Senator Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi and one of the Senate’s longest-serving members, is stepping up his fund-raising amid speculation that he might retire instead of run for re-election next year.
Mr. Cochran, who was first elected in 1978, has three high-dollar fund-raisers scheduled in the Washington, D.C., area over the next two months, according to e-mails his finance staff circulated to donors this week.
He is hosting a breakfast Friday morning at a Capitol Hill restaurant, charging $500 for individuals and $1,000 for political action committees. Next month, Mr. Cochran will attend another, pricier breakfast featuring former Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi at Mr. Barbour’s namesake Washington lobbying firm. And in November, the senator is staging what he’s billing as a “fall retreat†at a tony new resort in Middleburg, Va.
The Virginia gathering, which costs PACs $2,500 to attend and individuals $1,500, is particularly raising eyebrows among staffers and lobbyists. Further, Mr. Cochran has become more of a presence of late at other political events. He turned up Wednesday evening at a Washington fund-raiser for Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, for example.
Most members of Congress who are leaning toward retirement ease off the fund-raising circuit. But Mr. Cochran, who had nearly $774,000 on hand as of the end of June, is stocking his war chest to be prepared to run for a seventh term. Senate-watchers believe that the longtime Republican has not definitively decided to run again, but is closely eying the possibility of his party regaining the majority next year, which could enable him to take over as chairman of the Appropriations Committee in what could be his final term.
Mr. Cochran, who will turn 76 in December, is unlikely to face a serious threat should he run for re-election. But for the purposes of the Republican Senate campaign committee, his running would likely ensure that they do not have to devote money or much consideration to Mississippi. Mr. Cochran’s retirement would trigger an intense primary among a new generation of Republicans in the conservative state who for years watched both their senior senator and former Senator Trent Lott returning to Washington year after year.
Sources close to Mr. Cochran say that they work under the assumption that he will run again, but caution that the senator has yet to make any pronouncements about his plans for 2014.
