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I will say that I’m a little apprehensive, too. I was in one of my insomniac moods last night and I happened to look at FR shortly after this came out. At first I was very pleased, but the more I thought about it, the more one question bothered me: why would this minister come out and admit to a total stranger that he had done something that was completely illegal?

Black ministers are not very well educated, as a whole, and some of them may not be very bright (hence their fondness for the Dems), but they are canny. And I can’t believe he wouldn’t have known vote-buying was illegal and that, knowing this, he would still have announced to some unknown reporter that he had done it numerous times.

I think this needs to be investigated very thoroughly. I thought, from the tweets that he was showing off, that the minister was probably contracted to hire other people in a GOTV drive. In other words, each of these people would then be getting $15 for every voter they contacted who then went to the polls, while he would be getting a cut for having hired them. This isn’t illegal; both parties routinely hire people to do voter registration or canvassing, and pay them on the basis of the number of registrations, successful visits, etc.

It sounds as if the Cochran campaign either didn’t pay fast enough or wasn’t going to pay at all, once they’d gotten what they wanted. But if all they were paying for was people to go door to door to registered Democrats urging them to vote for Cochran...well, it may be underhanded, but it wasn’t illegal.

The article was more specific and incriminating, but I’m just going by the tweets that the minister was showing off in the photos, since I don’t know a thing about the reporter and how reliable he is. I feel like I’ve been burned too many times by excited reports of this “smoking gun” or that - and it usually turns out to be nothing but wishful thinking and makes people who believe it look like fools. Breitbart was reliable, but I think caution is required here and it should be investigated by someone else before we take it as the truth.

And I think the McDaniel campaign should continue amassing evidence of irregularities, but shouldn’t get openly involved in this until it’s clarified a bit.

How about we focus on this pastor in Mississippi? Let's get his affidavit and find a Prosecutor to convene a Grand Jury.

As of this moment, there is a report stating that Deacon Robert Markham, with First Union Missionary Baptist Church, where Stevie Fielder claims he is a pastor, says that he (Fielder) is not connected to the church and that Fielder isn't someone he'd do business with. Others with the church claim he isn't with the church, either, and has had legal problems surrounding work they'd done for him.

Additionally, Thad Cochran's communications manager says that Stevie Fielder originally worked for the Cochran campaign, then quit, demanded payment, and is now lying for cash.

Johnson's shortcomings can be investigated as another matter.

I disagree. You only get one chance to get it right, and Johnson has a record of publishing things which aren't true and not doing enough research. Now, Johnson wants you to believe that someone he acknowledges he's paid cash to has revelations to share, and is comfortable admitting to committing multiple felonies.

Finally, Stevie Fielder claims that he delivered (his exact quote): “hundreds or even thousands,” of blacks to the polls after being offered money and being assured by a Cochran campaign operative that Chris McDaniel was a racist. “They [the Cochran campaign] told me to offer blacks fifteen dollars each and to vote for Thad.”

So, hundreds or even thousands - if I was handing out money, I'd know to the person. Additionally, how did he transport hundreds or thousands of people in one day? Voting takes at least half an hour where I live, not counting driving, by the time you've stood in all three lines (get your ballot, vote, turn in your ballot). Much less load up a vehicle with people, pay them, drive them, wait for them to vote, load them up again, drive them back, unload them, and repeat. How many times did he repeat that to get hundreds? Thousands?

Major lawsuit over Senate race 'shenanigans'

From what I can see, it looks like McDaniel has other, legitimate issues to raise with this election. If Fielder/Johnson turn out to be a bust, who will want to listen to those issues?

Blogger Claims Cochran Campaign Bought Votes^

Cochran campaign denies vote buying reports^

Cochran camp tries to clear vote buying allegations^

Unless and until Stevie Fielder submits his claims to a court under penalty of perjury, this goes nowhere.