A user on Twitter is claiming he’s South Carolina Democratic candidate Alvin Greene – who is facing a felony charge for showing pornography to a college co-ed and is resisting calls to drop out of the U.S. Senate race — and is using the social network website to recruit a campaign manager.
The user with the Twitter handle @AlvinGreeneSC wrote Thursday morning that he needs “help findin a camapgin manager” [sic] so “hit me up at alvingreenesc@gmail.com. peace.” Greene did not immediately respond to a request asking for verification of the account.
Some users on Twitter are doubting the account’s authenticity, and Keiana Page, the press secretary for the South Carolina Democratic Party, said that while the party was aware of the Twitter account, she couldn’t say with certainty if it’s real.
Regardless, questions still remain about just how it came to be that Greene — a first-time candidate who ran such a disorganized campaign that he did not even have a website before he defeated Vic Rawls in Tuesday’s primary — is set to challenge Republican Sen. Jim DeMint in the fall.
The pending felony charge against Greene was not known until after he won Tuesday’s contest. Since then, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, a fellow Democrat, has suggested that Greene may be a plant for Republicans and wants the U.S. Attorney’s office to investigate how he paid his filing fee to run.
Greene has said that he paid the $10,440 filing fee by saving up two years of his service pay.
“What is an unemployed guy doing paying $10,000 to run for the United States Senate? That just doesn’t add up,” Clyburn told radio host Bill Press. “There were some real shenanigans going on in the South Carolina primary.”
South Carolina Democratic Party chairwoman Carol Fowler has called for Greene to withdraw from the race. (CLICK TO WATCH GREENE DODGE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS)
“I did not do this lightly, as I believe strongly that the Democratic voters of this state have the right to select our nominee,” Fowler said. “But this new information about Mr. Greene … would certainly have affected the decisions of many of those voters.”
But Greene said he will not step aside.
“The Democratic Party has chosen their nominee, and we have to stand behind their choice,” Greene told the AP at his home in Manning. “The people have spoken. We need to be pro-South Carolina, not anti-Greene.”
Court records show Greene 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.
Charged with disseminating, procuring or promoting obscenity, Greene could face up to five years in prison. He has yet to enter a plea or be indicted.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.