SC’s Big Winner: The New Democrats
Published Thursday, November 20, 2008 2:20 PM
By Ken Campbell
Summerville Journal Scene ®
For South Carolina Democrats election night will always be a highlight in their lives. Like other historic occasions such as the Kennedy assassinations, the moon landing and 9/11, we will always remember where we were and how it felt being overcome with joyful emotions when the television said, “Barack Obama will be the next President of the Untied States of America.” We will never have another time like this – and all Americans, Democrats and Republicans, can share in the joy. But with the dawn of the new morning, as South Carolina Democrats began to drink our first cup of coffee and look through the election returns in the newspapers, it was clear that the huge national Democratic victory missed South Carolina. We are hardly better off that before the election. McCain carried the state 54-46%, consistent with the pattern of past elections. The six Congressional seats and 46 State Senate seats saw no change for Democrats and we only picked up two State House seats out of 124. It should not have been this way. Democrats began this elections cycle after the debacle of the ’06 elections that saw Democrats lose eight of nine statewide offices and sink to our lowest level since 1876. Yes, 876. But things began to change with the coming of the presidential primaries. We were flooded with candidates, media and national attention -- and we all love it. The Obama campaign energized hundreds of thousand of new people and when he astounded the nation with a 55% victory in our primary – Democrats at the victory rally chanted ‘Race doesn’t matter.” Truly a historic night in our state’s history. And then we dropped the ball. Once it became clear to even the most recalcitrant Democrat that Obama was changing the dynamic in state politics, the party failed to use the two months before the filing deadline to recruit new candidates to challenge Republicans. The results were that Democrats failed to even have a candidate in 40 percent of the state house and senate races. Nearly half the time, Democrats didn’t even show up to play – that’s no way to win. But there is some good news, and most is buzzing around the SC New Democrats, the independent reform group founded by former Gov. Richard Riley . It is a group that works to change our state by bringing forward new ideas and new people into politics. The two candidates who did take House seats from Republicans were both New Democrats – Anne Peterson Hutto beat Rep. Wallace Scarborough in Charleston and Anton Gunn took back a seat in Fairfield and Richland Counties long held by a Republican. The most outstanding win in the state Senate races was S.C. New Democrats Co-chair Floyd Nicholson of Greenwood. He won in a district that all the pundits predicted would go Republican with the retirement of Sen. John Drummond. When all the so-called experts said that an African American could not win a 69% white district, Floyd and the New Democrats said “Yes we can’” And when it came to standing up for education and our children, the New Democrats lead the charges. We launched a campaign to expose carpetbagger Howard Rich and the scalawag candidates who take his money and support his radical social experiment that endangers our school kids. Rich is the wealthy New York real estate developer who along with his out-of-state crones, have poured literally millions of dollars into our state to ‘buy’ support for his radical plan for private school voucher and tax credits. When no one else would take on Rich, the S.C. New Democrats did. We launched a campaign to expose Rich and his cronies and demand that his candidates give the money back – and we were successful. We launched an innovative website, www.FightHowardRich.org, an online campaign with extensive grassroots activities targeting over 50,000 voters. In the closing days of the campaign we had a seven city ‘Name and Shame Tour’ to expose how much money was going to Rich’s candidates and calling on them to give the money back. And it worked -- we generate lots of press and grass roots attention about Rich’s candidates, and three of his candidates actually gave back over $28,000. A few of Rich’s candidates were Democrats and some traditional Democrats criticized us for including these candidates on the “Name and Shame Tour.” But, New Democrats believe that the principles of improving education and protecting our children are more important than blind party loyalty. We will continue to speak out for what is right. Also, New Democrats were a vital part of the Obama campaign from the top to the bottom. S.C. New Democrats’ President Phil Noble was one of the earliest Obama supporters in the state and served on the Statewide Steering Committee and helped out in the national headquarters as well. Literally thousands of New Democrats were field organizers, door knockers and phone callers for Obama. And the new state of the art skills they learned will be invaluable to New Democrats candidates across the state for years to come. And as we look to 2010 elections for governor and other statewide offices, New Democrats will be there to lead as well. We have developed our ‘5 Big Ideas’ that are vital to our state’s future; we have good candidates who know how to run and win; and we have the troops on the ground – ready to run campaigns that bring real reform and change to South Carolina. New Democrats have shown that we can win – and change our state. Yes, we can. Ken Campbell is a businessman, a New Democrat and Chairman of the Oconee County Democratic Party. He can be reached at Ken@oconeedemocrats.com or by phone at 864-638-6040. His address is 165 Leston Circle Walhalla SC 29691
