Lindsey Graham Won His Primary, But BRAVO TV Star Thomas Ravenel May Well Still Do Him In

We've been writing about how the DSCC is missing their best opportunity of 2014 by not taking advantage of a peculiar situation in South Dakota where there are 3 Republicans on the November ballot against populist Democrat Rick Weiland. The Party Establishment has a garden variety corporate shill in the race, Mike Rounds, and he's the official party designee, but 2 very well-known Republicans, ex-U.S. Senator Larry Pressler, and state Senator Gordon Howie, both running as Independents, feel strongly that Rounds is unfit to represent the state in the U.S. Senate.

There's a similar situation developing in South Carolina, as well-- although instead of a populist Democrat like Weiland, the Democratic candidate there, state Senator Brad Hutto, is from the Republican wing of the party. If he can persuade Democratic voters to support a conservative, Hutto may benefit from a schism in the state GOP that wasn't cured by the big primary win Lindsey Graham just celebrated. Lindsey already spent $8,500,416 against half a dozen Republican opponents from the teabagger wing of the party, none of whom spent as much as $5,000 and these were the results:

• Lindsey Graham- 169,899 (56.49%)
• Lee Bright- 47,107 (15.66%)
• Richard Cash- 24,016 (7.99%)
• Det Bowers- 22,060 (7.33%)
• Nancy Mace- 18,748 (6.23%)
• Bill Connor- 15,878 (5.28%)
• Benjamin Dunn- 3,055 (1.02%)

As we've been warning, though, popular former South Carolina Treasurer and cable TV star, Thomas Ravenel-- also: a household name, very, very rich and a coke freak who went to prison on drug changes a couple of years ago-- left the Republican Party and is now some kind of independent libertarian running against Graham. I don't even get the idea he expects to win-- just defeat Graham, who he really, really detests. (Ironically, Graham is gay and Ravenel is straight but Ravenel favors LGBT equality while the closeted Graham opposes it.) This week, the Charleston Post and Courier reported that Ravenel is already spending money to gather the 10,000 signatures he needs to get on the November ballot. "Like Admiral Farragut said, 'Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead.'"




All Ravenel needs to do is take between 10 and 15% of the votes and Graham will likely lose to Hutto. South Carolina isn't as red as many people think it is. When Democrat Vincent Sheheen ran against Nikki Haley in 2010 she beat him 690,525 (51%) to 630,534 (47%). When Graham last faced the voters, in 2008, he was up against Democrat Bob Conley. Graham pulled 1,076,534 votes (58%) to Conley's 790,621 (42%). On that same day McCain beat Obama, but probably not by as much as you think: 1,034,896 (54%) to 862,449 (45%). A 10-15% deduction from any of the Republicans in those races would have flipped the victory to the Democrat.

T-Rav says he's done with Southern Charm now and plans to explain his 2007 bust in great detail, particularly the speculation that Graham, who feared Ravenel would beat him in a primary, pulled the strings that set the investigation into motion. This should be an exciting race to watch, even more exciting than Southern Charm.

Ravenel opposes unconstitutional invasions of privacy by the NSA

How Does An Actual Progressive Campaign In A Red State?

Ex-Republican/BRAVO TV star Tom Ravenel announced he is running as an independent against Lindsey Graham in the general election. If he manages to pull just 10% of the anti-Graham votes, the Democrat will win the U.S. Senate seat. Last year, when no one wanted to Democratic nomination, Blue America endorsed progressive outsider Jay Stamper but when Ravenel made it public he was going to run the Democratic state Party Establishment got behind hopeless conservative, Chamber of Commerce state Senator Brad Hutto who is hoping that Ravenel can deliver the Senate seat to him.

In the video above, which Jay posted this morning, he is very clear that the last thing South Carolina Democrats should be doing is "abandoning our principles and throwing middle class and working families under the bus because we think it will help get us elected." He's obliquely referring to Hutto, a prime example of a terrible fake Democrat from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Jay eloquently makes the case for giving voters a real choice, not a pale echo of the Republican Party. "I’m running," he starts, "because with all the challenges and opportunities ahead, and with the President looking to the future, Republicans in Congress are stuck in the past and holding us all back."

