A Time for Choosing – by Gary P. Jackson
If you’ve been following the June 24th run-off election between worthless crapweasel Thad Cochran, who has been in the Senate for over 40 years, and Mississippi State Senator, and Tea Party favorite, Chris McDaniel, you know the kind of greasy, lying, racist, hate campaign was run by Team Cochran.
You know that Cochran ran ads aimed at black democrats in Mississippi claiming if McDaniel and the Tea Party won, they’d take away black people’s right to vote. They accused McDaniel of being associated with the KKK [a group created and supported by the democrat party] and much more.
You also know thanks to Cochran’s actions that democrats in mostly black precincts vote in huge numbers in the election. Something the Cochran campaign, and national Republican leaders have celebrated as a great “outreach” effort.
You should know, and understand, that in Mississippi, like other states, it’s against the law to vote in one party’s primary, and then the other party’s run-off, in the same election cycle. Mississippi, like Texas, doesn’t require voters to register party affiliation. What Mississippi does do is keep very good record of who votes in each election. Not how they voted, just that they voted, and during primary season, which party’s ballot they cast.
To ensure there are no cross over votes, Mississippi has a very simple system. Election officials in the democrat and Republican parties swap their voter books that show who voted. In a matter of minutes on election days, poll workers can cross check voter rolls to make certain no one illegally votes in an election. This is a long standing tradition that is simple, and makes good sense.
Democrat party officials in Hinds County have said that Republican Party Chairman Pete Perry, a Cochran ally, asked them to help steal the election by not making the democrat voter rolls from the June 3rd election available. These democrats have also said that, in fact, for much of election day, the books were indeed NOT made available for poll workers to cross check for illegal votes. It’s alleged that this went on in every strong democrat voting precinct.
So far, with only half of the precincts checked, over 4000 illegal votes have been found. Votes cast by individuals who voted in both the June 3 democrat primary and the June 24th Republican run-off election. At this rate, McDaniel should have more than enough “irregularities” as they are called, to either overturn the results of the June 24th election, or demand a brand new election.
On Thursday Jeffrey Lord who writes for the American Spectator wrote an article that named names, exposing top Republicans and democrats who helped fund Cochran’s racist ads against McDaniel and the Tea Party. Within a short time after the article was published, it disappeared without any explanation whatsoever!
Jeffrey Lord worked for President Ronald Reagan and has written for theSpectator for years. I don’t always agree with his opinions, but his fact gathering is pretty much unimpeachable.
Speculation abounds as to why the article was disappeared. Did Cochran threaten to sue? Maybe. They threatened to sue Charles C Johnson, the incredible journalist who has been exposing the whole lot of them down in Mississippi. I’m told Johnson told the Cochran campaign to “bring it!” It’s been alleged that pressure came from GOP leadership to yank the article, though there is no proof of this.
One thing for certain is someone is trying to hide the identities of the co-conspirators involved with Cochran.
The article itself isn’t particularly inflammatory or provocative. [unless you consider exposing the names of those who finance hate inflammatory or provocative]
Several groups were able to get screen grabs of the article and have republished it in it’s entirety, minus original hyperlinks. [No worries, that’s what Bing is for!] As the Spectator has chosen to reject the article, and in the public interest, we are, under the Fair Use rules, publishing the article in it’s entirety:
[emphasis mine]
Donor Controversy Hits Mississippi Conservatives
July 3, 2014 – Jeffery Lord
As the curtain is pulled up on all the shenanigans involved in one way or another with last week’s Mississippi GOP Senate primary, the cast of characters amazes.
At the story’s center is a group calling itself Mississippi Conservatives. The group is on the receiving end of furious charges of race-baiting and racism that have smeared not only Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel but the larger GOP and the GOP Establishment that participated in the smear. We’ve been through the names of contributors over there at the Federal Election Commission, and looked into some of those involved.
