Invisible Man To Run Against Jim DeMint (R-SC) In November
An unemployed military veteran who raised no funds and put up no campaign website shocked South Carolina’s Democratic Party leadership by capturing the nomination Tuesday to face Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint in November.
With nearly all precincts reporting, Alvin Greene, 32, commanded 59 percent of the vote against 41 percent for former four-term state lawmaker Vic Rawl, 64, who had raised about $186,000 and had to abruptly scrap a late-week fundraiser for the fall.
State Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler said voters unfamiliar with either candidate may have voted alphabetically for Greene over Rawl. “As far as I know, he never showed up at anything. Vic Rawl has been campaigning everywhere from the time he filed,” she said. Rawl said he was disappointed.
“I would’ve liked very much to be a candidate against Jim DeMint,” Rawl said, describing his sole primary rival as something of a mystery. “I never saw him. I’ve still never met him.”
As for Greene, he couldn’t explain it either but thanked voters in a state numb with high unemployment and said: “Let’s continue to make history and get South Carolina back to work.”
Greene said he spent a total of 13 years in the Air Force and Army before leaving the Army in August.
DeMint, a conservative Republican and tea party darling pursuing a second term, has marshaled a $3.5 million war chest already to face the bare-pockets Democratic underdog.
Political scientist Scott Huffmon at Winthrop University said the looming DeMint-Greene contest already shapes up in lopsided favor of DeMint and shows South Carolina Democrats lack depth to field strong candidates in every race.
“DeMint’s coasting pretty much to re-election,” he predicted.
Late Tuesday, stunned Democratic leaders in South Carolina struggled to comprehend how the little-seen candidate upstaged Rawl, a moderate Southern Democrat they viewed as their far stronger bet against DeMint. Rawl’s lengthy resume lists four past state House terms and former posts as prosecutor, circuit court judge and more.
DeMint trounced a Charleston lawyer, Susan Gaddy, in the GOP contest to advance
[…] Invisible Man To Run Against Jim DeMint (R-SC) In November […]
I read an interview with this character – totally unintelligible. DeMint won’t have to spend a dime and SC Dems seem to be as stupid as the opposition.
I take it they were using those republican backed Diebold voting machines too.
Yes, SC is an “Open Primary” state. That means that basically every Republican in SC voted for Greene. Once again, the GOP will win by gaming the system. Will the Dems ever learn?
Alphabetically? You’re kidding right? I know us voters can be a bit daft sometimes but alphabetically???
I suppose it would explain Schwarzenegger getting elected if the ballot was alphabetical christian names.
“I think I’ll vote for Arnold. He might be nice”
probably followed a day later by
“Oh shit! That Arnold!”
Is South Carolina an open primary state?
That’s fucking awesome. An invisible man would get me to seriously reconsider writing in Dead Gus Hall.
You could write in Lamar Odom who goes invisible for weeks at a time.
maybe there’s some hope yet. I voted against all the incumbents here last night.California has almost a 100% scumbag rate among its elected offal (not a misspelling).Starting with Nancy “don’t call my office I’ll be in Tel Aviv all week” Pelosi.