Hinson lost her own House district
Paul Campbell shocked everyone last night by nearly defeating State House incumbent Shirley Hinson in a 3-way primary without a run-off. Just 25 more votes and he would have pulled off a major upset.
After crunching some numbers, we learned that Campbell actually beat Hinson in her own House district. According to our numbers:
Campbell: 732
Hinson: 629
Crosby: 153
WOW!
We can go on all day about who’s the better candidate, Campbell or Hinson, but to us this isn’t about Campbell v. Hinson. This is about Shealy v. Merrill.
Rod Shealy is Campbell’s consultant. State House Majority Leader Jim Merrill is Hinson’s. Enough said.
Campbell will rout Hinson in the run-off.
Regardless of who wins the Republican nomination in 2 weeks, the Republicans are going to have an extremely difficult time holding on to this seat against Democrat John West. We are hearing from many Republicans in the district who plan on voting for West.
June 20th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Once again proves that if you want to win a primary then you better try to get Shealy. He will get the grassroot support out every time.
I disagree about the general election, this seat is about as Republican as it gets. Campbell or Hinson would win over the strongest Democrat possible.
June 20th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Irmo Conservative - usually we would agree wtih you about the district, but John West is extremely popular in Berkeley County. We don’t have any numbers or evidence to back up our claim, except to tell you that we are getting a strong pro-West feeling on the ground.
Thanks for the comments. Keep ‘em coming.
June 20th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Don’t have numbers, evidence, and can’t spell Berkeley correctly. Man, you sure know your Berkeley County politics, don’t you?
By the way, the third leg of the Hinson team is Cindy Clark. She was a good loyal errand person for Karen Floyd and the SCRG, and as was evidenced in the primary, terribly out of her league with being able to move the grassroots sufficently in this race.
Campbell wins this one. For the guy who hoped to oust Mescher next year, he got an early Christmas present by facing the pushover team instead.
If its more than a ten point defeat for Hinson, who wants to bet someone will be gunning for her House seat next spring?
June 20th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
What are you talking about? Of course we spelled Berkeley right. We never misspell words or have bad grammar.
Just kidding…we catch hell for it all the time. All we can say is that we are sorry. In an attempt to get news out quick, we stumble through words frequently. If only we had some high paid editors to look over our shoulders.
June 20th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Seems you spelled BERKELEY correctly. This is right! Not just Ms. Clark working hard for Hinson, but many of the Berkeley County Republican women activists. Shirley has been a super House Rep. and is very respected by her peers. Something is a miss if you don’t carry your own district who knows you best. Same thing happened to Floyd. Wonder where Crosby’s supporters will fall in the run-off?
June 20th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Political Angel - We really do suck. We misspelled it and went back and fixed it.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:56 am
Yeah, something is amiss alright. Her campaign sucked. Floyd’s did too.
So, since you’re the expert here, mind telling me how come all those hard-working people who did a great job got such an upset handed to them?
June 21st, 2007 at 11:15 am
Hard work rarely makes up for bad strategy. Shealy ran a far better campaign than Merrill. Shealy had better targeting, product, and messaging.
It’s simple really…look at Shealy’s clients. Go down the coast - Elliot (yes, a Dem), Rankin, Scott, Cleary, Ceips. He got John Kuhn elected in a major upset against Buck Limehouse. And truth be known, no one could have gotten nut case Kuhn re-elected.
Our point - Shealy is one of the best consultants in SC, but in lowcountry and coastal Senate races, he is the best. He gets it. Shealy v Merrill - not even a contest.
June 21st, 2007 at 2:08 pm
There are two different approaches here.
One has a “do what it takes to win” attitude and hammers his candidates and their people to get it done. His candidates are expected to lead the charge of a grass-roots organization where everyone is expected to work. Yes, some utilitarian negative crap is put out there, but the campaign approach gets them within striking distance so the trash can work.
The other relies on a roster of clients that consist mostly of his fellow House members who send business to him to go-along, get-along. He sends out slick mail and lets candidates stumble along. With well-heeled incumbents, this usually works.
But in an open Senate race in Berkeley County, hard work IS paying off. Campbell may be a sleaze, but so far, he’s winning.
Or as Sean Connery once said in “The Rock”:
“Your best? Loosers always whine about their best. Winners go home and f*** the prom queen.”
Shealy’s got his hands on this prom queen. But the shame of it was that it didn’t have to go this way.
July 1st, 2007 at 11:14 pm
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January 26th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Just reading this now … Know both of these people very well and did you ever consider that Campbell won because he’s actually the far better person? Known Hinson for years and you’ll have to admire her for having gotten as far as she has with as little talent and moral compass as she has …
She bailed out of the House before we threw her out this year for the good of our party.