XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: devans@cnn.com   
      
   (CNN) - Three days after Mississippi's bitter Republican Senate   
   primary runoff ended, the challenger in the race refuses to   
   concede, charging that "this was not a fair election. Activity   
   was illegal, at worst. Unethical, at best."   
      
   And in an exclusive interview with CNN affiliate WLOX, state   
   Sen. Chris McDaniel said he was shocked at how fellow   
   Republicans verbally attacked him after he announced a primary   
   challenge against six-term Sen. Thad Cochran.   
      
   McDaniel, who enjoyed strong support from tea party and anti-   
   establishment groups, narrowly edged out Cochran in the June 3   
   primary, but with neither man cracking 50% (there was a third   
   Republican candidate on the ballot who grabbed 1.5% of the   
   vote), the contest moved to Tuesday's runoff, which Cochran won   
   by fewer than 7,000 votes.   
      
   Cochran's victory was aided votes from African-American   
   Democrats, who were actively courted during the runoff campaign   
   by pro-Cochran forces. According to Mississippi law, voters are   
   not required to register with a political party, and anyone who   
   doesn't vote in a primary election can cast a ballot in either   
   party's runoff.   
      
   But McDaniel told WLOX on Thursday that his camp has already   
   found irregularities in Tuesday's election.   
      
   "Republicans are supposed to chose the Republican nominee in the   
   U.S. Senate. That's not what happened here. Thirty-five- to   
   40,000 Democrats jumped into this race and apparently tried to   
   decide it. They have their own primary. We have ours. What we're   
   looking for right now is irregularities. We already found   
   hundreds, and we're going to keep looking," McDaniel said.   
      
   McDaniel added that those irregularities include people who   
   first voted in the Democratic primary, then illegally crossed   
   over to vote in the Republican runoff.   
      
   McDaniel repeated his earlier vow to use every legal maneuver   
   available to fight Tuesday's results, adding that "integrity of   
   elections matters. It always has mattered."   
      
   And McDaniel he said that the pro-Cochran forces should be   
   ashamed of the strategy they used in urging black Democrats to   
   vote for the senator.   
   "They called me a racist. They used race-baiting tactics. They   
   scared people to the polls. That's no way to behave. They used   
   people, and that's no way to behave," he said.   
      
   More than 61,000 more people voted in Tuesday's runoff than in   
   the June 3rd Senate primary. It's extremely rare that turnout   
   increases in a runoff election. And turnout in Mississippi's   
   majority African-American districts increased at a much higher   
   rate than overall turnout.   
      
   But those who backed Cochran defend their actions.   
      
   In an interview with CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana   
   Bash on Wednesday, Henry Barbour, the nephew of former   
   Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who steered the pro-Cochran   
   Mississippi Conservatives, said, "In America, we have a right to   
   vote. And in Mississippi, we don't register by party. So whites   
   and blacks get to vote in the Republican primary if they decide,   
   and I think the Constitution gives them that right. So, I'm   
   afraid he's [McDaniel] wrong, I mean, people have a right to   
   vote and I'm damned proud to have asked them for their support."   
      
   Complete Coverage: 2014 Midterm Elections   
      
   And Barbour said that some Democrats may have been converted.   
      
   "I'll tell you, some of the Democrats that we were recruiting to   
   vote for Sen. Cochran - some of them have called me talking   
   about switching," Barbour said. "This is how you grow."   
      
   In the interview with WLOX, McDaniel also said he has "no hard   
   feelings" toward Republican leaders in Mississippi, but that he   
   is still shocked at how they attacked him.   
      
   "I never thought that me, as a two-term Republican elected   
   official, would be treated the way I was. It was character   
   assassination. They [fellow Republicans] attacked me every   
   chance they got. They ridiculed me. They mocked me. And that was   
   an about-face from the way they treated me just prior to my   
   primary challenge."   
      
   http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/27/mcdaniel-says-   
   hundreds-of-irregularities-found-in-mississippi-race/comment-   
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