Stamper doesn't have to campaign on the Affordable Care Act; he wasn't in Congress to vote for it. But he's talks about-- even calls it Obamacare-- at every stop, touting the benefits for working people and thumbing his nose at the Koch brothers and the predatory Republicans who want nothing more than to deny health insurance to poor people and continue to strip benefits from the middle class. Jay understands something that many southern Democrats don't want to understand. Voters may not like Obamacare but they like everything about it. In today's Washington Post Greg Sargent pointed out that polling shows that most voters in 4 red states-- Arkansas, North Carolina, Louisiana and Kentucky-- support the basic goal of government action to expand coverage to those who need it-- and support expanding Medicaid. Although South Carolina wasn't polled, there's no reason to believe results there would diverge from the results in the 4 other red states.

"When people," he wrote, "are given a range of choices about the proper role for government in health care, one in keeping with what Obamacare actually does, the picture changes. Large majorities support either government giving people without workplace insurance financial assistance to buy private insurance, or government providing coverage as it does for seniors and the poor. Only small minorities say government should not be involved and that getting coverage is people’s own responsibility. The total who envision one of those two government roles, versus those who see no role at all, breaks down as follows: Arkansas (55-36); Kentucky (63-29); Louisisana (58-35); and North Carolina (61-32)."

Hutto stood with the South Carolina extreme right Republican Party and the NRA to allow guns in bars and he's proud of his 100% rating from the crackpot and very partisan Chamber of Commerce. Jay:

Unfortunately, there are still people in our own state party establishment who think you have to act like a Republican to be elected as a Democrat; that we should be dictating women’s reproductive choices, telling people who they can and can’t marry, even siding with the NRA. They think that to win, we need to distance ourselves from President Obama, his positions and his accomplishments.

I couldn’t disagree more. I’m proud to be a Democrat. I’m proud of President Obama and what he’s accomplished. And I’m not gonna spend a second of this campaign apologizing for it.

This President has done an incredible job for all of us, even in the face of Republicans in Congress who just want to see him fail. Now, he needs our help to keep the US Senate from falling into Republican hands. We need to get out the vote, beat Lindsey Graham and give President Obama the votes in the Senate he needs…

To raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

To fight for equal pay for women.

And to defend the Affordable Care Act.

I’m not gonna to run away from Obamacare when there’s so much to be proud of.

Now is not the time to back down. It’s time to hold Republicans accountable.

Let’s hold them accountable when they cut benefits for seniors, veterans and the disabled in the name of fiscal conservatism-- and then spend over a trillion dollars on wars and nation-building.

We’re 43rd in education, 46th in health care, 45th in personal income. We need nationbuilding right here in South Carolina.

If you'd like to help Jay accomplish a really incredible feat in South Carolina-- replacing Lindsey Graham with a fighting progressive true to the values of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt-- you can contribute to his campaign here. It's a feisty, grassroots campaign and he can really use some help!

Is South Carolina Ready For A Democratic Party Take-Over?

We've been talking about convicted cocaine dealer/ex-Treasurer of South Carolina Tom Ravenel ® and how he is hoping to pivot from ex-con and BRAVO sit com/reality show star to anti-Lindsey Graham general election Senate candidate in November. If he does, he's likely to throw the election to the Democratic candidate. You don't think so? Progressive outsider Jay Stamper has had the Democratic nomination all to himself until Ravenel made it public he was going to run. At that point, the Democratic state Party Establishment got behind hopeless conservative state Senator Brad Hutto who is hoping that Ravenel can deliver the Senate seat to him.

There's a similar dynamic-- minus the cocaine bust-- playing out in the South Carolina gubernatorial race in which ex-Blue Dog-turned Republican Tom Ervin has withdrawn from the GOP primary and is running as an independent against incumbent Gov, Nikki Haley and Establishment Democrat Vince Sheheen. He can probably draw enough votes away from Haley, who is widely disliked by South Carolina voters, to deliver the race to Sheheen, a conservative. Haley's approval rating was only 42%-- with a 49% unfavorable and when voters were asked if the election were held now, only 44% said they would vote to reelect her, as opposed to 46% who would vote to elect Sheheen. With Ervin in the mix, she's cooked.

