Missteps tighten S.C. race

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A victory by Republican Rep. Jim DeMint is still expected in South Carolina’s U.S. Senate race, political observers say, though Democrat Inez Tenenbaum has made some inroads against her opponent.

“She’s made movement,” in attracting some of the state’s independent voters who lean Republican, said Blease Graham, political science professor at the University of South Carolina. “But it’s an uphill battle, given the Republicans’ starting advantage here.”

The candidates are vying to replace retiring Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, a Democrat who served for decades with the late Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond. Mr. Thurmond was replaced by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was elected in November 2002.

A Survey USA Poll taken mid-October showed Mr. DeMint with 46 percent of support and Mrs. Tenenbaum with 43 percent.

“If [Mr. DeMint] wins — which I think he will — it will be because South Carolina is such a Republican state,” said Hastings Wyman, editor of the Southern Political Report.

Mr. Wyman said Mr. DeMint has gotten himself into some “trouble” recently and his opponent has capitalized on it.

“He’s been on the defensive,” said Mr. Wyman, citing a flap over Mr. DeMint’s recent comments that he’d support banning openly homosexual and lesbian teachers from public schools and Mrs. Tenenbaum’s relentless criticism of his support in Congress for legislation that would institute a national sales tax.

Mr. DeMint, by contrast, has stressed the state’s need for someone who can help President Bush and keep the Senate in Republican hands. Mr. Bush won here in 2000 by 57 percent over Vice President Al Gore’s 41 percent.

The three-term congressman from Greenville made those arguments several times during a debate Saturday night, telling voters, “South Carolina could change the course of history not only by electing President Bush, but by giving him the votes he needs in the Senate.”

But Mrs. Tenenbaum, the state’s superintendent of education, repeatedly hammered the sales-tax issue during the debate, warning that “it’s going to raise taxes” on most South Carolinians.

Mr. DeMint said she is distorting the issue. He has said he’d never raise taxes and that the bill he signed onto — which he notes would eliminate all other taxes while instituting a sales tax — was just one of several he supported, in order to start a national dialogue on how to fix a broken tax system.

Throughout the campaign, Mrs. Tenenbaum has touted herself as an independent and avoided campaign events with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry or other top-name Democrats.

“That’s what I am, an independent voice for South Carolina,” she said during the debate.

But Mr. DeMint responded that she is hardly independent, because she will “support turning the Senate over to Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton.”

And he also hit hard on education, repeatedly criticizing the state’s poor graduation rate under Mrs. Tenenbaum’s watch.

Story Continues →