The Curious Case of Alvin Greene

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

The guy is unemployed. What unemployed regular joe has $10,000 sitting around that they can spend on a run for the US Senate that they have no intention of doing any campaigning for! It's like throwing money in the trash.

From the sounds of things, he put together a campaign for Senate. Just ... the kind of campaign for Senate you'd expect an 11th grader in a Social Studies class to come up with.

"I'll make this flyer in word... yeah, center it so it looks nice and official... and go to Kinkos and get ... hmmm... oh, that's ... canary yellow? Does that paper cost extra?"

[minionofmidas]

Well how else would you have done it if you did and paid it all yourself?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'm actually more interested in why it costs that kind of money to file for election? Seems it's not even a deposit? How can that be constitutional in any democracy? Pretty perv.

The fee is 1% of the salary for the office, assuming a candidate wins and serves the full term.  A candidate could always go the petition route, which for a statewide office in South Carolina is 10,000 signatures.  The requirement for a petition candidate for any office is 5% of the registered voters eligible to vote for an office, with a cap of 10,000 signatures, which comes into play with the Statewide offices, Congressman, some of the Solictor districts and countywide offices in the three largest counties of Charleston, Greenville, and Richland.

U.S. Senate has the highest filing fee of any office on the ballot this year, since it has a 6 year term and the highest annual salary.  If he'd chosen to run for the S.C. House, he'd have only had to pay a $208 filing fee. Least expensive filing fee this year was for Anderson County Council, $178.60

Also, for parties that choose to nominate by convention instead of a primary, their candidates don't have to pay a filing fee either.

[Meeker]

The fee for the GOP Presidential Primary in 2008 was $25,000.

[nhmagic]

This story is sad.  It's amazing to me how all the dems are trying to question this guys background as if he isn't good enough to be on their ticket.  It's pretty close to racist with some of the questions in the media like where did this black man get his money?  He's a republican plant. etc.

No one seemed to be asking these questions when dems were electing another certain black man who came from nowhere and had an even shadier background than Greene.

Congratulations!

Your post was so hackishly anti-Obama, you've earned a rare honor, a spot on my personal ignore list.

Uh since youre ignoring me you probably wont read this but Ive been on here for months, and if you didnt know I was spectacularly anti-Obama until now, I think youve been living under a giant rock.  Whether its hackish or not, what about what I wrote isn't true? 

[??????????]

He claims he got the money from his military benefits. No entirely impossible.

[Lunar]

He claims he got the money from his military benefits. No entirely impossible.

But someone with $10k wouldn't have qualified for a public defense attorney

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Some of it may be to do with the fact that Greene is Black, not mixed.

But... well... for a total nobody to be a Senate paper candidate? Not state house, county sheriff (of a major county), whatever? When's the last time that happened? Great Depression era?

Not that uncommon really. Hell we have a solid example only two years ago: https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2008&fips=30&f=1&off=3&elect=0

I also think Chuck Hagel's opponent in 2002 was a truck driver or something. And McCain's in 2004 I believe was a middle school teacher though granted he ran a relatively serious campaign.

[??????????]

Lunar, he could have had an unaccounted for account or maybe military benefits don't count for that particular rule.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Some of it may be to do with the fact that Greene is Black, not mixed.

But... well... for a total nobody to be a Senate paper candidate? Not state house, county sheriff (of a major county), whatever? When's the last time that happened? Great Depression era?

Not that uncommon really. Hell we have a solid example only two years ago: https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2008&fips=30&f=1&off=3&elect=0

I also think Chuck Hagel's opponent in 2002 was a truck driver or something. And McCain's in 2004 I believe was a middle school teacher though granted he ran a relatively serious campaign.

Also with some research it appears that Byrd's 2000 opponent raised literally $0. Figure might be somewhat inaccurate for obvious reasons, but the point is clear.

[Lunar]

Lunar, he could have had an unaccounted for account or maybe military benefits don't count for that particular rule.

Perhaps.  But even then, why wouldn't he say that when asked [multiple times] instead of refusing to answer how he qualified for a public defender?

And why would someone who's been unemployed for the last 9 months spend that crucial money to register for a Senate Race for a non-existent campaign, one that involves no appearences at political events, outreach, 0 fundraising, 0 expenditures, and not even a website?  That sounds psychotic at best.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

BTW I'm curious who this black candidate for Governor in Mississippi was that useful idiot mentioned. It obviously wasn't in 2000 like he said because Mississippi has its gubernatorial elections in odd years and in 2000 Mississippi had a white Democratic Governor (Ronnie Musgrove who was elected in 1999.)

[useful idiot]

I meant senate. It was Troy Brown, he ran against Lott in 2000, and got something like 31% of the vote.

[nclib]

I agree that there is at best, something fishy. If the SC-GOP were proven to have done something unethical or illegal, what would the ramifications be?

[??????????]

