Senate candidate protests loss to mystery man
Published 10:22 pm Monday, June 14, 2010
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A U.S. Senate candidate asked for a new Democratic primary Monday after he lost last week to an unemployed military veteran who raised no money and had no signs and no ads.
The Democratic Party’s 92-member executive committee plans a hearing Thursday on former state lawmaker Vic Rawl’s protest and could order the primary results overturned. Rawl could also appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Pundits have been puzzled since Alvin Greene, a 32-year-old political unknown, defeated Rawl in the primary to see who would face GOP U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, the heavy favorite in the fall. Greene won with 59 percent of the vote to 41 percent for Rawl.
Rawl, a Charleston County Council member, said he campaigned statewide, put 17,000 miles on his car and, in the days before the primary, sent out hundreds of thousands of e-mails and automated phone calls seeking voter support. Greene said he traveled the state to talk to voters, but he had no campaign organization and no website.
Rawl said Monday that he suspects Greene’s victory is due to either voting machines or software malfunctioning.
