Just when you thought South Carolina politics could not get any stranger, along comes the Curious Case of Alvin Green.
Yahoo: Alvin Greene has been on the phone all day. That's to be expected for the guy who just won South Carolina's Democratic Senate primary and is facing incumbent Republican Jim DeMint in November. But everyone calling Greene has just been trying to find out who the heck he is —
Greene, a 32-year-old unemployed military veteran who lives with his parents, defeated Vic Rawl on Tuesday for the Democratic Senatenomination despite having run essentially no public campaign — no events, no signs, no debates, no website, no fundraising.
The result has baffled political observers, who had heavily favored Rawl — a former state legislator, attorney and prosecutor who had the edge inasmuch as he actually campaigned and tried to win. Many in South Carolina (which has grandly lived up to its reputation as a political circus this year) suspect that somewhere, a crafty GOP politicaloperative is snickering.
As far as the local political press can discern, the only positive step Greene took toward campaigning was when he plunked down a $10,400 check in March to satisfy the state's filing fee and get on the ballot. He never registered a campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission or filed a financial disclosure with the Senate Ethics Committee.
The story gets even stranger; as the media checked to see whom the heck Alvin Green is they found that he has a criminal record.
… the Associated Press reported that Greene was arrested in Novemberon the obscene photo complaint. Charges are pending, and he hasn't entered a plea. One could, of course, note that such charges wouldn't necessarily hurt a candidate in a Palmetto state election season that's featured plenty of sensational sexual charges.
So let me get this straight. A brother, with a shady past who lives with his folks and has no job, comes up with over $10k for the filing fee. The brother then with no visible campaigning, wins the South Carolina Democratic Party nomination for the US Senate. Um, can you say plant?
Yahoo News thinks that Green may have been planted by Republicans to stir up racial trouble for Vic Rawl. Given the sleazy behavior some South Carolina Republicans have shown towards Nikki Haley, I would not be surprised by this notion. If Green really is a plant, I think the whole scheme ended up in a huge backfire. Now that Green has won, he has vowed not to drop out.
Via: Memeorandum
Via: Yahoo News
Via: Politico