats in the MS state senate represents a black-majority district (and with blacks being super-majorities of Democrat primary voters). As for white Democrat state senators, I suspect that the one white Dem in Jackson represents a black-majority district (many white parts of Hinds County are in a GOP district that is partially in Madison County), and a white Dem in Panola County must represent a district whose black percentage is in the high 40s; and in addition to those two, there are probably one or two others representing districts in which blacks are the majority of Democrat primary voters.

I haven't looked at the MS state house, but I suspect that I would find the same phenomenon were I to do so (which I won't).

[fieldmarshaldj]

The one thing that troubles me is that the entirety of the GOP Caucus in MS has not a single Black member (I counted only one “minority”, a lady who is Native American). Although this is the first legislative session since Reconstruction to have a GOP majority, one wonders at what point Black leaders will realize the folly of placing all their eggs in one basket, a likely shrinking Democrat minority. I noticed numerous Black seats the Dem incumbents didn’t even face a GOP challenger.

Of course, that’s not unique to MS. In TN, where the Dems have shrunk to just 27 out of 99 seats in the House, all 14 Blacks in the House are Dems (and make up a 1 seat majority in the caucus, 14-13, although a White guy is still the Minority Leader). 1 Black member, John DeBerry, is a DINO, however, but would probably have difficulty being elected if he switched parties (although a Black Dem from Knoxville in the ‘80s switched parties and actually did manage to win reelection as a Republican before being defeated 2 years later).

TN, unlike MS, also has the situation where virtually all Blacks are packed into urban areas. Of the 14 districts, 1 is in Knoxville, 1 is in Chattanooga, 2 are in Nashville, 9 are in Memphis, and just 1 is in a rural area east of Memphis including part of Jackson (so even this one is part urban). MS has huge swaths of Black majority areas in the rural parts (especially the MS River counties).

[BillyBoy]

MS does have a unique situation where a lot of the black regions of the state are rural areas. When you look at the county-by-county presidential election results, it actually looks competitive for the RATs, because they won a lot of rural counties. Of course, the raw overall numbers meant Romney won it easily.

Due to the RATs gerrymandering my state to have a veto proof majority, a lot of the black neighborhoods in the Chicago have been gerrymandered into a white suburban district, thus resulting in a white RAT representing the district overall. The RATs basically exploit the heavily Democrat black voting strength to ensure a Dem wins regardless of how the suburbs vote, but the Madigan-picked white Dem that wins could care less about the 20% of the district in a poor urban neighborhood. The Dems control virtually every suburban seat in Crook County by snaking it into the city.

The GOP has recruited a number of well qualified conservative black candidates, but unfortunately the result is always the same...no matter how articulate and prominent they are in black neighborhoods, those regions continue to vote 95% RAT, and will automatically vote for a wealthy white RAT over the black Republican who lives in the community.

We actually have one such election coming up this November in the district next to mine. The RAT incumbent/Madigan puppet is Fran Hurley ( http://www.ilga.gov/house/rep.asp?MemberID=2044 ) , and her Republican challenger is Victor Horne, a well qualified black conservative ( http://www.championnews.net/?p=42478 )

The ideal election reform would be to eliminate the candidate's party affiliation being listed on the ballot. Horne could win by knocking on doors and swaying voters one-on-one to vote for him, but as long as Hurley has (D) next to her name on the ballot, she will automatically win huge in the city.

[Impy]

Yeah, well if counties voted instead of people we’d be in great shape here in IL. The map would make you think Brady and Kirk won big in 2010.

“The ideal election reform would be to eliminate the candidate’s party affiliation being listed on the ballot. “

They’d just blanket the area with placards letting everyone know that Hurley is the rat.

[Impy]

Is DeBerry just a social conservative or a full tilt DINO?

[fieldmarshaldj]

I was taking into account his overall voting percentage, but he does appear to be a SoCon. He’d be a “moderate” Republican, but he’s well to the right of the Democrat caucus. He’s for school vouchers and none of this radical gay nonsense. He’s also a minister.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfrJFSrrR3k