Sam Levy/Clarendon Citizen
Candidate Green appears
U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene made his first public appearance with a seven-minute speech at the NAACP’s local chapter meeting held at Manning Junior High School Sunday.
In front of a crowd of about 550 and dozens of media, from local to international, Greene talked about the issues that are the basis of his campaign-jobs, education, and justice. He added in humor to all the media attention.
“I’m the best candidate for U.S. Senate in South Carolina, I’m also the best candidate for the Emmy Award next year,” he said.
Nothing new was brought to the table as Greene discussed his proposal to create more jobs, in expanding I-74 from Michigan to the South Carolina coast, and other pre-9/11 projects. Greene also talked on how alternative sources of energy will help create new jobs, but did not go into detail on how he is planning to do this. Something briefly mentioned that was new was expanding water and sewer systems to rural communities.
Greene received wild applause several times while talking about education.
“We need better education for our children. Parents need to take a more active part in their child’s education. Especially parents of underperforming students,” he said. “A stronger PTSA (Parent-Teacher Student Association) should be put into action. Instead of doing less for education, we ought to be doing more.”
Greene also talked about bringing justice to the judicial system. He said that the punishment should fit the crime and that fairness saves us money, first time non-violent offenders should be offered programs such as pre-trial intervention.
“I know this guy that got into trouble. This guy happened to be a person of color in the fifth judicial circuit,” he said. “Anyhow, this guy met the criteria for pretrial intervention but was denied. That same guy’s trial was scheduled for last week, but was put off.”
Greene encouraged those who were not registered to vote to go ahead and do so, and for people to check out his website.
Greene ended his speech with his slogan.
“Let’s get our priorities and government in order and get South Carolina and America back to work for the people again.”
“I knew his father extremely well,” Judge James Dingle said. “I picked cotton for his father back in the day.” Greene was introduced at the event by Dingle.
“I don’t believe that things just happen. He’s not an incumbent by special interest groups, he doesn’t work for anybody but you,” Dingle said.
The first sign of Greene’s campaign also appeared at the event. Felipe Farley, a lawyer from Simpsonsville, S.C., walked in a few yards behind the Democratic U.S. Candidate for Senate. He wore a grass green shirt that said in bold letters “Greene,” with the word “Senate,” right beneath.
“That slogan has many connotations,” Farley said.
Farley is one of three official campaign advisors for Greene, and said that he contacted the candidate himself because he was inspired by his win. He also said that he expects Greene
to do great things in November.
“He has a clear message, he’s been underestimated, and interest is building.”
Nathaniel Pugh, a NAACP member, said that Greene deserves a chance.
“He’s a mystery man, not many people know him, but what I do know is that the people want a change.”
Pugh said that for Greene to win he would have to get out in the district and community more.
Many in the crowd attended the meeting to learn more about this “mystery man,” such as Catherine Fant of Sumter.
“I wasn’t overly impressed with his performance. He doesn’t have the greatest delivery and it was lacking in substance,” Fant said.
County Council member, Benton Blakely, came out for the same reason.
“I’m just tired of Republicans and Democrats fighting. All they do is get out there and spin wheels. We’ve got to work together to make things happen,” Blakely said.
He said that Greene has a lot of work to do if he wants to be successful.
“It’s a tough job getting out there in front of everybody,” Blakely said.
Does Greene have a chance?
“Anything is possible in this land of opportunity. He’s got to get out there and sell himself, make people believe in him,” Blakely said.