The still unfolding story involves everyone from a contributor to President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Vice President Joe Biden to former Vice President Al Gore and Democrat Senators that are being targeted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the 2014 elections.
Also involved? Two-co-authors of Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus’s “autopsy report” — aka the Growth and Opportunity Project — that made much of outreach to African-Americans. One of them an RNC member, the other a former top aide to Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
Let’s start there with the autopsy report authors.
Henry Barbour is the Republican National Committeeman from Mississippi. (Henry Barbour is the nephew of ex-Governor Haley Barbour, who founded the Mississippi Conservatives PAC and is, full disclosure, a former Reagan White House colleague of mine.)
Sally Bradshaw (who was a Reagan White House intern while I was in the Political Office) served as the chief of staff to Jeb Bushwhile he was serving as Governor of Florida and managed two of his three gubernatorial bids. Bradshaw’s relation to Jeb Bush has been described inPolitico as follows:
Bradshaw is Jeb Bush’s chief “executor,” as one person close to Bush described her; while not his “brain,” she’s the closest parallel to a Karl Rove that the former Florida governor has.”
Bradshaw and Barbour also have something in common. Two something else’s.
Both are involved with the Mississippi Conservatives PAC, which has drawn hot accusations of racism in the wake of the Mississippi Senate GOP run-off between six-term Establishment GOP Senator Thad Cochran and his Tea Party opponent, Chris McDaniel. Barbour is chairman of the group. Bradshaw is a $1,000 contributor.
And both are co-authors of RNC Chairman Priebus’s widely publicized “autopsy report” (aka “The Growth and Opportunity Project”) on what went wrong with the GOP during the 2012 election cycle. In which report it is said that the GOP must “communicate directly with African-Americans” and “embark on a year round effort to engage with African-American voters.” The irony, of course, is that “engage with African-Americans ” is exactly what Barbour and Bradshaw’s Mississippi Conservative’s PAC group did — resulting in a plethora of accusations across the conservative universe that the group was guilty of race-baiting if not out-and-out racism. As here, for example, over at the Gateway Pundit where the robocalls paid for by the group are described as “racist robocalls.” And here, in this piece by John Fund over at National Review titled “Remember Mississippi.”
The London Daily Mail Online has connected money from Mississippi Conservatives to the funding of what one radio station manager in the state described as “some of the worst race-baiting ads I’ve ever seen in this business. Really bad stuff.”
Reports Mail Online:
A series of three racially charged radio ads that ran in rural Mississippi on Election Day played a role in driving black Democrats to vote in a Republican primary run-off election. MailOnline has exclusively obtained audio of the ads.
They were broadcast 48 times in a 12-hour period Tuesday on WMGO-AM radio in the town of Canton, and urged black Mississippians to cross party lines and support GOP Sen. Thad Cochran in his smash-mouth contest against tea party insurgent Chris McDaniel.
Each carried a required acknowledgement stating that it was “paid for by Citizens for Progress.” Clerks at the office of Mississippi’s secretary of state told MailOnline that no such group is registered there as a political committee.
The Federal Election Commission also lacks any registration from a group with that name.
Politics in America’s Deep South is historically a full-contact sport replete with its own tradition of dirty tricks, but the radio ads indicate a level of race-baiting that is rarely seen in twenty-first century U.S. politics.…
MailOnline has learned that “Citizens for Progress” is tied to a longtime Democratic political operative who was paid $44,000 to run racially explosive “robocalls” in the same race.
A political action committee founded by former Republican National Committee chair and former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour made those payments.
That committee, of course, is Mississippi Conservatives.
Mail Online identifies the go-to for all of this as Mitzi Bickers, a left-wing political activist from Atlanta. It also quotes Henry Barbour as having “denied any knowledge of the three radio ads” but in fact acknowledging that“We hired Mitzi Bickers to do paid phones,” he said Friday via email. “If she had something to do with radio ads, I am unaware of it and was not involved with radio ads in Canton.”
