Campaign polishes DeMint's dull image

COLUMBIA - Once viewed by some of his fellow Republicans as too unexciting to be an effective U.S. Senate candidate against popular Democrat Inez Tenenbaum, Jim DeMint appears to have turned himself into the more hip and interesting choice, according to political observers.

They say DeMint's campaign and his approach to public policy resemble those of Republican S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford.

"I think he has to be given credit for political courage for making extremely dramatic proposals and being willing to debate them. He shares that with Sanford," said Robert Botch, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina-Aiken.

Although Tenenbaum has hammered DeMint for weeks on his idea to replace the federal income tax with a national sales tax, he has maintained a lead of anywhere from six to 13 points over her, depending on the poll.

In the meantime, Tenenbaum has changed media consultants to try to better define her campaign.

Neal Thigpen, a Francis Marion University political scientist and Republican activist, said DeMint, a soft-spoken, slightly wonkish 53-year-old U.S. House member from Greenville, "lacks snap, crackle and pop. But he's been able to turn his routineness into an asset."

In the runoff for the Republican nomination in June, DeMint trounced the far more charismatic former Gov. David Beasley.

"DeMint ran one of the best two-week runoff campaigns I've seen," Thigpen said.

Part of that campaign was a TV commercial in which DeMint's daughters, Ginger, 26, and Donna, 19, wouldn't let him get a word in edgewise while they talked about what a great guy he was.

"I think it helped him tremendously," said Wayne Adams, a former S.C. Republican Party executive director. "It showed him to be a typical dad, and it showed a little more personality, a lot of warmth."

The night of the runoff, DeMint poked a little fun at his own image when he said, "It's amazing what a boring guy can do with a little help from his friends."

In the general election campaign, DeMint has run a campaign that, while pushing conservative issues, presents him as the candidate with new ideas, much like Sanford's 2002 campaign.

Besides abolishing the income tax and the IRS, DeMint also advocates government-sponsored private savings plans for health care expenses. And while most of the S.C. congressional delegation has opposed free trade agreements with foreign countries in an attempt to protect textile jobs, DeMint is an unapologetic free trade advocate.

That many of those ideas, like the national sales tax, are highly unlikely to ever become reality is irrelevant, observers said.

"It's not so much that the issues connect so strongly with people," Adams said, "but what they show is that DeMint's doing some thinking, and he's thinking outside the box.

"He's putting forth an effort that's not the same old campaign rhetoric, and he's willing to propose some things that may not be totally popular. That's where he gets that breath of fresh air."

Kevin Geddings, the political strategist for former S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges, whom Sanford defeated in 2002, said DeMint, like Sanford, has successfully used ideas hatched by the Heritage Foundation think tank to convey himself as an agent of change.

For a Republican who can pull off such a feat, Geddings said, "You get a lot of swing independent voters, those people who might be inclined to vote for a Democrat because they want positive change, and at the same time you get all the normal, conservative Republicans."