Bob Dole resents that!
Posted on 06/27/2014 5:17:44 AM PDT by don-o
Sen. Thad Cochran pulled off a rare move in politics: An upset of an upset.
After the 76-year-old Mississippi Republican came in second in the state's June 3 primary to state Sen. Chris McDaniel, he rallied to pull off a surprising win in the runoff two weeks later.
So how did he do it?
Republican insiders and others who followed the race well told the Washington Examiner that Cochran's campaign and its outside supporters courted non-traditional primary voters, improved their ground game and sharpened their messaging to win the runoff.
“When we realized there was going to be a runoff, we thought McDaniel was capped with his support and that Sen. Cochran had a lot more upside he could tap into,” said Henry Barbour, who ran a pro-Cochran super PAC and served as the driving force behind the Mississippi GOP Establishment's push.
The Cochran campaign and its supporters made key adjustments for the two-week runoff campaign, changes that were at least partly enabled by Mississippi election law. The state doesn’t register voters by party and all primaries are open, with runoffs open to all registered voters, whether they voted in the initial primary or not, as long as they did not vote in another party’s primary.
Both Cochran and McDaniel increased their vote totals from the June 3 primary, but Cochran finished on top by 2 percentage points, 51 percent to 49 percent, or almost 7,000 votes, in round two.
Here are the factors credited by the pro-Cochran forces for the win:
• Courting non-traditional voters. The Cochran campaign and the outside groups that supported the senator make no bones about it: They targeted voters who typically vote Democrat, including teachers, union members and African-Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.washingtonexaminer.com ...
Article fails to mention the race card play. That was big, of course.
This is going to have long term repercussions in the same way the Elian Gonzalez situation affected dimocrat turnout in south Floridas Cuban community in 2000.
I predict cochrans seat turns dim in November.
The elites want a scorched earth policy? I think they are going to get it....just not like they expected.
I would love to see Cochran lose the general election.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Party loyalty and all that crap.
Screw it!
Mississippi politicians are very good at back-door, behind-the-scenes wheeling-n-dealing. Mississippi voters also like that their Representatives and Senators bring the Gubmint goodies home. However, the thing that gives Mississippi effective Congressmen makes for poor vision and overall leadership. It's no coincidence that Mississippi's only President was Jefferson Davis, a well-qualified man (led men in battle, was perhaps the best Secretary of War America ever had, knew all the nuances of federal government) but was petty, venal, and easily offended (not the right formula for being the first leader of your own country)....
This cheating strategy should be punished severely by conservatives in November. They should throw Cochran under the bus, as they were thrown under the bus in the run-off.
“Do unto others as you would have them do to you, “ should pertain to Haley Barbour in this situation. Boss Hogg thinks he can get away with this corruption, but he shouldn’t.
The GOP is going to win control of the Senate regardless of what happens in Mississippi. I say let Travis Childers win it, then try to get him to switch parties (very common thing in Mississippi).
I think TEA party people should have T-shirts printed up that say “Republicans for...whoever is running against Cochran”
The article is attributed to Chris McDaniels, when the real author is David Drucker. At first I thought McDaniels was referring to himself in third person, a la Bob Dole.
I would rather see a successful challenge to the runoff and a court ordered second runoff.
I don’t think integrity and principle were ever even part of it.
Somebody here posted a flyer that Cochran’s people had distributed in black areas. It was appalling and I really think black people should be offended by the approach: Cochran will give you more food stamps, he’ll build a museum or something for MLK, he’ll give you more welfare benefits...meanwhile, it claimed that McDaniel had been affiliated with racist organizations, etc. (not true, of course).
So I don’t think it’s really the “big tent.” It was an utterly cynical, contemptuous pitch to gullible, greedy people whose vote can be bought with the offer of more food stamps and a little stirring up of racial animosity. Once upon a time, Dem politicians in Boston used to roam the streets at election time with bottles of booze, cigarettes, and dollar bills to hand out to voters, combined with dire warnings that the opponent was anti-Irish. It worked.
I guess the only difference now is that this new batch of pols expect DC to hand out the bribes and don’t even have to come up with their own dollars.
My mistake. Posting before coffee is not recommended.
The GOP is, and has been dead for a few years now. Thank goodness because they clearly do not represent conservatives.
Cochran will NOT win in November.
How???
by running as a Democrat and committing vote fraud.
That’s okay, I misspelled McDaniel’s last name!
There are different ways to build that big tent. Out pandering the Democrats was actually pretty slick. Shameless, but slick.
One thing I saw HAS disappointed me a little. I know that for whatever reason, Cruz pledged to not get involved. But, as the despicable tactics have come to light, I am hoping that he might speak up.
C'mon, Examiner. You can do better than this. You need a better proof reader.
Bob Dole resents that!
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