I am a resident of Illinois, a state that is frequently the “punch line” for many late night shows, with Blago’s insane antics and the never-ending parade of political scandal & politicians heading to jail. Then you have Louisiana, with its own brand of corruption going all the way back to Huey Long.
But now we have South Carolina really trying to jump to the top of the heap. Their governor was famously “hiking the Appalachian Trail” while actually having an affair with a South American woman. And the latest one is completely from left field…
An unknown candidate named Alvin Green won the Democratic primary for US Senate. By unknown I mean REALLY unknown – apparently he had no web site, didn’t campaign, and no one has heard of him across the state. Here is one of many articles summarizing his victory.
The interesting thing is that he didn’t just squeak by – he won 59% of the vote! Over 100,000 primary voters checked the box by his name, so we are not saying that just a few people showed up to the polls and distorted the outcomes.
From the Republican perspective, this guy is a gift from heaven. He apparently has some sort of pornography charges outstanding against him and he doesn’t seem to have any sort of plan for anything… if the Republicans were asked to design a “dream” opponent, from scratch, Alvin Green would fit the bill.
Please, South Carolina, keep this up. Illinois can’t always be the punch line for every comic…
The comedic hijinks will reach a crescendo when Mr. Green wins the general election!
Every Liberal has urged us to live and vote Green. SC voters are just doing their best to fight global warming and save the world. Vote Green in November!
er…it should be “e” at the end. GreenE. Adds class, you know.
Reminds me of the primary where La Rouche supporters won the Democratic primary ticket in Illinois. Downstate voters preferred voting for names like Fairchild and Hart instead of Puchinski.
If I were in charge of the SC Democrats, I would be at his doorstep with a check for $20K (10 for his filing fee and 10 for meritorious services), absolution from the prosecutor, and a job with the county clerks office. Failure to accept my generous offer should be meet with a long prison sentence.
Robert Schwartz Says on
June 12th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Failure to accept my generous offer should be meet with a long prison sentence.
Something like that may be the only hope that South Carolina Democrats have. First let me say that I do not have any idea where this Greene came from. But, and I realize that law and rules cannot be assumed to apply to Democrats in any meaningful way; a statewide primary election is pretty much the ultimate candidate selection mechanism. He won fair and square unless they can find 100K+ moles. And if they can, it would mean that the opposition to the regime is larger and more organized than they can hope to defeat short of military means. That would not be a comfort to the Democrats.
That leaves a disqualification on the requirements.
a) has he been a legal resident of South Carolina for a sufficient period of time?
b) is he a legally registered Democrat?
c) does he meet the other constitutional requirement to serve as a Senator? I.E: 30 old at least.
d) was his filing for the primary ballot in proper form, and were there any other legal or party requirements that he had to fulfill that he failed to accomplish?
If he is good there, all that remains to get him off of the ballot would be “tragic health issues/accidents” or actual incarceration preventing him from being sworn in. Note that the bar is from being sworn. There is nothing that I know of in the US Constitution or the laws of South Carolina that prevents him from running before final conviction. In South Carolina, you cannot register to vote if you are incarcerated, or if convicted of a felony and have not completed your sentence including parole and probation.
In Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486 (1969) [the Adam Clayton Powell case] the Supreme Court ruled 7-1 [Justice Fortas not taking part in this case] that so long as a candidate is duly elected according to the laws of the area he represents, the candidate must be sworn in. Once a Congress is sworn, they may choose to expel, but they may not over-ride the legitimate vote of the people. The House formalized a procedure for the process with the Federal Contested Elections Act of 1969 (2 U.S.C. §§ 381 et seq.). As far as I know, the Senate has not done so. However the Court decision covers both Houses.
There is the obscenity case that is pending against Greene. They have not released the details, although the most prevalent rumor I have heard is that it involved him showing a photo of a personal body part in an attempt to seduce a college coed. There is some question as to whether the coed was legally an adult.
Let us say that he is convicted. Now unless due to reasons of political influence the court docket is seriously shifted, we cannot expect a trial for a few months at least; longer if his attorneys use dilatory tactics. The initial conviction will not take place until just before the election at the earliest. And there is the possibility of appeals. He is not a felon until appeals are exhausted. That takes you past the election. An obscenity charge is not such as to make one a danger to the public sufficient as to prevent release on bond pending appeals. And there is the possibility of it being reduced to a misdemeanor on plea bargain, which would remove all possible legal disabilities.
I think that is a weak reed for the Democrats to be leaning on. Further, the more blatant the manipulations, the more publicity there will be for the fact that this glittering jewel of humanity was chosen by the Democrats in an open election to be their candidate.
If he takes the offer and withdraws, then the party vacancy committee will be able to name a candidate of their choice. Conversely, if he were to have a “tragic accident/illness”; the party vacancy committee will be able to name a candidate of their choice. If he declines the coming bribery attempt, for his sake I hope that he is well ensured.
If we do have free and honest elections in November; I am going to stock up on popcorn for watching South Carolina.
Subotai Bahadur
I imagine that Green won because South Carolina probably has an option to vote a straight ticket. One tick and you’ve voted for everyone that belongs to one party.
Texas has this and pranksters have occasionally exploited voter laziness to sneak in dogs and houseplants as successful candidates in local elections. (IRRC, Houston once had an actual “yellow dog” elected as a constable.)
I hadn’t realized that that Green won the nomination for the Federal senate. I thought it was a state office. How could the democrats and the media not realize the candidate for a federal seat was a nobody?
Have a care! There’s recent evidence to the effect that a nobody from the federal senate can go on to become President.
I think too many commenters here are buying the MSM spin, which is: Ha ha ha, what a mystery that such a person won. I don’t see any mystery. It seems likely that people voted for this guy because he’s an unknown. Incumbency isn’t necessarily an advantage this year.
He’s as legitimate a candidate as anyone.
“I imagine that Green won because South Carolina probably has an option to vote a straight ticket”
I have to say I like this idea: a button (so to speak) in the voting both which reads “vote against all incumbents.”. Anyway, this was a primary, so straight-ticket voting is probably impossible.
My guess: the voters were thoroughly familiar with Greene’s opponent.
As a SC resident, I have a few ideas how Mr. Greene pulled this off. The big race was for the governor – it had been in the national news for weeks; or months if you follow the AP’s gossip articles on Sanford. Voters ask for either a Republican or Democrat ballot to vote on primary day. Most politically involved Dems wanted to have a chance at selecting the Republicans’ November governor candidate. Republicans usually win the big offices, and Senator DeMint (R) was considered unbeatable in November. ANY Dem facing him is a sacrificial lamb. For my other “helper” theory, it would be interesting to see the demographic data for the two Democrat candidates and how it compares to previous elections.