By FITSNews || With Dutch Fork (S.C.) high school teacher Kelly Payne’s big announcement on Thursday, the GOP field for the S.C. Superintendent of Education race appears to be set.
In addition to Payne, Newberry College President Mitchell Zais and Furman University professor Brent Nelsen are both running – Nelson having switched from the GOP gubernatorial field back in July of last year.
Zais would appear to be the front-runner based purely on the level of institutional support he’s receiving, although Payne charged out of the gate with a surprisingly strong (and substantive) speech Thursday.
Time to find out where FITS readers are on this race …
To the poll!
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By UShouldKnowBetter January 22, 2010 at 11:09 am
This should be Kelly “Orange face” Payne’s campaign theme song:
As performed by Larry Marchant and the Boozehounds
OOMPA LOOMPA DOOMPADEE DOO
I’VE GOT A PERFECT PUZZLE FOR YOU
OOMPA LOOMPA, DOOMPADAH DEE
IF YOU ARE WISE YOU’LL LISTEN ME
WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU GUZZLE DOWN SWEETS
EATING AS MUCH AS AN ELEPHANT EATS
WHAT ARE YOU AT GETTING TERRIBLY FAT
WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL COME OF THAT
I DON’T LIKE THE LOOK OF IT
OOMPA LOOMPA DOOMPADEE DAH
IF YOU’RE NOT GREEDY YOU WILL GO FAR
YOU WILL LIVE IN HAPPINESS TOO
LIKE THE OOMPA LOOMPA DOOMPADEE DO
DOOMPADEE DOO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw0zZttfUaw
By countryboy January 22, 2010 at 12:43 pm
DANG AND SHE’S A GAMECOCK TOO! GO KELLY!
By Payne Fan January 22, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Notice all negative posts are coming from the Zais Army Camp-
That says a lot about the General’s supporters
By CNChapin January 22, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Hey, “UShouldKnowBetter,” I’m guessing you’re thinking Zais is the better pick? I can see your point. This state has done so well with good ole boys running the show for so long. We’re just kicking rear ends compared to other states nationwide. Thank you good ole boy network!! Woo-hoo!!
I’m guessing if he wins, Zais is counting on the office coming with a lifetime supply of Depends(c) and Geritol(c). Who needs fresh, young, new minds when you can depend on old, unreliable, stale, party-line towing minds? We should just keep electing more of the same in this state and be afraid of change because that might lead to improvement. In that process, though, we should continue to expect different results, because that would never be considered insanity.
Kelly Payne is a very good looking woman, like Nikki Haley. I guess that is just too intimidating for the old establishment guard. You can’t have younger, attractive women holding high political office in this state… no way! They’re supposed to be ironing your socks and cooking you dinner, right? I’m sure it just adds insult to injury when the old men in this state who look as attractive as the side of a dirty barn can’t woo an independent thinking, attractive young woman like Kelly Payne with debt-backed flashy-ness that usually makes them swoon. Get over it, old boys. You morons have been running this state for long enough and it’s headed no where but straight into the ground.
We need young, conservative, independent thinking people in office in this state mowing down the good ole boy network like Barney Frank in a wiener eating contest (yes, I do mean hot dogs… the man’s fat). This same old establishment we have in this state has run its course and now must be permanently botoxed, if Nancy Pelosi has left any for us to use. The future of this state depends on people who are willing to step outside the mainstream and challenge what is established no matter what the cost. Kelly Payne is one of those people in my opinion.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I do not work for or with the Kelly Payne campaign in any way. I’m truly just a supporter.)
By UShouldKnowBetter January 22, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Fail to both of you, CNChapin and PayneFan, I am a Democrat. Put that in your crack pipe and smoke it.
Who is Zais?
By countryboy January 22, 2010 at 4:03 pm
CNChapin, I believe Kelly Payne is the real deal and I did something very unusual for me, I made an on-line contribution. I have never been one to contribute, feeling corporations, wealthy individuals and so forth would throw so much at campaigns my little bit would be meaningless. I don’t know Kelly personally. Maybe she’s a multimillionaire and doesn’t need my money. But then, she wouldn’t likely be teaching if she was wealthy so I figure she needs all the $ help she can get, to go up against the “establishment” in this state. I also plan to work for her campaign in any way I can (here in Chesterfield County), which again is not something I normally do. I do vote, always, but that has pretty much been the extent of my political involvement in the past… I just have a feeling Kelly Payne is the right person at the right time and fools who spout a bunch of trash on here won’t change my mind.
By CNChapin January 22, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Wow, UShouldKnowBetter, you’re cranial-rectal inversion runs deeper than I suspected. Good luck with that.
By rwwllms January 22, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Looks like I’ll be voting for all women this election.
