Democrats Battle For “Republican” Candidates

HYPOCRISY, ETHICS VIOLATIONS & GUBERNATORIAL POSTURING HIGHLIGHT DEMS’ SCHIZOPHRENIC CAMPAIGNING

FITSNews – June 23, 2008 – Two Democratic heavyweights are duking it out on behalf of left-leaning Republican candidates, using illegal campaign tactics to lure Democratic voters into participating in two GOP runoff elections scheduled for tomorrow.

And while the two Democrats – current State Superintendent Jim Rex and his predecessor Inez Tenenbaum – are on the same team this time around, the whole exercise appears to be a continuation of their ongoing battle for frontrunner status in the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

We’ve already written about Rex’s endorsement of incumbent Sen. Jake Knotts, but FITSNews has learned today that Tenenbaum’s organization – “Rise SC” – is running television advertisements on behalf of Sen. Knotts as well as S.C. Rep. Scott Talley, who is also involved in a close GOP State Senate runoff election. The ads were purchased, incidentally, by longtime Democratic consultant Bud Ferillo.

Of course, the fact that South Carolina’s two most well-known Democratic politicians are actively campaigning on behalf of these “Republicans” isn’t the whole story, as both Rex and Tenenbaum could face ethics investigations for violating state law as a result of their activities …

FITSNews has received reports that mailings sent by “Rise SC” – and campaign e-mails sent by Superintendent Rex – explicitly urge voters to cast their ballots for specific candidates, all of whom ostensibly “support public education” in South Carolina.

The “Rise SC” mailings even include boxes with a “check” mark by the candidates’ names, which (in addition to the explicit voting language) is in clear violation of federal campaign law as articulated in FEC v. Wisconsin Right To Life.

This “express advocacy” – i.e. directly urging recipients to cast their ballots for or against a candidate – would make “Rise SC” subject to regulation by the State Ethics Commission, and force it to comply with registration and disclosure requirements.

Similarly, Superintendent Rex has been using his campaign organization to send out e-mails instructing voters to cast their ballots for Knotts, Talley and other candidates, which is also in violation of state ethics law.

Ironically, Rex and Tenenbaum have been among the most vocal critics of legal third party advocacy ads, which adhere to state and federal law for permitted (and protected) political speech by focusing on specific issues and refraining from instructing recipients to “vote for” or “vote against” specific candidates.

Legal third party advocacy ads – such as those run by groups like South Carolinians for Responsible Government – have been repeatedly assailed by South Carolina’s mainstream media establishment. Local leaders of those groups have been referred to as “cancers,” and legislation targeting their Constitutionally-protected speech has been introduced in the S.C. General Assembly.

Sadly, it appears that attempting to criminalize legal campaign activity wasn’t enough for Rex and Tenenbaum, as both have now resorted to overtly illegal campaign activity on behalf of candidates they believe will tow their “pro-public education” line.

And yet the mainstream media establishment remains curiously silent about this hypocrisy … just as it did when public school officials were busted earlier this month using state resources to campaign for certain candidates, which is also against the law.

To add another ironic twist, Tenenbaum and Rex have overseen South Carolina’s utterly miserable public schools for the past decade, benefiting from astronomical spending increases and yet still producing the same deplorable results on behalf of our school children.

So … in addition to getting absolutely nothing done for our kids, South Carolina’s top two educrats are now resorting to far worse tactics than those employed by the people they have spent the last four years villifying.

All in Republican primaries, no less.

Interestingly enough, though, Rex and Tenenbaum’s campaign activities have little to do with Knotts, Talley and the other candidates they are backing.

As if the recent Democratic superdelegate scandal didn’t make it plain enough, these two are competing for pole position in the 2010 gubernatorial race.

Accordingly, the establishment of networks, databases and communications capabilities in advance of that potentially grueling fight serves to enhance their battle readiness for the upcoming struggle.

Given Tenenbaum’s recent U.S. Senate loss, Rex probably has the heads-up at this point, although the prospect of a local version of “Obama-Hillary” has Democratic activists looking for any advantage they can find to improve their favored candidates positioning.

Of course, after what we’ve uncovered, both Rex and Tenenbaum may end up with ethics violations on their record.

And should Knotts and Talley go down in defeat, they’ll probably also both end up with some egg on their faces.