Anti-Washington Trend Threatens South Carolina Lawmaker Inglis in Runoff
Representative Bob Inglis, a six- term lawmaker who wants to curb government spending and cut the budget deficit, would seem a perfect fit for his South Carolina congressional district, among the nation’s most Republican.
He’s been endorsed by Bob Jones III, chancellor of Bob Jones University, a Christian school in the district where students can’t drink, smoke, dance or wear jeans to class. His voting record is rated 100 percent by National Right to Life, an anti-abortion group. And he has a 93 percent favorable rating from the American Conservative Union, which describes itself as the largest grassroots conservative group.
Still, Inglis is struggling for survival. An underdog in today’s runoff election against fellow Republican Trey Gowdy, Inglis may become the fifth U.S. lawmaker to lose re-nomination this year at the hands of an anti-Washington electorate.
His trouble: a willingness to deviate from his party, as well as his vote for the $700 billion bank-rescue plan.
“This is just one of those years where that’s a problem,” said Charles Finocchiaro, a political scientist at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. “Like you’re seeing in lots of races around the country, the challenge for him is to fend off the challenge from the right.”
South Carolina has two other runoffs today, including one to pick the Republican gubernatorial nominee. In other states, voters will choose the Republican Senate nominee in Utah and the Democratic Senate nominee in North Carolina.
Voting Against Bush
Inglis stirred anger in his district when he voted against President George W. Bush’s Iraq troop surge in 2007, then backed the Troubled Asset Relief Program a year later, said Linda Abrams, a political scientist at Bob Jones University in Greenville.
And his support of a tax on carbon dioxide emissions -- offset by a cut in payroll taxes -- to combat global warming didn’t sit well with voters in the “very, very conservative” district, Abrams said.
Voters “think Bob has left them,” Abrams said.
Inglis, 50, drew boos at a town hall meeting last year when he told attendees to stop watching Fox News television commentator Glenn Beck, who he said was “trading on fear.”
“In bomb-throwing times, I’m offering solutions,” Inglis said in an interview. “That’s what has caused me to land in this spot.”
Primary Results
Voters made their dissatisfaction with Inglis clear in a June 8 primary. Gowdy, a county prosecutor, won 39 percent of the vote, while the incumbent ran second with 28 percent.
“If you want change in Washington, you have to change who you send there,” Gowdy said in an interview.
Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, has cut the backlog of criminal cases in two counties by more than 40 percent, according to his office’s website. “He’s a tough prosecutor,” said Abrams. “That always gets high marks.”
For Inglis, overcoming an 11-point deficit in the runoff won’t be easy, said Nathan Gonzales, an editor for the Rothenberg Political Report, a nonpartisan, Washington-based publication.
“It’s extremely difficult for an incumbent to move a large number of voters from a primary to a runoff,” Gonzales said. Going from 28 percent to a majority “would be breathtaking.”
An Inglis loss would be more the result of an ideological battle than a case of anti-incumbent sentiment, Gonzales said. Inglis “has a wider image problem that he’s too moderate.”
‘Doesn’t Add Up’
Inglis said the notion he’s not conservative enough “doesn’t add up,” citing endorsements from the National Rifle Association and Jones.
Running behind is an unfamiliar position for a lawmaker who has won all but one of his previous general election races with at least 60 percent. He served three House terms before making an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1998 against then-incumbent Ernest Hollings, a Democrat.
The district in South Carolina’s northwest corner is the 49th most Republican of the House’s 435, according to the Cook Political Report in Washington, which bases its ratings on presidential election results.
In South Carolina’s runoff for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, state lawmaker Nikki Haley faces U.S. Representative Gresham Barrett. Haley, an Indian-American, won 49 percent of the vote in the primary to Barrett’s 22 percent.
Black Republican
In another South Carolina runoff for a U.S. House nomination, Tim Scott is vying to become the first black Republican in Congress in eight years. He faces Republican Paul Thurmond, the son of the late U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, once one of America’s foremost segregationists.
An Inglis defeat would make him the third House member to lose a primary this year, after Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia and Republican Parker Griffith of Alabama. Senators Bob Bennett, a Utah Republican, and Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Democrat, have also been denied re-nomination.
Utah voters today will choose the Republican nominee to replace Bennett, who was rejected for a fourth term at the party’s convention. Businessman Tim Bridgewater faces lawyer Mike Lee.
The race for the Democratic Senate nomination in North Carolina pits Secretary of State Elaine Marshall against former state Senator Cal Cunningham. The winner will challenge incumbent Republican Richard Burr in November.
To contact the reporters on this story: Catherine Dodge in Washington at Cdodge1@bloomberg.net.
Rate this Page