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5/28/14, "‘McDanielmentum’: Haley Barbour’s Brother Endorses McDaniel, MS GOP Softens Tone," Breitbart, Matthew Boyle
"Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s brother Jeppie Barbour, the
father of powerful political operatives Henry and Austin Barbour,
endorsed state Sen. Chris McDaniel in the GOP Senate primary over
longtime incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS).
“I am for McDaniel because Congress spends too much money and Thad Cochran is right in the
middle of spending and borrowing money,” Jeppie Barbour told Breitbart
News in a phone interview on Wednesday.
“I resent my grandchildren having to pay for these politicians to party. I am ready for a change,” he added.
Jeppie's
son Henry Barbour is running the pro-Cochran Super PAC “Mississippi
Conservatives,” while his other son Austin Barbour is a senior adviser
to Cochran’s campaign. Though Jeppie has a lower profile than his
brother and sons, he still bears the family name—and has been a GOP
political insider in Mississippi for years.
A McDaniel
endorsement from the heart of Barbour's political empire is one of
several signs the GOP Establishment here is awakening to the fact that
McDaniel just might pull off his primary challenge of Cochran.
Late
Tuesday in Southaven, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) told a GOP audience
he’ll back whoever wins the GOP nomination—noting that McDaniel might
beat Cochran, who Wicker endorsed.
On Wednesday morning,
Mississippi GOP chairman Joe Nosef—an acolyte of Haley Barbour’s who has
officially stayed neutral but has drawn ire of Tea Partiers who suspect
him of backing Cochran—said he’ll endorse and support whoever wins the
nomination too, even if it’s McDaniel.
“As I have said repeatedly since this Senate primary began, the main
focus of the Mississippi Republican Party is to ensure that our eventual
Republican nominee is victorious in November,” Nosef said in an email
to Breitbart News. “We are determined to keep this seat in Republican
hands and hopefully have a Republican majority in the United States
Senate.”
Slate's Dave Weigel tweeted
“#McDanielmentum.” Though he took a major hit when a crazed blogger
took a photo of Cochran's ailing wife at a retirement home, leading to
several arrests, there's a sense here that he's coming out of the worst
part of the episode as the race heads into its final stretch.
“You know there’s nothing they can do about this—they can put attack
ads on TV, they can put distractions out there, but it’s your seat,”
McDaniel told a crowd of about 50 here early Wednesday afternoon. “It’s
always been your seat. They want Washington to control it. They want the
insiders to select it. They want back room deals to fortify it. But
it’s the people’s seat and we’re awake now.”
The Olive Branch, MS, McDaniel supporters lined a sidewalk on both
sides to create an aisle for him to walk to the stage when his bus
rolled in. “McDaniel For Senate” signs stuck out of the ground
everywhere around the rally outside city hall, and one man even put
campaign stickers on his both sides of his big yellow labrador.
Cochran has been campaigning on all that he's done for Mississippi
over the decades, including steering millions of federal government
dollars to the state after Hurricane Katrina. His supporters note that
given his seniority, Cochran could continue to bring home the bacon as a
senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“He has worked hard in the state to make sure Mississippi got its fair share,” Haley Barbour told CNN. McDaniel supporters vehemently reject the argument.
“He’d be able to make a difference if he went in there and made an
effort,” Jeppie Barbour said. “And we may send him some help in two
years. But their argument about seniority doesn’t hold up when you
listen to all of the rumors that Thad’s gonna quit in two years. I’m not
much impressed with what ‘seniority’ has done for us anyway.”
McDaniel campaign manager and state Sen. Melanie Sojourner of
Natchez, MS, challenged the Cochran camp’s seniority argument during her
own speech at Olive Branch’s City Hall.
“As we go forward, the one thing that our opponent’s camp keeps
trying to convince you is that we can’t give up his [Cochran’s]
seniority,” Sojourner said. “But as a freshman coming in [to the state
senate], you guys remember when Gov. Haley Barbour led the eminent
domain charge to take your private property. Chris (McDaniel) led that fight. They
beat him [Barbour] on the floor, then he vetoed it. It came back and
they had him [Barbour] beat again, but they purchased a few block grants
overnight and the veto prevailed. Chris said ‘I’m sorry, this is not
what the people want. We’re going to fight you.’ We ended up with a
referendum on the ballot a few years ago—you guys remember that. The
people of this state spoke by over 80 percent. He [McDaniel] led the
charge, as a freshman.”
Jeppie Barbour said his sons and brother “are not happy about” his support of McDaniel, “but I’m right.”
“I think if Chris wins, there will be a parade [of GOP support behind
him],” Barbour said. “I think the thing that makes a difference to me
is his attitude about spending is different [than Cochran’s]. I just
know we need a man in Washington who will not throw our money away.”
The Jeppie Barbour endorsement comes as former Alaska Gov. Sarah
Palin taped a radio ad for McDaniel, airing statewide. The Club For
Growth also made more television and radio ad buys in Mississippi,
something that’s happening all while Cochran has misstepped with local
and national media. Cochran went to extraordinary lengths—pulling a
“bait-and-switch” with two different vehicles—to avoid a CNN interview
and is thus far declining to sit down with the Jackson Clarion-Ledger
for an editorial board interview.
“He’s been running away from Mississippi voters for years,” McDaniel
responded to Cochran’s media problems in a brief interview with
Breitbart News in Olive Branch. “He owes us a debate. He owes the people
of Mississippi answers to questions about his record. What he should be
doing is talking to those cameras not running from them.”
Jeppie Barbour added that while this campaign “is plenty bitter,
we’ve had worse,” and he pinned the source of the negativity on Cochran.
“I think the Cochran camp took a poll and they realized they had to
do something—and now we’ve got the Clarion-Ledger carrying water for
him,” Barbour said, noting however that “by now, everybody [on both
sides] is bitter.”
The Cochran campaign is continuing to utilize the arrest of blogger
Clayton Kelly and three Tea Party activists over the alleged
photographing of Cochran’s bedridden wife Rose Cochran. Cochran’s
campaign is out with new advertisements tying the issue to McDaniel.
Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest told a reporter last
week that he does not believe anyone in McDaniel's campaign was involved
in the incident. Tea Party leader John Mary, who was arrested and has
been described by Guest as at the center of a “conspiracy” to take the
photo of Rose Cochran, worked at a radio station McDaniel had also
worked at. When McDaniel's campaign learned about a video featuring a
photo of Rose Cochran in her residence, Sojourner told aides if anyone
had been involved they would be fired, according to an email reviewed by
Breitbart News.
While some on Cochran’s team have stated they’ll endorse McDaniel if
he wins, Jeppie Barbour’s not having any of that the other way around.
“I will never vote for Thad Cochran again,” he said. “After 50 years
wasted helping build the Republican Party, I’ll never do anything for
the Party again until they get their ducks in a row. I don’t like the
way it’s going and I’m not going to kiss and make up.”"
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