Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) looks poised to come out of Tuesday’s primary election night either the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate (again) or the frontrunner in a runoff. Graham has been able to be the establishment candidate who is “teflon” to conservative attacks on the right. According to the conservative who challenged Graham in the 2008 primary, it’s all a ploy.
“The only time he moves to the right is when it’s an election. That’s the only time he moves to the right,” Dr. Walter “Buddy” Witherspoon, who garnered about a third of the vote against Graham, told TPM on Tuesday.
According to Witherspoon, legislation like Graham’s bill allowing states to opt-out of Obamacare are just thinly veiled moves to protect himself from a conservative primary challenger.
“He did this opt-out of Obamacare. That was a political ploy, it was a ploy at the time. It was pretty evident,” Witherspoon said.
And then there’s immigration.
“I don’t think you hear him talking about things like immigration around elections,” Witherspoon said. “Not around South Carolina.”
“He doesn’t have anything to worry about until six years down the road and then as it gets closer he mellows some toward the election and does what he has to do,” he continued. “It’s a political ploy … and it’s working for him.”
To an outside observer, Graham’s strong and consistent lead through the primary might seem baffling. He’s committed the cardinal Republican primary sins of pushing immigration reform, floated support for climate change legislation, praised Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of State, and also backed some of President Barack Obama’s nominees for the Supreme Court. From all that it would appear Graham wanted a primary challenger. He got plenty too. But none of Graham’s challengers have been able to gain any real traction and the incumbent senator has been able to amass an impressive war chest of $11 million. Thus the comparisons of Graham to teflon.
Graham has been able to slip past any rough patches thanks to strong support from establishment Republicans as well as seemingly relentless attacks on the Obama administration (especially Benghazi).
Graham’s biggest worry now is if he can get the 50 percent-plus-one vote to avoid a runoff election or not. Even if he is forced into a runoff, Graham is still expected to have a strong chance of winning re-election.
What was frustrating about running against Graham, Witherspoon said, is that the stars just seemed to align in his favor around the right time.
“For instance with the immigration issue, it was a hot issue. All of the sudden about a month before the primary it cooled down,” Witherspoon said.
Part of the reason Graham has been able to comfortably stay ahead of the rest of the GOP primary field is they are all fighting for the same group of anti-Graham supporters, Witherspoon said. Meanwhile Graham can enjoy a broad pool of establishment Republicans who support whoever the incumbent is.
“Even with six guns pointed on him they still are not hitting the target completely,” Witherspoon said.
Witherspoon, 58, said he even considered have challenging Graham himself again this time around and left open the door to it again someday.
“It’s just a matter of pulling it all together and the main thing to me was my wife, she just really didn’t want me to do it this time,” he said.
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He isn’t going to avoid the run off, and that’s when his real race begins. He is polling between 35-40%, well short of the 50%+1 needed. Which means, roughly 60% are voting against him.
And once the teabagger support coalesces around just one candidate instead of many, he is going to be in trouble. His hope is that a short campaign with low turn out, that his name recognition carries him over the finish line.
He would blow a goat to get re-elected.
I’ve quoted HL Mencken many times: A pol is a creature who would endorse something as repulsive as cannibalism if he had a constituency that practiced it. He said the pol would serve missionaries for dinner.
Anyone who pays attention as an “outside observer” to the politics around this country knows exactly what graham is and how he works. Just a shame the people of SC are so easily influenced.
That’s all you really needed to say, IMHO.
Mr. Witherspoon is Captain Obvious, but I feel his pain. Lord knows as a progressive that I’ve been lied to repeatedly by so called Democrats who run progressive leaning campaigns but govern as conservatives.