SHJ: Roger Nutt and Keith Kelly will face off again in District 35
Spartanburg Herald-Journal
By Jason Spencer
3/31/08
Republican Roger Nutt says that the people in the southern portion of Spartanburg County have had two years to see state Rep. Keith Kelly in action – and that’s why he’s running again for House District 35.
Nutt, 42, said he will campaign this year “almost word-for-word” as he did two years ago. He said he hasn’t even had to change his Web site.
“If District 35 is satisfied with my opponent’s record, then they can put him back in office. If not, they have a choice,” Nutt said. “It’s really a simple campaign.”
Nutt said the biggest difference this time around is that he has hired a consultant – Chad Connelly of the Sandlapper Group – so someone else can concentrate on things like campaign signs and he can spend more time actually campaigning.
Connelly is a board member of South Carolinians for Responsible Government, one of several conservative groups with similar agendas that have taken an interest in certain state legislative races. Kelly’s is one of them.
Special Interest Attack Groups
A couple months ago I wrote an op-ed detailing the special interests and attack groups that will be playing in the upcoming election. It looks like those groups are already attacking those of us who do not cave to their demands. Here is an interesting article that ran yesterday in the Spartanburg Herald Journal:
Groups seek to shape Legislature
Some say tactics used are ‘inherently unfair’
By Jason Spencer & Robert W. Dalton
Published: Sunday, March 23, 2008
In the year and a half that he’s been in the state House, Rep. Keith Kelly has missed one day of work.
It was a Thursday – April 26, 2007 to be exact – and Kelly, R-Woodruff, remembers it vividly. It was the day his wife had a biopsy to determine whether she had breast cancer.
Things went well and Kelly’s wife is fine. But somebody out there wants Kelly to pay for taking the day off to be by her side.
An anonymous group or individual recently paid for a poll in which voters in Kelly’s district were told that their representative was not attending sessions and was not voting. Such polls where an opinion survey is aimed at influencing someone’s perception of a candidate are known as push polls.