Ah, the non-denial denial.
National Review’s Eliana Johnson has profiled the left-wing Democrat the group hired to do its racial dirty work in a piece titled “Meet Mitzi Bickers: A scandal-plagued Democratic operative worked the black vote for Cochran.”
Barbour and Bradshaw are hardly alone in this. Bush-ally Bradshaw may be one of the most prominent people financially supporting Mississippi Conservatives PAC, but her $1,000 contribution puts her far from the deep-pocketed contributors in the group who double as financial supporters for everyone from campaigns for Obama and Clinton to Senate campaigns for incumbent Democrats targeted by the GOP. Plus being donors to the national Establishment GOP’s various political committees. Among others — including the PAC’s founder, former RNC Chair and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour — they include this partial list, courtesy of the FEC and Open Secrets:
Robert Day of TCW, Inc. in Los Angeles gave $25,000 to Mississippi Conservatives — as well as contributing to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ($7500), plus $10,000 to the DCCC. He is also a contributor to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama as well as the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Al Gore and the Senate campaigns of Clinton and Joe Biden. He is a contributor to the RNC, NRSC, and NRCCC.
James Creekmore of Telapex, a Mississippi telecommunications holding company, gave $15,000 to Mississippi Conservatives, the last $5,000 two weeks before the June 3rd first primary election as McDaniel was gaining on Cochran. In addition to Mississippi Conservatives, Creekmore is a frequent donor to the RNC, the NRSC and his own Telapex PAC. Telapex PAC in turn donates its money to US Senator Ed Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat, and Senator Mark Pryor, the Arkansas Democrat who is in a Senate race re-election race against GOP Congressman Tom Cotton that is a prime GOP target.
Crest Investment of Houston, Texas gave Mississippi Conservatives $25,000. The chairman of Crest is Jamal Daniel. Daniel personally is listed by the FEC as a contributor to the RNC, NRSC, and NRCCC. He has also contributed to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ($7,600) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ($7,600).Larry Mizel of MDC Holdings in Colorado is a $10,000 contributor to Mississippi Conservatives. He has contributed over $100,000 to Rove’s American Crossroads and is also a repeated donor to Senator Michael Bennet, the Colorado Democrat.
Richard Wax: In addition to a $50,000 contribution to Mississippi Conservatives, Wax has given $50,000 to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and is a repeated donor to the campaigns of ex-Congressman Travis Childers, the Mississippi Democrat who is now running against Thad Cochran for the Mississippi Senate seat. Wax is also a repeated donor to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the lowest amount being just over $28,000.
John Dane III of Trinity Yachts is both a donor to Mississippi Conservatives ($2,000) and Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu,whose Senate re-election campaign is a key GOP target.
Wade Creekmore, brother of James, is likewise a contributor to Mississippi Conservatives and the Telapex PAC. The first contributing to Thad Cochran, the second to the campaigns of key Senate Democrats Markey and Pryor.
Warren Stephens, the Arkansas businessman, twice gave Mississippi Conservatives a large donation. First in February with $25,000 and then, according to FEC records, another $50,000 on May 28 — just days before the June 3rd first round of the Mississippi Senate primary that Cochran would lose to Chris McDaniel. Stephens is also a large contributor to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, the NRSC, the NRCCC, and the RNC.
Joe Sanderson of Sanderson Farms gave $100,000 to Mississippi Conservatives twice, most recently on May 22, days before the June 3 primary in which Cochran was trailing McDaniel.Sanderson is a repeated contributor to the RNC, NRSC and the NRCCC.
James L. Barksdale gave $25,000 to Mississippi Conservatives and $25,000 to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads. He is also an RNC and NRCCC contributor.
Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana is listed as a contributor of both Mississippi Conservatives ($25,000) and American Crossroads ($25,000). Donald Bollinger, the company’s CEO, is also a frequent RNC, NRSC and NRSCC contributor.
