Sen. Thad Cochran Gears Up for GOP Old Guard vs. Tea Party Contest

[Purveyor]

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said today he intends to seek re-election in 2014, setting up one of the biggest Republican primaries pitting the establishment vs. the tea party in the country next year.

“Our nation and the State of Mississippi continue to face many challenges and opportunities. We must work to defend our national security interests, roll back burdensome policies like Obamacare, continue the fight to reduce our national debt and create opportunities for more jobs and economic growth,” Cochran said in a statement today. “I will run for re-election to the United States Senate. I will run hard and be successful so that I can continue to serve the people of Mississippi and our nation effectively.”

Cochran, who turns 76 this weekend, will run to secure his seventh term in the Senate, but he enters a race against Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who has picked up the endorsement of several national tea party-leaning groups.

Mississippi is a solidly red state, but the race between a nearly 36-year veteran of the Senate and the tea party-backed newcomer will become one of the most closely watched Republican races in the country.

McDaniel, 41, entered the race in October and quickly was endorsed by the Senate Conservatives Fund and Club for Growth, who reiterated its support for McDaniel today.

more...

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/12/sen-thad-cochran-gears-up-for-gop-old-guard-vs-tea-party-contest/

[AlinPA]

1. Would it matter which one is elected?

[Rowdyboy]

2. Sadly it would. Thad may be conservative but at least he isn't a far-right ideologue

His "tea-bagging" opponent is a member of one of the seriously deranged far-right states rights organizations and a rank hypocrite to boot. Cochran is more of a traditional establishment Republican in the mold of Dick Lugar. While I don't care enough to lower myself into voting in the Republican primary I'd prefer Cochran win just because he can occasionally be reasoned with. McDaniel would be another Vitter or Paul.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. If it's true that no Democrat has any chance to win a Senate seat in your state

then I don't think it would be lowering yourself to vote in the Republican primary. It could well be, under prevailing circumstances, your one and only real chance to have any say whatsoever in how you are represented in Washington. Of course you would still no doubt vote Democratic in the general election regardless.

[Rowdyboy]

4. Honest to God I've tried in the past but I just can't force myself to vote in a Republican primary

I know that some people can easily but in 40 years of voting no matter how stark the alternatives I've never been able to bring myself to tell a poll worker to give me a Republican primary ballot. It goes against the grain of everything I believe in. I couldn't even do it in 2012 when Obama was a lock and the Republican clown-car primary would have been a hoot to mess with, or in 1996 when Clinton's re-election gave me the same opportunity.

My partner is the same way. We're Democrats, through and through, for better or worse. Other than a couple of local judges that I know personally I've only voted for one Republican since 1972. In the 1975 general election governors race I voted for Gil Carmichael in one of those rare cases where the Republican was the more progressive of the two nominees.

I just can't do it. Thad's on his own.

on edit: I have no problem voting for whatever sacrificial lamb the Democrats nominate unless he or she is a real jackass like John Arthur Eaves, the 2007 Democratic nominee for governor. That year I voted 3rd party in pure protest.

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. Well I can understand that too

Thanks for fighting the good fight under such trying circumstances.