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Tag: south carolina elections 2014
The Tea Party Falls Flat: How Lindsey Graham Survived A Right-Wing Challenge

The Tea Party Falls Flat: How Lindsey Graham Survived A Right-Wing Challenge

When South Carolinians head to the polls on Tuesday, it’s very likely that the Tea Party’s years-long effort to unseat Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will end with a whimper.

Polls suggest that Graham is will crush his six primary challengers; according to The Huffington Post’spolling average of the race, the two-term incumbent is on track to clear the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a June 24 runoff. Even if he does not, it’s hard to imagine any of the other candidates making up a 40-point deficit in just two weeks.

Graham’s impending victory may come as something of a surprise, considering that he has long been one of the Tea Party’s top targets (indeed, he has been repeatedly censured by local party committees for being insuficiently conservative). But there are several reasons that the right’s quest to replace the supposed RINO seems destined for failure.

First, no serious challenger ever emerged. Although Graham’s opponents hoped to recruit a high-profile conservative such as Rep. Trey Gowdy or Rep. Mick Mulvaney into the race, the field of challengers ended up being led by state senator Lee Bright — a genuine extremist who has argued that welfare programs are “all sin,” that IRS “Brown Shirts” are planning to enforce the Affordable Care Act with AR-15 rifles, and that South Carolinians may have to “use the Second Amendment” to fight a second Civil War, among many other controversial positions. The other challengers struggled with issues of their own; businesswoman Nancy Mace angered supporters of Governor Nikki Haley (R) through her professional partnership with blogger Will Folks (who accused Haley of having an extramarital affair), and businessman Richard Cash never expanded the scope of his campaign past social issues — his highest-profile moment came via an ad bragging about having been arrested 10 times in various anti-abortion protests.  Unlike in Mississippi or Kentucky, Tea Party supporters in South Carolina never found a single candidate around whom they could rally.

Graham also took great pains to protect his right flank throughout the campaign. Although he drew the ire of the right for co-sponsoring immigration reform legislation in 2013, he has generally stuck to the party line, voting with the majority of the Republican caucus 80 percent of the time. And he has provided plenty of red meat to placate his party’s right wing, leading the GOP’s heated criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi attack, and even suggesting that he could bring articles of impeachment against the president.

Perhaps most significantly, Graham’s fundraising blew his opponents out of the water. The incumbent raised more than $9 million for the race, while none of his challengers managed to raise even $1 million. That massive advantage allowed Graham to control the airwaves and out-organize his opponents on the ground, all but killing their hopes of engineering an upset win. The Tea Party groups that have spent years calling for Graham’s ouster declined to put their money where their mouths are in the Republican primary, and as a result they will almost certainly have to live with another six-year term for the supposed moderate they love to hate.

Photo: Secretary of Defense via Flickr

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WATCH: Is This The Worst Attack Ad Of 2014?

WATCH: Is This The Worst Attack Ad Of 2014?

The Republican Governors Association released one of the nastiest campaign ads of the year on Monday, accusing South Carolina state Senator and gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen (D) of siding with violent criminals over South Carolinians.

“It’s a fact: Trial lawyer Vincent Sheheen made money off criminals,” the ad’s female narrator says darkly. “Got a sex offender out of jail time. Defended a child abuser. And represented others charged with violent acts.”

“Sheheen defended violent criminals who abused women, and went to work setting them free. So next time Sheheen says he’ll protect women from violent criminals, ask him: What about the ones who paid him?” the ad concludes. “Vincent Sheheen protects criminals. Not us.”

The ad references Sheheen’s past legal work; although the majority of his career has focused on civil cases, he has represented at least three men who were charged with criminal domestic violence. According to incumbent governor Nikki Haley (R), that is inconsistent with his legislative plans to fight violence against women.

Democrats, predictably, disagree.

“As a former prosecutor, Vincent has seen what families and victims go through and he has worked with law enforcement to hold criminals accountable and achieve justice,” Sheheen’s campaign manager Andrew Whalen told The State. “This dishonest ad by Nikki Haley’s DC friends is a disgusting and desperate attempt to distract from children being abused and dying because of the reckless leadership at Haley’s Department of Social Services.”

Whalen’s latter remark refers to ongoing investigations into child deaths associated with the South Carolina Department of Social Services. Sheheen has called on the department’s director, Lillian Koller — a Haley appointee — to be removed from office.

