Missouri GOP Leader Ed Martin called on the National Republican Party leaders to investigate the Thad Cochran racist anti-Tea Party ads.
Martin sent a letter to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus this week:
Martin is concerned about the racially charged ads the NRSC ran against the Tea Party and conservative challenger Chris McDaniel.
GotNews posted a copy of one of the offensive radio ads yesterday.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported:
In an unusual move that is getting some national political buzz, the chairman of the Missouri Republican Party is asking the national GOP to investigate campaign ads and robocalls that attacked Mississippi Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel in his failed attempt to unseat U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.
Missouri Republican Party Chairman Ed Martin has requested that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus appoint a task to investigate the “racially divisive” ads and robocalls that alleged McDaniel had racist ties.
The request has turned some heads because, as the leader of a state Republican Party, someone in Martin’s position would usually be expected to support the Republican incumbent rather than calling for an investigation of the treatment of his Tea Party challenger. The Washington Post called it “the latest instance of lingering intra-party discord” between the Tea Party and the GOP in last month’s Mississippi runoff election.
Cochran pursued the unusual strategy (for a modern white southern Republican) of wooing black Democratic votes in the runoff, and there are indications it worked. At the same time, McDaniel, who is also white, was hit with third-party ads and robocalls during the campaign that attempted to link him to a Ku Klux Klan ally and suggested that the Tea Party is racist.
Here is the complete list of Republican senators who contributed to Cochran’s campaign as well as to his super PAC.