Alvin Greene UPSET: Mystery Man Stuns In South Carolina Senate Primary

COLUMBIA, S.C. — 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.

Comments

[Lori Girl]

12:54 AM on 07/20/2010

I am actually becoming quite a fan of Mr. Greene!

[Diane B 528]

07:42 PM on 07/09/2010

This would be a good opportunity for a Democrat to run as an Independant and, possibly, win.

[Jeannette Harris]

08:05 AM on 06/21/2010

There is a "throw the bums out" movement encouraging the electorate to vote against *any* incumbent regardless of political party or view. I don't know that it's likely folk bothered to go to the polls and then just pulled the first switch they came upon and it was his as being alphabetically first in the list. Isn't that a slight insult to those who did remember the right day, get dressed, drive to the correct location sometime during the accurate time that it was open, having previously been sure they were registered to vote? I don't know that folk go to that much trouble just to make an appearance that's meaningless to them, do you?

[Mark Trail]

04:08 AM on 06/16/2010

I am disgusted by the way the Democrat party is treating Alvin Greene the Democrat nominee for Senate!

FACT: Alvin Greene is BLACK so by Democrat standards he should be immune from criticism, but they are doing nothing less than politically LYNCHING Alvin Greene!

FACT: Many BLACK voters, voted FOR Alvin Greene and they now want to toss out the election results and disenfranchise those BLACK VOTES!

FACT: Alvin Greene is a Democrat who served in the Military and using the John Kerry model, he should be immune from criticism as well, but the Democrats are "Swift Boating" Alvin Greene!

FACT: They say he has been accused of a crime, but there are plenty of WHITE Democrat Senators and Congressmen who have been accused of crimes and the Democrats stand by them!

FACT: They say he doesn't seem very smart, but Joe Biden is a complete idiot and they didn't have any problem making him the Vice President because he is WHITE!

The only reason they are going after Alvin Greene is because he is a BLACK VETERAN! Bunch of anti-military racists make me sick!

Where are those Uncle Tom's Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? This BLACK MAN is being LYNCHED by the Democrat Party and they are sitting on their hands!

[NHGranite]

03:55 PM on 06/21/2010

Whoa there Sunday Comics guy,

If you could just calm down and take a breath, maybe you see the problem is not as much with Mr Greene as it is with how he got on the ballot and how the counted votes don't add up. If I were there, I would still vote for him over the other guy any day. But, come on, when there are precincts where Greene has more votes than were actually cast, who you gonna call? Vote Busters?!

[mperl95]

07:00 PM on 06/14/2010

How can this happen? This year is the weirdest scenerios in politics. You have a lovesick Govenor going out of the country and a few loose cannons up at capitol hill. This does top the list. How did this guy become a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate?.

[hookr23]

01:50 AM on 06/13/2010

hahahaha

[jamespatrick101]

11:25 PM on 06/14/2010

i concur

[ErikW65]

05:57 PM on 06/12/2010

An unemployed person paid $10,400.00 to register as a US Senate candidate? Smells fishy.

Looking beyond why it costs so much to participate in the first place, something's very wrong with this picture. How does any unemployed person put up that much money on an otherwise completely unprepared run for high public office?

The only plausible explanation is that some unknown party funded Mr. Greene's candidacy in the hopes of sabotaging the Democrats' chances of winning the race for this senate seat.

[jamespatrick101]

11:26 PM on 06/14/2010

yeah, well, the dems voted him in and it wasn't even close.

[Darrell Hanley]

12:54 PM on 06/12/2010

Please, this is the reason why we don't live in a true democracy. The voters picked this guy because they didn't bother to do their research on potential candidates before going to the polls, and it turns out that almost 60% of them just picked the guy who was first on the ballot. There's no Republican conspiracy or voter fraud, and even it there was it wouldn't account for why Greene was able to get 59% of the vote anyway. Not like anyone knew who Vic Rawl was, as 538 is claiming that 80% of voters didn't know who he was either, so he should be lucky he even made it to 41%.

The far more depressing reality is that votes simply aren't that smart, and that if they aren't voting along party lines, then they're voting at random, and in doing so they usually end up voting either for a name that sounds familiar to one with a positive connotation to them, or one which is first on the ballot, and Greene's situation falls into the latter.

[ErikW65]

06:34 PM on 06/12/2010

Of course we don't live in a "true democracy" but how is that related to the likely reason why SC Dem primary voters chose unknown Alvin Greene?

To the extent that you're simply decrying the lack of voter awareness and education, I don't take issue with your statement, but there's no evidence that voters chose Greene because he was listed first, versus say the general anti-incumbent mood. That is just as likely an ovious motivation, but you ignore it.

Your illogical jump to other conclusions, such as "There's no Republican conspiracy or voter fraud" is suspicious as well. How do you reasonably rule out such a possibility so matter-of-factly? You almost sound like a Republican plant yourself.

