One Tea Party primary I hope doesn't work: McDaniel v. Cochrane (MS)

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Normally, when the GOP crazies go on a RINO hunt, I'm ecstatic, because that kind of circular firing squad is why we still control the Senate (think "I'm not a witch anymore" and "legitimate rape" and the fact that Harry Reid was actually able to beat a Republican challenger). One of them worries me, though, and that's Chris McDaniel who's challenging Thad Cochrane for the Mississippi GOP primary. The problem here is that I think MS would actually elect him if he's nominated.

I grew up in Mississippi. I'm not going to sing some paean for Thad Cochrane as a misunderstood moderate (you see that in the press sometimes). He's a conservative Republican, but he's also 1: sane, and 2: for the most part a fairly decent guy (he's helped a lot of people in my family with government issues). I'm not going to go so far as to say he's not racist (he does vote GOP after all), but he doesn't attend neo-confederate rallies like McDaniel does.

Long story short, I'd rather Cochrane lose to a Democrat, even a blue dog (he was one for years anyways; he switched parties after Stennis died to avoid the D primary fight which was as bloody as he predicted), but the prospect of McDaniel going to the Senate is enough to make me hope the "GOP Establishment" can pull this one out for the primary.

[LuvNewcastle]

1. Trust me, Cochran has nothing to worry about.

Miss. depends on federal money to survive, as I'm sure you know. Thad has been bringing home the bacon for decades now, and people aren't about to throw him out now. Everyone will be sad when he decides to retire; he's done a lot of things for a lot of people, often personal things. Besides, we don't register by party in Miss., so a lot of Dems like me are going to vote in the Republican primary for Thad this time. McDaniel is going to get a beating, and he'd better not let his rhetoric against Cochran get out of control or he'll kill his chances for future races.

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3. What ever happened to Molpus? Or, hell, pull Mabus back from Navy

Or even Gene Taylor. There's got to be people we can run, you know?

(On that note: why do so many Mississippi politicians' names sound like hobbits? Molpus, Mabus, Bilbo...)

[LuvNewcastle]

4. For all intents and purposes, the Democratic Party is dead in Miss., or at least

it's in hibernation. The only Democrat we have left in a statewide office is Jim Hood, the AG. Both houses of the legislature were finally taken by the GOP in the last election. Of the three men you mentioned, only Gene Taylor has a chance, and that's only because people are so disenchanted with Steven Palazzo.

I've noticed the weird names of our politicians before, too. Alabama has some, too, like Fob James. Is that like a fob on a key chain? Thad's also kind of a weird name. I don't understand where these names come from.

But back to the political situation, you have to remember that Miss. was always a one-party state. Before the Republicans started getting elected, they were all Democrats; you had to be a Dem to win any kind of office. The last 40 years have just been a transitional period. We're headed for one-party rule by the GOP, I'm afraid. I think it's probably going to be this way for a long time unless we get a large amount of people moving in from other states, but that would only happen if some new industry started down here. For a lot of reasons, businesses don't like coming to Miss., even with all the cheap land and big tax breaks.

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5. That's a shame. I haven't lived there since the 90s. Every time I come back I'm amazed

at the development (I'm from the Golden Triangle, which may be doing better than the state as a whole). I mean, 82 and 25 are both divided highways now; that used to be a pipe dream. But looking at the election results I have to say I'm afraid you're right, sadly. And "unfortunately" there's still enough pent-up demand and labor that development can continue for a while without importing people from other states. (In quotes because the state still really needs a lot of it.)

Oh, another Southern politician / Hobbit: Saxby Chambliss. That really sounds like somebody Frodo would have met in the Shire.

[cali]

6. That is almost literally the opposite of what happened in Vermont

and that actually says quite a bit about the parties.

Vermont was the most republican state in the country for years. Vermont was the first state to outlaw slavery- in fact it outlawed slavery in its constitution while still an independent republic. In 1860 Vermonters voted for Lincoln by the largest margin in any state. In the civil war, it contributed more of its treasury and more of its population per capita than any other state and its losses reflected those numbers. Thus, a republican state was born.

