This news site has taken a dim view of the South Carolina State Fair. We believe it to be overpriced, unsafe and unhealthy (seriously, fried butter?) …
Beyond that, the gathering strikes us as an unfortunate commentary on the abysmal academic and economic outcomes consistently produced by our overpriced state government.
What’s driving this negativity? Our fearless leader …
“The fair: Unwashed masses exacerbating their chronic unhealthiness, exhibiting their ingrained ignorance and expending their limited resources on trinkets, cheap thrills and chicanery,” our founding editor Will Folks once noted of this twelve-day carnival. “No wonder our state stays broke, dumb and unhealthy.”
Sheesh … has no one ever informed him of the joys of “people watching?”
Despite our founding editor’s snobbery, the State Fair remains hugely popular with broad swaths of South Carolina citizens … which naturally means it remains hugely popular with aspiring politicians who covet the votes of these citizens.
Candidates for elected office who fail to take advantage of the captive audiences afforded them by the fair are doing their campaigns a grave disservice … as this annual event (which runs from October 11-22) offers an invaluable opportunity to generate some free name identification for their candidacies.
Take Penry Gustafson, a recently announced GOP candidate for S.C. State House District 52 (map) – a seat currently held by liberal Democrat Laurie Slade Funderburk.
(Click to view)
(Via: Penry Gustafson)
Gustafson – a longtime fair buff – attended the event’s opening last week personally in an effort to meet voters.
“After forty years of loyal attendance at our South Carolina State Fair, my time at the SCGOP booth in the Ruff Building offered a new, energetic experience,” Gustafson told us. “These wonderful face to face conversations were an invigorating preview to the campaign ahead in District 52! I feel determined and excited to meet the constituents just like I did last week – with a smile, a handshake, and an open ear!”
S.C. House District 52 was one of the many Democratic-represented districts carried overwhelmingly by U.S. president Donald Trump last fall – making it a top target for the “Republican” party in 2018.
Gustafson is clearly wasting no time in positioning herself as the grassroots favorite for the GOP nomination in this district …
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Banner via @SCStateFair