Senate hopefuls home in on voters

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Democrat Inez Tenenbaum wooed disgruntled Upstate textile workers and Republican Jim DeMint invoked the spirit of Strom Thurmond Wednesday as their U.S. Senate campaign entered the homestretch.

Tenenbaum, the state's education superintendent, toured the Inman Mills textile plant in Enoree, telling a receptive audience of workers that DeMint and China posed equal threats to their industry.

"Jim DeMint is the biggest job killer we have in South Carolina," she told workers. "China doesn't need another voice in the Senate, but South Carolina does."

DeMint, the 4th District congressman from Greenville, addressed rallies in Edgefield, Thurmond's hometown, Greenwood and Anderson.

Standing between Thurmond's bronze statue and a granite obelisk honoring Confederate dead, DeMint, as he did at each stop, repeatedly called for more help for President Bush in the form of a beefed-up GOP Senate majority.

DeMint gave particular emphasis to being able to override Democratic filibusters of conservative federal judicial nominees and push administration programs through the Senate, saying with Tuesday's election, "All that is within our grasp."

Afterward, he rubbed the statue's right foot shiny from similar gestures by others and quipped, "All right, Strom, bring me luck, buddy."

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of Seneca, who traveled with DeMint throughout the day, made a similar gesture in 2002, days before he defeated Democrat Alex Sanders for the seat Thurmond would retire from the following January. Thurmond died in June 2003 at age 100.

Also Wednesday, Federal Election Commission reports showed that DeMint entered the campaign's final 18 days with more than twice as much available cash as Tenenbaum, $1.41 million to $664,007.

The reports also documented it was the costliest Senate contest in state hisTory, with the two combining for $12.93 million through Oct. 15.

DeMint reported raising $7.65 million to Tenenbaum's $5.27 million. But DeMint spent a needed $4.1 million to win the GOP nomination in a six-way primary and runoff.

In Edgefield, DeMint said South Carolina needs two Republican senators in Washington instead of one from each party canceling out the other's vote and diminishing the state's clout.

"If we have two votes as a state, that's more for President Bush to count on and that's good for South Carolina," DeMint said.

Referring to what may be a dead-even race with Tenenbaum, DeMint said, "The numbers look good, the energy's high. I'll take my chances."

Brad Covar, 44, an Edgefield certified public accountant, said after shaking DeMint's hand that confusion sown by Tenenbaum over tax reform had served to tighten the race, "but when everybody gets ready to vote and realizes what we need," DeMint will fare well.

But a tired DeMint left much of the day's rhetorical heavy lifting to Graham.

In a state where Bush is expected to handily defeat Democrat John Kerry, Graham made a pitch to potential ticket-splitters in remarks to a crowd of 70 in a Greenwood hotel lobby.

"If you're going to vote for Bush, send somebody to Washington who'll help him," Graham said.

Where DeMint rarely mentioned Tenenbaum, the Democrat made him the focus of her remarks.

Tenenbaum, who later visited workers in a retraining class at Greenwood Technical College, reminded the Inman workers that three Upstate textile firms announced 700 job layoffs last week.

She pledged to restore workers' hope and protect South Carolina manufacturing jobs by opposing trade pacts that could cost jobs, working in the mold of Graham and retiring Democratic Sen. Ernest F. Hollings.

"But I would regret to say that is not the kind of leader that Jim DeMint is," she told employees gathered in one of the plant's break rooms.

Her message resonated with some of the workers, who said they are bitter at the loss of tens of thousands of textile and apparel jobs.

"I hope we get rid of Jim DeMint," said Alex Browning, 62, who has worked at the plant for 40 years. "We need somebody that's there for the people."

Linda Wardell, who's worked there for 28 years, said she disliked DeMint's record and support of international trade agreements and plans to vote for Tenenbaum.

"I believe in her 100 percent," Wardell said.

Tenenbaum had criticized DeMint for granting the president fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals and for voting to give most-favored-nation trade status to China, a country which she told workers was counterfeiting American goods, manipulating its currency and flooding American markets with cheap items.

She said she wants to extend the quotas on Chinese textiles to at least 2008, if not indefinitely. She warned workers that the state could lose another 42,000 jobs if the quotas come off Chinese imports at the end of this year, as scheduled.

Other workers said they wanted an alternative to DeMint. Lynn Bevill, a fourth-generation textile worker, said she met DeMint when he ran for Congress and said he told her he would do everything he could to help the textile industry. She said his vote for the World Trade Organization angered her.

Inman Mills was built in the 1960s and has a work force of between 350 and 400 employees, said Brad Burnett, the plant's manager. He said while the plant doesn't employ the numbers it did decades ago, its business remains strong, due in part to closings of other textile firms.