Umm... A candidate that didn't run a campaign just won. This happened in the Texas School Board elections, but a US Senate election?? This is bizarre. Primary story: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0610/Americas_safest_senator.html?showall I think that would be Jim DeMint: An unemployed military veteran has stunned South Carolina Democratic Party leaders by winning the nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint. Thirty-two-year-old Alvin Greene of Manning defeated 64-year-old Vic Rawl of Charleston in Tuesday's primary. Rawl is a former judge and legislator, who had about $186,000 cash available and had already scheduled a fundraising event for Thursday. Greene raised no money in the contest, had no signs and no website. Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler says she hasn't seen Greene since he filed to run. UPDATE: Um. Who paid his filing fee? Background story: http://www.wolfereports.com/2010/05/21/strange-happenings-in-the-dem-senatorial-primary/ If it’s some weirdo fringe candidate with no shot, count on the Free Times government section to find that person and do a 800-word (or less!) profile on them. This week, it was the cipher known as Alvin Greene. He’s 32, recently got out of the Army, unemployed, and living at his dad’s place in rural Clarendon County. For whatever reason, he showed up at S.C. Democratic Party headquarters in March looking to file for the U.S. Senate. But that’s not the weird part. The strange bit is that he showed up with the $10,400 check for the filing fee. As a personal check. When told it had to come from a campaign account, he evidently went to a bank and quickly came back with a check that could be accepted. Mind you, nobody’s beating U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint. Not now, not ever, unless he gets caught in some epic scandal. The man’s got a gigantic war chest, and the best person the Dems could throw at him, Inez Tenenbaum, couldn’t beat him when he didn’t have the added advantage of incumbency. But that’s Vic Rawl’s issue to deal with. What’s so weird about Greene’s effort is the already mentioned circumstances of his life. He says he got the money by saving it up while in the service. Let’s process that for a second. Whether you make six figures or a recently discharged, unemployed soldier, and have zero name recognition or political experience, handing over 10 large to run for Senate is, ah, insane. Then there’s this: Though he says he is running, and running to win, Greene has not taken the steps one might expect from an active candidate — some of them required by law. He has not filed with the Secretary of the Senate, according to its Washington, D.C. office. Nor has he filed any disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission, which the FEC requires by law. No campaign signs appear around the area where he lives, and Greene admits he hasn’t taken in any donations. When the South Carolina Democratic Party held its convention in April, Greene did not show up. Reached by phone May 12, and asked how he thought his campaign was going, Greene said, “So far, so good.” Naturally, this “phantom candidate” brings up two thoughts. One is that he’s certifiably ******* insane and needs to be put in a padded cell. The other is that he was given the money to run to, we suppose, sabotage Rawl’s campaign. The first is self-evident, but the second can be expanded upon a little bit, which we will try to do here. Like a detective running down a murder, we look to the usual suspects, which would be the Republicans. But there’s not one way in hell they’d do anything like giving this guy the cash to be on the ballot — at least, nobody closely associated with the Party or the DeMint campaign. As we already said, DeMint’s going to win this in a walk. No reason to get all shady. And from what we understand, the people in positions to do things like that are, well, steadfastly opposed to doing things like that. So they’re out. We look to the other side and say, “Why would a Democrat shell out this cash?” Doesn’t make any sense, so that’s out, too. This is how we see it: It’s like one of those things that gets a college football program into serious probation with the NCAA. Somebody with loyalties, but no connections to a particular side, and a ****-ton of money, makes life a little interesting. Probably, some wealthy conservative with no real ties to the people that matter decided to burn some money and have some fun with this Senate race. Why? Why do ridiculously wealthy people do anything? Obviously, this little gambit fell through, which is why there aren’t any signs or the proper papers filed. And that’s where the juicy story is. Finding out who this rich freakshow is and listening to them explain how the idea came about, how the guy was chosen, how the money was doled out and how the plan fell apart. But like so many great stories, it’s likely never to come to light.
I don't mean to derail the thread, but the stories of Tuesday's elections for me are Blanche Lincoln coming back from the dead to win and Nevada Republicans nominating a fruitcake to run against Harry Reid. Both of these seats were leaning Republican but are probably now 50/50.
Man I am not sure why but I just LOL'd so hard at that. Id rep you if I could. OT: This is seriously strange...someone might need to check voting logs...
Seriously, Harry Reid should be six feet underground with grass growing on top. He has no business having a chance to win in November. He is EXACTLY the kind of incumbent that should know he's a roast duck. Yet you almost have to make him the favorite to win now. Either of the other two candidates (including Lowden with her gaffe) would have been a shoe-in to flip the seat to the GOP. Lincoln's campaign reminded me so much of Arlen Specter. At the end, it was like she expected to lose. On Monday, I bet political odds-makers would have made Halter a 75-80% favorite to win because he was the challenger and had the momentum (and the lead it seemed). You add these to Linda McMahon's GOP primary win in Connecticut and this could be 3 gifts seats for the Dems they should not have. But November is a long way off and a lot can change.
