Missouri GOP head defends Tea Party candidate in divisive Mississippi senate race

The Saint Louis Post-Dispatch ^ | July 9, 2014 | Kevin McDermott

[2ndDivisionVet]

In an unusual move that is getting some national political buzz, the chairman of the Missouri Republican Party is asking the national GOP to investigate campaign ads and robocalls that attacked Mississippi Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel in his failed attempt to unseat U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.

Missouri Republican Party Chairman Ed Martin has requested that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus appoint a task to investigate the “racially divisive” ads and robocalls that alleged McDaniel had racist ties.

The request has turned some heads because, as the leader of a state Republican Party, someone in Martin's position would usually be expected to support the Republican incumbent rather than calling for an investigation of the treatment of his Tea Party challenger. The Washington Post called it “the latest instance of lingering intra-party discord” between the Tea Party and the GOP in last month's Mississippi runoff election.

Cochran pursued the unusual strategy (for a modern white southern Republican) of wooing black Democratic votes in the runoff, and there are indications it worked. At the same time, McDaniel, who is also white, was hit with third-party ads and robocalls during the campaign that attempted to link him to a Ku Klux Klan ally and suggested that the Tea Party is racist.

“If it is found that anyone working in any capacity for any national, state or local Republican party had any part in this terrible smear campaign against McDaniel and his supporters — thousands of good men and women — they should be immediately fired,”(continued)

[2ndDivisionVet]

BOOM!!

[mrsmith]

“Nevermind the fraud by Thad’s campaign, investigate the incivility of these other groups.”

Yeah, the “Save Thad” campaign is in full swing.

[Currentriverrat]

Way to go Ed.

[topher]

Do any of you have any idea when the Primary Runoff will be certified so that it can challenged?

Is following Chris McDaniel's Facebook a good way to follow some of this, or just the Mississippi News thread on Freerepublic, or both?

Thanks...