Thad Cochran

By Staff Writer:

As the turmoil over the election season comes to a close, the battle between Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel seems to have finally been put to rest. The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in late October that McDaniel had missed the twenty day deadline to challenge the results of the primary runoff. However, as some conservative supporters were quick to point out, the Court never reached the merits of the case. McDaniel’s claims were dismissed based on court precedent, not black letter law, regarding timely filing. This lead some online news sources to question whether the law was properly applied or whether McDaniel might challenge Cochran’s seating in the Senate. However, despite the McDaniel campaign’s continued assertion that true justice has been denied, it appears that Thad Cochran will serve a seventh term as a U.S. Senator for Mississippi. [Read more…] about The Primary Problem

By Staff Writer:

Mississippi garnered unexpected national attention this summer as its system of open primary voting became a contributor to the wider debate of how best to fairly and legitimately select candidates and representatives. If you haven’t been paying attention, Mississippi’s long running Republican Senator, Thad Cochran, came very close to losing his seat to Tea Party Conservative Chris McDaniel in a rather ugly, tight primary race. In an effort to overcome his challenger in a runoff election, Cochran strategically capitalized on Mississippi’s use of open primary voting by asking traditionally Democratic voters to support him in the primary runoff against his far more conservative opponent. In a state where Democrats’ primary voters turned out in less than half the number of participants as the Republican primary, Cochran’s gambit to garner those as-yet uncast primary votes could be considered borderline tactical genius. McDaniel and his supporters are pretty sure, however, that it should be considered less than legal. [Read more…] about Mississippi’s Newfound Frustration With Open Primaries