I'm from Arkansas. How did Blanche Lincoln "come back from the dead" when she got more votes than her candidate in the initial primary vote? She won the pre-runoff primary by 6,000 votes and is currently ahead of her opponent by 8,000 votes in the runoff. Unfortunately, Blanche is about to get run in the general election....
From the stories I read, Halter steadily closed the gap as the election neared and her coming in 1st wasn't a big surprise. But the closeness of the vote didn't seem to bode well. I saw one or two polls that showed Halter pulling ahead over the weekend. What really struck me were some of Lincoln's words the last day or two. She seemed to be preparing to lose while Halter seemed much more confident. I saw the headline of an article on Sunday (I didn't bother to read) that implied Obama was distancing himself from her. Anyway, educate me by describing her Republican opponent and why she will lose in November. Very interested to hear your inside viewpoint. Since she didn't have to "pull left" at the end to win, I was thinking the strong primary challenge would make her harder to beat.
I'm basing my "Blanche is about to get run" statement based on a poll I saw a few weeks ago that had Halter and Lincoln both losing by double digits to the top five candidates for the republican nomination. Lincoln's opponent is the US representative from the area that is the economic engine of the state. Additionally, from what I understand, tons of money was poured into Arkansas during the democratic primary in order to defeat Blanche. I think she has a better shot at winning the general election than Bill Halter, but it's still a long shot. I've seen TONS of anti-Blanche Lincoln ads across the internet over the past few weeks. I think Boozman, the Republican candidate, will have great financial resources within the state, and then will get a big boost from outside interest groups. Also, Blanche Lincoln should be the perfect dem for Arkansas. I met her several years ago at the Young Democrat state convention. I liked her quite a bit. Unfortunately, she seems to have burned quite a few political bridges. I know the unions are anti-Lincoln. Her reputation is that of a person who will say one thing to gain the political backing of one group, while doing the opposite to please another group. In 2004, Lincoln won her senate race 55/44, which is not particularly close, but her opponent was considered to be a bit of a "right wing nut job," and did considerably better than expected. Her opponent in 2004 had only been a state representative for 2 years and a state senator for 2 years. Lincoln's opponent, Boozman, has the name recognition and experience of being in the US House of Reps for several years. In general, it just seems like a perfect storm for defeating Blanche Lincoln, who has done herself no favors...
I like how Whitman and Fiorina ran as "outsiders" even though they are both well-connected, insanely rich former corporate executives. Or how Haley in SC ran as a "tea party" (lol) type even though she is pretty well tied to Mr. Hiking the Appalacian Trail. It's like no one even bothers to check these soundbites for a modicum of reality.
That sounds like a lot of FUD. I cannot recall any serious candidate "appeasing" the teabaggers with such sentiments. Heck, the tea party is oft-ridiculed for the hypocrisy of lamenting "socialist plans" while supporting medicare and SS.
This may be like the amusing situation about 20 years ago in which a candidate named Leslie Perez won the democratic nomination for an office in Harris County. It turned out that the candidate was an Anglo man who had become transgendered to become a woman. My wife and I had a chuckle as her sister who was very Baptist had been door knocking against a gay rights refernedum but voted for Leslie because she thought a Hispanic woman would be nice.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/06/more_weirdness_1.php#more?ref=fpblg More Weirdness Josh Marshall | June 9, 2010, 7:32PM ABC News has an interview up with Alvin Greene, the mystery Senate candidate from South Carolina. And well, it's just weird. And I can't say that it really gives me any clearer sense of what the hell is going on here than I had before I watched it. But there is one point I thought I'd mention. In the video the interviewer is walking around the house with Greene. And Greene is showing him different memorabilia and pictures of himself as a kid. And the interviewer presses Greene, who says he's a veteran, about whether he can show him any pictures of himself in uniform. Greene sort of dodges and the question and hems and haws. And it's pretty clear that the implication of the editing is that maybe the whole military service part of Greene's bio is made up. And at this point, there's not much I won't believe with this story. But here's the thing, as long as you're keeping score at home: our Justin Elliott spent the afternoon trying to figure out what the hell was going on with this guy. And one thing Justin was able to confirm is that Greene did serve in the Air Force for three years. (Video on the site) This is just so weird. There's no real explanation that makes any sense at all as to what the guy is doing, why he's running, how he won, etc.
Having watched a few interviews with this guy, I'm becoming a big fan. There's no way he'll challenge DeMint at all, but it would be so great if he somehow won. He seems totally crazy and incredibly slow to boot. The press conferences and interviews would be incredible.
lol south carolina repubs best troll job ever! <object width="420" height="245" id="msnbc68f2eb" classid="clsid27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=37627925&width=420&height=245"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="opaque" /><embed name="msnbc68f2eb" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=37627925&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="opaque" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><p style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 420px;">Visit msnbc.com for <a style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com">breaking news</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;">world news</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;">news about the economy</a></p> <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zUFN7ZkjgkA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zUFN7ZkjgkA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> Spoiler
