Out-of-state money pouring in to Mississippi special Senate race

Candidate campaign finance reports for Mississippi's special U.S. Senate race to replace Thad Cochran are not yet due, but outside money is already pouring into the race for the two Republican candidates, $1.3 million and counting.

Federal Election Commission reports show the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is sinking $750,000 on ads to help newly appointed Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Gov. Phil Bryant recently appointed Hyde-Smith to Cochran's seat temporarily, and he is backing her in the Nov. 6 special election. .

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State Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, has benefited from $580,800 in spending from the Remember Mississippi PAC, which was created to back him. Remember Mississippi's report for the first quarter of this year shows it had one main contributor, billionaire conservative campaign contributor Richard Uihlein of Illinois. Uihlein is contributing to numerous conservative candidates across the country.

Uihlein contributed $250,000 to Remember Mississippi this quarter, the bulk of the $253,700 the PAC reported in contributions for the quarter.

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Since last year, Uihlein has contributed $750,000 to the PAC supporting McDaniel. Remember Mississippi's report says it has $525,000 cash on hand.

Other Remember Mississippi contributors include:

Billionaire Robert Mercer of New York: $500,000

Thomas Patrick, New Vernon Capital, Louisiana: $50,000

Canary Wellhead Equipment of Oklahoma: $25,000

Another PAC, the Mississippi Victory Fund run by Henry Barbour and former state Sen. Merle Flowers, supports Hyde-Smith. It reported no spending through March 31 but has raised $75,000, with contributions of $25,000 each from former Gov. Haley Barbour, businessman W.D. Mounger and Sanderson Farms CEO Joe Sanderson.

FEC reports showed no independent expenditures supporting Democrats Mike Espy or Jason Shelton so far.

In the 2014 Mississippi U.S. Senate primary between Cochran and McDaniel, outside groups spent $11.9 million. This is in addition to the $7.8 million spent by Cochran's campaign, $3.3 million by McDaniel's and $670,000 by Democrat Travis Childers.