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Opinion
Now,
will DeMint be able to change state politics?
June
24, 2004
Greenwood
County voters, in Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff between
Rep. Jim DeMint and David Beasley, rejected a comeback by the
former governor, giving DeMint a considerable
majority.
DeMint will now be seeking to change the face of
politics in the Palmetto State, hoping to win the U. S. Senate
seat being vacated by Democrat Ernest Hollings. Voters here
cast their ballots almost the same as the rest of the state.
In Greenwood, DeMint got 56 percent of the vote.
Statewide,
he got 59 percent. Now comes the real test.
DeMint will be
facing State Supt. of Education Inez Tenenbaum, the Democratic
candidate, in the November general election.
That’s likely
to be a difficult task, since that seat has been occupied by
Hollings for almost 40 years.
THAT BEING THE
CASE, it could be, at least in voters’ minds, that it
is viewed as the Democrats’ seat and rightfully should go to a
Democrat.
For whatever reason, voters have hedged their
bets all those years by keeping one Senate seat Republican and
the other Democrat. Doing this, of course, meant that one’s
vote would often offset the other’s on crucial legislation,
but that apparently hasn’t concerned the majority of South
Carolinians. Whether they have a change of heart – or attitude
– next November is anybody’s guess.
There is no question
but that two senators voting together can accomplish more than
two senators opposing each other. If that is a consideration,
voters could split from the past and elect two
Republicans.
SINCE REPUBLICANS IN
South Carolina outnumber Democrats 40 percent to 32
percent, with 28 percent listed as Independents, it would
appear that DeMint might be a shoo-in. However, considering
the fact that having two U. S. senators from the Upstate could
have a negative impact on voters, a Republican win is no sure
thing. Add the fact that South Carolinians have historically
elected Democrats, except for the last half century when
they’ve chosen a Democrat for one of the seats, and that also
becomes a factor. Then, certainly, with the prospect that the
Upstate could be the home of both U. S. senators, the fact
that Tenenbaum is from Charleston should give her an advantage
in that voter-rich area.
It will get down, then, to whether
voters want senators who vote the same on most issues, or
whether they want senators who just might cancel each other’s
vote. After all, the latter is how they’ve preferred it for 50
years.
Editorial expression in this feature represents
our own views.
Opinions are limited to this page.
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