The senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Thad Cochran, will soon announce whether he will retire from the upper chamber, a decision that could further shake up a powerful panel and even give Democrats hope of picking up a seat in the GOP stronghold of Mississippi.
Cochran says he will make an announcement after Mississippi’s statewide elections, which are on Nov. 6.
When asked Tuesday if he would definitely run for reelection, Cochran told The Hill, “No, I didn’t say that. I’m preparing to run for reelection, but I haven’t made an official announcement.”
His retirement would open up a battle for a key spot on the Appropriations Committee, which already is losing Republican Sens. Pete Domenici (N.M.), Larry Craig (Idaho) and Wayne Allard (Colo.) to retirement. The panel also may see Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) relinquish her seat in the Senate in the middle of the next Congress to pursue a bid for the governor’s office.
Senior appropriator and Alaska Republican Ted Stevens is under federal investigation for corruption charges, and an indictment could force him out of the 2008 campaign.
Democrats also think they may be able to unseat Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a longtime appropriator, though that seems unlikely.
Losing some, if not all of those Republicans, will intensify an intra-conference race next Congress for seats on the panel that controls the purse strings of the federal government. At the very least, it will significantly affect the defense industry, which has spent years fundraising and developing close ties with most of those Republicans, including Cochran.
Cochran, who turns 70 in December, has laid some of the groundwork for a sixth term in office, stashing nearly $1.1 million in his campaign war chest. However, that is far less than the average of $3.1 million of cash-on-hand for Republican candidates at this point of the election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Cochran raised only $44,000 in the third quarter.
Republicans in Mississippi say the fundraising numbers don’t indicate that he will retire, because the senator would likely cruise to reelection, as he did in 2002 when he won with 85 percent of the vote.
Jim Herring, chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, said the party has not lined up potential GOP successors to Cochran because he expects Cochran to run for reelection.
But two sources in Washington, who are close to Cochran and declined to be named, say the senator may be leaning towards retirement because he has grown weary of the ongoing partisan battles on Capitol Hill.
Cochran would not say what is factoring into his decision-making and whether he is leaning towards retirement.
Rebecca Fisher, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Cochran “deserves the time to make the decision that he feels is right for his family and his constituents, and we respect that.”
Terry Cassreino, the communications director for the Mississippi Democratic Party, said: “If this job comes open, I think you’ll see a lot of really strong Democrats considering a run.” Former state Attorney General Mike Moore and former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove have been floated as potential Democrats who may jump into the race if Cochran retires.
Cassreino said gains by Democrats next week in the state legislature could buoy potential Cochran successors in the state that President Bush carried with 60 percent of the vote in 2004.
The possible retirement of Cochran could also have major repercussions for the defense industry, which has invested time building strong relationship with him and other veteran defense appropriators, including Domenici, McConnell, Stevens and Hutchison.
Cochran has been a stalwart supporter of the Navy’s shipbuilding programs, while Stevens has been one of the biggest proponents of the Air Force and its multibillion-dollar programs, such as Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor and the Joint Strike Fighter. Hutchison has shown her support for the Air Force as well as military construction, while Domenici has been a strong supporter of nuclear energy and military laboratories.
“Democrat or Republican, nothing replaces seniority in these committees,” said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Over the past 18 years, Cochran received a total of $279,986 from the defense industry, with Northrop Grumman — which builds ships in Mississippi — being one of his top contributors. Northrop Grumman donated more than $33,000 over the years to the senator’s coffers, while Lockheed Martin and Raytheon donated more than $20,000.
In the fiscal 2008 defense funding bill, Cochran secured $76.5 million in individual earmarks and nearly another $75 million with Mississippi’s junior GOP Sen. Trent Lott.
Stevens has received more than $716,375 from the defense industry since 1989, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Boeing alone contributed at least $104,600 to the senator’s campaign over the years.
The defense sector contributed over $400,000 to Domenici since 1989, mostly from defense political action committees. Defense giants Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have been some of his top contributors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
While Hutchison received a fair amount of her campaign money from the finance and insurance industry, she also has enjoyed strong support from the defense industry, which poured about $290,000 into her coffers.
For her 2006 Senate race, Hutchison received about $115,000 from the defense industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Some of her biggest contributors over the years have been Vought Aircraft, EDS Corp., United Technologies, Lockheed Martin and Textron. |