Summerville Journal Scene ®
For South Carolina Democrats election night will always be a highlight in their lives. Like other historic occasions such as the Kennedy assassinations, the moon landing and 9/11, we will always remember where we were and how it felt being overcome with joyful emotions when the television said, “Barack Obama will be the next President of the Untied States of America.” We will never have another time like this – and all Americans, Democrats and Republicans, can share in the joy. But with the dawn of the new morning, as South Carolina Democrats began to drink our first cup of coffee and look through the election returns in the newspapers, it was clear that the huge national Democratic victory missed South Carolina. We are hardly better off that before the election. McCain carried the state 54-46%, consistent with the pattern of past elections. The six Congressional seats and 46 State Senate seats saw no change for Democrats and we only picked up two State House seats out of 124. It should not have been this way. Democrats began this elections cycle after the debacle of the ’06 elections that saw Democrats lose eight of nine statewide offices and sink to our lowest level since 1876. Yes, 876. But things began to change with the coming of the presidential primaries. We were flooded with candidates, media and national attention -- and we all love it. The Obama campaign energized hundreds of thousand of new people and when he astounded the nation with a 55% victory in our primary – Democrats at the victory rally chanted ‘Race doesn’t matter.” Truly a historic night in our state’s history. And then we dropped the ball. Once it became clear to even the most recalcitrant Democrat that Obama was changing the dynamic in state politics, the party failed to use the two months before the filing deadline to recruit new candidates to challenge Republicans. The results were that Democrats failed to even have a candidate in 40 percent of the state house and senate races. Nearly half the time, Democrats didn’t even show up to play – that’s no way to win. But there is some good news, and most is buzzing around the SC New Democrats, the independent reform group founded by former Gov. Richard Riley . It is a group that works to change our state by bringing forward new ideas and new people into politics. The two candidates who did take House seats from Republicans were both New Democrats – Anne Peterson Hutto beat Rep. Wallace Scarborough in Charleston and Anton Gunn took back a seat in Fairfield and Richland Counties long held by a Republican. The most outstanding win in the state Senate races was S.C. New Democrats Co-chair Floyd Nicholson of Greenwood. He won in a district that all the pundits predicted would go Republican with the retirement of Sen. John Drummond. When all the so-called experts said that an African American could not win a 69% white district, Floyd and the New Democrats said “Yes we can’” And when it came to standing up for education and our children, the New Democrats lead the charges. We launched a campaign to expose carpetbagger Howard Rich and the scalawag candidates who take his money and support his radical social experiment that endangers our school kids. Rich is the wealthy New York real estate developer who along with his out-of-state crones, have poured literally millions of dollars into our state to ‘buy’ support for his radical plan for private school voucher and tax credits. When no one else would take on Rich, the S.C. New Democrats did. We launched a campaign to expose Rich and his cronies and demand that his candidates give the money back – and we were successful. We launched an innovative website, www.FightHowardRich.org, an online campaign with extensive grassroots activities targeting over 50,000 voters. In the closing days of the campaign we had a seven city ‘Name and Shame Tour’ to expose how much money was going to Rich’s candidates and calling on them to give the money back. And it worked -- we generate lots of press and grass roots attention about Rich’s candidates, and three of his candidates actually gave back over $28,000. A few of Rich’s candidates were Democrats and some traditional Democrats criticized us for including these candidates on the “Name and Shame Tour.” But, New Democrats believe that the principles of improving education and protecting our children are more important than blind party loyalty. We will continue to speak out for what is right. Also, New Democrats were a vital part of the Obama campaign from the top to the bottom. S.C. New Democrats’ President Phil Noble was one of the earliest Obama supporters in the state and served on the Statewide Steering Committee and helped out in the national headquarters as well. Literally thousands of New Democrats were field organizers, door knockers and phone callers for Obama. And the new state of the art skills they learned will be invaluable to New Democrats candidates across the state for years to come. And as we look to 2010 elections for governor and other statewide offices, New Democrats will be there to lead as well. We have developed our ‘5 Big Ideas’ that are vital to our state’s future; we have good candidates who know how to run and win; and we have the troops on the ground – ready to run campaigns that bring real reform and change to South Carolina. New Democrats have shown that we can win – and change our state. Yes, we can. Ken Campbell is a businessman, a New Democrat and Chairman of the Oconee County Democratic Party. He can be reached at Ken@oconeedemocrats.com or by phone at 864-638-6040. His address is 165 Leston Circle Walhalla SC 29691
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