http://www.personalliberty.com/news/s-c-democrat-who-faces-felony-charges-will-not-drop-out-of-senate-race-19831298/South Carolina’s Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene said last week that he will reject his party’s request that he drop out of the November election race.
The state’s party chairwoman Carol Fowler asked Greene to withdraw from the race after news surfaced that the 32-year-old unemployed veteran faces felony obscenity charges for allegedly showing graphic internet photos to a college student. If convicted, Greene could face up to five years in prison.
"I believe strongly that the Democratic voters of this state have the right to select our nominee," said Fowler. "But this new information would certainly have affected the decisions of many of those voters."
Greene, a virtual unknown in the political realm, shocked Democratic leaders by garnering 59 percent of the vote to defeat veteran legislator Vic Rawl, who had already begun to plan for the general election, The Washington Post reports. Apparently, Greene had done little campaigning, did not raise any money and does not even have a website.
In response to his unexpected victory, Representative James Clyburn (D-S.C.) speculated whether Greene was a "Republican plant," and openly questioned how the unemployed veteran obtained the $10,400 filing fee.
"There were some real shenanigans going on in the South Carolina primary," Clyburn said on the liberal Bill Press radio show. "I don’t know if he was a Republican plant; he was someone’s plant. Somebody gave him that $10,000 and he who took it should be investigated, and he who gave it should be investigated."