Shortly after the Republican Party was founded in 1854, with its heavily anti-slavery views, the party became a dominant force in Vermont. In October 1854 Republican Steven Royce defeated incumbent Democratic governor John S. Robinson, Robinson would be the first and final Democratic Governor of Vermont for 108 years. In 1856 Vermont voted for the first Republican Presidential candidate, John C. Frémont. Frémont would lose the election however, to Democrat James Buchanan. In 1860 Vermont would again vote Republican this time for Abraham Lincoln, this time the newly formed Republican Party would win, and Lincoln became President. Vermont would continue to vote for Republican Presidential candidates for 27 consecutive Presidential elections from the first Republican candidate in 1856, until the 1964 Election when Lyndon B. Johnson won in a landslide victory. The fact that Vermont voted for the GOP in 27 straight Presidential elections is a record for any United States political party in one state. From 1968 until 1992 Vermont voted every election for the Republican candidate, giving Republicans candidates wins in 33 out of 34 elections in Vermont. In more recent years however the Democrats have made a resurgence, from 1992 through 2012 the Democratic candidate has carried Vermont all six times. The democrats are now the dominant party, holding every statewide office with the exception of Lieutenant Governor held by Republican Phil Scott. As of January 2013 there have been 53 Republican governors of Vermont, and 6 Democrats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_Republican_Party

Now embattled repubs in vermont are turning on one another:

They’ve descended to super-minority status in both the House and Senate, and lay claim to just one of Vermont’s six statewide offices.

By the numbers at least, the once-dominant Vermont Republicans have reached a new low in their years-long fall from grace. Their fight for the future, however, is being waged not with the Democrats that so embarrassed them in the last two election cycles, but among fellow Republicans vying against each other for control of the party’s organizational apparatus.

The emergence of two factions — one led by Vermont Republican Party Chairman Jack Lindley, the other by Lt. Gov. Phil Scott — has pitted the old-guard GOP against a cadre of upstart reformists looking to put some distance between themselves and the Republican National Committee.

As a group led by Scott pieces together a statewide re-branding strategy aimed at picking up the centrists and Independents he says have been turned off by the party in recent years, Lindley and others are beginning to push back against a plan that would, in Lindley’s words, “turn its back on the national party.”

<snip>

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20130417/NEWS03/704179908

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7. Interesting points

Mississippi still sends Democrats to the House, though, which strikes me as a difference: Bennie Thompson isn't going anywhere in any conceivable outcome, and Palazzo's and Nunnelly's seats are at least contemplatable for a pick-up. But then Vermont doesn't have the R equivalent of Mississippi's African American population as far as I know (maybe the Quebecois?)

[LuvNewcastle]

9. Thompson's the only real Democrat of the few that are left,

and he only has his seat because he's in a black majority district. He wouldn't even have that if the districts were drawn differently. The GOP would change that if they could, but federal courts would intervene if they tried it. If the judiciary keeps getting more conservative, however, they might be able to get away with it.

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12. I used to work for Sonny Montgomery way back in the day

He and Whitten were probably the bluest of the blue dogs, and there's no going back to that. For all his flaws, as a veteran I have to still love that man.

[LuvNewcastle]

8. And the statistics bear that out.

You look at any kind of survey about the states with rankings for poverty levels, education levels, infant mortality, crime, etc. Vermont is always at or near the top and Mississippi is always at or near the bottom. Miss. and Vermont are polar opposites in just about anything you can think of.

It's truly disheartening to live in a state like this. I've lived 44 years here and I hope to get out and spend the rest of my life somewhere else. I haven't had the money to do anything about it before now, but it looks like that might be changing soon. I've been fed up for a long, long time, and I just want to get on with the rest of my life now and forget all about this damn place.

[cali]

10. I can only imagine just how disheartening it is.

Good luck in finding a place where you can be more at home, politically and spiritually.

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11. My mom moved to NH. It actually reminds me of MS

I call it "Mississippi with rocks and snow". (People from the northeast sometimes don't understand how few rocks there are in Mississippi and how dramatic they look to us when we go up north.)

I hope you find a place you like; I can't preach about "stay and work for the state" because obviously I didn't. I remember an editorial cartoon when Payton Manning went wherever he went (TN? Vandy?) that had a border guard sleeping while scientists, engineers, and artists left the state, and waking up and saying "hey wait" as Payton did too.

I do love Mississippi, though. I'd like to see it made better. Maybe when I retire. But then people like me saying that is how we got where we are.

[cali]

2. I hear you. And that's not the only one

Who the hell here would want 2 teahole Senators from TX, or to replace Graham or Alexander with teaholes?