Who (in the heck) Is Alvin Greene?

[Clio the Leo]

Who Is Alvin Greene?

By Suzy Khimm| Tue Jun. 8, 2010 7:59 PM PDT

An unemployed 32-year-old black Army veteran with no campaign funds, no signs, and no website shocked South Carolina on Tuesday night by winning the Democratic Senate primary to oppose Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). Alvin Greene, who currently lives in his family's home, defeated Vic Rawl, a former judge and state legislator who had a $186,000 campaign warchest and had already planned his next fundraising event. Despite the odds, Greene, who has been unemployed for the past nine months, said that he wasn't surprised by his victory. "I wasn’t surprised, but not really. I mean, just a little, but not much. I knew I was on top of my campaign, and just stayed on top of everything, I just—I wasn't surprised that much, just a little. I knew that I worked hard and did," Greene said in an interview.

Greene had paid the $10,400 filing fee and all other campaign expenses from his own personal funds. "It was 100 percent out of my pocket. I’m self-managed. It’s hard work, and just getting my message to supporters. I funded my campaign 100 percent out of my pocket and self-managed," said Greene, who sounded anxious and unprepared to speak to the public. But despite his lack of election funds, Greene claims to have criss-crossed the state during his campaign—though he declined to specify any of the towns or places he visited or say how much money he spent while on the road.

"It wasn’t much, I mean, just, it was—it wasn’t much. Not much, I mean, it wasn’t much," he said, when asked how much of his own money he spent in the primary. Greene frequently spoke in rapid-fire, fragmentary sentences, repeating certain phrases or interrupting himself multiple times during the same sentence while he searched for the right words. But he was emphatic about certain aspects of his candidacy, insisting that details about his his campaign organization, for instance, weren't relevant. "I'm not concentrating on how I was elected—it's history. I’m the Democratic nominee—we need to get talking about America back to work, what's going on, in America."

The oddity of Greene’s candidacy has already prompted speculation from local media about whether he might be a Republican plant. But Greene denies that Republicans or anyone else had approached him about running. A 13-year military veteran, he says he had originally gotten the idea in 2008 when he was serving in Korea. "I just saw the country was in bad shape two years ago…the country was declining," he says. "I wanted to make sure we continue to go up on the right track." South Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler speculated that Greene won because his name appeared first on the ballot, and voters unfamiliar with both candidates chose alphabetically.

Greene has yet to speak to any Democratic officials, either. After filing to run, his campaign went dark. According to this report, he didn’t show up to the South Carolina Democratic Party convention in April and didn't file any of the required paperwork for candidates with the state or Federal Election Commission. When I spoke to him, the state’s Democrats had yet to contact him after his victory was announced.

Greene insists that he's planning to work with state and national officials to ramp up his campaign and raise money "as soon as I can." And he plans on putting his unemployment at the center of his campaign. "I’m currently one of the many unemployed in the state and this country. South Carolina has more unemployed now than at any other time," Greene says. "My campaign slogan: Let's get South Carolina back to work." He adds that he would like to see "one Korea under a democracy."



http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/alvin-greene-south-carolina

Well ... that's interesting.

Putting aside him being a GOP plant .... could this be the result of residual, still fired up, new Obama voters from the 2008 campaign? Something to think about.

[Jennicut]

1. Some random dude.

http://gawker.com/5558760/random-unemployed-dude-wins-south-carolina-democratic-primary

But seriously, he is young and an army vet. Could be worse?

[Clio the Leo]

4. lol HE HAS NO MONEY!!!!

.... guess we'll have to send him some.

Unfortunately, he has no website so that I might do that.

[ProSense]

2. Even if he is a Repub plant

I wish he would kick DeMint's ass. Besides, the Repubs would lose seniority in that seat.

Still, I doubt he's a GOP plant.

[Clio the Leo]

3. I'm interested in any theory that he's NOT a GOP plant....

.... 'cause right now, I'm not convinced (that he's not.)

[Politicalboi]

5. Seems weird to me too

What better way to fund a candidate by the opposing party. Or maybe it was a anybody but DeMint. I wonder if they knew he was black?

[KingFlorez]

6. It's very odd

This one I can't figure out.

[tblue]

7. Now THIS is the kind of diversity we need in the Senate!

Somebody with no political machine, no connections, no money, no fancy degrees, NO JOB. He's a soldier who cares about his country. Can we have ONE PERSON, ONE REGULAR GUY in the Senate instead of another pompous, entitled product of the aristocracy groomed for tv and politics? JUST ONE?!

[argonaut]

8. I actually think it's kinda cool.

Some "random guy" winning a Senate primary. It's like a Jimmy Stewart movie.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. it would be nice to know his secret

if we could all win without money that would be fantastic! what was the breakdown of voters?

[blogslut]

10. Things are looking strange with this fellow

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hNyH1XTKf1Adc_-fGBAefXf8YYEQD9G7T67G0

He's been charged for disseminating/distributing/procuring obscenity:

http://www4.rcgov.us/publicindex/PICaseDetails.aspx?County=40+&Casenum=I881105&CourtType=L&CaseType=Criminal&CourtAgency=40120&LastName=Greene&FirstName=Alvin

Could be the guy is just a mess with a mission. I guess we'll find out.

[Blue_Tires]

11. If he can win, we need to jumpstart Lee Mercer's campaign in TX again!