We're down to only about 28 hours left on our term as 6th District Vice-Chair, and last night was our last official pit stop at the Clarendon County GOP Meeting in Manning. It was quite appropriate, as Clarendon was our first stop in 2004 when we decided to run for Congress. The bad news was Moye was stuck at the airport in Charlotte, so we missed him. But, we'll see him plenty tomorrow at the 6th District Convention. In his place, June Brailsford ran the show last night, and did a fine job. All we can say is the woman wears a lot of GOP hats...
Yeah, it was a bit of a farewell lap for Tom Grimes and myself last night. I tried to be brief and thanked everyone, and to give my ideas for what faces the District in the future as well. Hopefully, I got the point across. Who knows, I never ask... But, the real purpose of the evening was to hear from two of the campaigns.
First up was DeLinda 'The Road Warrior' Ridings, Field Director for Chad Prosser's 7th District congressional campaign. DeLinda has to be one of the busiest people in SC Politics. How busy? Her daughter was there last night, and she gave DeLinda a huge hug, because she hadn't seen her for three days! Working for Prosser, Curtis Loftis, Chad Connelly and the Newt Gingrich campaigns will do that to you.. But, what's the correlation between them? So far, she hasn't lost a race - winners tend to stay busy.
Last night, it was all about Prosser.. Like most of you, my mind is far from made up on who to vote for in this race. We're all just trying to meet as many of them as possible, feel them out, and decide which one best espouses our views and will do the best job. On the surface, Prosser had a similar resume as others running: County Council, small business owner, conservative, although he does have states experience running the Parks and Tourism Department, and had a fellowship in the Bush 41 administration. Pretty impressive, but not enough to close the deal for us. Then DeLinda mentioned something that maybe even she didn't realize might sway a vote or two...
For years, we have tried to explain to readers the importance of Economics in government and budget planning. We economists are non-partisan types, who are better are making the tough decisions, because we don't let emotion or bias affect our ability to make government work better and more efficiently. In short, people with economic backgrounds make better candidates than businessmen or others... Ridings brought up Prosser's work in Economics and International Business, which is key to working in DC. Few in Congress can grasp the world economy, which is why they do such a bad job of regulating and working it.. In a sentence or two, DeLinda just pushed Chad Prosser way up on our board. Granted, not everyone thinks like we do - but they probably should!
The main speaker of the night was SC Senate District 36 candidate Rev. Leon Winn... The first time candidate is a Baptist minister from Sumter, who rides a motorcycle - and yeah, you might have noticed he's African-American. A lifelong Democrat, Winn says he was asked a simple question: why are you a Democrat? He didn't have much of an answer, except that blacks are programmed to just be Democrats. Once he read the Republican Creed, it spoke to him personally and as a Christian, and he decided to go on a mission... Call it political evangelism.
Like most good ministers, Winn is a very good public speaker. While there will likely be holes in his political acumen, Winn's main mission is to preach to the choir - and the non-believers, the young and anyone that will listen to him. His goal is to do for others what he did - give the GOP a chance. We have long said that in the long term, African-Americans will in large part go the same route as any other demographic: as they move up and succeed, they will become less obsessed with social programs, and focus more on what the government is actually doing with their money. It won't happen overnight, but with people like Winn advancing it, the move will speed up. People are more apt to listen to others like them, and White Republicans can only do so much...
Does Winn have a good chance at taking John Land's old seat? It's tough, but Moye Graham has done a great job at getting the Republican vote out, and making these races competitive. If both Moye and Winn do their jobs, we could have a surprise. If not, Winn needs to continue the fight. Like Jeremiah, it might seem like no one is listening to him - but they will.
.
1 comment:
Road warrior? Ridings is all over the map mentally and nobody wants to hire her long-term because she's useless once you start asking questions. She set the record for working for the most Presidential candidates in the same election cycle.
Post a Comment