Stepford Candidate Revisited
In my September post “A Stepford Candidate?” I questioned if State Senator Larry Grooms’ gubernatorial candidacy was a front by the Richard Quinn and Associates consulting firm. The purpose of that strategy would be to splinter the conservative candidacies of Grooms and State Representative Nikki Haley.
Some of that speculation was based on the prominence of Mr. Chris Sullivan, a Quinn employee, in the Grooms campaign.
Sources are telling me that Sullivan (1) has been dropped from the Grooms’ campaign and (2) may be under investigation by SLED for some of his campaign practices.
If the latter is correct, the former makes sense. Further, Grooms’ organization has contacted a New Jersey consulting firm to run the campaign, further evidence of Sullivan’s demise..
He’ll need help. Apparently Grooms had to loan himself in excess of $250,000 in the last election campaign reporting period to augment a rather dismal fundraising take of only about $70,000. That loan equates to just over 70% of the funds Grooms has available to date.
Thus, Larry Grooms’ campaign for governor needs a critical infusion of cash to stay alive.
Enter Ron Parks and the highjacking of the South Carolina Tea Party movement.
Oh … but there’s more…
Is this Mr. Sullivan the same Mr. Chris Sullivan, brother to the first lady of SC?
No
I hope–for the benefit of those good people who support Grooms–that this is not true but too many things fit perfectly into such a plausible scenario that one must at least consider the possibility.
Personally, I’ve refrained from pointing out why I disagree with Grooms as a candidate because he does seem to have some good ideas.
He does not, other than possibly participating in the scenario you describe, seem to be a bad fellow at all. He is certainly not one of the good ol’ boys from all appearances and if Nikki Haley does not get in, I’d rather it be him than the bauerbarrettmcmastah good ol’ boy candidate.