Ralph Davenport is a former state legislator in South Carolina who is running to reclaim his seat. He served as a Republican for twenty-two years, but he is now running as a member of the Constitution Party. Davenport lost his seat two years ago against current incumbent Rep. Parker. The major issue in that election seems to have been Davenport’s plan for local school consolidation, which proved to be rather unpopular.
Davenport still believes the plan is a good one, but has not made the issue central to his campaign.
Davenport believes a consolidation bill will pass when enough lawmakers vote their pocketbook.
“It’s a lot of money to deal with in times like this. In good times, people would rather talk about taking care of their football teams … things that are extracurricular to education,” he said.
“They’ll do it one of these days. They’ll have to do it, if they want to remain in the lead in education. I think we’ve lost that lead.”
Several Constitution Party insiders have confirmed to me that this is one of the races where they think they actually have a shot at victory.