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Magnolia State: State Sen. Christopher B. McDaniel looks to take down incumbent Sen. W. Thad Cochran in the GOP primary

Magnolia mischief mars McDaniel v. Cochrane primary



In GOP politics, the 2014 is shaping up as a national road production of “The Empire Strikes Back.”
All over the country, conservative challengers to establishment Republicans are failing short of expectations—except for in Mississippi. In the Magnolia State, state Sen. Christopher B. McDaniel looks to take down incumbent Sen. W. Thad Cochran in the June 3 GOP primary. As Cochran, a 42-year veteran of Washington, falters, word comes that the national Republican campaign committees and the state party leadership will not support McDaniel—they would rather lose, than have a conservative win. As the establishment steps up its attack on McDaniel as an extremist unfit to serve, his campaign told the Canada Free Press it is taking the high road. Noel Fritsch, the campaign spokesman said to CFP: “This election should be an opportunity for the people to make themselves heard, so it is our hope that the Mississippi GOP remains focused on ensuring a fair and impartial nomination process.”

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McDaniel is not a fringe candidate, rather, he is an accomplished legislator and vigorous campaigner, he said. “Chris McDaniel is a two-term Republican state senator in Mississippi whose conservative credentials are beyond reproach, which explains the intense energy and support we're seeing for Chris as we travel around the state,” he said. For his part, McDaniel told CFP he will respect the results of the primary and work to win the seat for the GOP if Cochrane beats him. “"I've always supported the Republican Party's nominee, and I plan to do so on June 4, irrespective of the outcome of this campaign." This blackballing of conservatives is in the name of making sure the strongest candidate makes it to the general election, the establishment guys will tell you, which would mean Scott P. Brown, Tommy G. Thompson and George F. Allen are sitting in the Senate, which they are not. As a Massachusetts Republican, I am familiar with this mindset. Old Yankee Republicans let the party waste away rather are space on the floating wreckage. But, Mississippi? It all started with a collaboration between NBC News reporter Kasie Hunt, formerly of AP, formerly of Politico. Hunt is known to have been “close” to Secretary of State John F. Kerry, and she has been a reliable member of the Democrats’ media team. Check out this lede from her AP story about W. Mitt Romney at the NAACP: “Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney drew jeers from black voters Wednesday as he criticized President Barack Obama and pledged to repeal the Democrats' health care overhaul.” Hunt was tipped that the “Combined Firearm Freedom Day/Tea Party Music Fest” conference advertised McDaniel as one of the speakers, and, wait for it: one of the vendors at the conference is the Pace Confederate Depot, which sells Confederate, Tea Party and White Pride merchandise. Apparently, right after Mississippi GOP chairman Joseph D. Nosef III passed on this tip, he consented to an interview, where he demanded that McDaniel explain. Um, explain how he did not review the vendor list of a conference he never confirmed he would attend. As Hunt wrote in her April 3 posting at NBCNews.com:
“I want the strongest Republican candidate nominee in order to win the election in November," said Nosef, the Mississippi GOP chair. "And if there is any information that some voter might find negative, certainly I hope we deal with all of that in our primary and not when it's too late."
Nosef is an acolyte of former Republican National Committee chairman and Mississippi governor Haley R. Barbour, who is Cochrane’s champion. In case you did not get the point, Hunt closed: “Asked if white nationalist rhetoric had a place in the state's Republican Party, Nosef said: ‘No. Absolutely not.’” Not only is the phrasing hack writing, it leaves the impression that there is a scent of KKK about McDaniel, who clearly by the polls and the vigor of his campaign is the strongest candidate. But, Nosef was not done. He spoke to liberal news site TalkingPointsMemo.com and also a local Mississippi radio show hosted by Paul Gallo, where he suggested that McDaniel could not win in the general election. Really? In a state Romney won over Obama by 12 points? Hardly.

Mississippi will be a major test for conservatives

Laura Van Overschelde, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Tea Party, called for Nosef to resign in an April 14 statement, as he is clearly in violation of the state party neutrality rules. “The MS Tea Party also calls on Joe Nosef to rescind his comments on the Paul Gallo Show last week in which he insinuated that Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Mississippi Chris McDaniel might cost the GOP a senate seat in the general election,” she said. “With or without Nosef, the MS Tea Party strongly suggests the MS GOP observe and obey its own stated principles and admonitions against involvement in primaries.” In the next six weeks, Mississippi will be a major test for conservatives. Polling suggests McDaniel will win and another clue is that 75 percent of the challenger’s money comes from inside the state, while the incumbent collects less than 10 percent from Mississippi residents. Even if Cochrane is the only establishment Republican to lose a primary, it is a message to all Republicans up in 2016 that their primary concern needs to be the primary.


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Neil W. McCabe -- Bio and Archives

Neil W. McCabe is the editor of Human Event’s “Guns & Patriots” e-letter and was a senior reporter at the Human Events newspaper. McCabe deployed with the Army Reserve to Iraq for 15 months as a combat historian. For many years, he was a reporter and photographer for “The Pilot,” Boston’s Catholic paper. He was also the editor of two free community papers, “The Somerville (Mass.) News and “The Alewife (North Cambridge, Mass.).”


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