A future Arlen Specter.
Via AZ Daily Sun
Six-term Republican Sen. Thad Cochran is trying to survive an intense tea party challenge in Mississippi by reaching out to union members and black voters — two groups that traditionally support Democrats. But he risks a backlash from conservatives ready to support his opponent, state Sen. Chris McDaniel.
Cochran is running TV ads aimed at conservatives by saying he’s the only candidate who has “voted against Obamacare more than 100 times.” And the former Senate Appropriations Committee chairman is traveling the state to remind people that he has brought home billions of federal dollars for projects that transcend party lines. He cites such projects as disaster relief, agriculture and nutrition programs, public education, military installations and highways. Cochran says McDaniel, who pledges to slash spending, could put those at risk.
“My opponent says he’s not going to spend money like I spend money,” Cochran told diesel mechanics last week at a trucking center in Richland. “Well, you’re not going to have any roads and bridges. You’re not going to going to have a lot of things that are essential to our economic betterment and growth opportunities…. Just a word of warning if you’re thinking about voting for my opponent, you need to know that.”
After the shocking ouster of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Virginia last week, tea party groups are energized for the next test of their clout: A June 24 runoff between Cochran and McDaniel, neither of whom won the GOP nomination outright in Mississippi’s June 3 primary. McDaniel finished 1,418 votes ahead of Cochran in the three-person contest but fell short of the majority needed to win.
McDaniel’s message: Cochran has piled up a huge federal debt and done little to resist President Barack Obama’s policy initiatives, including the health care overhaul.
“He is pandering to liberal Democrats to save his Senate seat,” McDaniel said Saturday after a campaign stop in the Jackson suburb of Pearl. “It’s a sign of desperation.”
The Bradenton Herald continues to carry his water to keep the pork rolling into Mississippi.
Sen. Thad Cochran came here Monday to make two emphatic points: He’s had it with the mudslinging, and he’s got support among voters born after he took office.
The veteran Mississippi Republican, first elected to the House of Representatives in 1972 and to the Senate six years later, made an unusual campaign appearance in a Union Station meeting room. He spoke from a podium, instead of his usual meet-and-greet style, and had some sharp words for his rival in the June 24 Senate runoff election, State Sen. Chris McDaniel.