The Greenville News - Conley Vs. Graham: an Unconventional Senate Match-Up

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The Greenville News - Conley vs. Graham: an Unconventional Senate Match-Up

By Dan Hoover

Outside, the bumper stickers ranged from "Ron Paul" to "Enough is enough/Don't re-elect anyone."

Inside the Greenville Technical College auditorium, ironically named for the late Verne Smith, a Democratic state senator who defected to the GOP, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bob Conley, once a Republican, was regaling members of the local Constitution Party.

"Are you ready to bring our boys home?"

Gun control? Forget it.

Anti-abortion? Absolutely.

"Get our First Amendment rights back. It's time this government stopped spying on us."

Abolish the Federal Reserve.

Immigrants? Pack 'em up and send them back where they came from.

Not your standard Democratic fare.

Neither is Conley a Democrat sent from central casting.

This Nov. 4 match-up for the seat that Democrat-turned-Republican Strom Thurmond held for nearly a half-century until 2003 is unconventional by any state's standards.

It pits Conley, an opportunistic challenger who filled a Democratic void after operating on the fringes of the GOP, against Republican incumbent Lindsey Graham, a maverick who doesn't lack for critics in his own party.

Measured against recent Senate campaigns, it has largely been a non-event.

Graham seems to have spent as much time campaigning in other states for his pal, GOP presidential nominee John McCain, as for himself in South Carolina. Conley, with virtually no money, organization or name identification, has worked hard at wooing minor parties and Graham detractors within the GOP while hoping to benefit from an expected straight-ticket Democratic presidential surge.

While Graham has mostly ignored his opponent, Conley has done some sniping.

"He's arrogant," Conley told the Constitution Party group. "He's out there gallivanting around the country as personal bag boy for John McCain."

Just a few years ago, Conley, an engineer and commercial pilot, was a Republican legislative candidate in Indiana. Having moved to North Myrtle Beach early in the decade, he became a Republican activist who voted for Paul, the libertarian-Republican congressman from Texas, in the January presidential primary.

By March, when it became apparent the Democratic Party wasn't going to be able to recruit a viable, brand-name challenger for Graham, Conley filed as a Democrat, and in June he eked out a primary victory over an equally unknown Democrat.

In doing so, he emerged as a Democrat well to the right of the Republican, a rare circumstance in Southern politics.

Ted Adams, the tiny Constitution Party's state chairman, told the 35 to 40 people clustered in the front rows that Conley had virtually infiltrated Democratic ranks:

"Very few people have done what Bob Conley has done, get on the ticket of a major party. Bob recognized the opportunity. We may never get another opportunity like this."

Graham, with incumbency, name identification and several million dollars behind him, has ignored an opponent who has little of the organization of past Democratic Senate candidates, only pocket change for his campaign and a party apparatus that hasn't rushed to embrace him.

John Simpkins, a law professor at the Charleston School of Law and a donor to Barack Obama's campaign, says of Conley:

"The term ‘DINO' (Democrat in Name Only) is less frequently used than RINO, but that seems to be (what) a lot of Democrats think of Bob Conley. With Barack Obama at the top of the ticket and strong candidates like Chandra Dillard running for the state House of Representatives, Upstate Democrats still may vote a straight ticket.

"Regardless, Sen. Graham's uncanny ability to reach across the aisle and be partisan when necessary should provide him with a sufficient coalition of moderates and straight-ticket GOP voters to win easily."

Scott Huffmon, a Winthrop University political scientist, says the state is adjusting to a different era and different personalities.

"The norm for Senate elections in South Carolina has been, what are Strom Thurmond and Fritz Hollings doing? For decades we had no real basis for comparison, but is this one strange? Yes," Huffmon said.

"Does it say more about the splits within the Republican Party that Conley is running as the Democrat or does it say more about the shallowness of the Democratic bench?" he asks.

While Democratic leaders have remained cool to Conley, he hasn't exactly offered an olive branch. During the summer he described his adopted party as "controlled by the far left" that is comfortable with Graham. That drew a rebuke from state Chairwoman Carol Fowler who questioned "where his votes are going to come from."

In fact, Conley seems to be getting attention from everyone except Democrats.

The Constitution Party's presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin, a preacher-radio talk show host from Florida, has endorsed Conley. Many of the party's members are former Republicans who found the GOP not conservative enough for them.

Paul said in a statement posted on Conley's Web site, "I think that we need more Conleys joining the Democrats; it's a philosophic struggle, not a partisan struggle. I'll work with anyone; I want to bring those people together and worry about the other issues later. On the big issues, we should come together."

Chris Lawton, a Paul organizer, wrote in an Oct. 16 e-mail that Paul and Conley had a conversation the previous night and "Please get the word out!" He also described Conley as being "in critical need of campaign funds for yard signs. Please (in caps) donate any amount..."

You won't find any Conley materials at Greenville County Democratic headquarters or at Barack Obama's Greenville campaign office, although some are available at state party headquarters in Columbia.

Virtually every analyst rates Graham's seat as safely Republican.

It's allowed Graham the luxury of devoting large blocks of his time to campaigning around the country for, and usually with, McCain.

On Wednesday, Graham was in Asheville, having arrived the night before following stops in Philadelphia and Virginia. Then it was off to Spartanburg for a pep talk to McCain volunteers, followed by Charlotte, and a wrap-up in Myrtle Beach. For Thursday, it was Florence, Columbia and Aiken. That was the total of Graham's in-state campaigning for the week.

Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop explains the process: "He campaigns with McCain for a few days, comes home and does a few events for himself and then repeats the process."

In recent weeks, Graham has been to Missouri, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, North Carolina, New York, Florida and Virginia.

If Democrats haven't fully embraced Conley, neither is Graham without problems in his own party.

The right wing has never really warmed to McCain and has criticized Graham's penchant for bipartisanship, support for immigration reform it derisively branded "Grahamnesty" and his role in negotiating an agreement that kept the former GOP Senate majority from changing the rules on judicial confirmation.

He was challenged from the right in the June primary, but won handily, carrying 45 of 46 counties. He lost Greenville, home to the state's biggest Republican electorate and also the focal point of conservative unrest.

Graham, 53, insists he's taking nothing for granted and has mounted a substantial broadcast advertising effort, something that Conley, who asked Wednesday night for donations for yard signs, can't match.

But he makes it clear that he views getting McCain elected on par with his own re-election.

"It's very important that John McCain become our next commander-in-chief, that he check and balance the Democratic Congress that's likely to still be in power," Graham said.

"There are two things I need to do: Earn my re-election and help my good buddy, John McCain, become president (because) he lines up better with South Carolina values than Barack Obama."

He dismisses Conley as "more from the fringe of politics than he is from the mainstream of either party. The fact that he voted for Ron Paul in the Republican presidential primary and won the Democratic primary says a lot about the effort to find opposition for me. There are a lot of Independents and Democrats who may not agree with me all the time or even a lot, but respect the fact that I've tried to be fair and solve problems."

Faced with a known, well-funded opponent, would Graham still have devoted as much time to campaigning for McCain?

Probably, he says.

"The way I look at politics is, it's not about me. The fact that I'm trying to help Sen. McCain is consistent with who I am and where I am in politics," Graham said.

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