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Senate Conservatives Fund pours $1.7 million into three Southern Senate races
Anti-establishment group funds GOP primary insurgents in Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
Kentucky Senate challenger Matt Bevin
WASHINGTON (CFP) — The Senate Conservatives Fund is proving itself once again to be a signficant thorn in the side of the GOP establishment, announcing that it has poured more than $1.7 million into insurgent U.S. Senate campaigns in three Southern states.
The biggest recipient of the fund’s largesse has been Matt Bevin, a Louisville businessman challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky. He has received almost $986,000, counting both direct contributions and independent expenditures made on his behalf.
In Mississippi, State Senator Chris McDaniel, who is challenging the incumbent, Senator Thad Cochran, has received nearly $516,000. In Louisiana, Rob Maness, one of three Republicans seeking to oust Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, has received $241,000.
Maness, a retired Air Force colonel, is running against U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, who has GOP establishment support both in Washington and Louisiana.
In announcing the fund’s expenditures January 3, SCF Executive Director Matt Hoskins said “it shows how determined people are to elect true conservative leaders who will stand up to the big spenders in both parties.”
The SCF, founded in 2008 by former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, has drawn the ire of Republican leaders in Washington by backing primary challengers to sitting senators and supporting Tea Party-allied candidates against candidates considered more mainstream.
In the 2014 cycle, the fund has put a particular bullseye on McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate. However, despite nearly $1 million in fund support, McConnell still holds a huge fundraising advantage over Bevin, reporting nearly $10 million in cash on hand at the end of September.
Cochran, however, holds a much less formidable advantage over McDaniel, with a mere $800,000 on hand at the end of September. He didn’t announce that he was seeking re-election until early December.
In Louisiana, Cassidy had almost $3.5 million on hand at the end of September. McDaniel, who only entered the race in October, has not yet reported any fundraising figures to the Federal Elections Commission.
Louisiana U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu hit with new anti-Obamacare ad
Also, State Rep. Paul Hollis joins the race against Landrieu
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu
NEW ORLEANS (CFP) — An anti-Obamacare group is launching a multi-million dollar ad campaign criticizing U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu and two other Democratic senators over President Obama’s claim that everyone who had health insurance would be able to keep it.
Obama’s assertion was characterized as the “lie of the year” by Politifact, a nonpartisan group that monitors political claims.
The anti-Landrieu ad, funded by Americans for Prosperity, shows footage of her on the floor of the Senate stating that people can “keep their current plan.” It also shows an exchange between Landrieu and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in which she says she has no regrets about her vote in favor of Obamacare.
“We’re putting pressure on senators who repeated that lie and doubled down on Obamacare, even as it became obvious that the law was hurting millions of Americans,” said AFP President Tim Phillips in a statement
Meanwhile, Landrieu, who is running for her fourth term in the Senate, has drawn a third GOP challenger, State Rep. Paul Hollis of Covington, who has filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission and plans to make a formal announcement in January.
Two other Republicans are also running, U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy from Baton Rouge and Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel from Madisonville.
Cassidy is the favored candidate of much of the Republican leadership, both in Washington and Louisiana. Maness is aiming for Tea Party support by positioning himself as the only “constitutional conservative” in the race.
To drive home his criticism of Cassidy as being too much like the incumbent, Maness’s Web site shows pictures of Landrieu, Cassidy and himself, with the captions “Mary,” “Mary,” and “Quite Contrary.”
In Louisiana, all of the candidates, regardless of party, run against each other in a single primary. If no candidate gets a majority, then the top two candidates face each other in a runoff.
In 2008, when she faced a single Republican, Landrieu won without a runoff. But she was forced into runoffs in both 1996 and 2002, when there were multiple Republicans and other Democrats in the race.
Here is the Americans for Prosperity ad against Landrieu:
Southern Democrats support bill prohibiting anti-gay job discrimination
Senators Pryor, Landrieu and Hagan back controversial measure amid tough re-election campaigns
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics editor
WASHINGTON (CFP) – Senators from the South split along party lines on a pivotal vote to pass a bill extending workplace non-discrimination protection to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Americans.
U.S. Senator Mark Pryor
Among the senators voting in favor of the Employment Non-Discriminaton Act were three Southern Democrats facing tough re-election battes in 2014 — Senators Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Kay Hagan of North Carolina.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who is also facing a tough re-election battle in 2014, voted against ENDA, as the bill is known. His likely Democratic opponent, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, has come out in favor of ENDA.