The vicious attack ad makes it clear that the RGA is not taking Sheheen’s campaign lightly. Haley defeated Sheheen by 4 percent in their surprisingly-close 2010 matchup; early polling of their 2014 rematch suggests that Haley may have a more comfortable margin this November.

Screenshot: YouTube

Meet Lee Bright, The Tea Partier Who May Be Too Extreme For Even South Carolina

Meet Lee Bright, The Tea Partier Who May Be Too Extreme For Even South Carolina

South Carolina state senator Lee Bright (R), who is running a Tea Party-backed challenge to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in South Carolina’s Republican primary, is a magnet for controversy.

Bright most recently grabbed headlines on Monday’s edition of Fox News Radio’s The Alan Colmes Show, when he suggested that teachers should be allowed to carry machine guns on school grounds:

COLMES: So [teachers] shouldn’t have machine guns?
BRIGHT: I would think a teacher protecting a school grounds should be able to carry whatever she can carry legally.
COLMES: So should machine guns be legal to carry?
BRIGHT: The Second Amendment is pretty clear. It says the right to carry arms should not be infringed. […]
COLMES: So you should be able to have any gun you want?
BRIGHT: Well, I don’t see how the government can regulate it.

The discussion was not purely academic; Bright has authored bills to expand the number of guns in schools, and has repeatedly argued that South Carolina should be able to nullify federal gun laws. Additionally, as Think Progress‘ Igor Volsky points out, the Supreme Court has ruled that the government can, in fact, limit “dangerous and unusual” weapons (such as machine guns made after the passage of the 1986 Firearms’ Owners Protection Act).

Bright’s extreme opposition to tougher gun laws is just one of many positions that puts him far outside of the mainstream, even in staunchly Republican South Carolina. Among other examples, Bright has:

  • Argued that welfare programs are “all sin” and “legalized plunder.”
  • Explained his demand that food stamps be cut by insisting that “able-bodied people, if they don’t work, they shouldn’t eat.”
  • Warned that “Brown Shirts” from the Internal Revenue Service are going to enforce the Affordable Care Act with AR-15 semiautomatic rifles.
  • Insisted that “FEMA is a scam,” and that the government should have no role in providing disaster relief.
  • Suggested that Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor might want to dissolve the states, and that President Obama wants to become a king.
  • Threatened that South Carolinians may have to “use the Second Amendment” against the government, adding that “I want to lay down my life for my liberty just like my forefathers did.”

In addition to all of his overheated rhetoric, Bright holds at least $1.4 million in debt from a failed trucking business — a disclosure that rather undercuts his efforts to paint himself as a fiscal conservative.

In other words, Bright is an opposition researcher’s dream candidate. And yet it’s plausible that he could wind up in the U.S. Senate.

Early polling of South Carolina’s Republican primary finds Graham with a comfortable lead. The most recent survey, from Gravis Marketing, finds Graham with a big 54 to 10 percent advantage over Bright; Charleston businesswoman Nancy Mace has 6 percent support, followed by 2010 congressional candidate Richard Cash at 5 percent, and attorney Bill Connor at 2 percent. 23 percent are undecided.

The poll does contain warning signs for the incumbent, however. When asked if they would support a “Tea Party” challenger to Senator Graham, 39 percent of voters said “yes,” while 37 percent said “no,” and 24 percent were undecided. This suggests that if any of Graham’s challengers can consolidate support on the right, there is plenty of room for their numbers to grow. That unsettling thought could become reality for Graham this summer; if he fails to crack 50 percent in the June 10 primary, he would face the second-place finisher in a one-on-one runoff election two weeks later.

If Bright can force a runoff and carry the Tea Party banner against Graham — who has long been a target of scorn from the right — then the race could narrow rapidly. And even if Graham wins the runoff (to be sure, his robust fundraising and unmatched name recognition would make him the strong favorite even in a head-to-head matchup with Bright), he may have to shift far enough to the right to leave him vulnerable against a strong Democratic challenger.

Thankfully for Republicans, no such challenger exists as of now. It would take an exceptionally strong Democratic candidate to win any statewide election in South Carolina, and the only Democrat in the race — Jay Stamper, an entrepreneur who pleaded guilty to three felony charges related to the illegal sale of securities in 2006 — is unlikely to become that candidate.

There is still plenty of time until the March 30 deadline to file for the Senate race. If Graham shows even a hint of vulnerability, and gives Bright even the slightest chance at winning the Republican nomination, then Democrats would be wise to find a stronger candidate to run against what could be an incredibly weak GOP nominee.

Screenshot: YouTube