Why does it cost $10,000 to run for senate in South Carolina?
A man named Alvin Greene won the democrat senate primary in South Carolina on Tuesday, for the right to take on the republican incumbent Jim DeMint in the fall. The man is, according to this Yahoo! news story, a “Mystery SC nominee with a pending felony charge.”
Greene, a 32-year-old unemployed military veteran who lives with his parents, defeated Vic Rawl on Tuesday for the Democratic Senate nomination 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.
Another Yahoo! news story (man, they are all over this thing!), explains in greater detail the “felony charge“:
Greene was charged in November of last year, after he was arrested for showing a University of South Carolina student pornography on his laptop in a school library.
Those are the actions of a man with a great deal of initiative, an “outside-the-box” thinker who is exactly the type of person you’d expect to launch a longshot bid for one of the two prestigious seats allotted to South Carolina in the United States senate… and succeed!
And yet, some people think that Mr. Greene might be some kind of cynical plant by nefarious republican operatives. From the second story:
The evidence is mounting that Alvin Greene, the mysterious unemployed veteran and accused sex offender who shocked South Carolina Tuesday night by winning the Democratic Senate primary, was put up to the candidacy in some sort of political skullduggery.
What is that evidence? Well, for one thing, the accused sex offender (did you catch that in the Yahoo! news story? he’s an accused sex offender because he showed someone pornography on a laptop) paid the filing fee with a personal check. And that is suspicious because, well, it costs an awful lot to file to be a candidate for the senate in South Carolina:
Greene has claimed that he paid the $10,400 filing fee out of his savings from his military pay. But he was discharged from the Army in August 2009, and says he hasn’t held a job since then.
It costs $10,400 just to file to be a candidate? For crying out loud who cares how long it’s been since this guy last worked and who cares if he showed someone dirty pictures in a library? Why on earth does it cost $10,400 to file to be a candidate for the senate?
Could it be that democrats and republicans have so thoroughly warped the system that they’ve made it effectively impossible for an unemployed man who happens to be a veteran and, yes, an accused sex offender to even file to be a candidate?
That sounds like real “political skullduggery” to me. And Yahoo! news is completely glossing over what is the real scandal of this story.
Latest posts by Ricky Sprague (Posts)
- Meet the start-ups that are thriving in the current economic recovery - May 27, 2016
- How a Wonder Woman comic from 1942 led to the Great California Cow Exodus of 2012, maybe - November 28, 2012
- A common-sense approach to restoring economic prosperity - November 19, 2012
- New Philip K. Dick novel too absurd to be believed - September 17, 2012
- My 90 Days, 90 Reasons submission - September 12, 2012
Print This Post
You wonder how they came up with the $400 part. Were they going for a Form 1040 theme?
Besides, given all the recent sexual/marital shenanigans among politicians in South Carolina — where everyone goes to a Baptist church at least twice each Sunday — his particular felony barely registers on the meter. So that must mean the high dollar barrier to political office must be to keep out the POOR riff-raff, not the riff-raff with money. Didn’t work this time, though.
Teddy Kennedy was a known pervert, womanizer and a drunk who’s car has killed more people than my guns….. Anyone want to wager that ole Teddy showed a few porno pics in his day?……. He died a hero in the Dems eyes…. They should make this guy their poster boy, not crucify him. He is just being a good politician and is practicing up before he gets sworn in.
Well, womanizer and drunk, sure — that’s pretty standard in political life. I’ll even give you arrogant and throw in obnoxious. But pervert? That’s going too far.
“Whose” car, by the way.
How is he a sex offender? Showing dirty pics is a far cry from a sex offender
The Democrats who have a problem with Mr. Greene spending $10,400 to get on the ballot need to do some digging in regards to the $2 billion dollars President Obama spent in his 2008 campaign.
Show of hands: Who thinks that was all his money?
Notice how the charge is ‘showing pornography’ to a college student. Presumably the student is over 18 and the porn didn’t involve minors. Otherwise that would be the headline.
So that constitutes a sex offender in the US? Whereas being a catholic priest doesn’t. That fact that he’s 12 months unemployed is almost a crimminal charge initself.
Where on earth did he get that money from?
Oh and he’s also an Army vet. A war hero. Which proves he has no money. Right? Surely a grunt can’t raise such an amount. Is that the kind of person who should be allowed in politics?
Ricky Sprague is also an American hero. He’s doing the job that the fourth estate isn’t.
@ AJaye and Raheem: The laws in America are so broadly written that it often doesn’t take much to get labeled a “sex offender.”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14505044
I googled this page as I am equally amazed that the headline is everything but WHY does it cost so much to file. Thank you for having the intestinal fortitude to speak the obvious.
Politics today has become an elitist organization. I don’t know if this man would be a good candidate but its refreshing to see his isn’t part of the so-called establishment.
Ginormously wealthy, corporate-connected Republican ladies will be our salvation, even if they weren’t for the corporations to which they were connected.