Florence’s Jordan tops poll at 7th CD Debate

Florence's Jordan tops poll at 7th Congressional event at West Florence High School

Florence’s Jordan tops poll at 7th Congressional event at West Florence High School

(SCNOW)

A crowd of more than 500 piled into the West Florence High School auditorium Monday night to hear what the Republicans seeking their party’s nomination for the 7th Congressional District race had to say – and to cast some of the first votes in that contentious race.

The event’s unique forum, which was driven at least in part by the fact that the race in the brand new district has attracted so many candidates (9 Republicans, 5 Democrats), called for 45 minutes of debate followed by a straw vote to select five candidates for 45 minutes of debate. A final, post-debate poll was supposed to reveal how the crowd felt after hearing both halves of the show.

Apparently it was feeling pretty pro-Pee Dee.

Florence attorney Jay Jordan, the only Pee Dee-based canddiate in the race, ran with the final polling, culling 49 percent of the vote to 23 percent for former Lt. Governor Andrew Bauer, the runnerup. Former S.C. Director of Parks, Recreationa and Tourism Chad Prosser had 11 percent, Horry County County Cair Tom Rice garnered  nine percent and Myrtle Beach city councilman Randal Wallace had three percent.

Florence GOP officials said 359 people voted. The crowd was mostly GOP loyalists, all of whom paid for a chance to see the candidates in action. Proceeds covered the evening’s expenses and provided a small boost for county party coffers.

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5 Comments

  1. Fourth place with 9% of the vote Tom. Pretty damn strong.
    Right!!

  2. At least Tom Rice didn’t give ’em 15 seconds of dead air this time before answering a question.

    The man is a total dud. No real qualifications to be in Congress whatsoever, just riding on his connection to powerful people here locally and funding from his cronies in the “Myrtle Beach Mafia”.

    Each day in May underscores the fact that his and his cronies’ ill-conceived attempt to curtail the highly lucrative bike rallies along the Grand Strand has been a total failure. Despite some growth in the economy, the devastation wrought by that foolish, elitist undertaking, waged at the beginning of a national recession, is still being felt in many ways. Further, the degree to which it may have been a component of the RICO statute violations now being investigated by the IRS and FBI is still an open question, as is the veracity of the locally widespread rumor that he and his wife were present with David Brittain and Shep Guyton the day the checks were cut at SAB for Brad “The Bagman” Dean’s “political campaign clearing house” envelope dispersals.

    To describe his tenure as Horry County chair as lackluster would be incredibly generous. He’s a total failure in building consensus in that body. He represents nobody but the power elite in Myrtle Beach, and west of the Waterway he is a total non-entity to the voting public, with the charisma of a turnip.

    Rice calls himself a conservative, but told the Sun News when he was running for his current post that he was a moderate Republican in the mold of Lindsey Graham. Daily Kos says he “hates America”, which is their mock-ironic code term for a liberal or progressive. That may be a stretch, but his support of the BrAD Tax, his social engineering stance with the “Take Back May” campaign of selective tourism, and his support for the I-73 scam which employs eminent domain extensively, clearly give the lie to his claims of being any kind of a real conservative.

    Bottom line: He’s a joke, and not even a funny one. I’d rather send Vinnie Lehotsky’s dog Woodie to Congress than the empty suit known as Trillion Dollar Tom Rice.

  3. Thanks Boz .
    And while the President, the Congress and the Senate all convened for the President’s yearly address, Congress member Woody the Dog would be lickin’ his balls …

  4. Hah!

    You do know why dogs lick their balls, don’t you?

    That’s right … because they CAN!

    My apologies to Woody, btw, for spelling his name wrong.

  5. Give Woody a vote, and all is cool …