Encouraged by poll, Beasley eyes Senate race

COLUMBIA--For the past five years, former Gov. David Beasley has been raising his four kids with his wife on their Pee Dee farm, coaching Little League and sometimes traveling to Asia and Africa to do humanitarian work.

His public life has become a distant memory. It is no accident, he said, that he lives far from the "political morass" of the Capital City.

But now he's finding that fate can be something of a wise guy: Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in.

Encouraged and flattered by private polls that say he would trounce every candidate in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, Beasley said Friday that he is giving "serious thought" to entering the race to replace outgoing Sen. Fritz Hollings.

"My wife and I and the children are going to have to give some great thought to it and listen to some of my friends and neighbors across South Carolina," Beasley said. "I love my family, my state and my country. I've got to figure out how best to serve all three, with my family being the priority."

Beasley faces a tough decision about whether to re-enter politics. He lost his 1998 re-election bid in an acrimonious race that centered on two of his toughest calls as governor: his decisions to fight video poker and to try to move the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse dome.

Since then, Beasley has mostly avoided politics. Shortly after his loss, he taught a class at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

In 2000, he joined Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley Jr.'s march to Columbia to protest the Confederate battle flag atop the Statehouse dome, and the next year, he declined an invitation to apply for the Peace Corp's director job. Earlier this year, he received a Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum for his work to move the flag.

The scuttlebutt in political circles suggests Beasley might be back in favor with South Carolina voters, that he looked prescient in retrospect. Part of that is based on rumors of a Senate race poll that basically says the job is Beasley's if he wants it.

Political consultant Richard Quinn told The Post and Courier that he commissioned the poll everyone seems to be talking about, not because he is working for any candidate in the race, but just to "get the lay of the land." Quinn said he routinely conducts such polls.

"This poll is something I did for my own information," Quinn said Friday. "I shared the data with a few friends, and suddenly the news spread like wildfire."

Quinn's poll, which has a margin of error of 3.8 percent, shows Beasley with 24 percent support among likely GOP primary voters, followed by former Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler, who recently announced he would not be a candidate, with 16 percent. Former Attorney General Charlie Condon and Congressman Jim DeMint followed with 8 percent each.

In runoff matchups, the polls shows Beasley besting Condon by 14 points and DeMint by 20 points.

A Quinn poll of all registered voters shows that both Condon and DeMint are currently in a dead heat with Democrat Inez Tenenbaum, but Beasley would top the state education superintendent by 10 points.

"Frankly, I was surprised to see him dominating all the other candidates so dramatically," Quinn said.

Beasley said he was surprised to hear the numbers and that he did not ask Quinn to run the poll. Quinn said he added Beasley and Peeler to the list of current candidates because their names had been mentioned as possible candidates.

Tony Denny, former executive director of the S.C. Republican Party, said Friday that he was not surprised by the poll results, which he said he had not seen.

"There is wide agreement among Republicans that former Governor Beasley's stock and standing has risen since his days as governor," Denny said.

Although his overseas goodwill missions and humanitarian aid trips to Africa and China reflect federal concerns, Beasley said he has not made any efforts to return to politics.

"That's just something I like to do," he said. "I think it just makes sense for our children for us to build friendly relations with other nations."

Beasley said he normally "poo poos" private polls and pays little attention to the rumor mill, but he can't ignore the numbers and the rumbling he's hearing. And although he shows no zeal for the politics, he speaks like an elder statesman of the Republican Party when he says that it will take "a good number of people to evaluate the possibility of the Republican Party having a winner," for Sen. Lindsey Graham's vote to not be canceled out by a Democrat.

Katon Dawson, chairman of the state Republican Party, said the poll most likely reflects name recognition this early in the race, and he predicted primary voters would not make up their minds until closer to the election. But Dawson said the party would welcome the former governor into the fray, that it might make this race as interesting as last year's GOP gubernatorial primary.

"We are excited by large, spirited primaries," Dawson said. "It's worked well for us."

