Yesterday, the rumor that Strom Jr. was going to run for Tommy Moore’s seat dropped into a colleague’s lap. The rumor was shared with me, and with someone in our newsroom. That may or may not (since the newsroom is a separate department from ours, I don’t know how the story developed; it may have begun with other sources) have resulted in today’s front-page story.
Anyway, I pass along these messages as one of my efforts at transparency into what we do around here (which of course, is one of the main purposes of this blog). There are some things to consider as you look at this:
- It’s unusual to have something this complete a tip to show you. Most tips are more piecemeal than this — a word here, an indication there. They’re not usually this happened at this time, and here’s who was involved.
- Even with all that information, it’s worthless unless confirmed. I had this yesterday, and could not post it, because I did not have a chance to dig into it. That was frustrating, because I would have liked to put it on the blog. But the blog is not my core job, or even my job at all, really. I have to publish editorial pages, and that’s been tough enough this week with Mike Fitts out. I did make one call, and that source promised to poke around, but I couldn’t follow up, or call other sources who might have held the key — not when I knew that other people who were paid to do so for the newspaper were working the same tip. I’m a bad time manager, but not that bad.
- I don’t know the source, and the person who passed it to me doesn’t know the source either. That makes it a blinder stab in the dark than usual. But it doesn’t matter who the initial source is; you’re not using that in the paper anyway. It’s just an impetus to look into it.
- Even though part of the story was confirmed by our News department, that does not mean the rest of it is true. It raises this source’s credibility somewhat, but you’re left with this: Everything else the person says could be true, and maybe none of it is. This person could be well-informed, or passing on gossip in which the particulars are distorted. Or the source could be lying about the rest. Or — and this is the most likely in most cases — it’s based in fact, but filtered by what this person wants to be true, or wants us to believe is true.
In other words, I pass it on because it’s interesting. Nothing more, nothing less. I’ll tell you more when I know more, which is not the same as just hearing about it.
Anyway, here’s the initial message from Wednesday:
I got an e-mail this morning from a reader … who doesn’t want to be named. I can’t verify the accuracy, but I think my correspondent — who interrupted a chat we were having on a related topic to break the news — is in a position to know.
News Flash: This morning at 8:30 AM State GOP officials met with Strom Thurmond, Jr. at his Aiken office to discuss his candidacy for the vacant sat. He does not live in the District in AIken but does own a farm in Edgefield County where he presumably will claim residency for a run. I just received a phone call from a reliable GOP source stating that he has committed to running for the seat. The state GOP official says this will be a "sexy, sexy" race for the GOP with JST, JR in it.
Aiken County Council Chairman Ronnie Young was planning a run in the republican primary but reportedly was willing to defer to little Strom if he decided to jump in. Also., a relative unknown Shayne or Shane Mathews of Edgefield County (Johnston area I think) is telling friends that he is running. Of course. Rep. Clyburn is going to run in the democratic primary. This seat WILL be a GOP pick up based solely on the demographics and voting trends. Mr. Moore held it for obvious reasons.
I know you know things can change fast in these situations but it appears that little Strom is going to pull a carpet bagger trick and stick his pitchfork in Edgefield and make a run. My sources are very reliable. Just thought I would pass it along FYI.
As you see, the source has opinions and attitudes of his own, which is the sort of thing you take into account as you nevertheless look into it. Anyway, you saw today’s story, in which Strom Jr. confirmed he was considering such a move. Later Wednesday, the same source sent a second message, which MY source did not see and pass on to me until today. It goes much further into supposedly reliable information about Ronnie Young, a possible Democratic run by House member, and an alleged reason for Mr. Moore getting out of the boiler business. I have no way of confirming any of it right now, so I won’t post it.
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In Brad’s absence this morning, I am posting the following note of clarification. I’m the colleague who passed the original note to Brad. Before he posted this, my source had sent me a minor correction, which I failed to pass on to Brad. It is as follows:
“I was wrong about Edgefield. He does own property there but it does not have a house on it.
“His so-called family farm has a Ridge Spring address. It could be in Aiken or Saluda County as Ridge Spring is in both counties. The site is his hunting lodge more or less.”