Posted on 05/22/2014 8:32:55 AM PDT by Kenny
After a string of humiliating defeats in Republican primaries this spring, the tea partys last best hope to oust an incumbent lawmaker is in Mississippi.
At first glance, the deeply conservative states Senate primary race seems ripe for an upset. Sen. Thad Cochran has served in Washington for as long as his 41-year-old challenger, state senator Chris McDaniel, has been alive. A proud and prolific earmarker when senators were freer to send pork to their states, Cochran personifies the kind of free-spending Beltway broker that grassroots conservative voters have often revolted against.
Senate hopeful Alison L. Grimes (D) suggests McConnells net worth quadrupled because he voted for pay raises.
Yet McDaniel has failed to put the contest away, even as Tea Party-aligned groups are pouring money into Mississippi to deny Cochran a seventh term. The insurgent has made a series of tactical errors, while Cochran and his establishment allies well-funded and prepared for combat have been eviscerating McDaniel on the airwaves.
The race has also been roiled over the past week by a bizarre incident in which a pro-McDaniel blogger was arrested for taking an illicit photo of Cochrans bedridden wife, Rose, who has dementia and lives in a nursing home.
There are few reliable public polls in Mississippi. Strategists in the state say the race has been close, with Cochran enjoying a slight advantage, although they sensed that McDaniel had been gaining steam before the nursing home episode.
Conservative groups still searching for their first victory in knocking off an entrenched incumbent this year are doubling down to prop up McDaniel in the run-up to the June 3 primary.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Disgusting
It strikes me as peculiar that the "Tea Party" is referred to as a legitimate, organized, and established "party", when it's no such thing. I mean, it's a general descriptive and legitimate nickname, and there ARE organized groups with the name that back specific candidates, but I've yet to see a ballot that lists a candidate's party affiliation as "Tea"!
We have partisan primaries in Ohio...my choices were Republican, Democrat, or issues only. No primaries for Green, Libertarian, Constitution, or Tea parties.
The "Tea Party" name may be losing it's luster (?) but I doubt the people who were/are involved in actual organized groups have changed their minds about anything, they just want candidates who can win! That's what the primaries are for, and at grass roots and state levels, it's been successful...at the Federal level, and particularly with incumbents, it's like the "mills of God", but we WILL get there, eventually...IMHO.
He issued a statement IMMEDIATELY calling the behavior of the blogger reprehensible, etc., etc., etc., and IIRC, offered sympathy to the Cochran family.
It sounds like there have been some "undercover operatives" at work, besides some genuinely unsavory radical types who misunderstand what/who the "Tea Party" really is. These of course are the ones that get all the headlines - the "badly behaved"!
It’s all over but the shouting.
Even if the madison county lawyer is totally innocent they will never prove that before the election.
http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2014/05/mayfield-arrested.html
The empire has struck back. This will be all over the news cycle at 5pm in this area. McDaniel is toast now.
This has what happened to Bill Allain written all over it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Allain
“In 1983, while Allain was running for governor against Republican candidate Leon Bramlett of Clarksdale, private detective Rex Armistead, formerly with the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, helped to spread rumors that Allain had sexual intercourse with two African-American male transvestites.[7][8][9] Allain denied the charges.[8] The tranvestites went on the record with a lie detector but in 1984 claimed they had never met Allain and had been paid for their testimony.”
Either that, or bordering on criminal stupidity!
Read the link I just posted. They’ve arrested a bigwig with the Central MS Tea party. A lawyer in Madison.
And sent a SWAT TEAM to do it too.
signed, ignorant in Ohio
(seems that people who know these people would not be swayed or deterred in their voting choices by bogus "Barney Fife" tactics?)
last stand??
More wishful thinking??
http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2014/05/madison-police-arrest-clayton-kelly-for.html
http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2014/05/mcdaniel-issues-statement-calls-cochran.html
http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2014/05/initial-appearance-of-kelly.html
http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2014/05/we-report-you-decide-voice-mail-edition.html
http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2014/05/citizens-united-poll-shows-mcdaniel.html
http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2014/05/breitbart-campaign-knew-about-video.html
http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-constitutional-clayton-plot-thickens.html
http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2014/05/kelly-faces-another-charge.html
http://www.redstate.com/2014/05/19/thad-campaign-nrsc-had-weeks-to-coordinate-mcdaniel-attack/
LOL, first of all, the idea that an upstart underfunded candidate could outs Mitch McConnell was a loooong shot. So it didn’t have any relevance to the strength of the tea party “movement”.
That would be like saying because Republicans lose a statewide election in NY or MA that the party is dead nationally.
(IOW, I have no idea what you mean re: last stand/wishful thinking?!)
When the WASHINGTON POST says the TEA Party is making it’s “last stand” (check headline), I think there is some wishful thinking going on.
What does Mayfield have to do with it?
Good question. Kelly may have implicated him.
But regardless of whether or not he really DOES have anything to do with it (see the wiki exerpt on Bill Allain) is irrelevant. The 5pm news shows will have much footage of the arrest of the ‘Tea Party Big Wig’ for the taping of Thad Cochran’s incapacitated wife.
It’s 2 weeks till the election.
If Mayfield gets exonerated in July and Kelly ultimately charged with nothing more than a misdemeanor it will be too late for the election.
OH! In that case, I totally agree!
Gallo was on this morning attacking the Tea Party and McDaniel’s people. The lawyer that was arrested also donated to Cochran’s campaign and this was omitted by Gallo. Gallo has begun to sicken me with his partisanship.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.