By Sean Sullivan,
The tea party movement on Tuesday eyed perhaps its last best chance this year to vote out a longtime Republican senator in favor of one of its own as ballots were cast in the nasty, expensive primary between Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.) and insurgent challenger Chris McDaniel.
Cochran entered the day at risk of becoming the first U.S. senator to be dislodged this year, with polls showing a very close contest. The more than $12 million campaign tested the might of two starkly different Republicans split along generational and ideological lines.
Their showdown came as other tea party challengers fizzled against more moderate GOP senators. The result, some Republicans said, was a coalition of national tea party groups itching for a victory.
"They really want a McDaniel win because they want a head on the mantle," party strategist Ford O'Connell said. Tea party groups "need to be able to raise money" to stay afloat, he added, "and to raise money, you have to show results."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his top lieutenant, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), cruised past tea party challengers earlier this year. The competition against Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) has stumbled ahead of upcoming elections.
Mississippi was one of eight states that held primaries Tuesday. Senate Republicans also were watching Iowa, where state Sen. Joni Ernst entered the day on the cusp of winning the party's nomination outright in a key open race.
Unlike in Mississippi, tea party and establishment forces were united behind Ernst, who was backed by former governors Sarah Palin of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Ernst was hoping to win more than 35 percent of the vote to claim the nomination without having to endure a state convention battle later this month. Pre-election polls showed her hovering around that mark.
Conservative groups, including the antitax Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund, together spent more than $5 million for McDaniel, according to a Sunlight Foundation tally, compared with $2.8 million from pro-Cochran forces. The heavy spending leveled the playing field for McDaniel, who was outspent 3 to 1 by Cochran.
Both sides faced the prospect of a June 24 runoff, as long-shot candidate Thomas Carey threatened to keep either one from winning a majority of the vote.
Cochran, 76, is in his sixth term. In 1978, he became the first Republican elected to the chamber from Mississippi since Reconstruction.
His traditional Republican style drew the ire of tea party groups, which castigated the senator for voting to raise the federal debt ceiling and avidly earmarking federal money.
Cochran defended his record. But despite calls from McDaniel for a face-to-face debate, he never agreed to one.
McDaniel, 41, is running as a constitutional conservative committed to reining in spending and opposing the federal health-care law. But he has made controversial comments that have raised GOP fears that he could put a safely Republican seat at risk in the general election against former congressman Travis Childers, a capable Democratic recruit.
McDaniel has wavered on Hurricane Katrina relief and blamed hip-hop culture for gun violence in Canada. Some Republican strategists fear such remarks could alienate centrists.
"He'll immediately have to figure out a way to appeal to mainstream voters and beat back the partisan attacks by the other side," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean, referring to conservative candidates who imploded in recent years. "Hopefully he will have learned the lessons of why Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock and Sharron Angle failed."
McDaniel supporters say he would give the Senate GOP a much-needed shot in the arm.
"The reason Republicans lost the majority is because they had a do-nothing Senate. And Thad Cochran was one of those do-nothing senators," said L. Brent Bozell III, whose group, ForAmerica, spent money on McDaniel.
The Cochran-McDaniel race grew deeply personal in the final weeks after a pro-McDaniel blogger was arrested for allegedly filming Cochran's bedridden wife and posted at least one image in an online video. Cochran's wife has dementia and lives in a nursing home.
McDaniel and his campaign insisted that they played no part in the episode. But Cochran's campaign suggested that the challenger's team knew more than it let on.
Cochran relied on Mississippi Republicans such as Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves to campaign with him on the eve of the election. McDaniel campaigned with national conservative figures Palin and former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) in the final days.
Voters in Alabama, California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota also went to the polls Tuesday. California's all-party primary, in which the top two candidates advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation, put Democrats at risk of being eliminated early in a left-leaning congressional district for the second straight election cycle.
The potential for a vote split in the 31st District between Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar, lawyer Eloise Gomez Reyes and former congressman Joe Baca made Democrats nervous that two Republicans would advance to a November showdown. President Obama won 57 percent of vote there in 2012.
At the top of the California ticket, former U.S. Treasury aide Neel Kashkari, a moderate Republican, was battling tea-party-aligned Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R) for a chance to take on Gov. Jerry Brown (D).
House Republican strategists were watching contested GOP primaries in the seats being vacated by Reps. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) and Jon Runyan (R-N.J.). Democrats plan to contest both seats in November.
Source : http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tea-party-hoping-to-oust-longtime-sen-cochran-in-mississippi-republican-primary/2014/06/03/374f6ab4-eb2f-11e3-93d2-edd4be1f5d9e_story.html