Ergon is a “petroleum related enterprises” company in Jackson, Mississippi, run by the family of founder Leslie Lampton. It is listed as giving $25,000 to Mississippi Conservatives, with various Lampton family members listed as donors to the RNC,NRSC and NRSCC.
Howard Leach of Leach Capital LLC in New York was $25,000 contributor to Mississippi Conservatives in March. On June 2, the day before Cochran would lose in the first-round GOP primary, Leach donated another $25,000. He is also a $100,000 contributor to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, as well as a contributor to the RNC, the NRSC, and the NRCCC.
William Mounger, the Mississippi businessman is a contributor to the NRSC, the NRCCC, and the RNC as well as giving $25,000 to Mississippi Conservatives.
Tellus Operating Group, an oil and gas company, is listed as a $15,000 donor to Mississippi Conservatives, with manager Richard H. Mills, Jr. having donated $5,000 to the NRCCC.Mike Retzer, who gave $10,000 to Mississippi Conservatives, is listed as a “restaurant owner.” In fact, Retzer is a former Bush 43 Ambassador to Tanzania, treasurer of the RNC and RNC member for Mississippi, also serving as state party chairman.
There are more names, but the gist of all this is coming clear.
Mississippi Conservatives, headed by GOP autopsy report co-authorHenry Barbour with fellow co-author and Jeb Bush confidante Sally Bradshaw a contributor, has made itself synonymous with a reputation for race-baiting/racism. Hardly the reputation that Priebus was looking to achieve for the GOP in his Barbour/Bradshaw co-authored report. The splatter from this has even touched Jeb Bush, who, at least as can be discovered, had no connection to the group beyond that the fact that an aide identified as “Jeb Bush’s Karl Rove” gave $1,000 to the group — after helping to write an RNC report that was billed as outreach to African-Americans.
The money that flowed into Mississippi Conservatives — and is being connected in the conservative media to everything from racially charged radio commercials, fliers and robocalls — is now revealed as having been supplied by contributors with records of giving money to Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, Messrs. Biden and Gore, the Democrat (Travis Childers) who is challenging Thad Cochran, Democrats in the Senate who are high atop the GOP’s target list in a 2014 bid to reclaim the Senate (Landrieu and Pryor), not to mention incumbent Democrats in the Senate not under challenge this year — Markey of Massachusetts and Bennet of Colorado. And oh yes, many of the same people also gave to the RNC, the NRSC and the NRCCC.
The RNC autopsy report talks about “messaging.” Suffice to say, the message from all this will be received.
Not good
This is simply amazing. I know a lot of corporations have been known to give money to both parties in order to “cover their bases,” but this is far different. You have some people who gave money to not only help Cochran, but also to the democrat running for the seat in November!
We’re still concerned why the Spectator thought it was a smart idea to pull this article. Also wondering what other information is about to surface.
The Senate Conservative Fund sent out an email with a link to a list of Republican lawmakers who supported Cochran’s racist hate campaign, along with the money amounts given. Here’s an excerpt from that email:
[emphasis mine]
Fellow Conservatives:
According to a recent story published by American Spectator, several GOP lawmakers are now worried about the potential backlash from their donations to Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS). The report says,
“Several senators are more than a little uneasy with [Cochran’s] tactics, which they feel responsible for since they raised money for Cochran.“
They are responsible because they knew what they were funding. Thad Cochran and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) accused Chris McDaniel (R-MS) of being a racist back in October.
Click here to see the Republican senators who supported these tactics………..
Here’s the list provided by SCF:
Thad Cochran’s Senate Enablers
Here is the complete list of Republican senators who contributed to Cochran’s campaign as well as to his super PAC.
Please contact these senators and tell them to stop funding candidates who run on liberal issues and use race-baiting tactics to get Democrats to hijack Republican elections.