Why do you assume he is a GOP plant NCLib?

[Lunar]

Something that should be said, of the 20% of the electorate [the entire electorate, both parties, I believe] that has heard of Vic Rawls, something like three quarters hold a disfavorable view if I remember correctly...so if that higher disapproval/approval number held true to the Democratic primary, it's possible that those who voted based on name recognition voted for the other guy, and everyone else just picked a name.

[Rowan]

Lunar, he could have had an unaccounted for account or maybe military benefits don't count for that particular rule.

And why would someone who's been unemployed for the last 9 months spend that crucial money to register for a Senate Race for a non-existent campaign, one that involves no appearences at political events, outreach, 0 fundraising, 0 expenditures, and not even a website?  That sounds psychotic at best.

This is the part that is troubling me the most. It makes no sense. Someone would have to be literally insane to do that.

[Lunar]

Well, that part doesn't trouble me because it's obvious he got the money from someone else or lied to the court to qualify for a public defender during his felony charge, unless there's some mystery law that protects military pay from counting as money in your possession for that sort of monetary evaluation.  I read an article where a South Carolina lawyer said directly that anyone with $10k in their bank account would not qualify for a public defender, if he legally qualified for the defender and had $10k in his bank account, I don't see why he wouldn't have made that argument himself instead of hanging up/refusing to answer when reporters ask him that kind of question.  

[??????????]

Lunar, I had quite a bit more then that from my fathers life policy and the taxman, etc didn't even consider that money as existing.

[© tweed]

great interview on the Mark Levin Show

http://www.marklevinshow.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/06/14/sc-sen_alvin_greene_cant_immediately_name_gop_opponent_jim_demint.html

[Lunar]

great interview on the Mark Levin Show

http://www.marklevinshow.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/06/14/sc-sen_alvin_greene_cant_immediately_name_gop_opponent_jim_demint.html

I cannot listen to any more of these.

[justW353]

This story is sad.  It's amazing to me how all the dems are trying to question this guys background as if he isn't good enough to be on their ticket.  It's pretty close to racist with some of the questions in the media like where did this black man get his money?  He's a republican plant. etc.

No one seemed to be asking these questions when dems were electing another certain black man who came from nowhere and had an even shadier background than Greene.

Congratulations!

Your post was so hackishly anti-Obama, you've earned a rare honor, a spot on my personal ignore list.

Uh since youre ignoring me you probably wont read this but Ive been on here for months, and if you didnt know I was spectacularly anti-Obama until now, I think youve been living under a giant rock.  Whether its hackish or not, what about what I wrote isn't true? 

Greene lives with his mom and Obama is a Harvard/Columbia graduate...Obama actually has charisma...

[Lunar]

This story is sad.  It's amazing to me how all the dems are trying to question this guys background as if he isn't good enough to be on their ticket.  It's pretty close to racist with some of the questions in the media like where did this black man get his money?  He's a republican plant. etc.

No one seemed to be asking these questions when dems were electing another certain black man who came from nowhere and had an even shadier background than Greene.

Congratulations!

Your post was so hackishly anti-Obama, you've earned a rare honor, a spot on my personal ignore list.

Uh since youre ignoring me you probably wont read this but Ive been on here for months, and if you didnt know I was spectacularly anti-Obama until now, I think youve been living under a giant rock.  Whether its hackish or not, what about what I wrote isn't true?  

Greene lives with his mom and Obama is a Harvard/Columbia graduate...Obama actually has charisma...

Very sick father, I believe...?  Lots of misinformation out there, I can't immediately figure out the facts with a glance at Google.

[Lunar]

EVERYBODY JOIN JOIN JOIN JOIN

http://www.facebook.com/pages/1000000-Strong-for-Alvin-Greene/115195921858046

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

This story is sad.  It's amazing to me how all the dems are trying to question this guys background as if he isn't good enough to be on their ticket.  It's pretty close to racist with some of the questions in the media like where did this black man get his money?  He's a republican plant. etc.

No one seemed to be asking these questions when dems were electing another certain black man who came from nowhere and had an even shadier background than Greene.

Congratulations!

Your post was so hackishly anti-Obama, you've earned a rare honor, a spot on my personal ignore list.

Uh since youre ignoring me you probably wont read this but Ive been on here for months, and if you didnt know I was spectacularly anti-Obama until now, I think youve been living under a giant rock.  Whether its hackish or not, what about what I wrote isn't true? 

Greene lives with his mom and Obama is a Harvard/Columbia graduate...Obama actually has charisma...

Magic, unlike some people who post here, I don't read every post of every thread.  I make liberal use of the Mark as Read button.  In any case, it isn't the fact that you're anti-Obama that caused me to put you on ignore.  It was that your post was so separated from anything approaching reality that caused me to do so.  It was the same level of hackishness if someone from the Democratic side claimed that Bush 41 was stranger than Rand Paul.