And why not? It’s the men that have made such a mess of the State. Guess we need to bring the women in to clean it up.
By Soft Sigh From Hell January 22, 2010 at 8:56 pm
“We need young, conservative, independent thinking people”
Too funny.
“young, conservative” = An abomination against nature.
“conservative, independent thinking” = A long-extinct species, or perhaps mythical.
By JosephMGreenville January 23, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Ms. Kelly Payne truly has a heart of gold, I’m so proud of her! I saw her announcement for Sup. of Ed on WIS Thursday night! I was with my sister in orangeburg. I’m so thankful she’ll be going back to the classroom after BEING Sup. of Ed! Now that’s the perfect image for the state’s education! Imagine that, an actual TEACHER! That is what we need!
God bless you Kelly!
By Ricky Henderson January 23, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Kelly believes in the Free Enterprise system and will bring common sense to the office.
By Khaled Mehmood January 23, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Kelly Payne is a great for her devotion and commitment towards education. I am of the considered opinion that she can contribute excellent performance if entrusted any responsibility. She possesses leadership quality and talent to act as the best in education field.
By Amanda Colt January 23, 2010 at 8:57 pm
These comments and this pole are the sillest thing ever. This is such an incredibly biased poll with all the little “(Not)IT Kids” voting for their teacher. Most of them aren’t even old enough to vote. I agree that the Zias supporters are being incredibly negative but what would you expect from classless people from Newberry.
By UShouldKnowBetter January 24, 2010 at 9:54 am
nothing like blasting out an email to the Not It Kids and asking them to vote for you in this “poll.” The “voters” in this case are 1) probably can’t vote in real life ’cause they are not 18 and 2) depend on Kelly Payne for passing grades and recommendations for college. How accurate is that?
Frank! Frank! Frank! for Education!
Get educated you morons.
http://www.hollemanforeducation.com/
By UShouldKnowBetter January 24, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Amanda Colt, I am from Charleston where there is a little more refinement than the rest of the world.
By countryboy January 24, 2010 at 8:38 pm
Holleman? You people can’t be serious. Just what we need, another lawyer in the SC government. Thanks but no thanks. I’ll take my chances with someone who has spent the last ten years in a classroom, not a courtroom.
By LowcountryGamecock January 25, 2010 at 12:51 am
“Frank! Frank! Frank! for Education!” LOL!!!
Holleman is a liberal doofus who should stick to ambulance-chasing, not indoctrinating our children.
Yeah, he’s juuuuuuuuuuuust what our state needs…a Clinton-era hack serving as state superintendent!
By Andrew January 25, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Who has spent the last ten years in the classroom?
Payne has only been teaching since 2005 in public schools.
Zais taught at West Point for a few years.
Nelsen has been in the classroom since the late 80′s.
Holleman has never been in front of a classroom in his life.
By NotMyChoice January 25, 2010 at 1:18 pm
I’m not a Republican so I didn’t vote in your poll.
I want Dr. Sais, however, because I can see the campaign material on the other side –
“TAKE YOUR STINKING PAWS OFF ME YOU DAMN DIRTY APE!”
Are Cornelius and Zira on the campaign staff?
By countryboy January 25, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Andrew, I was comparing Payne the teacher to Holleman the lawyer. I thought Payne had taught 10 years but if not, my mistake. Doesn’t change my position that a teacher is preferred over another damn lawyer in Columbia.
By John Steinberger January 26, 2010 at 10:07 am
Big difference between the college classroom and K – 12. I’ll go with the K – 12 teacher, Kelly Payne. I also think she’s the only candidate who can think outside the box and find a way to tear down our harmful education bureaucracy.
By countryboy January 26, 2010 at 11:39 am
Andrew, I knew I had seen the figure 10 years somewhere. It was “10 years teaching experience in public and private schools”….So Kelly does have the classroom experience I thought she had versus n o n e for Holleman.
By countryboy January 26, 2010 at 11:48 am
Someone accused Kelly of manipulating this poll….I followed it from the time it went up on FITS and she continually gained votes. No sudden surge. Well you might have a second thought about who is trying to manipulate the poll. A few hours ago Kelly had 50% of the vote. Zais had 23%. Suddenly, within hours, Zais has 47% of the vote and Kelly 43%. What a joke.
By outsider looking in January 26, 2010 at 6:22 pm
There ain’t enough effin people in Newberry, to vote this many times, THIS IS A SHAM!
By BIN News January 26, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Ms. Pain is a part-time summer-time employee of the SC Policy Scam Council or SC Ir-Responsbile Gub’erment Council or SC Klub for Krowth or one of those other wacko astroturf sites hosted by a few political pimps.
The scams they project all blur together. Hard to tell one political pimp from another even though there are just a few. What a scam. What a joke.