GOP Senate Contributions to Cochran
Senator — Amount Given — Phone Number
Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — $60,000 — (202) 224-2541
Rob Portman (R-OH) — $40,000 — (202) 224-3353
Bob Corker (R-TN) — $30,000 — (202) 224-3344
Roger Wicker (R-MS) — $17,000 — (202) 224-6253
John Barrasso (R-WY) — $15,000 — (202) 224-6441
Roy Blunt (R-MO) — $15,000 — (202) 224-5721
John Cornyn (R-TX) — $15,000 — (202) 224-2934
Dean Heller (R-NV) — $15,000 — (202) 224-6244
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — $15,000 — (202) 224-6665
John Thune (R-SD) — $15,000 — (202) 224-2321
Lamar Alexander (R-TN) — $10,000 — (202) 224-4944
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) — $10,000 — (202) 224-3521
Dan Coats (R-IN) — $10,000 — (202) 224-5623
Mike Crapo (R-ID) — $10,000 — (202) 224-6142
Mike Enzi (R-WY) — $10,000 — (202) 224-3424
Chuck Grassley (R-IA) — $10,000 — (202) 224-3744
Orrin Hatch (R-UT) — $10,000 — (202) 224-5251
Mark Kirk (R-IL) — $10,000 — (202) 224-2854
Jerry Moran (R-KS) — $10,000 — (202) 224-6521
Mike Johanns (R-NE) — $7,600 — (202) 224-4224
Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) — $5,000 — (202) 224-3324
John Boozman (R-AR) — $5,000 — (202) 224-4843
Richard Burr (R-NC) — $5,000 — (202) 224-3154
Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — $5,000 — (202) 224-5972
Jim Inhofe (R-OK) — $5,000 — (202) 224-4721
Johnny Isakson (R-GA) — $5,000 — (202) 224-3643
John McCain (R-AZ) — $5,000 — (202) 224-2235
Jim Risch (R-ID) — $5,000 — (202) 224-2752
Pat Roberts (R-KS) — $5,000 — (202) 224-4774
Richard Shelby (R-AL) — $5,000 — (202) 224-5744
Deb Fischer (R-NE) — $2,500 — (202) 224-6551
John Hoeven (R-ND) — $2,500 — (202) 224-2551
* These figures include funds given to Thad Cochran’s campaign and to the super PAC supporting his campaign.
If a Republican candidate can’t win a primary without race-baiting and courting Democrats with liberal policies, they should not be the Republican nominee.
And nobody should fall for the argument made by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) that Senator Cochran broadened the Republican base by reaching out to black voters.
Senator Cochran and his allies joined the Democrats in promoting liberal policies and calling conservatives racists. He grew the Democrat base, not the Republican base.
Maybe NOW we know why Lord’s article in the Spectator was disappeared! These rat bastards damn well should be ashamed, and afraid. As as pointed out, the excuse they didn’t know how their boy Cochran would use the money, simply won’t fly, as Cochran was calling McDaniel a racists way back in October of last year.
This is a disgusting mess. More than at any time in memory, I’m asking myself why the Republican Party exists. President Obama is running hog wild, by passing Congress, and is basically a Reichstag fire away from setting himself up as “President for Life” as he ignores the Constitution, Rule of Law, and the will of the American people. The Republicans can’t even mount token resistance to this Marxist bastard!
If the Republicans put in a FRACTION of the effort they expend attacking Conservatives [the entire base of the party] going after Obama, America wouldn’t be in the dire shape she is today!
The Republican Party is just as corrupt as the democrat party, something Sarah Palin taught us as she wiped out the entire GOP party leadership in Alaska! Remember the self-named “Corrupt Bastards Club?”
It’s time to call every single one of the Senators on that list and let them know they have helped the GOP commit suicide. Let them know this is why most of us only contribute to individual candidates, instead of the party.
Friends, we are in for a long, hard battle. Get plenty of rest and stay hydrated!