This is Real Fishy (Alvin Greene)

[ProSense]

This is Real Fishy

Josh Marshall

Okay, I'm not buying this.

As you may have heard, last night had a big surprise in the Democratic Senate primary in South Carolina. Probably no Democrat would have much of a chance against Sen. Jim DeMint (R) this year. But the main candidate was Vic Rawl, a judge who's also served four terms in the state legislature. He'd raised $186,000. Against him was Alvin Greene, a rather unorthodox candidate. And Greene won. (The best theory people have come up with is that no one in the state had really heard of either guy and Greene's name came first on the ballot; and that gave him an advantage.)

Greene's unemployed, recently out of the Army and living with his parents, and has an outstanding felony arrest from last year for showing obscene photos to a college student last year.

Back in March he walked into the state Democratic headquarters with a personal check for $10,400. That's the filing fee. The party people said they weren't allowed to take a personal check. It had to come from a campaign account. So a few hours later he came back with a check from a campaign account. And he signed up to run.

And that was it. He held no events. He never campaigned. He didn't go to the convention. He never filed any money filings. He never raised any money. He didn't even have a website. In other words, by every conceivable measure he never actually mounted a campaign. When Mother Jones called him shortly after his victory and asked him what was up, he seemed hard pressed to explain why he had run or really anything about what was going on other than to insist that the ten grand was his money.

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[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. Yeah it smells to high heaven to me too. What was the number of voters in the Dem primary?

[Renew Deal]

3. Does SC have open primaries?

[Ian David]

2. Hmmm... wonder if someone in The GOP financed his campaign? n/t

[tanyev]

14. Maybe the same guy who "gifted" the Green Party in Texas with a petition drive.

[msanthrope]

16. The Green Party tried that shit here in PA.

They got their asses kicked in court and still haven't regrouped because all but the stupid of their base dropped them after learning of their accepting Repuke help.

Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

19. Apparently the SC Republican Party has financed a candidate before

They got caught and fined.

I suppose it doesn't really matter. That seat was going to a Republican. But if they did do something fishy, they should get called on it.

[msanthrope]

15. Time to pull the FEC filings and cross-check names nt

[democraticinsurgent]

4. Similar happening in Indiana in May

Republican Dan Burton ran for re-nomination in the heavily Republican 5th Congressional district in Indiana. He barely won, and only because five challengers split the anti-Burton vote.

On the Democratic side, a very active and excellent candidate named Nasser Hanna lost the nomination to a complete unknown, Tim Crawford. Crawford did have a web site,but that was about all. No money, no campaign. Just a WASP-y name which seemed to do the trick, despite the fact that Crawford's positions were akin to the Tea Party.

Safe to say that Hanna's name was a problem, but still this shouldn't have happened.

[RC]

8. How did the voters vote? Paper and pencil? Machine? How?

[bergie321]

17. DailyKos Says Diebold

This smells fishy.

[JuniperLea]

5. What's his voting record?

I smell plant.

[EC]

6. I sure hope the Dems in SC and in

Ind. get together and get a 3rd party or write-in campaigne going...these guys were paid to do this and screw Dems - I'm guessing Dick Armory or one of the tea party groups.

[rug]

7. Thank God Lee Mercer lost.

[Beetwasher]

9. Sounds Like Some Repub Scheme

They finance this guy and then have him implode in some sleazy scandal and use it to tar the Dems.

[Mass]

10. Here is an attempt to an explanation from dailykos. Not sure what it is worth.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/6/9/92118/67336

[depakid]

18. Sounds like a combination of

A. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_vote">The Donkey Vote;

B. They didn't like the other guy; and possibly

C. a racial component (though in a South Carolina Democratic primary, one has to be more than a bit skeptical about that).

