NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, June 9, 2004

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, or 107,432 votes; DeMint got 26 percent, or 77,331 votes.

The South Carolina race was the most hotly contested of seven primaries, including Montana's GOP primary for an open governor's seat, where moderate Secretary of State Bob Brown defeated an anti-tax conservative, and a Virginia race where seven-term Democrat Rep. Jim Moran easily beat a challenger who criticized Moran's comments as anti-Semitic.

The rest - Iowa, Maine, New Jersey and North Dakota - saw mostly noncompetitive primaries.

But in South Carolina, Hollings' decision to retire after seven terms, all of them in the shadow of GOP Sen. Strom Thurmond, who retired last year at 100 and died a few months later, set off a GOP scramble. The seat is one of five held by Democrats in the South to come open this year, an opportunity for the GOP to add to its 51-48 control of the Senate.

Democrats rallied behind Tenenbaum, who has been elected twice as education superintendent.

For Beasley, it was an opportunity for resurrection. He was defeated in 1998 after one term where he angered tradition-minded voters by calling for lowering the Confederate flag from atop the Statehouse, and then fueled a deep-pocketed opposition by trying to ban video poker.

Those efforts cost him the election. Both became reality under his Democrat successor.

The critics haven't forgotten, with updated bumper stickers that say "Dump Beasley Again."

But Beasley said he was not worried. "Who would have thought we could make a comeback like this?" he said Tuesday. "The experts said we couldn't do it."

In two weeks, he'll face DeMint, who has staked out his support for U.S. trade policies, a stance that has cost him support among those in the state's hard-hit textile industry.

Like the other Republicans, DeMint supported the Bush administration on the war in Iraq and on its tax cuts. He embraced the runoff. "Mission one is accomplished. We're in the playoffs."

Tenenbaum ran as a conservative, backing the death penalty, the decision to invade Iraq and a ban on gay marriage. "I've always run an independent race," she said. "In the last two races, I received more votes than anyone else, Democrat or Republican, on the ballot."

In Virginia, Moran swept away a challenge from political newcomer Andrew Rosenberg, who said he was inspired to run by Moran's comments that "leaders of the Jewish community" helped drive the Iraq war. Moran had apologized.

In Montana, where GOP Gov. Judy Martz chose not to seek re-election after a single term that saw dismal approval ratings, Brown refused to rule out tax increases. Newcomer Pat Davison built strong support among conservatives with his anti-tax platform.

With nearly all precincts reporting, Brown led with 38 percent of the vote to Davison's 24 percent. The winner will go up against Democrat Brian Schweitzer.

Editor's note: