Ran into Jim Hodges this morning, and since my man Joe Riley endorsed Vincent Sheheen in his gubernatorial bid this week, I was wondering whether the ex-gov had chosen a candidate.
As you may recall, back when Dwight Drake got into the race, scuttlebutt had it that he did so at the behest of Mr. Hodges and Dick Harpootlian. But at the time, Jim told me no way; that was all Dick’s doing. He did not have a candidate.
This morning he told me that like Riley, he likes Vincent — but he thinks a lot of Dwight, too. He may endorse one of them, but he’s not in a hurry to make that decision. As he sees it, he’s got plenty of time, and he’s not going to rush it.
In the meantime, the candidates are working on him, wanting that nod. Vincent talked with him just this week about it, and Gov. Hodges met with Dwight last week.
As our current governor likes to say, to be continued…
Looks like the Jim Rex campaign will be over before it even started.
http://www.thestate.com/breaking/story/1112164.html
Very disappointing fundraising numbers for Q4 – they have to be bad because they released the numbers on Friday afternoon, just like they released the dismal end of course test results on the Friday before Christmas break. It’s the oldest trick in the PR book.
Maybe this is a lesson learned – if you are going to use one political office as a stepping stone for another one, you better make sure you make it UP a few steps first.
In case you missed those test result stats, here they are:
For 2008-09, grade distribution for English was 10.2 percent A, 15 percent B, 23.7 percent C, 19.5 percent D and 31.6 percent F. Grade distribution for algebra was 16.1 percent A, 15.7 percent B, 23.5 percent C, 21.9 percent D and 22.8 percent F.
Grade distribution for physical science was 10.5 percent A, 10.1 percent B, 16.6 percent C, 18.2 percent D and 44.5 percent F. The U.S. History and Constitution grade distribution was 2 percent A, 5.1 percent B, 14.6 percent C, 20.8 percent D and 57.6 percent F.
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Half the students in the state got a D or worse in English; 44% got D or worse in Math; 62% got D or worse in Science. And 78%! got D or worse in History.
And what was the title of the Dept. of Ed story showing the results:
“End-of-course scores up in physical science, hold steady in algebra, dip in English”
Talk about spinning!
http://ed.sc.gov/news/more.cfm?articleID=1399
With grades like those, pretty soon they’ll be running for office.