Incumbent faces runoff today
WASHINGTON — Six-term Sen. Thad Cochran’s Republican runoff against Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel stands as a test of whether decades of delivering federal largess trumps conservative demands to slash government spending.
The 76-year-old Cochran, the former Senate Appropriations Committee chairman who has steered billions of dollars back home, is locked in a tight race against the Tea Party-backed McDaniel, who was born the year Cochran came to Washington as a congressman. When no clear winner emerged from the June 3 primary, it forced a three-week campaign dash marked by bitter charges.
“I think it’s very close, very doable,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said late Monday after campaigning for Cochran.
The runoff is the headline race on a busy day of primaries in New York, Oklahoma, Maryland, Colorado and Utah. A special election in Florida will fill the U.S. House seat once held by Rep. Trey Radel, who resigned in January after pleading guilty to cocaine possession.
In New York, Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, 84, a Korean War veteran who survived House censure in 2010 over financial wrongdoing, is seeking a 23rd term. State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, a Dominican-born legislator who lost by fewer than 1,100 votes in the 2012 primary, poses the toughest challenge in the majority Hispanic district that includes Harlem.
In Mississippi, Cochran backers portrayed him as experienced and a reliable ally for veterans and the military.
“We are facing a crisis with our veterans. We are facing a crisis internationally,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said hours after an appearance on Cochran’s behalf. “His opponent has no experience or knowledge with those issues.”
McDaniel, in a swipe at Cochran and McCain in a last-minute fundraising appeal, criticized the “outrageous spending sprees” by the two establishment senators. He pledged to stand with true conservatives like Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah.
Outside groups, from Tea Party organizations to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have spent some $12 million on the race. Cochran appealed to Democratic voters — white and black — to cross over and back him, prompting tea partyers to promise to send observers to the precincts.
Conservative purists and the Tea Party movement, born five years ago in the divisive fight over federal government spending and President Barack Obama’s health care law, have had more losses than wins this election cycle.
Mainstream conservatives turned back challenges in high-profile Senate and House races in Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia and Idaho.
