"I wanna be like Mike."

Some folks used to say that about now retired basketball superstar Michael Jordan.

In Greenville, during this unexpected campaign season, there's a variation on that.

Five people are saying they want to be like David Wilkins, the former state House speaker who resigned his District 24 seat to become ambassador to Canada.

Each of four would-be Republican successors -- Bruce Bannister, Tom Ervin, William Herlong and Warren Mowry -- is trying to convince voters in the Aug. 16 primary that he is just like Wilkins and will carry the flame accordingly.

Indeed, hardly a one of them can get a sentence out that doesn't invoke Wilkins' name and how their views are closely entwined.

Even the lone Democrat, Greenville City Councilwoman Michelle Shain, is horning in, noting that she and Wilkins were political allies, that she voted for him and he supported her candidacy.

Does it matter?

Some analysts are uncertain, but it's plain from statements, campaign materials and ads that the linkage matters greatly to the candidates.

Danielle Vinson, who teaches politics and the media at Furman University, finds that "trying to identify themselves as a continuation of Wilkins is not a surprising tactic. As I recall, Lindsey Graham was happy to claim close ties to Sen. Thurmond when Graham ran for the Senate."

As for House 24, Vinson said she isn't sure it will be as effective.

"If all the candidates are claiming to be the next incarnation of Wilkins and there is no additional evidence to support the claim, or if evidence supports more than one candidate's claim, the information isn't particularly helpful to the public in sorting out the differences," she said.

Ed Foulke, the Greenville GOP chairman, too, says he's uncertain the linkage can be made, even though "any candidate is going to want to be perceived as following in (Wilkins') footsteps."

For example:

Bannister: "When you have somebody as popular as David Wilkins, it's hard not to. Everybody's done it so far." He likes to tell people that he's 32 and a lawyer with two children, just like Wilkins when he won the seat in 1980.

Ervin: His TV ad features a still photo of him with Wilkins and his Web site refers to "my friend, David."

Herlong: "I should be so lucky to be compared to him. I really do think David is the model."

Mowry: "It will be a large part of it. A lot of people in the district want a continuation of the policies of David Wilkins, and certainly all of us would like to make that claim."

At least two of the candidates may well need to cleave to Wilkins' mold and record.

Herlong and Ervin are relatively new to the GOP.

"I really don't know if I should say I'm a former Democrat, because before 1996, I wasn't anything," said Herlong, who was once considered congressional material by local Democrats. He holds a seat on the nonpartisan Greenville school board.

"I hope I have credibility as a Republican. For me, that well may be the question. I should," he said, then described his school board tenure in terms of fiscal conservatism with tough positions on accountability and discipline.

Ervin, a former Democratic legislator, donated $20,000 to the state Democratic Party, in $10,000 increments on Aug. 25 and Feb. 7. He says his donations to GOP candidates and causes exceed those to Democrats.

Back to Wilkins.

"I'm the only candidate in the race who actually has served with David, co-sponsored legislation that was passed and signed into law. That's significant," Ervin says.

Bannister and Mowry are campaigning, among other things, as lifelong Republicans.

That could be the subtext that Bannister and Mowry hope sticks with voters: Who's the most Republican?

For now, Ervin's ads aside, the campaign is being fought with yard signs and shoe leather.

"This is going to be won handshake by handshake," Bannister said.

One question is just how many hands these guys will have to shake.

Foulke said a 25 percent turnout among the district's approximately 23,000 registered voters would be considered good.

For the Aug. 16 primary, it's the only ballot issue, so "you won't get that," he said. Instead, he predicts 20 percent, or about 4,600 to 5,000 voters.

Working against strong turnout: Greenville schools crank up for the fall term on Aug. 22, meaning that the primary will come on that last week for beach vacations for parents of school-age children.

"If a candidate can go door to door and get commitments to vote for him, he could get 2,500 votes and not have to worry about a runoff," Foulke said. "To me, that's the strategy: Identify who goes to the polls in primaries and get that vote out."