SC Democratic nominee may be Republican plant

A few days ago I let you know about the unusual win of Alvin Greene, who one Tuesday's Demcoration Senate primary in South Carolina. To recap - he raised no money, had no staff, never gave a speech or even had a website. Yet he trounced his well-funded opponent, Vic Rawl, 59 to 41. Did I mention that he has been charged with a felony?

New details have emerged. Mr. Greene has been unemployed for the past nine months, has been receiving unemployment checks, and he is being represented by a public defender. The filing fee for the senate primary is $10,400. Many are wondering where that money came from, and there is speculation that it may have been given to Greene by Republicans.

But really, what motive would Republicans have to give the money to Greene? Was DeMint in any kind of electoral trouble? I doubt it. This is South Carolina we're talking about, and it's a midterm election. Minorities and low income people are less likely to vote.

Aside from the issue of money, there is collective head scratching among Democrats over how a man who didn't even campaign could win against someone who, well, did. While most of the stories I've read don't go into any specific explanations beyond "geez whiz isn't this unusual," the NYT blogger Kate Phillips noted that the Post and Courier in South Carolina have been speculating on the role that race played (Greene is black, Rawl is white):

State Senator Robert Ford, D-Charleston, who lost his gubernatorial bid Tuesday, said race could have played a role. The Democratic primary electorate is majority black, as is Greene, but not Rawl. “Vic Rawl had money, but he didn’t have enough. He wasn’t able to identify himself with black voters,” Ford said. “No white folks have an ‘e’ on the end of Green. The blacks after they left the plantation couldn’t spell, and they threw an ‘e’ on the end.”

That bit about how former slaves couldn't spell is a bit deeper than I wanted to go, but whatever. The assumption is that blacks back their own kind and the extra "e" at the end of Greene's name provided them with a racial voting cue. If true (and I'm not saying that it is true), it explains how Greene wouldn't have even needed to campaign at all.