The final tally in the on November 7 was 64-32. However, ENDA is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled House, where it will run into a wall of opposition from religious conservatives. House Speaker John Boehner opposes the measure, making it unclear if ENDA will even come up for a vote.
Of the Senate’s 53 Democrats, 52 – include seven from the South – voted for the bill, along with two independents. Ten Republicans also broke ranks to support ENDA, but that list included none of the 21 Republican senators representing Southern states.
Two GOP senators from the South did not cast a vote – Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, and Jeff Sessions of Alabama. However, Sessions opposed ENDA in a procedural vote earlier in the week that Coburn also skipped.
Other Southern Democrats voting yes were Bill Nelson of Florida; Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia; and Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Landrieu and Hagan have been long-time co-sponsors of ENDA. However, Pryor did not announce a position on the measure until a week before the vote, providing the Arkansas Times with confirmation through his press office but making no formal announcement on either his Senate or campaign Web sites.
Pryor is being challenged by GOP Rep. Tom Cotton, who has so far not reacted to Pryor’s decision to support ENDA.
Veteran Republican Senator Thad Cochran draws Tea Party challenger in Mississippi
State Senator Chris McDaniel is getting backing from national conservative groups
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics editor
ELLISVILLE, Mississippi (CFP) – Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran has drawn a Republican primary challenge from State Senator Chris McDaniel, a Tea Party favorite with backing from national conservative groups.
McDaniel, 41, in his second term in the State Senate, announced his bid to unseat Cochran in front of a hometown crowd in Ellisville on October 17.
Mississippi State Senator Chris McDaniel
“I’ve been told that the powers that be are going to come after me with everything they’ve got,” McDaniel said. “Take names when they come, because they’re not after me, they’re after the people.”
“The idea that I would let a spirit of fear keep me away from this race is absurd,” he said.
McDaniel has been endorsed by both the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund, which have been critical of Cochran for being, in their view, insufficiently conservative. Chief among Cochran’s sins: His recent vote in favor of the compromise legislation that restarted the government.
U.S. Senator Thad Cochran
Cochran, 75, is the most senior Republican in the Senate and was a former chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. He has not announced if he will run for a seventh term in 2014, but he has salted away more than $700,000 for a potential race.
The winner of the GOP primary would be a prohibitive favorite in the general election, given Mississippi’s strong Republican tendencies.
Cochran is the third Southern Republican senator to face a Tea Party-inspired challenge. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is facing three foes in that state’s GOP primary, and Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is being challenged by Louisville businessman Matt Bevin, who has also claimed the Tea Party mantle and was recently endorsed by the Senate Conservatives Fund.
GOP challenger Tom Cotton fires first salvo against Mark Pryor in Arkansas Senate race
Cotton puts up attack ad going after Pryor over Obamacare’s special exemptions for congressional staffers
(See ad below)
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (CFP) — The first attack ad of the 2014 Arkansas Senate race features an goose frolicking around the Capitol, coupled with a very prominent coupling of President Obama with incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor.
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, who is seeking Pryor’s seat, began airing an ad this week entitled “What’s Good for the Goose” that links Senator Pryor’s 2009 vote in favor of Obamacare to the administration’s decision to exempt congressional staffers from getting coverage under the new health care law.
The ad features text saying that Pryor “voted to make you live under Obamacare,” then mentions the exemption, which it terms “special subsidies for Mark Pryor.” It ends with the tagline, “Pryor with Obama, voting against Arkansans,” under side-by-side pictures of the senator and president.
In a statement, Pryor’s campaign dismissed Cotton’s broadside as “frivolous and false.” But the senator has so far not aired a rebuttal ad.
Pryor did vote for Obamacare. However, the exemption that keeps congressional staffers from being forced into the new health care exchanges was initiated by the Obama administration, not Congress, although lawmakers lobbied for the change.
Republicans in the House, including Cotton, have been trying to overturn the administration’s decision with legislation. The Democratic leadership in the Senate has refused to bring up the measure for a vote.
Cotton’s new ad comes amid the government shutdown. House Republicans, with his support, have tied a funding measure to repeal or delay of Obamacare. But over in the Senate, Pryor and the rest of the Democratic caucus have refused to go along.
Pryor’s campaign has blasted Cotton for what it called his “irresponsible cheerleading” for the shutdown.
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