May 20, 2008
Some say that all politics is personal, and so it was at the 132nd year of the Galivants Ferry Stump Meeting on Monday as politicians of both parties mingled with voters and strategists at the traditional Democratic event.
The stump is a combination hoedown, chicken bog supper and old-time political speakin' that was once common in the rural South where voters could not depend on newspapers, radio or TV for learning about candidates.
It's still a place where voters can mingle with candidates and grill them face-to-face on the issues, and now that includes hopefuls from both parties, albeit unofficially.
The Galivants Ferry Stump has gone on just about every election year since 1876, when Wade Hampton and his Redshirts rode into the riverside tobacco village to pump for enough votes to throw out the Republicans.
The Holliday family that still puts on the stump maintains its Democratic tradition even though the state has gone mostly Republican. So while the Democrats are speaking, the Republicans are working the crowd.
Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach, was one of those. He has two opponents in the Republican primary. State Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Myrtle Beach, came for the mingling and strategizing. He has no opposition.
Some are of mixed persuasion. Attorney Richard Lovelace had on a T-shirt touting Republican George Hearn for the state House, and a sticker saying "Vote Democratic." He pleaded the Fifth.
Many of the voters who come want to see and speak to a politician in person, but a lot of attendees are politically involved folks who come to enjoy the strategizing.
S.C. Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Khare Fowler said as much. That's one of the reasons she came back to an event she has enjoyed many times, she said.
"This is the biggest gathering of Democrats in the state today," she said. "It's fun and you get to talk to a lot of Democrats."
Besides seeking votes, the candidates try to pump up each other and the party faithful.
"I do believe the people of this country have decided that it's time to put a Democrat back in charge," said U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia.
"We will send a Democrat to the White House," said James Millward, a candidate in the Horry County Council District 6 race.
And there will be more Democrats elected to state and local office if they stick together and work together, said Fonzie Lewis of Aynor, who is running for state House.
Clyburn and U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-York, were honored as the festivities got under way. A slew of former Democratic members of Congress, including Myrtle Beach's John Jenrette, also came.
Linda Ketner of Charleston, running against Ben Frasier of Charleston for the party's nomination for the 1st Congressional District seat, got the crowd's attention with a brief speech after having "Happy Birthday" sung to her and a large sheetcake brought in.
"Wouldn't it be great to see a woman in the House?" Ketner asked.
She got a laugh out of the audience when she said she was in Washington recently and saw the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, R-Hanahan. Brown asked if he could help her, she said, and she told him, "you're doing quite enough, just keep doing what you're doing."
The sponsoring Holliday family members said the crowd may not have been as big this year as some years, but they were pleased with the event and it met its purpose, which is to let people come to see candidates in person, something not offered on TV and the Internet.
