Facing a Tradition

A maelstrom of political fury is building in South Carolina. This year's senatorial race pits Charles D. Ravenel '61 against incumbent Republican Strom Thurmond, a bastion of national, conservative politics.

While Ravenel is no stranger to South Carolina's political scene, he is a comparative newcomer. In his only previous bid for public office, "Pug," as his friends call him, stunned South Carolina's political hierarchy by winning the 1974 Democratic gubernatorial primary. He was not allowed to participate in the general election, however, for a controversial court decision reversed a lower court's ruling that he met the state's eligibility requirements.

This decision not only removed Ravenel from a race he was expected to win, but it also allowed James Edwards to become the first Republican governor of South Carolina in over 100 years.

Ravenel had seldom known this sort of misfortune in his earlier years. A native of Charleston, S.C., he was First Marshal of his class at Harvard, and later entered Harvard Business School. Afterward, he became a successful investment banker on Wall St. and a White House Fellow.

But these years of absence from South Carolina, while training him for his political role, also proved to be the cause of his non-eligibility in 1974. This disappointment is now behind Ravenel, though, and although he faces an uphill fight, recent polls have shown that Thurmond's margin is only a slim one.

After 28 years in the Senate, Strom Thurmond has become almost a tradition in South Carolina. The Washington Post recently commented about the race, "Right now, the state seems content with returning Thurmond, a 75-year-old institution who has been on the losing side of nearly every national political fight he has picked and who has flitted in and out of political parties as the mood and need suited him."

The Post is correct in suggesting that Ravenel's fight will be against Thurmond's legend and seniority, rather than against his stance on political issues or his voting record in the Senate.

On one level, the race is one of money and political technique. Thurmond's campaign budget is about $2 million, while Ravenel's is between $800,000 and $1 million. But Ravenel is no stranger to being outfinanced in his campaigns. In the 1974 gubernatorial race, William Jennings Bryan Dorn, his closest competitor, also outspent him by massive amounts. That campaign was similar to the present race, in that Ravenel was running against established politicians. In addition, he faced the difficulty of being largely unknown; 76 days before election day, only 5 per cent of the voters recognized his name. What made Ravenel's campaign so successful was his strategic spending on professional, well-photographed television shots--for example, five-minute shorts during prime time viewing. This differs from the traditional southern campaign, which places heavy emphasis on billboards and often sloppily-handled television commercials.

The impact of his 1974 strategy can best be expressed by the anecdote that one of Bryan Dorn's campaign workers told Marvin Chernoff, the mastermind behind Ravenel's campaigns. After the worker helped an illiterate woman get to the polls, he asked who would be her choice. The woman replied, "I guess you'd better give me the television man."

The point is, of course, that Ravenel's techniques were successful because they reached a tremendous audience through television. Moreover, his campaign suggested the change and professionalization that are currently overtaking southern politics.

This year's campaign should be similar to the gubernatorial race, although Ravenel says he probably will not spend quite as much on television coverage. Instead, a large part of his budget will go to flights and trips across the state. And the bulk of his spending will be between June and November, as he does not face any really serious competition in the June Democratic primary.

This is not to suggest that Ravenel hopes to "outslick" Thurmond through a sly and subtle campaign strategy. Rather, he must win on the issues. He quite openly confronts all the pressing state and national issues from energy to inflation to unemployment to a care program for the elderly. In his campaign, Ravenel hopes to make South Carolinians aware of the issues--and of the answers he feels are correct.

For example, he has new ideas for combating the problems of inflation, unemployment and energy. Among his suggestions for fighting inflation and stagflation are proposals for an 18-month moratorium on net federal cost raising measures, a system or tax incentives to restrain wage and price increases, and a reduction of the regressive sales taxes.

Moreover, Ravenel believes that his energy program will help end inflation. He advocates the deregulation of gasoline prices and a program for controlled fuel consumption, hoping to reduce American dependence on foreign oil. In addition, he supports "cogeneration," a method of harnessing the steam and excess energy released from factory smokestacks. This method currently provides 29 per cent of West Germany's electrical needs, he says, and could provide up to half of America's demands.

Ravenel has issued other policy statements, proposing new welfare reforms and a plan for normalization of relations with Cuba. He has challenged Thurmond to a debate on these and other issues--but Thurmond has refused.

While his political incumbency allows Thurmond the security of a non-response, it would probably be devastating for the 75-year-old to encounter his younger, more aggressive challenger. Their difference in age, however, is the one issue that Ravenel refuses to debate.

In the final analysis, this election has the potential for being the hottest senatorial race in the nation this year. Ravenel is hoping to inject dynamism into South Carolina politics--a force not present in decades. He faces a man representing the emotional, "gut" reactions that have withstood the test of several decades of politics. The clash is a significant one, for Ravenel is calling upon South Carolinians to question their automatic and often impulsive assumptions about the state and the nation.

Norbert J. Vonnegut '80 is a History concentrator from Charleston, S.C.