Less than $4.3k to go!!
Posted on 08/30/2014 11:06:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The news came out yesterday afternoon that yet another blow had been dealt to Chris McDaniel’s ongoing challenge to his runoff election against Thad Cochran. The ruling seemed to bear very little – if any – relevance to questions about voting improprieties at the ballot box, and everything to do with some paperwork.
A Mississippi judge has tossed out state Sen. Chris McDaniel’s challenge to that state’s June 24 GOP primary runoff results, ending another chapter in one of the most bitterly contested U.S. Senate primaries in recent memory and bringing longtime Sen. Thad Cochran one step closer to another term in Washington.
Special Judge Hollis McGehee ruled that McDaniel waited too long to file his challenge with state Republican Party. McDaniel filed the challenge 41 days after the election; McGehee said that under state law the challenge had to be filed within 20 days.
Some people are inevitably going to blame the judge – fair enough given the reputation of the political situation at times. But even some of the harshest critics of the decision had originally applauded the choice of McGehee.
Was he bought off? True conservatives and supporters of Chris McDaniel had high hopes when the state supreme court named Judge Hollis McGehee to oversee the court challenge. And judging from his remarks during the case’s first hearing, he seemed to be an honest judge interested in doing what was right. Being a minister and man of God, how could we have expected any less from him? He indicated his intention to decide the case based on the will of the voters and that even if Cochran were elected in November he had the power to unseat him if he were not the legitimate nominee.
Truth be told, you’d be handing even the most even handed judge a tough job in finding in McDaniel’s favor if the opposition opened up with a claim that state law demanded a challenge be filed within 20 days and you’d not done it until more than twice that time had passed. Of course, this is another area where both Team McDaniel and some of his supporters around the country have disagreed. It seems that the law in question is worded in a way which could be interpreted as only applying to county election challenges. But the Cochran team immediately countered by citing a 1959 state supreme court decision arguing to the contrary.
The section of state law on county election challenges says the first step, filing a case with the party’s executive committee, must be done within 20 days of the election. A following section on statewide and district challenges does not contain the deadline language.
But the high court in its 1959 ruling on a Democratic district attorney primary said the code sections were part of a single act passed by the Legislature. It ruled that it would “be senseless” to assume that deadline, aimed to keep general elections on track, would not apply to races for all other offices.
The court said the two sections are “in pari materia,” which I believe is Latin for, look at the whole thing together, dummy.
Give how quickly the clock is running out and the lack of any substantive support in the courts thus far, it’s hard to see where McDaniel goes from here, short of finding a way to appeal directly to the US Supreme Court. And once there, it’s not entirely clear what the new argument would be or how Mississippi would proceed even if SCOTUS found in McDaniel’s favor. Would there be yet another election? And if so, they would have to determine who would be eligible to vote in it, given that the main crux of the argument at this stage is based on residents illegally voting in both the original Democrat primary and then a second time in the runoff. The other option is to simply declare McDaniel the winner absent another vote, but I’ve yet to find anyone citing a precedent in Mississippi for such a move.
McDaniel is supposed to make an announcement about the next steps – if any – next week. But it’s really looking like the available options may have been exhausted.
Bite them for stepping on us.
People keep thinking this is "spite." It's *SURVIVAL*. If the Tea Party doesn't draw some blood for this tactic, the Tea Party won't survive the next dozen times that they use this tactic.
The media is happy to keep repeating the claim that the Tea Party is racist. Now that the RNC is promulgating it as well, it will resonate and stick, and then it's bye bye Tea Party, and bye bye our last best hope of reigning in this out of control government.
Here we have a choice between losing a battle, and losing a war. If we let Cochran and McConnell get away with what they have done, we will have very likely lost the war.
A Traitor is of far higher priority than is an enemy.
If it were Nazi Pelosi, I would still advocate giving the seat to the enemy rather than letting those backstabbers have it. But fortunately the Democrat is not that horrible. Compared to some North Eastern Republicans, he's a down right conservative.
If you can chose which of two people get a seat, then you have power. If you cannot chose, then you are irrelevant.
