By Tuesday night, former Rep Ronnie Childers “could suddenly become one of the party’s vitally important Senate candidates for 2014 – and a rare Democratic nominee who clashes sharply with his national backers on multiple important issues,” Politico says in a profile of the presumed Democratic nominee for Senate in Mississippi and the likely shape of the fall campaign. Childers has raised comparatively little money and intimates he would have a better chance against state Senator Chris McDaniel, the Tea Party favorite and challenger of incumbent Thad Cochran.
An automated telephone survey of 599 likely voters by Harper for the Republican Senate primary in Mississippi puts Cochran, the Republican leader on the Senate Agriculture Committee, ahead of McDaniel, 45-40, with 15 percent undecided. The poll was conducted on Thursday and Friday. The previous Harper poll, on Apil 3-5, had Cochran leading 52-35 with 12 percent undecided. Pollster’s trend line makes the race Cochran 43, McDaniel 41. The primary is Tuesday.