Posted on 06/27/2014 6:30:13 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
How far did the establishment GOP forces backing Senator Thad Cochran go in Mississippi this week? Too far, and their tactics are likely to leave permanent scars in a civil war with Tea Party forces that are out of all proportion to the importance the establishment placed on saving one 76-year-old senator’s ability to please Washington’s K Street lobbying interests.
“This is a win for the establishment, but it’s a win with an asterisk, because it’s so tainted that it might be one of those things where they’re going to be sorry they ever won the runoff in Mississippi,” Craig Shirley, a political consultant and the author of two respected biographies of Ronald Reagan, told Yahoo News this week.
The key to Cochran’s surprising victory was a disproportionately high turnout in precincts with high Democratic registration. Mississippi law permits voters to cross party lines in primaries, but it prohibits members of one party who voted in their party’s primary to participate in a runoff of the other party. It also bars them from voting in the runoff unless they intend to support the resulting nominee in the November election — an unenforceable requirement, but one that showed that the intent of the election law was, in this case, to let Republicans determine their own nominee.
The tactics used to convince black Democrats to vote for Cochran included the same kind of race-baiting that Republicans have complained about for decades. “The Tea Party Intends To Prevent Blacks From Voting on Tuesday” was the headline on a flier that indefatigable journalist Charles Johnson (twitter #chuckcjohnson) discovered had been distributed in heavily black precincts before the June 23 vote. Along with that unfounded incendiary message was a list of issue comparisons between Cochran and Chris McDaniel. Cochran was credited with such unconservative positions as support for federal pork projects and food-stamp funding. The flier carried no identification as to who produced it, a violation of federal law.
Curiously, another flier put out by the pro-Cochran Mississippi Conservatives PAC last week described Cochran’s positions in nearly identical language as the anonymous flier and even carried an identical photo of the senator. The slogan that Thad Cochran “Supports All Mississippians” is the same in both fliers.
“I don’t know who put it out,” former governor Haley Barbour, who raised boatloads of money for the Mississippi Conservatives PAC, told my colleague Eliana Johnson. “I can’t imagine the Cochran campaign did that.”
But the Mississippi Conservatives PAC did engage in its own questionable tactics. A mysterious robo-call went out to thousands of Democratic households just before the June 23 vote. The female narrator’s message was as follows: “By not voting, you are saying ‘take away all of my government programs, such as food stamps, early breakfast and lunch programs, millions of dollars to our black universities . . . everything we and our families depend on that comes from Washington will be cut.”
As the Washington Examiner reported: “It turns out that former Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s pro-Cochran Super PAC, Mississippi Conservatives, shelled out $44,000 for an offensive robo-call urging black Democrat voters to vote for Thad Cochran in the Republican primary Tuesday.”
There has been much speculation about the offensive robo-call, which trashes the Tea Party for “their disrespectful treatment of the first African American president.” The female narrator claimed that Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel would cause “even more problems for President Obama.”
As I said, the wounds from all of this are likely to be long lasting.
“This just threw gasoline onto the flames of the civil war,” Richard Viguerie, the author of Takeover: The 100 Year War for the GOP’s Soul, told reporters this week. “What happened yesterday in Mississippi will resonate for years to come. It will become the battle cry, just like the Alamo. We will remember Mississippi.”
All we need is Ronald Reagan II.
Yes, I was. And further down the story, it relates this PAC to an address to a Liberal church.
I saw that last night. When did they allow Morris back on FOX? I thought Ailes banned him for being so utterly wrong on his campaign prediction.
This story? Where?
EVERYONE wants to hold the “conservative” mantle, so they call themselves the “conservative” this and the “conservative” that and it fools enough people.
In this case they helped foot the bill to get out the black vote for Cochran.
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You know, this is another thing that really peeves me about the RNC and the Republican Establishment. In all their mailers, these idiots apparently believe all they need to do to gain our support is gratuitously invoke Ronald Reagan's name, drop in the word “conservative” a couple dozen times to describe themselves, and drop in the word "liberal" a couple dozen times to denounce their opponents. This completely stale tactic might have fooled some of the conservative base 10 years ago but carries almost zero impact now. The conservative/Tea Party movement is far more sophisticated today and we actually judge our elected politicians’ by their ACTIONS, not because they SAY "vote for us because we're conservative and they're liberal" during campaign season.
