Voters want substance, not rhetoric

Inside the WYFF Greenville studios Monday afternoon, from left, Assistant News Director Lee Brown, Floor Director Errick Donald and Senior Director Mike Wallace work setting up the set for tonight's senatorial debate between Inez Tennenbaum and Jim DeMint. Staff/Owen Riley Jr. e-mail this story

"That's the big issue on my mind, medical insurance," said the 39-year-old legal assistant at a Greenville law firm.

"We don't have any," she said Monday, nodding across the wrought iron table to her husband, Talmadge, during an al fresco lunch downtown.

Republican Jim DeMint, the U.S. 4th District representative from Greenville, and Democrat Inez Tenenbaum, the state's education superintendent, get another chance from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight to connect with Upstate voters in their second televised U.S. Senate debate.

It will air on WYFF-TV and the South Carolina Educational Television network. Sponsors are the TV station, The Greenville News and the League of Women Voters.

Online questions previously submitted to The News will be put to the candidates during the debate.

Although they've been campaigning for more than a year and have bombarded the airwaves with millions of dollars in commercials, the two candidates' views in general remain a mystery, even three weeks before the Nov. 2 election, some voters said Monday.

Traditionally, it's not until the final weeks before an election that casual voters, those not directly involved in partisan politics, begin to focus on candidates and issues.

Some, like the Swansons, say the increasingly personal bickering between DeMint and Tenenbaum has kept them undecided and uncertain of their broader views, what each would do specifically for South Carolina.

Jill Swanson said she wants them to talk in detail about what they would do to make health care more available and affordable for workers, not just pick the other's plan apart. Nationwide, the Swansons have plenty of company more than 38 million people lack medical coverage.

For his part, Talmadge Swanson, 41, a landscaper, is tired of "the back-and-forth that you're this and the other one's that. I'd like to hear the reason why DeMint's 23 percent sales tax might benefit us and I'd like to hear Tenenbaum's ideas on education and why we're so low" in standardized test scores.

"More jobs" is what Richard Wideman, 43, said he wants to hear, although his hours as executive chef at the Fish Market restaurant mean he's unlikely to be in front of TV set tonight.

During a busman's holiday lunch at a downtown eatery Wideman said what he's heard from the candidates on other issues has been satisfying in its depth and scope, but still not enough for him to make up his mind.

DeMint and Tenenbaum will be playing to a heavy-voting and generally Republican audience in the Upstate in their second of five debates to be aired statewide.

Their first was Oct. 3 in Charleston, in which Tenenbaum aggressively challenged DeMint's co-sponsorship of a bill that would end all federal taxes, replacing them with a 23 percent national sales tax. It's that issue that has dominated the campaign since mid-August.

That dominance has left some voters informationally short-changed, even about the fine point of that issue, much less others, some voters said.

Shellie Bowser, 27, who works for Budweiser and is undecided on the Senate race, hopes the candidates will give her age group a reason to vote.

"I'd like to hear what they say about what our stake is. A lot of my friends don't vote or think their votes don't count."

Bowser said her interests are in hearing why the nation is at war in Iraq, jobs because, "so many of my friends have college degrees and are out of jobs and taxes, obviously."

Kathryn Rice, who works in the admissions office at Clemson University, said she wants to hear more about the national sales tax plan DeMint supports. Rice, 30, admits to some confusion over how it would work, but likes the idea.

"There are so many people in this country who don't pay taxes and we're having to pick up that, so this way illegal immigrants, any time they buy something, are going to have to put their share down," she said.

Joyce McKenzie, 63, a benefits and payroll manager for a Greenville law firm, said Tenenbaum "needs to make it very clear what her taxing situation is as opposed to what Jim DeMint's tax plan is."

Neither she nor her son, Tazewell, 33, said they were entirely satisfied with what they've heard from the candidates so far.

"Talk about what they'd do for South Carolina. I don't need to hear about what their strategies are for Iraq," said Tazewell McKenzie, owner of a catering firm and deli. "We need strategies for a senator who's going to take care of the people of South Carolina, our education, environment, business development, parks and roadways.

"This is what they're there for, not that other stuff across the ocean," he said.

Jeff Haughton, co-owner of Ground Industries, a Greenville skateboarding manufacturing company, said he's still waiting to hear something meaningful from DeMint and Tenenbaum.

"Their ads focus on telling me not to vote against their competitor," lamented Haughton, who said "as far as them getting out there and presenting a clear view of what they'd do, you don't see that."

His big concern as a manufacturer forced to contract overseas is that the necessary technology for his products doesn't exist in the United States.

Haughton, 33, said if either candidate talks about increasing the government's spending on research and development, he'll "definitely" be instantly attentive.

As expected, the campaigns had different takes on their candidates' second encounter.

Terry Sullivan, DeMint's campaign manager, said "Tenenbaum needs to hit a home run every time; we're just going for base hits, because we're winning. The pressure is on her." Sullivan cited independent polls showing DeMint leading by 6 to 10 percentage points.

Sullivan said the aggressiveness Tenenbaum displayed in the initial debate "doesn't play anywhere," although it may help some with men, it won't with women.

Asked if Tenenbaum would continue the aggressive mode, her spokeswoman, Kay Packett, said, "I think she'll stand toe-to-toe with Jim DeMint, like the last time."

"The Upstate is a key audience, but I can't say it's more significantly important than other regions. There are a lot of swing voters in the Upstate," Packett said.

Sullivan said DeMint's debate preparation has been modified.

"There was a tactical mistake on my part in not telling him one simple thing, that you don't have to answer every single question," Sullivan said. "If it's a stupid question and doesn't have anything to do with the Senate, you don't have to answer it."

Packett said Tenenbaum planned only a couple of study sessions to anticipate questions and work on organizing responses.

Monday's comments by voters about the campaign's lack of substance were underscored by the day's partisan exchange, over the candidates' whereabouts.

While DeMint campaigned extensively in the Midlands and Tenenbaum in the Pee Dee, state Democratic Party Chairman Joe Erwin issued a Columbus Day statement saying the party had launched a search to "discover" DeMint.

"Jim DeMint can't hide in Washington forever," Erwin said. "DeMint has not made a public appearance since his town hall meeting with Dick Armey on Oct. 4."

Sullivan said Erwin should look in Lexington County where DeMint, who returned Saturday from Washington, was in an afternoon-long round of politicking, appearing on a radio talk show and speaking at a rally with fellow U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson.

Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 298-4883.