If the Tea Party wants to be irrelevant, let the people who stole that seat from them, keep it.
Anything to take down Cochran and the gop at this point, i am for it!
Vote for the Republican. This will be Thad Cochran’s last term. Why do you want a Democrat in that maybe in for 20-30 years.
Staying home or voting Democrat show no spine and only hurts the main objective.
What is “the main objective”?
That’s how it looks from here... but Allison Grimes IS horrible. I’d rather the filthy turtle keep that seat.
We can afford to lose a House seat, and I’d love to see Ohio TEA turn out for Boehner’s opponent. THAT would be another message sent.... Cantor, Cochran, Boehner.
If Republicans want my vote, they can at least refrain from spitting on me and calling me a racist. Since they did not refrain, they obviously do not want my vote. I will not force myself on them.
‘If the Tea Party doesn’t draw some blood for this tactic, the Tea Party won’t survive the next dozen times that they use this tactic.’
Phrased a slightly different way: if the racist, underhanded, despicable, dishonest & nauseating tactics the GOPe used against McDaniel succeed, they will become the template. The GOPe will use the same game plan against any & every TEA party candidate they oppose in the future. The only way to end these filthy, vile, comtemptible tactics is for them to backfire big time. I.e.: Cochran needs to lose.
Do not let your fear speak for you. That is very unlikely to happen. The only reason a Democrat might take it this time is because of a "perfect storm" of backstabbing stupidity from the RINOS in power.
Staying home or voting Democrat show no spine and only hurts the main objective.
The "main objective" is to reign in this out of control government. Mitch McConnell and Thad Cochran have no intention of doing this. What they *DO* intend to do is backstab anyone who is actually interested in reigning in this out of control government.
Keeping Mitch McConnell and Thad Cochran *HURTS* the main objective. Getting rid of them advances it.
“And—before you flame—please explain to me what significant changes re Obama and the DIM agenda will take place if the Republicans capture the Senate.”
It puts Ted Cruz and Mike Lee in the majority. Think of what the two of them could do. It changes the entire dynamic of the senate.
If I lived there I couldn’t vote for Cochran, I would hate doing it and knowing the horrible cost, but you can’t just submit to every evil, sometimes you have to say that yeah, I do know the cost to myself, but I will not be participating with you, because you are asking for a level of submission that I won’t give.
One good thing that came out of this incident is that it helped to weaken the credibility of the GOP.
Yes, Allison Grimes is horrible, and that's why I don't think she would keep the seat by the next election. But I think the most important consideration is "Who Runs Barter Town".
We need to make them understand that *WE* run Barter Town.
We can afford to lose a House seat, and I’d love to see Ohio TEA turn out for Boehner’s opponent. THAT would be another message sent.... Cantor, Cochran, Boehner.
The NRA has gotten both a majority of Republicans and a Majority of Democrats to do what they want. They do so by throwing their weight to whichever side promises to do what they want, and they punish traitors ruthlessly. This is why both sides FEAR the NRA.
This is exactly what the Tea Party needs to do. It needs to make sure everyone understands that if one candidate tries to thwart us, he will get swatted. EVERY TIME.
Eventually we will win, just like the NRA always wins in the end.
“Vote for the Republican. This will be Thad Cochran’s last term. Why do you want a Democrat in that maybe in for 20-30 years.
Staying home or voting Democrat show no spine and only hurts the main objective.”
Since WE are NOT Republicans, I for one cannot see how voting for someone other than Cochran - only hurts the main objective. Our main objective is not Democrat lite A.K.A. Cochran / McDaniell
That is poetry. My thoughts, your words.
Good analogy.
if you are going to challenge your election defeat, don’t waste time doing it, don’t depend on their NOT being some deadline you need to meet, exceed any perceived deadline and avoid legal arguments that only by some deadline did you fail
it sounds like team McDaniel failed to do their homework
the sadder part of this failure is that the substance of the challenge never gets ITS day in court, which means McDaniel and his supporters can continue to feel he was robbed but only was prevented form showing it in court
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