Geoff Pender

The Clarion-Ledger

Facing allegations of vote buying and a challenge to a GOP primary runoff win, the Thad Cochran campaign on Tuesday said it made a mistake with its accounting of nearly $53,000 in get-out-the-vote cash and will have to amend its report to the Federal Election Commission.

The Gotnews.com site Monday night reported that the Cochran campaign reimbursed staffer Amanda Shook for large sums of cash listed as "Reimbursed Expense — Campaign Walkers."

FEC regulations allow reimbursement to staff only for travel and food expenses, and any other outlay of money by a staffer would be considered a contribution, and subject to a $2,600 limit.

A spokesman for six-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Cochran called the filing "a screw up," and the campaign has denied vote buying and other allegations.

He said the campaign will soon make public a list of all the people the campaign paid in cash.

State Sen. Chris McDaniel is preparing a challenge of the results of the June 24 runoff, where he lost to Cochran by about 7,600 votes.

In a Tuesday statement, McDaniel said: "The allegations of criminal misconduct against the Cochran campaign and his close associates continue to mount. Mississippians deserve a full accounting of the unbecoming tactics of the Cochran campaign used in their attempt to drive ineligible voters to the polls in June."

Some of the reimbursements listed for Cochran Operations Director Shook through June 3 are large, including payments of $8,000, $10,000 and $15,000.

Cochran campaign adviser Austin Barbour says the filings were a mistake by the campaign's treasurer.

He said they should be listed as cash payments to "dozens" of people who helped knock on doors and with other GOTV work.

"Amanda, as director of operations, is like our office manager," Barbour said. "So she would run to the bank to get cash to pay field workers.

"Our treasurer screwed up, and we are fixing it right now," Barbour said. "We are amending our FEC report for the primary, and the one for the runoff — I think it's due within a week or so — will be filed correctly."

Barbour said campaign workers on Tuesday had "names and addresses of people spread out on the conference room table" and were compiling an amended report.

He said the campaign would make the report available publicly when finished, within a couple of days.

"People screw up FEC reports all the time," Barbour said. "We haven't gotten any notice from the FEC on it. You are allowed to go back and amend a report. You are encouraged to go back and amend reports."

Gotnews recently ran a story of a man who claimed he helped the Cochran campaign illegally buy votes in the black community in Meridian for the June 24 runoff.

Cochran supporters also faced claims of vote buying weeks ago, before the runoff vote, after a super PAC supporting Cochran hired a Democratic political operative to turn out votes. State Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole said he heard reports of "walking around money" being handed out and vote buying.

Cole on Tuesday said he hasn't heard any more reports on the issue recently.

"I think people have clammed up, because they're scared," Cole said.

McDaniel campaign spokesman Noel Fritsch on Tuesday accused the Cochran campaign of "disregard for the rule of law."

"Given the several allegations of walking around money being used to purchase votes, this latest revelation that the Cochran campaign is paying staffers in cash disbursements of over $40,000 would appear to be in keeping with their clear pattern of disregard for the rule of law," Fritsch said. "Mississippians deserve a full accounting of exactly how Cochran spent campaign cash on the streets in order to drive Democrats to the polls in June."

Barbour said it's common for campaigns to pay cash for GOTV work, including campaigns of his uncle, former Gov. Haley Barbour, and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker.

"Everybody pays in cash," Barbour said. "Let's say I'm a field rep for Madison County. I don't know on a particular day if 50 people are going to show up or 40 — I don't know who is going to show up. I don't know whether some will work only one shift, others two shifts. Trying to have checks for everybody is a waste of time. And if you don't pay people that day, they walk, they may not come back."

But Cole said that while campaigns for state office still pay people cash, "in a federal election, it's frowned upon."

"All the training we've had for many years now strongly discourages distributions of cash or acceptance of donations of cash," Cole said. "It is still fairly common in state elections, but state filing requirements are not as onerous as the FEC … They want all documents, a paper trail. If I were running a federal campaign, I don't think I would want to be dealing in cash."

A Cochran spokesman has said the campaign's GOTV effort for the Republican primary runoff cost more than $500,000 and was "one of the most labor intensive in the history of Mississippi politics." It included drawing in Democrats and independents to give Cochran an edge in the Republican primary.

McDaniel claims the effort also included race baiting and voter fraud, and that Cochran stole the election "thanks to illegal voting from liberal Democrats."

He is offering rewards of $1,000 to people who can supply evidence that leads to arrest or conviction of voter fraud as he prepares a legal challenge to the results.

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