Last Updated on 5/24/2013

Published on 6/26/2012

The Election Circus is in town!

Here it is election time again and the Democrats are having trouble again. It’s Alvin Green and hang chads’ all over again.

In the upstate the Democrats are proud to have elected Bryan Doyle to run as the Democrat candidate for the 3rd Congressional district. The fact that he was convicted in 2003 on six felony counts related to fraud and spent 30 months in jail doesn’t seem to bother even the Democrat Party State Chairman, Dick Harpootlian, who stated that since they were sending him to Washington he should fit right in. Maybe he would fit better in Mr. Harpootlian ‘s law firm, but then this buttonholes with the Democrat initiative to allow felons to vote and should do wonders to give Democrats the credibility within the state that they deserve.

Then there is Mrs. Tinubu. Running a great race in a crowded field, this highly qualified, black, female, walks with over 50% of the vote. In the world of Democrats, you would think of Mrs. Tinubu as the perfect Democrat candidate. You would expect every Democrat woman to jump on this backhoe and ride while waving flags and wearing pretty hats. But alas, following the last Democrat debate there were two prominent Democrat women on TV saying how they didn’t expect Mrs. Tinubu to do well because she “… couldn’t relate to the voters…” So much for a career in political prognostication.

And then there is the reason why so many prominent Democrats think that Mrs. Tinubu should not be crowned as their candidate. It’s not because she is black, oh heck no, not a Democrat. They can’t be racist. That is a title reserved for Republicans. It’s because over two thousand Democrats voted for someone who had withdrawn from the race weeks before and they think that votes for a candidate that does not exist should be counted. As my ten year old granddaughter would say, “Really?”.

The donkey in the room is that Democrats are willing to risk losing a great candidate, a person who epitomizes what the Democrat party touts itself as being all about, for the sake of nominating a rich white man from a very prominent local family.

And we wonder why South Carolina votes Republican?

Bill Hills
Murrells Inlet


7th Congressional District Runoff

Politics is the province of the uncertain. So is the Democratic Primary in the Seventh Congressional District of South Carolina.

• One leading candidate was forced to drop out of the contest.

•  This seemed to pave the way for a young white man with political and social standing in Horry County.

•  Then a new, surprise winner emerged from obscurity — an African American woman, and a college professor at that.

•  Did she have a majority?

•  The State Election Commission said Yes.

n A state Circuit Court judge said No.

n A runoff election was ordered, only four days from the order.

Truly, this is the province of the uncertain!

Could we have yet another uncertain outcome? A Democratic win in November in the Seventh District?

Yes. If we Democrats all get along and respect each other for the next two days — which we can and will!

And we can stay that way until November, no matter who wins on Tuesday. Won’t it be great — a Democratic member of Congress from South Carolina’s new Seventh District!

Uncertain, yes. But possible? Yes.

We Democrats must all be together — and we will— this week and this year. Let’s make this uncertainty our opportunity. Everyone together, on Tuesday and in November.

Don Fowler
Columbia

Don Fowler is the former chair of the SC Democratic Party and former chair of the Democratic National Committee.


Sales tax and dredging

Before we tax ourselves to spend millions to dredge and maintain the Port of Georgetown, we need to do a real good sales job to get shippers to commit to using it.

One solution might be a grain elevator, but we still need a commitment to make use of it.

Pat Ferris
Georgetown