Most Kossacks from outside the State of South Carolina could care less about any of the elections in SC. There is no Senate race and in the only competitive House race, John Spratt (D-SC-05) looks like he will hold his seat.
However, underneath the surface of races so boring and pedestrian that Saturday Night Live makes fun of their obscurity, there is something very interesting going on beneath the radar.
It just so happens that wealthy special interests are trying to buy the state of South Carolina.
Governor Marshall Sanford is up in the polls and sitting on a large war-chest, much of it from out-of-state. Wealthy, out-of-state, conservative ideologues like the libertarian Governor. Unfortunately, for the people of South Carolina, his policies have lead to one of the nation's highest unemployment rates, considerably higher than either North Carolina or Georgia. His performance has earned him the honors of being one of "America's Worst Governors" according to Time Magazine and the nation's only "1-star" Governor according to Inc. Magazine.
Sanford's big issue is the privitization of South Carolina's public school system. Under the Orwellian name of "Put Parents in Charge" Sanford wants to enact a voucher program that will take money from South Carolina's already underfunded public school system and give it to private schools. For those of you unfamiliar with South Carolina, you should realize that outside of Charleston, there really is no existing system of private schools in the state. The overwhelming majority of South Carolinians, including both of our Senators, were educated in the public school system.
To make a long story short, this is the perfect opportunity for an "experiment" with a privitized, for-profit, school system. The religious right is on board because they want public money for their religious schools. On top of all of this, SC's private schools are virtually unregulated by the state.
Yes, it gets worse.
They are also trying to buy the Superintendent of Education office. Karen Floyd is completely unqualified to be Superintendent of Education. She has never been in a classroom and is little more than an attractive face to sell the voucher policy to voters.
You can read more than you ever wanted to know about Karen Floyd here:
http://www.metrobeat.net/...
On top of this, Sanford and friends have spent the past four years sabotaging the efforts of the retiring Superintendent of Education, Democrat Inez Tenenbaum. Sanford slashed the education budget for three out of his four years and has constantly attacked the public school system, in order to prove that privitization is necessary.
Not even Republicans are safe. Massive amounts of campaign cash were poured into mounting primary campaigns against members of the General Assembly who opposed Sanford.
They scared House Education Chairman Ronnie Townsend (R-Anderson) into retiring. Although their handpicked challenger failed miserably to win the primary for the open seat, losing to a proud public school supporter, neighboring Rep. Becky Martin (R-Anderson) wasn't so lucky. She lost the primary by about 100 votes after being outspent on a large scale by a voucher supporter.
http://www.thestate.com/...
(Martin and Townsend also angered the hard right with their opposition to the appointment of Ron Wilson to the State Board of Education, but that's a different story.)
Of course, Howard Rich is involved, as my fellow sandlapper has blogged repeatedly.
These guys must be stopped. If they can buy SC, what other small state will they try to buy next?
Tommy Moore needs money. However, more importantly, if you are in South Carolina, Tommy Moore needs boots on the ground.
Publicly, a few Republicans, such as Sen. Jake Knotts (R-Lexington) and retiring Sen. Verne Smith (R-Greer) have come out and endorsed Democrat Tommy Moore over Sanford. Privately, I have it from a very reliable source that the majority of Republicans in the General Assembly will be voting for Moore, even though they are not going so far as to publicly endorse him. Moore is down in the polls, but I have not seen a poll with internals that make any sense, so this race is VERY winnable for the Democrats.
http://www.tommymoore2006.com
Jim Rex also needs your help. He is down in the polls, but people who have heard both Rex and Floyd speak are favoring Rex by an overwhelming margin. Rex is a former educator who believes in our public schools. If he gets his message out, he can win.
http://www.jimrex.com/
Let's tell the wealthy special interest groups that South Carolina is NOT for sale.