Poll: Sen. Cochran Has Small Lead Over Tea Partier

U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., tells a business audience he believes a free enterprise system and the values of hard work and self-reliance will help the American economy recover, Thursday, April 16, 2009, during t... U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., tells a business audience he believes a free enterprise system and the values of hard work and self-reliance will help the American economy recover, Thursday, April 16, 2009, during the annual meeting of the Mississippi Economic Council, the state chamber of commerce, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) MORE LESS
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Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) is leading tea primary challenger state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-MS) in the GOP primary but it’s a close race, according to a new poll by the Republican pollster Harper Polling.

The poll found Cochran leading McDaniel 45 percent to 40 percent with 15 percent still undecided.

The poll’s findings come weeks after news broke that McDaniel supporter and political blogger “Constitutional Clayton” Kelly and three others were arrested for going to the nursing home of Cochran’s wife and photographing so he could use her image in an anti-Cochran video. Charges range from exploitation of a vulnerable adult to conspiracy to destroying evidence. The investigation is still ongoing.

Forty-one percent of those surveyed said what they had read or heard about the incident — likely a reference to the alleged conspiracy to photograph Cochran’s wife — made them less likely to vote for McDaniel while 28 percent said they were more likely. Another 28 percent said what they’d read made no difference and 3 percent said they weren’t sure.

The primary will take place on June 3.

The poll was conducted among 599 likely Republican voters between May 27 and May 28. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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Notable Replies

  1. For an informal poll, where do you TPM’ers stand on this?
    Who would you prefer to win?

  2. I’m from California where we do thing so much more sensibly, so the question for me is which is correct, I could care less or I couldn’t care less.

  3. panda, isn’t that like asking if you’d rather be shot or hanged? Neither one of them will compromise with Dems.
    I suppose the conventional wisdom is no more tea-partiers under any circumstances, but the truth is, if the Repugs win the Senate, the Country is screwed for the next two years.

  4. We need no more Tea baggers in the U.S. Senate. Of course, we’d prefer another Dem to win the seat, but that’s unlikely from MS.
    I’m surprised Cochran isn’t doing better in the polls against his opponent.

  5. One of my biggest pet peeves is people saying “I could care less” because what they’re actually saying is that they do care since they could still care less.
    Frankly, I’d like to see the Tea Party clown win. There’s no difference between the establishment and the Tea Party except that the teabagger is likely to say something during the campaign that would badly embarrass the national party. Also, there’s always the possibility he screws up so badly that the Democrat ekes out a win. In this case, if the police find that he was involved in taking pictures of Cochran’s wife he could wind being charged. That could force the national party and donors to abandon him.

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