Free Republic

South Carolina's GOP Senate Primary Forces Beasley Into Runoff NewsMax.com Wires Wednesday, June 9, 2004 Hoping for a political comeback, former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley found himself unable to clinch a primary victory and was forced into a runoff in his bid to win the Republican nomination for one of the nation's most closely watched Senate seats. Tuesday's primary put Beasley up against three-term Rep. Jim DeMint in the GOP's effort to grab the longtime Democrat seat held by retiring Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings. Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum won the Democrats' nomination. Beasley got 37 percent of the vote,...

<p>Two Republican U.S. Senate candidates are in the $1 million fund-raising ballpark and a third said Wednesday he logged the best quarter of his political career.</p> <p>Rep. Jim DeMint of Greenville raised approximately $600,000 from April through June for a campaign total of "just under or over" $1 million, said Barry Wynn of Spartanburg, a former state GOP chairman and a DeMint finance committee leader.</p>

Washington John Spratt: Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in '04? Don't count on it. Though S.C. Democrats relish the idea of the experienced York congressman running if U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., doesn't, Spratt says he is U.S. House bound. There Spratt is an acknowledged heavyweight -- in seniority, in position and for his voluminous knowledge of the federal budget. "Who me?" he says when asked about a Senate run last week. "No. I have 21 years of seniority in the House. I sit one chair away from the chairmanship of Armed Services, and I'm the ranking member on the...