Clyburn's Dem Challenger Denies He's A 'Plant' -- But Hired GOP Rep.'s Aide

[KittyWampus]

Clyburn's Dem Challenger Denies He's A 'Plant' -- But Hired GOP Rep.'s Aide
Christina Bellantoni and Justin Elliott | June 11, 2010, 12:43PM
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/clyburns_dem_challenger_denies_hes_a_plant_--_but.php?ref=fpblg

A Democratic primary challenger in South Carolina who has been accused of being a "plant" hired for his Congressional campaign a GOP consultant who as recently as late last year was the campaign manager for Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), according to campaign finance reports.

Businessman Gregory Brown says he challenged Rep. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in Congress, in the Democratic primary on Tuesday because he's worried about the state's poverty rates and failing schools. Clyburn (D-SC) charged this week that Brown is such a political novice that he must be a "plant."

Brown told TPM in an interview he was a legitimate candidate being targeted because he challenged a powerful incumbent. But his Federal Election Commission filings show his largest campaign payment was to a firm run by a GOP political consultant who is best known as Wilson's former campaign manager and who currently works for other South Carolina Republicans.

Brown's campaign paid Stonewall Strategies nearly $24,000 for "marketing" and "marketing materials," according to his 2010 campaign finance reports. The firm is run by former Wilson aide Preston Grisham.

TPM took a look at Brown, who lost with 10 percent of the vote on Tuesday, after Clyburn asserted his candidacy might not be legitimate. The dust-up in South Carolina comes as a Democratic Senate candidate, Alvin Greene, won the party's nomination without ever having run a campaign. Clyburn suggested Greene could be part of a nefarious plot that would also include Brown, and another Democrat, Ben Frasier, who won the primary in the 1st Congressional district.

Grisham, who graduated from University of South Carolina in 2005, appears to have spent most of his career working for Wilson.

snip

At the same time that Grisham was working for the Democratic campaign of Brown, he was doing work for at least two Republican campaigns in the state. Grisham's Stonewall Strategies got $5,000 in May from the campaign of Republican Eleanor Kitzman, a candidate for lieutenant governor. And he got reimbursed for "reception supplies" by the GOP Attorney General campaign of Alan Wilson -- the son of Rep. Joe Wilson.

On his Twitter feed, Grisham has promoted conservative ideas like a "no new tax" pledge for the state, and this item from last December: "Wake up this morning to see we are getting even closer to have Socialist rule thrust upon the American people."

Clyburn aides said they'd heard rumors Grisham was working for Brown, but weren't able to prove it since there were no FEC filings. Brown insists that he had filed the reports in late April, but receipts provided to TPM and found on the FEC website suggest he filed the reports last night.

Brown said he and his wife run an orthodontic practice and two other smaller family business and that 80 percent of the approximately $70,000 he spent on the campaign came from his own pocket. He said he raised "maybe $2,000," and the reports show a $250 donation from a Columbia doctor who donated $1,000 to Sen. John McCain in 2007.

[KingFlorez]

1. There's a whole like of trickery going on in South Carolina these cycle