[jamespatrick101]

11:35 PM on 06/14/2010

Ha! Your psuedo-intellectual breakdown of Darrell's comments are laughable. Thanks for the chuckle. You cite the "anti-incumbent mood" yet in the mid-term elections thus far, 82 of 84 incumbents have kept their seats. Yeah, that anti-incumbent mood is just sweeping the nation, right? And, uh, not to mention.... the Republican Jim DeMint is the incumbent here my man. Get a clue.

[beowulf39565]

12:30 PM on 06/12/2010

A meek unknown, unemployed, not completely honorably discharged veteran facing a felony charge wins a Democratic primary in South Carolina. He decimates the four-term State Senator Vic Rawl with fifty-nine percent of the vote and the Democratic Party launches a witch-hunt.

Perhaps there was some fowl play. However,plant or not, it appears you do not have to be a Tea Party conservative to be over politicians. Non-politician types lead in many races across the nation because of not only the conservatives disgust with the self serving ways of politicians but the moderates and some working class liberals as well. The networks force-feed you their poll data but you would be wise to look at others such as AT&T and Yahoo polls for contrast for the complete picture. Kermit the frog could probably have run and won in South Carolina, for the simple fact he is not a politician.

Voters in SC may face ridicule by much of the nation for voting for mystery man Alvin Greene. Blaming the Republicans, though, can only make them look worse. Voting for Alvin cost them each a vote, the opposition pulling the wool over their eyes, well that is priceless.

Even with all his flaws; to many Greene may appear even less corrupt than any Democrat and most Republicans currently ruling. Who watches Television anymore with this great material playing out in real life and in real time on the computer over the Al Goreanet?

[Billy38]

09:54 AM on 06/12/2010

Although an upset, Alvin Greene probably represents more of the South Carolina people than any other candidate. Ex enlisted Military man, possible felony conviction, unemployed and broke. He does not just represent the population of South Carolina but the whole country. Privaledged white people run our state legislation and do nothing for their states, priveledged white people are seated in positions in our Federal government and have done nothing but lie and misdirect for their personel gain.Cudos to you Mr. Greene, seize the moment and and make it yours. A white guy from Texas

[stevnjessie1]

03:51 AM on 06/12/2010

now S.C., this is what happens when you don't fact-check your candidates. i believe there were other democratic options.

[baseball17bucks]

11:24 AM on 06/15/2010

yeah...we def need CNN or AP to perform a fact check. This is out of control. [sarcasm]

[AwakenYoshikawa]

12:03 AM on 06/12/2010

Any good con person knows that if your going to run the con, don't make it to "pat' or you wake the victim up to the con.

You hear all the time about liberal bias, left wing media etc. Yet...I have not heard much mention of this election. You would think it would be on the front page of everything. Unemployed candidate, living with his parents, comes up with 10K and wins the election without even running. But I haven't see it at all on tv news zero!

[baseball17bucks]

11:27 AM on 06/15/2010

you'll find it on fox though!

[CollectiveNotIndividual]

06:29 PM on 06/11/2010

Public Schools. That's how this happened.

[baseball17bucks]

11:27 AM on 06/15/2010

parents who let their son live with them for 35+ years. THAT'S how this happened.

[ksriok]

04:59 PM on 06/11/2010

No worries Rawl will run as an independent.

[baseball17bucks]

11:28 AM on 06/15/2010

so that's how lib do it...just change party willy-nilly?

[Sioux Citizen]

02:24 PM on 06/11/2010

What could have been worse? Look the democrats elected Obama, an experienced community organizer and freshman in Congress, with no more knowledge of the man than a questionable birth certificate, no management experience, that got an A in teleprompter. How did it happen? The same democrat voters elected the green candidate based upon hope and change. Go figure :)

[AwakenYoshikawa]

10:10 PM on 06/11/2010

Obama: a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he ran for United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Democratic primary and his prime-time televised keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in November 2004.

Why don't you post your bio?

[Billy38]

10:03 AM on 06/12/2010

Cudos for Obama, If Sarah can quit being govenor for a job with FOX and pocket millions to run around the country screaming her garbage, and Obama can become President, to me it sounds pretty much even or even leans more to any body but Sarah. I like Obama, I support our President and will do so. We had 911 shoved down our throats by the previous administration so why can't this administration point out the fire created by them while putting them out? Bush and Cheney need to be investigated. We were warned by Gerald Ford in a death letter that got little or no media attention.Americans can not forget no matter how hard they try to make us.

[baseball17bucks]

11:31 AM on 06/15/2010

why don't you? Actually, I'll do it for you...

Over-protective liberal who secretly is having buyer's remorse but is so afraid of admitting he made a bad decision that he'll actually DEFEND Alvin Greene.