Scorched Earth: Eric Cantor’s Staff, Supporters Drain Cash From Virginia GOP, Dave Brat
by David Steinberg June 26th, 2014 - 3:31 pm
After the skin-crawling exploitation of black voters in Mississippi, the GOP’s current leadership wing gives a second demonstration, this time in Virginia, of just how committed they are to “a big tent,” or to the GOP’s vitality in general. The Senate majority matters, the House majority matters. But this party’s leadership is infested with the same disregard for Washington’s intended purpose as any Clintonian.
Third parties fail. But what cost does remaining aligned with this generation of GOP leadership take from the cause of liberty and transparency?
Recall, last week Eric Cantor said: “Of course I’ll vote for David Brat … I want a Republican to hold this seat.”
Video
This week? He sends Ray Allen — read anything I’ve published at PJM the last few months for background on this Tammany Hall-style thug — to proxy a budget vote for the seat Cantor really really earnestly hopes the GOP holds.On the next page is local Virginia blogger and grassroots organizer Jamie Radtke with the details. Do read to the end — as a member of the GOP, of any stripe from McCain to Cruz, I do hope Radtke’s coverage encourages you to reclaim your party from these rent-seeking parasites…
Ray Allen, Mike Thomas, Donald Williams and ten other Cantor supporters continued their assault on the grassroots last night with a 13-6 vote on the committee to bleed the 7th District GOP bank account. Here is how it happened …
Last night at the Goochland Library the 7th District GOP Committee held their first meeting under the new chairmanship of Fred Gruber. [Ed. note: Gruber is the Tea Party-backed chairman who defeated Cantor's favored incumbent, Linwood Cobb, which came weeks before Cantor's loss.] The Treasurer’s Report showed that the 7th CD Committee had approximately $470,000 cash on hand, with almost the entire amount coming from Cantor’s Victory Fund. (As an aside, can the other side please stop bemoaning the loss of Linwood Cobb’s fundraising prowess? The man did nothing to raise money. He simply cashed the Cantor checks.) Ray Allen and Mike Thomas (who are not elected members of the 7th District Committee) were conveniently in attendance, carrying a voting member’s proxy, so that they could vote on the motions. [UPDATE: Ray Allen held a proxy for a voting member (Kristi Way - Cantor's Chief of Staff); it is not clear whether Mike Thomas held a voting or nonvoting proxy.]
An initial motion was made by conservatives on the Committee to spend approximately $288K of the money to help Gillespie/Brat win in November, while saving the balance for future elections. Specifically, conservatives wanted to spend $288K to build a sophisticated grassroots operation for each of the ten counties in the 7th District to help with general election voter turnout in November. It would have far exceeded any sort of GOP victory efforts in the past, with each county having the necessary resources, talent, and technical support to increase our voter margins in November. This proposal was flatly denied.
Chesterfield GOP Chairman, Donald Williams, made a substitute motion to give $150,000 to to the Republican National Committee (RNC), $150,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), $25,000 to Ben Chafin who is running to replace the state senate seat of Phil Puckett down in southwest Virginia, $12,866 to the Republican Party of Virginia so that GOP units in the 7th district could obtain i360 data licenses, and $5,000 to all Virginia congressional campaign – leaving only approximately $86,000 in the 7th district bank account.
Interestingly, this proposal basically gave NOTHING to 7th District election efforts in November, only allocating a total of $12,866 to purchase i360 data licenses!!! The 7th District Committee decided they had no interest in growing the GOP and turning out the vote in their own district, they would rather give their money to Washington D.C.!
The Cantor allies on the 7th District Committee even slighted their own state party, not giving the Republican Party of Virginia a dime! Why do I say this? Because RPV is simply being used a pass thru to pay for i360 licenses for the 10 GOP units in the 7th District. RPV doesn’t get to keep a dime of the $12,866 they are being sent. Make no mistake, this is retribution for Pat Mullins standing up against the slating tactics of Eric Cantor, Ray Allen and Mike Thomas. Their intentions were exposed when Fred Gruber tried to offer a compromise amendment to the Cantor/Allen/Thomas/Williams budget that the $300K going to the RNC and NRCC be split three ways so that RPV would at least get $100K. This proposal was also flatly denied. No money to the RPV and only $12,866 to 7th District operations.
