Is this the best the Establishment has got on Chris McDaniel?
A super PAC associated with former Mississippi Gov. and current lobbyist Haley Barbour has resorted to attacking McDaniel for voting for bills that Barbour supported and signed into law.
And in one instance, the group accuses McDaniel of voting for a bill he didn’t vote for. Barbour, incidentally, also signed that one into law.
McDaniel has secured endorsements from the conservative groups like the Club for Growth, the Senate Conservatives Fund, Heritage Action, and Freedomworks. The Washington establishment appears to be deeply concerned that Cochran is in trouble before the June 3 primary.
In fact, Barbour’s nephew Henry, who is also a lobbyist and advising the group, conceded to the New York Times that Cochran is “vulnerable” in what will be a low-turnout primary in an anti-Washington and anti-establishment environment.
Time magazine described Cochran as a “seasoned appropriator” who is a “spitting image of the Republican establishment,” which is rushing to his aid. Haley Barbour will reportedly raise money for the pro-Cochran super PAC in Washington and Mississippi.
After the pro-Cochran group, Mississippi Conservatives, started to run statewide television ads attacking McDaniel last week, it created a website that implies that McDaniel is not fiscally conservative because he supported 23 different bills in the Mississippi legislature that added to the state’s debt. The super PAC cites McDaniel’s votes to fund watershed repair, mental health programs, local bridge repairs, passenger rail infrastructure and state agencies, community colleges, and economic development. Barbour signed into law 13 of the 23 bills the super PAC cites to attack McDaniel. Three other bills were signed by current Gov. Phil Bryant, who has endorsed Cochran but criticized the super PAC for attacking McDaniel on the airwaves.
The group accuses McDaniel of voting for seven other bills for things like emerging crops funds, rural impact funds, infrastructure loans, funding for local government, and some infrastructure loans, but all of those bills never passed the legislature, so the funds were never appropriated.
The super PAC even accuses McDaniel of voting for a bill (HB 1701) even though he was not present when the state Senate adopted the conference report. Barbour, though, signed that bill, which funded various state agencies and museums.
Cochran’s biggest liability is that he is an old-school appropriator in a political season in which that is a big liability. In the U.S. Senate, Cochranhas voted on at least 11 occasions to raise the debt ceiling by at least $7.7 trillion over the past 24 years.
Regarding the attacks by the pro-Cochran super PAC, Noel Fritsch, a spokesman for McDaniel, told Breitbart News that the “dishonest super PAC attack is further evidence that D.C. insiders like Haley Barbour and Karl Rove are desperate to retain any semblance of control by keeping their guy in office spending taxpayer money, voting for gun control, funding Obamacare, and helping Obama’s federal takeover of Mississippi’s education.”
Mississippi Conservatives did not respond to a request for comment.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.