Runoff 2012: Tom Rice Comes to Florence

Tom and Wrenzie Rice Come to Bazen's To Shake Hands, But the Rumored Jordan Endorsement Hasn't Materialized - Not Quite Yet...


   And that's why they call them rumors... With just eight days left until the 7th District runoff between Tom Rice and Andre Bauer, Florence takes it's place onstage the next two days, as both candidates come to Bazen's Restaurant on consecutive days.  It's pretty cool, because it gives us a bit of an indication of the support each has in up for grabs Flotown and the Pee Dee.. Same location, same time of day, only 24 hours apart.  It doesn't get much more equal footing than that...


   Of course, there was one 900 pound gorilla hanging over today's Rice event: would Jay Jordan be there, and would be endorsing Rice and advising his 21% from the runoff to vote for the Horry County Council Chair?  The answer to that today was no and no - or at least not yet... We try not to take up too much time of the candidates when their primary purpose is to meet as many new voters as possible, so we said hi and quickly asked the big question: Do we have any big news to report today?  Rice smiled and said 'We're working on it.'  Easy enough, and we appreciate the honesty, knowing it'll be online in a couple hours...


   Time is short before the runoff, so we're not sure what ends need to be tied to get a Jordan endorsement. It all depends on what Jay Jordan is asking for, if anything, or if he even wants to get involved in this. If he does, the playing field does tilt towards Rice in a big way - but will it come? Endorsing is a risky move... You pick the loser, and the winner is none too happy - and they remember it. You pick the winner, and you just became Kingmaker for a day... So far, Jordan has not rolled the dice..


   With the big buzz quickly gone at least for today, it became a standard meet & greet.  These things are hard to measure, because not everyone there came to meet Rice, but some did.  There were probably close to 50 supporters and party people there, and a decent morning breakfast crowd of new potential voters.  Most of those involved in the party are smartly staying non-committal, so we're not going to name names. 

Former candidate Randal Wallace met up with Renee Knight Woodberry, and as usual, Randal and I got into a half-hour friendly discussion on his campaign, the race, and stuff in general.  We feel bad for taking up his time at every event we see him, but he's just a great guy to chat with on the trail....




   Overall, it was pretty standard fare. When you're expecting a game-changing event to possibly occur, and it doesn't, you might feel a slight amount of disappointment. But, like we said, it does make for an real fair comparison to gauge which campaign has the juice in wide-open Florence.  To be continued tomorrow I guess!

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