Lindsey Graham’s fourth GOP challenger Bill Connor announces run at Myrtle Beach Tea Party event

thestate.com ^ | November 11, 2013 | Jamie Self

[cotton1706]

COLUMBIA — U.S. Army veteran and Orangeburg attorney Bill Connor announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate Monday at a Myrtle Beach Tea Party meeting.Connor joins Spartanburg state Sen. Lee Bright, Easley businessman Richard Cash and Charleston PR executive Nancy Mace as the fourth candidate challenging U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in the June GOP primary.The only one of Graham’s challengers to run a statewide race, Connor ran for lieutenant governor in 2010 and lost in a runoff.A Monday news release on Connor’s newly launched website said that “Unlike some, Bill Connor wears the label of Tea Party Republican proudly.”In a video posted on Connor’s website and timed with his announcement, Connor says, “A small federal government our founders intended was for citizen legislators, people who would take time away from their families and businesses for a few years, do what’s right for our country’s future,” then come home and live under the laws they pass.“After nearly two decades in Washington Lindsey Graham’s values and votes look more like they came more from a congressional conference table,” Connor says in the video, accusing Graham of supporting conservative causes near election time.

[SC_Pete]

Exactly. And you want a strong candidate to emerge from the vetting process. No more Herman Cain surprises, please.

[southernnorthcarolina]

You know what would really be funny? A runoff -- without Graham, after he finished third.

Well, that's not going to happen. I'd like the chances of ousting Graham a lot better if one of the Republican Congressmen jumped into the race. Joe ("You lie!") Wilson, or Mick Mulvaney, or best of all, Trey Gowdy.

[Resettozero]

The plan is to keep Graham under 50% so there’s a runoff. The second person will likely be Lee Bright, who’s gaining strength. Then in a one on one contest between Graham and Bright, we take out Graham. Similar to the Dewhurst/Cruz race in Texas last year.

It's certain that almost all votes for any of the challengers is a vote against Graham. This plan's success depends on ALL of the supporters of the challengers remaining a block against LG, regardless the second place finisher. The best thing that could happen, and I hope it does, is that LG finishes THIRD in the primary.

[JRandomFreeper]

I would love it if Graham didn't make it to the run-off.

/johnny

[a fool in paradise]

BINGO, too many challengers spoils to soup.

[JRandomFreeper]

Not in a run-off election. Which is what SC has. The more the merrier to keep Graham from getting 50%.

/johnny

[a fool in paradise]

Terry McAwful knows what works. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a major “third party challenger” in 2016 when Hillary Clinton runs.

[CPT Clay]

Exactly, keep him under 50%

[CPT Clay]

When is the primary? Runoff?

[cotton1706]

The primary’s on 6/10/14.

[cotton1706]

“The best thing that could happen, and I hope it does, is that LG finishes THIRD in the primary.”

Oh, absolutely this would be the best possible outcome. He would be removed from power. And he would be free to vote with the democrats openly for the remainder of the year.

[elcid1970]

I’ve met Bill Connor. Lt. Col, SC National Guard, Afghanistan vet, solid conservative, good resume IMO.

Trey Gowdy has said it’s not his time to try for the Senate yet. He is being very effective as part of the House majority.

Flimsey Tinkerbelle will be pulled down into a runoff by the sheer weight of primary contenders (thank you, S.C. laws). When he is forced to attack other Republicans, he will be exposed as a snippy little drama queen; his faux conservatism won’t wash as the real conservatives give him what for. They’ll hang McCain around his neck for starters.

[bestintxas]

“If Graham doesn’t get 50% of the vote, it goes to a run-off election. The more to take away votes from Graham and keep him from 50% the better.”

And that is the key. Think runoff Ted Cruz had with the establisment Dewhurst.\

And now we Texans have given you Ted Cruz. (accolades).

[upchuck]

The more the merrier.

For those of you complaining about splitting the vote, etc., learn how a primary is run in South Carolina. Go here, scroll down a little and read the red text.

Uber RINO Lindsey Ping
"Republican by day, Democrat by night."

Want on or off this ping list?
Just FReepmail me

[AuH2ORepublican]

“Let them run but they should agree to exit the race when it becomes apparent who is the strongest tea party candidate.”

---

That’s a good strategy for states without a runoff, but in SC, we want as many candidates as possible so as to keep Graham below 50% in the first round and force the runoff. Having a single “TEA Party candidate” (who won’t have anywhere near the name ID as Graham) running against Graham likely will result in Graham winning the primary by 54%-46% or something; having several candidates running, all of whom bring out their supporters, should keep Graham below 50% and permit conservatives to coalesce around the second-place finisher and beat Graham in the lower-turnout runoff.

[AuH2ORepublican]

“I absolutely wish our presidential election required a run-off if no one over 50%.”

---

You mean in each state, so potentially 50 runoffs? Because there’s no way that I would give up the Electoral College for a national vote, with or without a runoff.

[AuH2ORepublican]

If Lindsey Graham is held below 50% and Bill Connor finishes second, how long before the Harpootlian and the SC Democrat Party changes Bill’s name to Bull? BTW, does Harpootlian still say that Lindsey Graham is “too light in the loafers” to be a Senator, or do SC Democrats wisely shut up and not look a gift horse in the mouth?

[Resettozero]

And he would be free to vote with the democrats openly for the remainder of the year.

I hear ya. I doubt it, though. If he runs for Statewide office again in S.C., it will have to be as a Republican (SCGOPe). Party leaders in some other States would welcome him to run as a Democrat in their State. If he did this thing, at least I wouldn't continue to have indigestion every time he is introduced on TV as "South Carolina Senator..."

[vikingd00d]

>>SC is a run-off state. And it has a sore-loser law. Graham can’t run under another party if he loses the primary.

I just wish it wasn’t an open-primary state. All the rats will be voting for Graham in the primary.

[xzins]

Yep. A do-over with the top two names on each ballot.

We don’t have an electoral college in the way it was originally designed in which they actually selected the president by delegate voting

Article II

Section. 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; a quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President [Modified by Amendment XII].

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

Article. [XXIV.]
[Proposed 1962; Ratified 1964]
Section. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Section. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.