McDaniel (MS): Was He Really at The Chi ALEC Meeting?

This MoJo article popped up in a search I did:

GOP Senate Candidate Addressed Conference Hosted by Neo-Confederate Group That Promotes Secessionism

Mississippi Republican Chris McDaniel, who is challenging Sen. Thad Cochran and backed by the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Club for Growth, took the stage with a historian who says Lincoln was a Marxist.

In August, McDaniel addressed a neo-Confederate conference in Laurel, Miss., near his hometown of Ellisville. A local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), the Jones County Rosin Heels, hosted the two-day event, which the group described in invitations as a "Southern Heritage Conference" for "politically incorrect folks."

Yep – I did what I always do – checked to see if McDaniel was an ALEC member.

And – he wasn’t on any published (or unpublished lists) of known ALEC members.

Woulda been fun to connect an ALEC member to a neo-confederate conference.

And then

Today

I ran into these two clips:

McDaniel told the Clarion-Ledger political editor Geoff Pender, however, that he never attended the ball and was at a meeting of the ALEC at the time.

Really?
What'd McDaniel say?

State Sen. Chris McDaniel says he wasn’t at a “neo-Confederate” conference and ball that “Mother Jones” is reporting he attended and addressed.

“It’s unbelievable,” McDaniel said. “I was in Chicago then, at an (ALEC) conference. I wasn’t even there. I wasn’t even in the state.”

Really –

He was at the ALEC meeting?
“It’s unbelievable,”

He is confirming that he attended the meeting of the extremist American Legislative Exchange Council, to confirm he was not at the neo-Confederate conference in Laurel, Miss

Really –

Evidently McDaniel believes that the extremist ALEC is a more appropriate association for a US Senate candidate than the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), the Jones County Rosin Heels.
He felt he had to clarify where he was.
Really?

Well I thought I’d check it out.

And this is what I found:

From the webpage of the local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), the Jones County Rosin Heels,

The Southern Heritage Conference will be held August 9-10, 2013 at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Laurel, MS

I was at the ALEC conference in Chicago.

It was held August 7-9, 2013

Was he at the ALEC meeting?
Really?

So I decided that I would go one more place to check –

The infamous ALEC Durbin Letter.
The ALEC Durbin Letter was penned and signed by attendees at the Chicago ALEC meeting.

The ALEC Durbin Letter has lots of signatures from Mississippi legislators that were there but

There is no McDaniel signature.

McDaniel, is a MS state senator

 – if he was in Chicago – at the ALEC meeting

 – why didn’t he sign the ALEC Durbin Letter?

So, the possible conclusions here:

First

    Attending both events is absolutely possible.
    Based on timing - these two events are not mutually exclusive

Second

     If he was at the meeting of the extremist American Legislative
     Exchange Council
     – there is no proof he was there.

Third

     If he was at the meeting of the extremist American legislative
     Exchange Council
     – we can now add him to the lists of ALEC members.

After all – based on the articles above - he evidently would prefer to be connected to ALEC than to the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), the Jones County Rosin Heels.

But who to believe - MoJo or McDaniel?
Well - I believe Mojo - cause they probably have proof to back up their story.
McDaniels word is pretty worthless - especially if he is connected with ALEC.
And there is the possibility that he asked one of his Repug friends - "How do I get out of this mess?" and they said "Just say you were at the ALEC meeting."

If he was at the ALEC meeting
I wonder how many lobbyists he sucked up to at the ALEC meeting to line his US Senate campaign coffers with lots of corporate $$$$s.

UPDATE - 6 hours later
Going to the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), the Jones County Rosin Heels - event must be a helluva no, no for politicans.

McDaniel, others refute story about him at Confederate event

The Southern Heritage Conference was Aug. 9-10. The ALEC conference in Chicago was Aug. 7-9. McDaniel said he recollects he stayed over at least a day after the ALEC event, and was still out of state when the Rosin Heels event was held.

Watson said he was with McDaniel at the ALEC conference and “as a matter of fact, I think he stayed longer than I did. Chris was there.”