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Tom Clements, South Carolina’s Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, must be sorely disappointed by the early returns from that race.
After Democrat Alvin Greene’s shocking victory in the primary, many Greens had hoped that their nominee would be able to outpoll the major party’s nominee in November. An October 2010 poll conducted by Winthrop University showed Greene to be one point behind Clements for second place, with DeMint holding a commanding lead over both.
But it hasn’t worked out that way. Greene is solidly in second place with more than 30% of the vote, while Clements is struggling to get out of single-digits.
Here are the returns with 10% reporting…
DeMint (REP) – 79,899 votes (62%)
Greene (DEM) – 40,629 votes (31%)
Clements (GRE) – 9,348 votes (7%)
This is the “straight party” voting effect, made worse by poll workers not telling people who asked that they could vote straight party and cast a “crossover” vote and vote vote me. The pernicious straight party voting needs to be removed from the ballot.
Tom, we saw the same thing here in Philadelphia. We had a Green candidate knock on nearly every door in a state legislative district, raise about as much as the Democrat (not including a $20,000 loan she gave herself), and run a better campaign than either of his opponents, and he got 18% of the vote. Not bad at all for a first time Green candidate (and you had even more of a challenge, with a whole state to cover), but voting for a party is so ingrained that it’s extremely difficult to break that mindset. We did win in some precincts, in the one the Green campaigned in most heavily and is best known. Only one thing left to do about it…organize, organize, organize!