CLARION LEDGER – Chris McDaniel and a super PAC that spends on everything but winning
The two billionaire mega donors poured $1.25 million into a super PAC that was supposed to supercharge Chris McDaniel’s insurgent bid to be Mississippi’s next Republican senator.
A year later, much of the money from Illinois shipping supply CEO Richard Uihlein and New York financier Robert Mercer is gone. Only a fraction was spent reaching voters who could boost the former state lawmaker’s uphill battle against Cindy Hyde-Smith, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s preferred candidate in a November special election that will determine who finishes out retired GOP Sen. Thad Cochran’s term.
What the Remember Mississippi super PAC has provided, however, is a generous payday for at least 18 campaign consultants who received the lion’s share of the money, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records…
…”It is part of the growing trend of people using super PACs to get wealthy, rather than to direct the funds they raise toward actual political activity,” said Adav Noti, a former FEC attorney who now works for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington.
Of the nearly $1.4 million raised by Remember Mississippi, about $265,000 went to expenses like video production, ads, graphic design and other forms of communication that either advocated for McDaniel or opposed his rivals, according to their latest FEC report at the end of June.
Meanwhile, consultants and operating expenses soaked up nearly three times that, or $792,000. That leaves a little more than $300,000 ahead of the November special election.
#MSSen: U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel posts Robert E. Lee Twitter poll
#MSElex: Democratic candidates Baria, Anderson campaign in Lamar County
WDAM-TV 7-News, Weather, Sports-Hattiesburg, MS
DAILY JOURNAL – Analysis: It’s prosecutor vs. ‘Big Country’ in US House race
The major-party nominees in Mississippi’s 3rd Congressional District present sharp contrasts in style, even if their ideological differences are fuzzier.
Republican Michael Guest and Democrat Michael Ted Evans both say they oppose abortion and support gun rights and border security. Neither sounds likely to hang out with the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi.
Guest is in his third term as district attorney for the Jackson suburbs of Madison and Rankin counties, which are the biggest population hub of the district that stretches from Natchez up to Starkville. In his congressional campaign, Guest has stuck to variations of the same speech all year, delivered in complete sentences and measured tones.
Congressman Thompson sends letter to HHS Secretary on MS Medicaid work requirement
Today, myself along with 11 House Democratic Members sent a letter to @SecAzar concerning the Medicaid Work Requirement proposal for Mississippi. The proposal harms thousands of people, especially African-Americans throughout #MS02. #ForThePeople pic.twitter.com/1vsDOPFrFE
— Bennie G. Thompson (@BennieGThompson) August 16, 2018
HATTIESBURG AMERICAN – Sen. Roger Wicker: JROTC Act is a true success story
Sometimes a conversation at church can spark an idea for a law. That happened in early May, when my longtime friend Leland Speed told me about the success of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, commonly known as JROTC, in the Jackson Public School system.
As Leland explained, more than 90 percent of this year’s graduating seniors who participated in a JROTC program within the Jackson Public School system have been accepted into an institution of higher learning. More than $7.5 million in scholarships have been awarded to these JROTC graduates…
…The more I learned about the success of JROTC programs, I better understood that more students would benefit from these programs in their schools. Earlier this year, I introduced the JROTC Opportunities for Transformational Change Act, or JROTC Act in the U.S. Senate. The bill set out to authorize funding for 100 additional JROTC units and to make reforms that would help schools in rural and underserved areas participate.
As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I also offered my JROTC Act as an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill. It was adopted into the full bill by the committee and soon passed by the entire Senate. Last month, the JROTC Act was included in the defense bill’s final conference report passed by both the House and the Senate. President Trump signed the bill into law this week.
WJTV – Governor calls special session
Governor Phil Bryant confirms a special session will be held August 23.
The call will include infrastructure needs and a plan to allocate BP money that deals with the Coast.
I will call a special session of the Mississippi Legislature to be held on August 23. It will address infrastructure repair and maintenance and a plan to allocate BP money that prioritizes our Gulf Coast’s economy.
— Phil Bryant (@PhilBryantMS) August 17, 2018
CLARION LEDGER – Geoff Pender: This might be a long, hot special legislative session
Through his nearly two terms as governor, Phil Bryant has used his power to call special legislative sessions sparingly, and called them only when legislative leaders had at least a rough agreement and could get in and out of Jackson quickly.
But with the session Bryant has announced for next week — with a dearth of particulars provided so far — Bryant appears to be using his special session power to force lawmakers to reach agreement on increased infrastructure funding. This is something over which GOP House and Senate leaders have argued for three years to no avail and there doesn’t appear to be a firm agreement now.
And it appears Bryant is also throwing into the mix spending of the state’s $750 million BP oil disaster settlement coming in over the next 30 years. This is another issue over which lawmakers have grappled without reaching compromise. Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Coast lawmakers want the money to be primarily spent on the Coast. Inland lawmakers have other ideas.
WTOK – Lawmakers react to special session announcement
WTVA – Mississippi flag foes want court arguments on rebel symbol
Some Mississippi residents are asking a federal court of appeals to fully consider their arguments that the state flag with the Confederate battle emblem represents white supremacy and sends a message that black people are not welcome.
Several black and white residents of the Gulf Coast city of Ocean Springs filed papers Friday asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear oral arguments.
The plaintiffs are trying to revive their lawsuit that a U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. dismissed June 19. He said the plaintiffs didn’t prove they were treated unequally by the government.
Magnolia Tribune
