JACKSON, Miss.–The Senate seat held by Sen. Thad Cochran seems more like a golden trophy than a job less than one week away from the GOP run-off between Cochran and state Sen. Chris McDaniel. This week both candidates picked up new endorsements and launched new ads, but there’s an accusation against the Cochran camp that a PAC is recruiting Democrat votes.
And you may ask why that would be of concern. In Mississippi, if you voted for a Democrat candidate in the primary, you cannot vote in the Republican run-off.
The concern is that encouraging members of the black community to vote in the run-off may recruit voters who have already voted Democrat, thus encouraging illegal votes.
This week, Ricky Cole, chairman of the Miss. Democratic Party, discussed the situation with talk show host Laura Ingraham.
“I learned the other day that the Cochran campaign, through this independent pact that Haley Barbour set up, has been paying at least one field operative to work to get out the vote in the African American community in and around Jackson,” he said. ” So I let it be known that this was happening, and it got some press coverage yesterday.”
The accusation is that a local activist, James “Scooby Doo” Warren, was using the money to recruit African-American preachers to encourage congregants to vote for Cochran, who has been accused of having a less-than-stellar record for a conservative.
“Frankly I think that it’s quite a reach for the Cochran campaign to try to reach into the African American community and reach for our base to come into the Republican primary. It’s comparable to a Democrat being in a tight race and reaching out to the Tea Party to come save him in the Democratic primary.”
Here’s the clip…
Meanwhile, Ingraham endorsed McDaniel, saying Cochran, at his age, should get out of politics.
“He’s a gentleman. He’s a nice man. But, that’s not enough. You can be a classy southern individual and you still might just want to find another line of work or do something else for a while. Who wants to be in politics at that age anyway?” said Ingraham.
But, Cochran’s campaign picked up the endorsement of Mississippian and former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, with a new ad Wednesday.
Gov. Phil Bryant also launched a new ad in support of Cochran, who has picked up endorsements from almost every state elected Republican official.
“Let us honor Thad Cochran’s service as a veteran and for the good job he’s doing serving Mississippi now,” said Bryant, who has been campaigning actively for the Senator. “I’m voting for Thad Cochran, and I hope you will, too.”
The run-off election is Tuesday, June 24.