Tom Ervin, a former Greenville lawmaker and judge, said Friday that he has withdrawn from the Republican primary for governor and will run as a petition candidate in the November election.

Tom Ervin, a former Greenville lawmaker and judge, said Friday that he has withdrawn from the Republican primary for governor and will run as a petition candidate in the November election.

Ervin, a 62-year-old attorney and radio station owner, said he needs more time to share his message and could not accomplish that in the short span before the primary.

“I believe South Carolina is ready for fresh new leadership and ready for a governor who cares about our people and not selfish political ambition,” he said. “Both (Republican Gov.) Nikki Haley and (Democratic challenger) Vince Sheheen are career politicians. I’m a small business owner who will serve as governor and then return home to run my business.”

He said he started gathering signatures of registered voters to have his name added to the November ballot as a “Republican petition candidate.”

"I look forward to offering my vision for South Carolina as a Republican in the general election," he said.

When he joined the race late last month, political experts gave Ervin little shot of unseating Haley, whose popularity has grown in the party since her 2010 election. The governor has $4.3 million to spend.

Ervin has loaned his campaign $420,181, according to state records. He had $271,172 on hand after spending money on a consultant and automated robocalls.

He started a six-figure radio ad campaign this week introducing himself to voters.

Ervin was a Democrat before switching to the Republican Party for a unsuccessful run in the 2005 special election to succeed House Speaker David Wilkins, who had been named the U.S. ambassador to Canada. Ervin has said he became a Republican because he’s pro-life and a born-again Christian.

He has donated to GOP candidates in recent years, but his wife, attorney Kathryn Williams, has contributed to candidates in both parties-- including $4,500 to Sheheen’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign and $50,000 to the S.C. Democratic Party that same year, according to state records.

Ervin said Friday that he believes his being a “fiscal and social conservative with an independent streak” could sway voters.

“I’m running to reform state government and to restore executive competence, honesty and accountability – especially as it relates to protecting our most vulnerable children in harm’s way,” Ervin said.

Ervin gave a good clue to the kind of campaign he'll be running against Haley in his announcement statement Friday: "Four years ago, Nikki Haley promised us transparency and accountability when she became governor. Sadly, Governor Haley has broken those promises. Instead, Haley has delivered four years of missteps, mistakes, scandals and cover-ups – none more disturbing than the ongoing investigation of Governor Haley's cabinet appointee and their gross negligence in failing to protect the children under their watch at DSS. The Bible says we will be judged by how we treat the least of those among us. That means doing everything within our power to right the wrongs being done to our children at risk. Under her watch, Nikki Haley has turned a blind eye to the plight of our children at greatest risk. It is time for Governor Haley to relieve her appointee at DSS for gross incompetence and mismanagement."

Can you imagine the GOP losing both the Senate and gubernatorial races in November? Here's his new radio ad, which is absolutely saturating the airwaves now:

Wall Street Democrats vs Real Democrats-- In South Carolina?

Hutto with deranged teabagger Lee Bright-- 2 ineffectual Lindsey Graham opponents

South Carolina state Senator Brad Hutto announced yesterday-- just before the filing deadline-- that he is a candidate for the Democratic nomination to oppose Lindsey Graham. A conservative, Big Business-friendly Democrat, he will be up against Jay Stamper who has been endorsed by Blue America but is not a favorite of the party Establishment. Last year, Hutto was rated 100% by the Chamber of Commerce, one of only two Democrats in the state legislature willing too suck up to Big Business to that extent.

Unlike Stamper, who has chosen to draw a clear line of distinction between himself and the conservative Graham, Hutto takes pains to paint himself as the kind of Republican-lite candidate that depresses Democratic turnout.

Hutto, 56, said he thinks he can woo Republicans dissatisfied with Graham with a pitch "that I’m a practical middle-of-the-road guy."

“I have no aversions to working with Republicans,” Hutto said.

Hutto said South Carolinians liked having U.S. senators from different parties, Republican Strom Thurmond and Democrat Fritz Hollings, for nearly 40 years. “They’d say, ‘We always had somebody to go to,’ ” he said. “Sometimes having people on both sides helps.”

