Thread: Tea party leader accused of dirty tricks in the Mississippi US Senate race has died

A tea party leader accused of dirty tricks in the Mississippi U.S. Senate race has died.


Tea party leader in Mississippi controversy dies

By Paul Steinhauser, CNN
updated 12:44 PM EDT, Fri June 27, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Mark Mayfield was one of three men charged with consipring to take photo of senator's wife
• She was in a nursing home at the time of the incident
• It escalated tensions in what was already an ugly Republican primary fight

(CNN) -- Mississippi tea party leader and attorney Mark Mayfield has died, according to his attorney, Merrida Coxwell.

Mayfield was one of the three men charged with conspiring to photograph Sen. Thad Cochran's wife in her nursing home and create a political video against the six-term Republican senator.

Last month's incident escalated tensions in what was already ugly Republican primary fight between Cochran and conservative state Sen. Chris McDaniel.

Mayfield was charged a week a conservative blogger and supporter of McDaniel's primary challenge was arrested for obtaining a image of Cochran's wife, who suffers from dementia and has lived in a nursing home for 14 years.

In a statement e-mailed to CNN, Coxwell said that "Mark Mayfield was a client but more importantly he was a friend for almost 34 years. My heart is completely broken. This is beyond tragic and the people of this community and state have lost a good man and citizen."

In a phone call with CNN, Coxwell added, "It's not important to me how it happened. It happened today. Mark's wife called and texted me that Mark was deceased."

Coxwell also said Mayfield is survived by his wife and two children.
McDaniel narrowly edged out Cochran in the June 3 primary, but with neither man cracking 50%, the contest moved to Tuesday's runoff, which Cochran won by fewer than 7,000 votes.

Cochran's victory was aided by 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.

McDaniel repeated his vow to use every legal maneuver available to fight the runoff results.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/27/politi...ies/index.html

http://www.alipac.us/f19/mysterious-...oggers-274749/

Mississippi tea party leader's death possible suicide, police say

CNN

- ‎8 minutes ago‎

(CNN) -- Mark Mayfield, a tea party leader, who was one of three men charged with conspiring to photograph Sen. Thad Cochran's wife in her nursing home, was found dead on Friday from a gunshot wound in a possible suicide, police said...

Chris McDaniel aide slams GOP over apparent suicide

McDaniel's aide deleted the post after others reacted negatively. | AP Photo
Close
By JAMES HOHMANN | 6/27/14 3:17 PM EDT
State Sen. Chris McDaniel’s policy director lashed out at the GOP establishment Friday over the apparent suicide of a supporter charged with felony conspiracy related to pictures taken of Sen. Thad Cochran’s wife.
“A good man is gone today [because] of a campaign to destroy lives,” Keith Plunkett, a Mississippi GOP operative, tweeted. “To all ‘so called’ Republican leaders who joined lockstep: I WILL NOT REST!”

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Plunkett deleted the post after others on Twitter responded negatively and accused him of using a tragedy for political gain.

McDaniel lost Tuesday’s runoff in the Mississippi Senate race to Cochran but has not conceded and is mulling a legal challenge. The tea party-backed candidate has yet to comment on the death of Mark Mayfield, a local tea party leader and prominent lawyer whose wife found him dead in their garage around 9 a.m.

Mayfield was arrested May 22 and charged with conspiracy.

The Madison County district attorney alleged that he gave advice to a blogger on how to get into the nursing home where Rose Cochran, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, lives so that he could photograph her. Mayfield declined to take the pictures himself, the prosecutor said, but his mother had lived in the facility so he knew the best way in.

McDaniel has consistently denied involvement and authorities never directly linked him to the scandal. Mayfield had helped him raise money and was an avid supporter before his arrest.

In a follow-up email, Plunkett said he served with Mayfield on the Madison County GOP executive committee, “and our paths crossed politically on many occasions over the years.”

“Mark was as level-headed and deliberate a person as I have ever met, never prone to histrionics,” he wrote from his iPhone. “His affiliation with the TEA Party helped lend the group credibility with a wide range of conservatives, Republicans and even many Democrats in Mississippi. That’s why so many were shocked when it was alleged that he had been part of some political shenanigans. It was out of character.”

McDaniel allies have argued that the whole nursing home incident was politicized to get sympathy for Cochran in what became one of the nastiest races in memory.

“The politicization of the incident was beyond the pale,” Plunkett said. “It was an attack on a good man that is well respected. I’ve never met a person that had a bad word to say about him. It’s shocking to those in the state who knew the demeanor and quiet dedication of the real Mark Mayfield. He wasn’t the character he was being cast, and he didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.”

As he did on Twitter, Plunkett characterized the suicide as motivation to keep working.

“I’m saddened as I know others are, too. But, I’m also more determined than ever to fight for the things Mark believed in, and the hope he had for our state,” he said. “Mark’s calm approach to political disagreement is what this state needs badly right now. I will miss him.”

Other activists who backed McDaniel also are taking the loss hard.
Pat Bruce, president of the Madison County Conservative Coalition, told the Clarion-Ledger that Mayfield was the finest man she knew.

“They killed him,” she told the paper. “They sent a SWAT team to his office, six officers, just to arrest him.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz35s8nShyT

1. Mayfield's death 'puts an exclamation point' on election
   
   Jackson Clarion Ledger‎ - 11 hours ago