I haven't seen a thread on this yet and it's an absolutely bizarre situation. One Alvin Greene has unexpectedly won an extraordinarily unlikely spot on the ballot vs. incumbent Republican senator Jim DeMint.
1. An 32-year old unemployed ex-soldier of the US army (involuntarily but honorably discharged) pays $10,400 to run in the Democratic primary for one of their US senate seats. 2. He does no campaigning that anyone has noticed. That's not an exaggeration. No campaigning whatsoever. No website. His twitter account went live ~20 hours ago. 3. He wins. Handily. 59%-41% to be exact. Against a known entity.
Nearly immediately after his win - the only offered explanation for which so far has been "people voted alphabetically" - it was revealed that Greene is facing felony charges for showing obscene pornographic material to a 19-year old college student. At a hearing, he requested public defense. This was last October. In March, he tries to use a personal check to register for his senate bid.
quote:Shealy gained a bit of national notoriety in 1990, when he was running the campaign of his sister, Sherry Martschink, a candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Shealy was looking to increase the turnout of racially conservative low-country voters, a group largely sympathetic to Martschink, in the overall Republican primary. To do so, he recruited Benjamin Hunt, Jr., an unemployed black fisherman, to run for congress in the Republican primary against incumbent Arthur Ravenel, Jr., even paying Hunt’s filing fee. When the ploy was revealed, Shealy was convicted and fined for violating campaign laws.
Samprimary, you can keep Kentucky. I'm getting MY political entertainment from South Carolina.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
Someone unknown beats a known entity like that, it means people weren't voting alphabetically or for him so much as they were voting against the other guy.
If they counted "None of the Above" as a real candidate, it would often win.
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
quote:It’s also worth noting that Greene’s opponent in South Carolina, a judge and former state legislator named Vic Rawl, polled poorly among South Carolina Democrats last month: only 4 percent had a favorable opinion of him, while 82 percent were unsure, according to a May survey by Public Policy Polling.
While it makes your hypothesis unlikely, it also means Greene's victory wasn't as weird as I previously suspected.
Posted by Godric (Member # 4587) on :
I'd still say it's pretty darn weird.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
I actually sorta wanted to make a subsequent thread titled 'south carolina is now the source of my non-rand-paul related political humor' because this is hilarious and SC's politics are beyond screwed (hallo open primary) but then kentucky's legislature voted unanimously to rebuke rand paul so i got caught in the middle and just didn't know what to do i just didn't know what to do Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :
I'm glad for the guy! Even if the pornography thing is true, it hardly makes him any smuttier than the majority of the dirty old men in congress. Now, he'll probably end up completely enthralled to lobbyists because he can be dazzled so easily, but maybe he won't. Maybe he'll really be a Mr. Smith.
Posted by Catalyst (Member # 12119) on :
You must take the time to read this article. Truly amazing.
Hilarious! Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
quote:Greene is facing felony charges for showing obscene pornographic material to a 19-year old college student
I don't understand this charge. Was the 19 year old somehow forced unwillingly in to watching? If not, why is this a crime?
Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lisa: Someone unknown beats a known entity like that, it means people weren't voting alphabetically or for him so much as they were voting against the other guy.
If they counted "None of the Above" as a real candidate, it would often win.
IIRC, with just a few thousand more votes in the 1988 Presidential election, Mickey Mouse would have qualified for Federal campaign funding.
That was not a watershed year for awesome candidates...or, at least, not candidates that captured the voters' imaginations.
Posted by Godric (Member # 4587) on :
quote:Originally posted by Amanecer:
quote:Greene is facing felony charges for showing obscene pornographic material to a 19-year old college student
I don't understand this charge. Was the 19 year old somehow forced unwillingly in to watching? If not, why is this a crime?
I'm confused about it as well, but I'm not familiar with those charges.
But wow! This guy makes Sarah Palin look downright eloquent.
