Despite being down 37 percent in the polls to Republican South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint six days out from the Election Day, Democratic Senate candidate Alvin Greene remains in high spirits — and is continuing to push his key message: “DeMint started the recession!”
This morning, in a phone conversation with The Daily Caller from his South Carolina home, Alvin Greene explained his strategy for winning the race.
“I am getting around to the fairs around the state — this fair season — and reminding the folks there that DeMint started the recession,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Greene’s campaign manager, Krystel Reid (who is working for Greene pro bono) told TheDC that since the Democratic Party has abandoned Greene, the South Carolina Democrat has had to adopt unconventional methods to get out the vote.
“We are focusing on having direct vocal contact. We are not doing mailers, we are doing phone calls. Our main goal is to talk to people directly,” she said.
According to Greene, people should vote for him because all blame for the recession lies squarely at DeMint’s feet.
“That is a fact because we know things like his support of the Bush tax cut plan — that we have to reverse that — it helped start the recession. Also the mismanagement of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “See, things like that, and record cuts to education, cuts to education. So we just look at how he started the recession, we see that.”
As to the number of people rallying to his side in the face of almost sure defeat, Greene was coy, shifting the conversation to explain that people were understanding his message.
“They know that this is fact, they know they can’t get around it but still I’m saying too it makes no sense to send someone back to Washington to screw things up,” Greene said. “His explanation for it is gridlock, gridlocks. And so I’m telling them, you know we have the gridlock, you know he has to be gridlocked.”
Though Greene is down in the polls and his party has effectively left him with little more than a kick in the teeth, Greene still has some supporters. Krystel Reid, who has been a political consultant for about three years, said that her support stems from her respect for the Constitution.
“The reason I decided to get into politics is because every single person, regardless of their lot or disposition in life, is entitled to basic constitutional rights,” she said. “Some people would argue that he has a pending felony charge, but what ever happened to being innocent until proven guilty? I chose to support Mr. Greene because for me it was a civil liberties issue… he has the constitutional right to run.”
Georgine McConnell, a South Carolina real estate agent and advisor to Greene, told The Daily Caller that she is supporting and volunteering for Greene because she wants more Democrats in office to help President Barack Obama fulfill his promises.
“Alvin has just as much right to run for office as anyone else in the country,” McConnell said. “He paid his filing fees. They were accepted. And therefore that gave him the right.”
“The thing that makes me support him is that I am for the president and his issues, and, to me, the whole thing in D.C. is to have more votes in the area that you are in favor of,” McConnell explained.
Another Greene supporter, Michael Bailey, told TheDC that he will be voting for Greene because his candidacy is a civil liberties issue. “What South Carolina’s Democratic Party is doing is wrong,” he said. “I support his right to run. He has my vote because he is a Democrat and I vote straight ticket. My vote will go to him.”
Ironically, despite Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the rest of the Senate leadership ignoring his campaign, Greene is optimistic about the fate of the Democrats this election cycle. According to Greene, if his party continues to push their message, the Democrats will be pleased come election night.
“I think if we get out the message that folks like DeMint and his clique started the recession it should be [a good year]. Because that is the bottom line. You know those incumbent Republicans — not just the incumbent Republicans, because some Democrats were involved with those bad dealings too — so I’m just going to focus on my opponent and say, DeMint and his clique,” Greene concluded.