Jim Hammond, spokesman for the Tenenbaum campaign, expressed no fear of the former governor getting into the race. The Democrat has pretty powerful statewide support, too.

"Inez Tenenbaum has raised a substantial amount of money in a short period of time and has widespread support," Hammond said. "She got more votes than any other candidate on the ballot in the last election. We feel like she's in a very strong position in this race."

Although Beasley has no organization in place and has not raised any money, most political observers concede it's early. He has until March to file for the June primary. Beasley, with greater statewide name recognition than most other candidates, would not start at much of a disadvantage, especially since Republicans don't seem to be overwhelmed by any of the current candidates.

That is "a plausible interpretation of the numbers," Quinn acknowledged. "It definitely means a lot of Republican voters would be energized by a Beasley candidacy."

Whether Beasley will be a candidate might remain a question for some time. The former governor said he has no time frame for deciding, that it is simply something he must talk over with his family. Then, he has to decide if he's ready to leave his tranquil life for the fast and rough world of statewide campaigning.

I don't by that Inez is a threat to win this seat, but if he'll support judicial appointments and be one less vote for Daschle for Leader and take this seat off the table along with the one in GA where the GADP is on the verge of just surrendering, then I hope he runs and I hope he kick's Inez's ass.

I'd add that we need easy wins next year in Senate races because if Bush wins re-election, with the exception of BillyJeff, the 6th-year midterms are horrible for the incumbent party-- so we need what padding we can get.

We could face a tough race for Frist's open seat in TN, Kyl may have a solid opponent in middle-of-the-road AZ, Lugar may retire in IN letting someone from the Bayh side of the Dem Party have a chance at that seat, Santorum may have a solid opponent in PA, and Jim Talent will be at the height of his vulnerability as a senator when he runs for re-election for the first time in MO.

Beasley was never really 'out of favor' with voters. In 98 people believed hodges rat lies about being for video poker. That support lasted until the state Supreme Court ruled the law video poker was based on as unconstitutional , AS WRITTEN. The decision just about told the legislators how to fix it, no problemo! Hodges got thrown out because the voters realized that he had lied to them and disrespected them in the process. I believe Gov. Beasley could have been re elected had he challenged hodges.

After his weasel-like Confederate flag flip-flop in 1998, I'd have a damned hard time voting for this guy. I'd be much more likely to stay home. Weaseley always reminded me way too much of a Republican version of Bill Clinton (minus the adultery and sex)...too smug, too smarmy, too political.

He got elected promising to leave the battle flag on the Statehouse, then did a fast 180 and decided to pull it down, I guess in the hopes of convincing the NAALCP and black racists that he wasn't a Klansman or something. Well, all he did was cut his own political throat. The flag-supporting conservative base deserted him in their thousands, and at the same time Unca Jim Hodges came along with his one-note "vote for me and you'll get a lottery for the chirrrun" campaign. I really think that Weaseley could've squeaked out a win had he not basically flipped off the flag supporters and his conservative base.

Weaseley, stay on your farm and do your humanitarian work, and leave the leading to leaders instead of poll-following rubberspines like yourself, 'k?

}:-)4

Sadly, I don't know that much about the candidates. From what I have heard, DeMint would be a fine senator. Charlie Condon is a solid conservative, but personally I always thought he grandstanded a little bit too much as Attorney General--plus he has that one-time loser taint since he lost the gubernatorial nomination to Mark Sanford. Condon also has some really high negatives, he was sort of a lightning rod for liberals who didn't like some of the things he pushed (prosecuting mothers for the drug-related death of their unborn babies, for one--the abortion crowd really howled over that).

Weaseley would have the best name recognition of any Pubbie candidate if he did decide to run, and would have a good shot at getting the GOP nod. And he might even be able to win. Heck, maybe he'd do a good job, he'd certainly be preferable to Fritz. I just don't trust the guy, he strikes me as too much the politician and not enough the leader.

}:-)4

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