bobbyw24
06-22-2010, 04:47 AM
By: Samantha King
Special to The Examiner
06/21/10 2:55 PM EDT
Elections across the country have taken a different turn this election this year. Well established GOP candidates with traditional GOP values are getting ousted by non-traditional candidates supported by grassroots groups such as 'Tea Party' activists. In Utah, incumbent Sen. Bob Bennett was ousted during the state's Republican convention in favor of two more conservative candidates. In Nevada and Maine, Tea Party-preferred candidates beat back more establishment favorites for in primary races for Senate and governor races respectively.
In South Carolina, however, the contest for the upcoming runoff primary in the state's first congressional district has turned into conservative versus conservative for candidates Tim Scott and Paul Thurmond.
Scott is the charismatic "new guy on the block," the first black Republican to run for congressional office since Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla) retired in 2003 and South Carolina's first black Republican congressman since the Reconstruction. Scott also has more than four times the experience as Thurmond, but lacks the connections that Thurmond inherited from his late father, Strom Thurmond, who was a U.S. senator from the state for more than fifty years, from the civil rights era to the aftermath of Sept. 11.
In the June 8 primary, Scott acquired the highest percentage, 31, while Thurmond had 16 and the remaining percentages were dispersed among 7 other congressional hopefuls. Neither attained the majority vote needed for the nomination, leaving republicans to return for the June 22 runoff race.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/-Black-conservative-candidate-Tim-Scott-favored-in-South-Carolina-GOP-runoff-96818674.html#ixzz0rZtKW7sM
Special to The Examiner
06/21/10 2:55 PM EDT
Elections across the country have taken a different turn this election this year. Well established GOP candidates with traditional GOP values are getting ousted by non-traditional candidates supported by grassroots groups such as 'Tea Party' activists. In Utah, incumbent Sen. Bob Bennett was ousted during the state's Republican convention in favor of two more conservative candidates. In Nevada and Maine, Tea Party-preferred candidates beat back more establishment favorites for in primary races for Senate and governor races respectively.
In South Carolina, however, the contest for the upcoming runoff primary in the state's first congressional district has turned into conservative versus conservative for candidates Tim Scott and Paul Thurmond.
Scott is the charismatic "new guy on the block," the first black Republican to run for congressional office since Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla) retired in 2003 and South Carolina's first black Republican congressman since the Reconstruction. Scott also has more than four times the experience as Thurmond, but lacks the connections that Thurmond inherited from his late father, Strom Thurmond, who was a U.S. senator from the state for more than fifty years, from the civil rights era to the aftermath of Sept. 11.
In the June 8 primary, Scott acquired the highest percentage, 31, while Thurmond had 16 and the remaining percentages were dispersed among 7 other congressional hopefuls. Neither attained the majority vote needed for the nomination, leaving republicans to return for the June 22 runoff race.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/-Black-conservative-candidate-Tim-Scott-favored-in-South-Carolina-GOP-runoff-96818674.html#ixzz0rZtKW7sM