Jenerette Will Run Again In 2010

If the S.C. Republican establishment (including Senate President Glenn McConnell and Lt. Gov. André Bauer) had gotten behind her campaign four years ago, Katherine Jenerette would be a Republican State Senator right now.

Not only that … Jay-Z’s hit “99 Problems” wouldn’t be the official theme song of South Carolina’s so-called “deliberative” body.

Anyway, McConnell and Bauer (like the rest of the “Republican” Caucus) chose not to back Jenerette’s campaign, deciding instead to support behind the campaign of their big government buddy Sen. Dick Elliott, a Democrat and one of the most corrupt politicians in state history.

It’s just another example of “Republican” politicians ducking and running when they’re actually presented with an opportunity to advance the conservative beliefs they claim to support … which is why it’s not at all surprising that they did it again this year, endorsing Elliott in his State Senate race over Republican Bill McKown.

Of course, McKown didn’t have much of a chance to win, but Jenerette came within four percentage points of knocking him off despite getting no help whatsoever from the party (and having the local paper mistakenly identify her as the Democrat in the race just a few days before voters went to the polls).

After her narrow defeat, Jenerette chose to run in the Republican primary for the First Congressional District this year, a decision we felt was ill-advised given the entrenched status of incumbent Henry Brown.

That assessment obviously panned out the way we thought it would in the GOP primary, although Jenerette earned a lot of respect for the way she handled her defeat.

2010 could be her time, however, as Brown is widely rumored to be stepping down after his current term.

Wasting no time to plant the proverbial flag, Jenerette put out a press release on November 5 making her case to succeed the man she once worked for in the U.S. Congress.

“Yesterday’s election demonstrated clearly that the 1st District will be a battleground in the 2010 election,” Jenerette said from Fort Bragg were she is presently training in Middle East Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations. “When a four term incumbent Republican in a ‘safe’ Republican district holds the seat with a slim margin of only four percent of the votes – that spells big problems in the next Congressional election.”

We spoke with Jenerette a few days later, and she said that her concern was that Republicans would nominate a candidate ill-suited to go up against Democrat Linda Ketner, who has made it clear that she’s running for the seat again in two years time.

Preparing for her deployment to the Middle East, Jenerette told us that her strong fiscal conservative beliefs and her military background would make her the ideal candidate to take on Ketner.

She didn’t say – and didn’t really have to say – that her chances would be significantly bolstered by the fact that she’s a smokin’ hot babe.

“We’ve got a street fight on our hands to keep this Congressional seat in the Republican camp – the Democrats smell the blood in the water and we better show up prepared to go toe-to-toe this time around,” Jenerette said.

No doubt. Democrats are going to be spoiling for a fight across South Carolina, and both the First and Second Congressional districts are clearly in play.

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