The only way a Democrat is going to win this seat is by offering a real alternative to the slick conservative claptrap Graham has used his entire career to win every election he's run in since 1992. Last night, a reporter on MSNBC explained how Graham had taken a $15,000 campaign "contribution" from mobster casino billionaire and Chinese government agent Sheldon Adelson just before introducing legislation to ban internet gambling, Adelson's #1 domestic agenda item. Stamper will be far better equipped to capitalize on that kind of behavior than the tepid Hutto. But Hutto is hardly the only Wall Street Democrat blurring the lines between what it means to be a Republican and what it means to be a Democrat. In an essay yesterday, Richard Eskow talked about the struggle inside the Democratic party that pits those who serve the interests of ordinary families and those who serve Wall Street and are generally considered the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. "If progressive and populist ideas resonate with most voters, some people have asked, why isn’t the Democratic Party doing better in the polls? Here’s one reason: Some of the party’s most prominent leaders are still pushing Wall Street’s unpopular and discredited economic platform." And he wasn't just talking about little known corporate shills like Brad Hutto.

Recent speeches by former President Bill Clinton and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer showed that Wall Street continues to hold considerable sway in their party, despite the fact that its austerity agenda has failed. Its “deficits over growth” ideology has wounded both Europe and the United States. To hear Clinton and Hoyer speak, you’d think we’d learned nothing from the economic experience of the last five years.

…It’s rather stunning: A former president addresses members of a generation that has been saddled with record student debt and which faces the worst job market for graduates in modern history, and he talks, not of jobs or debt or decent wages, but about deficit reduction.

What’s more, this generation’s woes were caused in large part by the Clinton Administration’s eager collaboration with Republicans and Wall Street executives on deregulation. That collaboration also led to the accumulation of enormous wealth by a number of former administration officials. (Mr. Clinton did pretty well himself.)

And people wonder why Gallup reports that millennials are at or near record levels of alienation from both political parties? When leaders of both parties emphasize deficits over jobs, their disaffection becomes easier to understand… It’s impossible to look into the soul of another person. But it feels breathtakingly cynical for President Clinton to speak to a student crowd about deficit reduction when they, and the rest of the nation, desperately need government programs for jobs and growth-- programs that have been strangled by Washington’s wrongheaded fixation on deficit reduction.

As for Hoyer: Austerity-lite advocates have offered a shifting set of rationales for their deficit fixation, using everything from disproven inflation fears to discredited economic spreadsheets. But Hoyer’s come up with a new one: Cutting the deficit, he says, is the best way for “America to get its swagger back.”

The minority whip was addressing the discredited Wall Street front group that calls itself “Third Way.” While he, too, was careful not to mention his support for Social Security cuts, Hoyer expressed disappointment that the Simpson-Bowles plan was never enacted. That’s saying the same thing.

Hoyer also called for a “big and balanced” budget agreement. “Big and balanced” is a euphemism for the kind of deal that hurts the middle class through Social Security and Medicare cuts, but which also includes tax hikes that Republicans have historically opposed. Fortunately for Wall Street, the increases promoted by Peterson funded groups go easy on the millionaire and billionaire crowd.

In fact, Simpson-Bowles and similar proposals actually offer tax decreases for the highest earners, coupled with reductions in “tax expenditures”-- a phrase often used to describe tax breaks the middle class relies upon, like the home mortgage interest deduction and the employer health insurance deduction.

For years the deficit crowd has tried to create a false sense of panic about government debt. So it was especially ironic to hear Hoyer say that “it’s at this moment, when we don’t have a crisis breathing down our necks, that we have the best chance to lay the groundwork for the hard decisions we will need to make.”

There’s a struggle underway over the future of the Democratic Party. The populist movement has scored some significant recent wins, including the electoral victories of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Its ideas resonate with the public, and are in sync with mainstream economic thought.

But the remarks from Clinton and Hoyer demonstrate that the party’s Wall Street wing is still riding tall in the saddle, despite its discredited ideas and unpopular proposals.

There’s one sure-fire way to give a person, or a country, its “swagger” back: a good job at good wages will do it every time. Too bad these Wall Street Democrats aren’t talking about that.

Jay Stamper has made it clear that he's part of the populist wing of the party. The South Carolina Establishment-- both the political and the media establishment-- can't relate to it. They are much more comfortable with an advocate of the failed Austerity agenda like Brad Hutto.