You know, with an open primary, I can completely see a bunch of Republicans just voting for the least known Democratic candidate since apparently one poll showed Rawl coming within 7% of DeMint. No conspiracy needed there. But over 100,000 votes is a lot.
Weird and fascinating.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
quote:Originally posted by steven:
quote:Originally posted by Lisa: Someone unknown beats a known entity like that, it means people weren't voting alphabetically or for him so much as they were voting against the other guy.
If they counted "None of the Above" as a real candidate, it would often win.
IIRC, with just a few thousand more votes in the 1988 Presidential election, Mickey Mouse would have qualified for Federal campaign funding.
That was not a watershed year for awesome candidates...or, at least, not candidates that captured the voters' imaginations.
I am pretty sure you are UNDERSTATING that. I've heard that he would have won a number of Presidential elections, and that Superman would be runner up. No joke.
Posted by SenojRetep (Member # 8614) on :
quote:Originally posted by Godric:
quote:Originally posted by Amanecer:
quote:Greene is facing felony charges for showing obscene pornographic material to a 19-year old college student
I don't understand this charge. Was the 19 year old somehow forced unwillingly in to watching? If not, why is this a crime?
I'm confused about it as well, but I'm not familiar with those charges.
He allegedly flashed her pornographic photographs. I have the impression she was hanging out somewhere on campus, he approached her, showed her some smutty pictures and suggested they go up to her dorm room.
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
Ah, that does indeed sound more sinister than what I'd imagined.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
Normally I'd have to say that this guy was a plant, but he's insane enough to have just fronted the cash on his own.
Still hilarious either way! Oh, let's just abuse open primaries till they are shut down out of necessity.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Imagine if he wins.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Kwea:
quote:Originally posted by steven:
quote:Originally posted by Lisa: Someone unknown beats a known entity like that, it means people weren't voting alphabetically or for him so much as they were voting against the other guy.
If they counted "None of the Above" as a real candidate, it would often win.
IIRC, with just a few thousand more votes in the 1988 Presidential election, Mickey Mouse would have qualified for Federal campaign funding.
That was not a watershed year for awesome candidates...or, at least, not candidates that captured the voters' imaginations.
I am pretty sure you are UNDERSTATING that. I've heard that he would have won a number of Presidential elections, and that Superman would be runner up. No joke.
I heard that in 1976, Howard the Duck became the first fictional write-in candidate to beat Mickey Mouse.
Posted by T:man (Member # 11614) on :
quote:Originally posted by SenojRetep:
quote:Originally posted by Godric:
quote:Originally posted by Amanecer:
quote:Greene is facing felony charges for showing obscene pornographic material to a 19-year old college student
I don't understand this charge. Was the 19 year old somehow forced unwillingly in to watching? If not, why is this a crime?
I'm confused about it as well, but I'm not familiar with those charges.
He allegedly flashed her pornographic photographs. I have the impression she was hanging out somewhere on campus, he approached her, showed her some smutty pictures and suggested they go up to her dorm room.
Wow, I assumed it was a guy.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
quote: I've heard that [Mickey Mouse] would have won a number of Presidential elections...
I call BS on this, assuming you are referring to the POTUS.
Posted by Ecthalion (Member # 8825) on :
quote:Originally posted by Xavier:
quote: I've heard that [Mickey Mouse] would have won a number of Presidential elections...
I call BS on this, assuming you are referring to the POTUS.
Agreed, no fictional character has even come close to getting a percent of the POTUS vote. I am even fairly positive that they haven't even come close to getting a tenth of a percent of the vote.
Posted by SenojRetep (Member # 8614) on :
Vic Rawl (Greene's primary opponent) has said he won't challenge the decision. His campaign also stopped making the assertion that Greene is a GOP stooge, but still believes there were possible irregularities with the voting machines. Also, the linked article affirms my sense of the felony charges against Greene.
quote:[H]e was arrested in November and charged with showing obscene Internet photos to a University of South Carolina student, then talking about going to her room at a university dorm.
Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ecthalion:
quote:Originally posted by Xavier:
quote: I've heard that [Mickey Mouse] would have won a number of Presidential elections...
I call BS on this, assuming you are referring to the POTUS.
Agreed, no fictional character has even come close to getting a percent of the POTUS vote. I am even fairly positive that they haven't even come close to getting a tenth of a percent of the vote.
I heard that Mickey Mouse got a couple of percentage points in the '88 POTUS election, from my 9th grade gov't/econ teacher.
Posted by SenojRetep (Member # 8614) on :
Here is a tabulation of the election results in 2008, with the broken out "Miscellaneous" candidates showing a total of 9 votes (nation-wide) for Mickey Mouse.
In the FEC's official vote tabulation from 2000, Mickey Mouse does not register, although several minor candidates who received significantly less than 1% (down to a low of <0.001% for candidate Dodge) of the popular vote are tabulated. Presumably some fraction of the 0.02% of Miscellaneous votes went to Mickey Mouse, but it's highly unlikely he received even triple digit support in 2000.
Neither of these are 1988, but I doubt the result was really orders of magnitude different. I would say it's somewhat possible that miscellaneous candidates in general got close to 1% of the vote total in a high-dissatisfaction election (like 1988 was), but I would be very surprised if any significant portion of that went to Mickey Mouse.
<edit>Wikipedia cites another third-party candidate (fourth-party?) Lenora Fulani of the New Alliance party as receiving about 1/4 of the "Other" vote total, leaving at most 0.25% of the overall national vote for all the other candidates, including Mickey Mouse.</edit>
[ June 18, 2010, 12:23 PM: Message edited by: SenojRetep ]
Posted by theamazeeaz (Member # 6970) on :
quote:Originally posted by SenojRetep: Here is a tabulation of the election results in 2008, with the broken out "Miscellaneous" candidates showing a total of 9 votes (nation-wide) for Mickey Mouse.
In the FEC's official vote tabulation from 2000, Mickey Mouse does not register, although several minor candidates who received significantly less than 1% (down to a low of <0.001% for candidate Dodge) of the popular vote are tabulated. Presumably some fraction of the 0.02% of Miscellaneous votes went to Mickey Mouse, but it's highly unlikely he received even triple digit support in 2000.
Neither of these are 1988, but I doubt the result was really orders of magnitude different. I would say it's somewhat possible that miscellaneous candidates in general got close to 1% of the vote total in a high-dissatisfaction election (like 1988 was), but I would be very surprised if any significant portion of that went to Mickey Mouse.
<edit>Wikipedia cites another third-party candidate (fourth-party?) Lenora Fulani of the New Alliance party as receiving about 1/4 of the "Other" vote total, leaving at most 0.25% of the overall national vote for all the other candidates, including Mickey Mouse.</edit>
I'm really proud of my country for casting much fewer votes for Mickey Mouse than I would have guessed.
Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :
quote:Originally posted by SenojRetep:
<edit>Wikipedia cites another third-party candidate (fourth-party?) Lenora Fulani of the New Alliance party as receiving about 1/4 of the "Other" vote total, leaving at most 0.25% of the overall national vote for all the other candidates, including Mickey Mouse.</edit>
Yes, I thought it might have been misinformation. However, it wouldn't surprise me if 1988 was Mickey's high-water year for getting votes to be POTUS.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Ca;; BS all you want, I had heard that more than once.
Doesn't mean it's true, mind you. I was just repeating what I had heard, not being sure of the validity of the statement.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
quote:Originally posted by SenojRetep: Here is a tabulation of the election results in 2008, with the broken out "Miscellaneous" candidates showing a total of 9 votes (nation-wide) for Mickey Mouse.
"Vermin Supreme" beat out Mickey Mouse by a 4:1 ratio?!?
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)