Tea Party
Thad Cochran, election thief
Senator Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi, seems to have won his primary against Challenger Chris McDaniel. Seems is the working word. In fact he stole the primary by using unethical and even illegal means. Neither here nor the Republican Party deserves the support of any conservative after this.
The Associated Press did not call the race until 11 p.m. Eastern time. They showed Thad Cochran winning with 51 percent of the vote to McDaniel’s 49 percent. But McDaniel called it correctly when he said:
It is strange when a man wins the Republican primary with Democratic voters.
How Thad Cochran stole the runoff
Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). Photo: United States Senate
McDaniel meant that Thad Cochran deliberately solicited Democratic voters to vote in the runoff. Thad Cochran risked a legal complication in doing this. Under the laws of Mississippi, voters who did not vote in the primary may not vote in the runoff. And a voter certainly may not cross over to vote in a runoff different from any primary in which he voted.
But Thad Cochran did worse than that. He specifically appealed to greed in his campaign and in the runoff. He asked voters, Republican and Democrat alike, to vote for him so he could keep bringing federal funds to Mississippi. Never mind that federal funds come from federal taxes. Mississippians pay these taxes also.
Even that appeal would not have been enough. So someone, connected in some way with the Thad Cochran campaign, printed a flyer and distributed it in African-American neighborhoods in Mississippi. Rush Limbaugh mentioned it today on his radio program. Here is how the flyer read:
According to the Clarion Ledger, Chris McDaniel and the Tea Party plan to prevent Democrats voting in the Senate runoff on Tuesday between Thad Cochran and Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel. We know the Tea Party uses “Democrats” as code for African-Americans. Don’t be intimidated by the Tea Party. Let’s turn out for all Mississippians and vote for Thad Cochran…
The flyer had more to it, but that was the gist. In other words, trying to enforce the law against crossover voting between primary and runoff was suddenly racist. One expects the Democratic Party to make that charge. One does not expect to see it come from the Republican Party.
Distraction
Today, to distract the public from these shenanigans, House Speaker John Boehner said he would sue de facto President Barack Obama for wrongful exercise of executive power. Even he should realize the proper remedy against a president’s abusing his power is not litigation, but impeachment. He should also realize that he could remove Obama and Vice President Biden both, and find himself acting as President himself. If he does not even have that much ambition, then he is pursuing an agenda different from the one he campaigned on in the Ohio Eighth District. More to the point, he is trying to convince people that Republicans still stand for something, when they do not. And they haven’t stood for anything for many years.
Write him in
Chris McDaniel will not rely completely on removing Thad Cochrane from the ballot. He has set up a machine for a write-in campaign. That campaign already has the nearly obligatory presence on Facebook. CNAV encourages all conservative voters in Mississippi to set aside their usual reluctance for long-shot campaigns, and write Chris McDaniel’s name in. Considering the agenda on which Thad Cochran campaigned, he is little different from his Democratic opponent. Better to write the Senate seat off than to support one whom the Tea Party can justly call “a Republican In Name Only.”
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Terry A. Hurlbut has been a student of politics, philosophy, and science for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and has served as a physician-level laboratory administrator in a 250-bed community hospital. He also is a serious student of the Bible, is conversant in its two primary original languages, and has followed the creation-science movement closely since 1993.
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Ted Foster liked this on Facebook.
Terry. You usually have some solid points, but you don’t know what you’re talking about here – yours is a total misunderstanding of the law. Mississippi has an “open primary” (key vocab word). So voters aren’t registered as Democrats or Republicans. – according to the law, as long as a voter did NOT vote in the Democratic primary (prior to the runoff), they can vote in the Republican primary. There is a law that says unless that voter also plans to vote for the candidate in the general election, the vote isn’t allowed, but in a 2008 case the courts basically determined this law unenforceable. According to the courts – you would have to prove that at the time of his or her voting, a voter’s plans were to vote for the other candidate in the general election … this is virtually impossible without a mind reading machine. Should you supply one, McDaniel will win.
One more thing – I’ve actually read – at least in one article – that Mississippi does not allow write in votes, so encouraging people to write in might be tantamount to encouraging them to throw their vote away.
Be good enough to cite title, section and clause in Mississippi election law that supports what is, so far, only the unsubstantiated canard of an adviser to the Cochran campaign, Austin Barbour by name.
Oh so you’re familiar with the claim? As I said in my post – I had read that and id be concerned that it might be the case. Also – I assume you’ll do the honest thing and remove what’s obviously false information about an “election thief” illegally stealing elections – unless you’re asking me to cite that Mississippi has an open primary?
The law does provide that those who did not vote in the Republican Primary may not vote in the Republican Runoff. That is the allegation. And I will not be so quick to accept Austin Barbour’s unsubstantiated claim, when I cannot find one word in Mississippi election law, from an hour of engine-assisted searching, that says, or implies, that a voter in Mississippi may not write in the name of his own preferred candidate for the office of United States Senator. Presidential Electors, maybe. But not Senators.
Could you site the title and section of the election law that you say mandates primary participation in order to have runoff participation? You know that both camps increased their vote totals right? Cochran just increased it more
Gladly.
Here is the link to the Mississippi Voter Guide that treats that very question.
I quote:
Daniel Biringer liked this on Facebook.
Renee’ Abbott liked this on Facebook.
Terry… are you serious? You do understand that what you just provided is evidence for what I SAID – and not what you said. Let’s look at the quotes: Me: “as long as a voter did NOT vote in the Democratic primary (prior to the runoff), they can vote in the Republican primary.” … You: “The law does provide that those who did not vote in the Republican Primary may not vote in the Republican Runoff.” … I win!
Not if, as I strongly suspect, and as the Cochran camp came close to admitting, significant numbers of voters, having voted in the Democratic Primary, turned around and voted in the Republican runoff.
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