You need to know how your local GOP members voted. Only 6 members voted against this proposal to bleed the money from the 7th District bank account. Those were:
Fred Gruber – ChairmanBen Slone – Goochland Unit ChairmanNick Freitas – Culpeper Unit ChairmanMark Daniel – New Kent Unit ChairmanJordan Marshall – Orange Unit ChairmanRobert Stuber – Spotsylvania Unit ChairmanHere are the members who voted to raid the 7th district account and send the money outside of the 7th District:
Donald Williams – Chesterfield Unit Chairman
Chris Obenshain – Richmond City Unit Chairman
Nancy Russell – Hanover County Unit Chairman
Don Boswell – Henrico County Unit Chairman
Graven Craig – Louisa County Unit Chairman
Liza Bradford – VFRW District 7 Rep
Kate Rennolds – Young Republican Rep
Klarke Kilgore (proxy) – College Republican Rep
Jane Ladd – State Central Presidential Rep
David Fuller – State Central Congressional Rep
Doug Rogers – State Central rep
Marie Quinn – State Central rep
Kristi Way (proxy) – State Central repSo now you know who is truly for building the party and grassroots in the 7th District and who simply wants to protect turf, punish the grassroots, and keep the local party small and ineffective.
Folks, where do you think that money is going after it makes it to the RNC or NRCC?
I did post Radtke’s entire post here, but do visit her blog, The Bull Elephant, and thank her for the excellent coverage. Journalists like her are why, occasionally, the bad guys in Washington get sent home.
Please read my first post - post 8.
And further down the story, it relates this PAC to an address to a Liberal church
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Where are you seeing this. Maybe I missed it but I don’t
find that relation in the article.
How can the RINO backstabbers make it right? Withdraw Cochran and declare McDaniels the nominee.
They've gone too far. The vast majority of constitutional conservatives ARE NOT racists. For heaven's sake, we're the ones that want to stop the genocide of blacks through abortion and to employ US citizen blacks instead of hispanic invaders.
I'm beyound disgusted. The establishment 'pubs in the US Senate are no longer the "lesser of two evils".
Disagree.
The Republican Party is the party of the incumbent.
The mailers have much in common with an Obama speech. Long on platitudes and generalities.
McDaniels made mistakes, yes. But he also won in a fair fight.
Cochrane's campaign went beyond the pale.
Not only lost Wallbanger. They also lost the Republican party. Because now the Democrats have a fired up base that they can use against Cochran.
Mississippi was deep red for a reason. Within the next two cycles, Mississippi will be a blue state.
Of course, he isn’t going to serve his six year term. That’s why it was so important for him to win, so Haley Barbour could choose his corrupt replacement. They wanted one of their guys in the seat, not Chris McDaniel. THey think they own that seat not the people. Cochran needs to lose. No way I would vote for that corrupt sleazebag after the tactics they employed in MS to “win” with Democrat votes. I’d vote for the Democrat if I lived in Mississippi. He’ll be easier to beat next time around, especially if he votes lockstep with his party once in DC.
A pro gun, pro life, anti obamacare democrat? I don't live in Mississippi but I would break my life long policy against voting for any democrat, in order to vote against Cochran.
Some estimates show that the Dems and GOP each have just over 20% of the voting age population, while non-party or other party affiliations and independents make up about 40%.
The problem is cultural, too. The ‘conservative’ Democrats, just like the ‘conservative’ Republicans, hold on to their party affiliation, because it goes back generations.
Then, there are the wobblers who keep advocating that the change must be within the respective party. [How well has that been going since 2000?] Keep the party and throw out the rats/rinos. That does not always work because, especially with the Senate, incumbency is difficult to defeat.
Instead, people keep voting for the same and expecting a different result. But, as soon as many of those politicians cross the Potomac, they get beltway-itis and become enamoured of the power and money and politics. Those already in Washington have developed many great friendships with those from across the aisle. Thus, anything resembling an effective opposition party disappeared years ago.
Post #27 needs it’s own thread...
Re: “Democrats should not be picking the nominees of the Republican party.”
Agree.
That’s why we must pay for and manage our own primary elections.
When Republicans pay the bills, we can write the primary election rules any way we like.
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