Going Greene

Last night I was only following the California election results, but apparently there was some election weirdness going on in South Carolina.

A mystery man won the Democratic Senate nomination. His name is Alvin Greene, and he's unemployed, 32 years old, and a military veteran. He won nearly 60% of the vote in SC's open primary. Greene had no campaign funds, no web site, no bumper stickers and he tried to pay his $10,400 filing fee with a personal check. Oh, and he's also facing a felony charge for allegedly showing obscene photos to a university student.

Some people suspect a Republican plant. These kind of shenanigans have happened before:

In the early ‘90s, a Republican strategist was prosecuted and forced to pay a fine when he was found to have coaxed an unemployed black fisherman into running in a primary race to increase white turnout at the polls in a Lowcountry congressional race. The political operative paid the man’s filing fee.

But it seems a little odd to plant a guy like Greene and then leave it up to chance for him to get the nomination.

But what I find really odd is that Greene doesn't seem to have the wild-eyed political views or the attention-whore tendencies of people like Orly Taitz. In fact, he doesn't even seem capable of those kind of theatrics:



But you know, US Senators earn an annual salary of $174,000. So why wouldn't Greene run? It might have been a bit of blue sky dreaming, but a $10,400 investment for a chance at a $174k job isn't bad! Believe me, I've considered this scheme myself!

But come November, Greene (if he doesn't step aside) will be facing Republican incumbent Jim DeMint, and we'll see if this anti-incumbent fever is really contagious.