[Ian David]

11. Meanwhile, Florida State Sen. Mike Bennett (R)...

Florida State Senator Caught Looking At Porn During Session (VIDEO)
Topic started by Tx4obama on May-03-10 04:44 PM (29 replies)
Last modified by Mnemosyne on May-04-10 02:44 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4366374

Sen. Mike Bennett Caught Looking at Porn on Senate Floor (Fl.)
Topic started by ensho on May-04-10 12:00 PM (6 replies)
Last modified by Rebubula on May-04-10 12:44 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8271076



See also:


http://www.republicansexoffenders.com/

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. did Michael Steele write him a check?

I wonder did he get paid in cash?

[4lbs]

13. Someone does need to investigate why 1 out of 7 Democratic voters in the primary didn't even vote

for either Democratic candidate. I would think voting for your U.S. Senate candidate would be a big thing and not just ignore voting at all.

Meanwhile, nearly all of the Repuke voters that showed up voted for one of the two GOP candidates.


Let's see.

http://www.enr-scvotes.org/SC/16117/27397/en/summary.html


~ 424,000 Republican ballots cast
~ 197,000 Democratic ballots cast
~ 2,600,000 total registered voters in S.C. --> turnout was 24%

Jim Demint and Susan Gaddy got almost 412,000 of the 424,000 Republican votes. That's about 97%.


Greene and Rawl got almost 170,000 of the 197,000 Democratic votes. That's about 86%.


If anything, Greene won by about 30,000 votes, which is almost the difference in number of Democratic votes cast for U.S. Senate and total Democratic votes.

There was no huge Republican push to put in an unknown Democrat. 97% of Republicans that voted, voted for a Republican in the U.S. Senate primary.

What needs to be asked is why 27,000 Democratic voters in S.C., or almost 14% (1 out of 7), didn't vote for either of the Democrats.

[Alcibiades]

22. You'd need historical data to see if this difference matters

Here a re a couple of quick hypotheses: All South Carolina counties use DREs, which have the highest undervote rate of any system other than punch cards. We know that undervote rates are highly sensitive to how the ballot appears on the screen--without seeing it, I cannot say this for sure, but there may be some difference on how this appeared in this election, I wouldn't put it past the folks in SC to devise a more confusing ballot screen for the Democratic primary than for the Republican one. We do know that simple things, such as the number of candidates and offices on the screen, can change things such as undervotes dramatically on DREs. See the article below for more information on the many sorts of problems that can happen with DREs.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CCMQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sscnet.ucla.edu%2Fpolisci%2Ffaculty%2Flewis%2Fpdf%2Fcd13.pdf&rct=j&q=Ballot+Formats%2C+Touchscreens%2C+and+Undervotes%3A&ei=xtgQTPHOFcT38AbS-p3tBQ&usg=AFQjCNFjzqmTIkXnTP4rX-Zo8I7d4Qb8gg

Less sinisterly, it could be a result of better organization on the part of SC Republicans in educating their primary voters on how to complete the ballot. Finally, we have known for a long time that undervotes are much higher in low salience elections. It could well be that, in a race with two fairly unknown contenders who don't stand a chance in November, the Democratic primary was less salient for SC Democrats than the Republican one was for SC Repubs.

But you're absolutely right that the Democratic undervote rate was high, and that the discrepancy is interesting. Thanks for giving me a great idea for a paper!

[vaberella]

20. That is crazy weird. n/t

[Mass]

21. Can somebody explain to me what he alledgedly did is a crime (if the girl was more than 18, I mean).

I agree the election is weird, but I am missing something concerning the charge.

[Ian David]

23. Clyburn Says Greene Was a "Plant," calls for investigation

Clyburn Says Greene Was a "Plant," calls for investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=333124&mesg_id=333124

[HughMoran]

24. Could Republicans vote in the Democratic primary in Arkansas?

[Cha]

25. We'll have to see what the investigation digs up. nt

[xxqqqzme]

26. I hope California Democrats are paying attention.

Prop 14 - 'Open' primaries passed on Tuesday. We better be taking notes. This road show is coming to California very soon.

[Raineyb]

27. Doesn't South Carolina have an open primary system.

That would answer the question as to how this dude won.