News - Local/State

Monday, May. 05, 2008

Witherspoon takes aim at Graham's 'insider' status

SPARTANBURG -- Bible study at Spartanburg's Evangel Cathedral had just finished Wednesday night, but the woman grabbing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Buddy Witherspoon's business card still had a conversion to complete.

"I'll give this to my friend," the woman said. "She is just so mad at Lindsey Graham she'll be happy to vote for you."

It is that discontent with the state's senior senator that Witherspoon, a Lexington orthodontist, is pinning his unlikely run for U.S. Senate on. Tall and balding, Witherspoon, 69, is a fast talker who ticks off criticisms of state leadership in rapid fire, punctuated with a sly sense of humor.

Graham has a number of advantages over Witherspoon: he's the incumbent; he has raised millions of dollars; he enjoys nearly unlimited exposure as a close confidante of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

But none of that deters Witherspoon. He thinks it works to his advantage. Graham, he said, has become "magnetized" by Washington, D.C., culture and is failing to serve S.C. residents.

"Something changed, or something happened to him," Witherspoon said of the change in Graham's politics when he moved from the U.S. House of Representatives to the U.S. Senate. "The lights have gotten in his eyes."

Buddy vs. Lindsey

This is Witherspoon's first run for office. He served 10 years as a Republican National committeeman, representing South Carolina at national party meetings. He also served several terms as Lexington County GOP chairman.

Witherspoon said he has helped many candidates win elections. This year, he decided, it was his turn to run.

Claiming he comes from the same constituent service model as the late Strom Thurmond, Witherspoon uses his hands to demonstrate how he compares to the state's two U.S. senators.

"Lindsey's here," Witherspoon said, cutting the air with his left hand.

"(Jim) DeMint is here," he says motioning a little further to the right.

"I'm here," he said, marking space several inches farther to the right.

Witherspoon has made stopping illegal immigration a central plank of his campaign, running ads criticizing Graham around S.C.'s GOP presidential primary in January. Witherspoon also said energy policy is a prime concern, and he is willing to allow drilling off the S.C. coast or even build an oil refinery in the state.

Witherspoon also takes issue with Graham's approach in the Senate, saying he is too willing to compromise with political opponents to get legislation approved. Witherspoon said he would work first with folks who agree with him, before trying to reach across the aisle.

Council of Conservative Citizens

While largely unknown, Witherspoon is best known -- or infamous -- for a 1999 dispute over his association with the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group that has opposed interracial marriage, affirmative action and illegal immigration. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League consider the council to be a white supremacist group.

The group's Web site claims it works to preserve America's white, European heritage.

In 1999, Witherspoon -- serving as an elected official in the national Republican Party -- introduced then-U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., at a council meeting in Charleston. When the group's ties to Republican leaders, including U.S. Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, were exposed, then-Republican National Committee chairman Jim Nicholson asked Witherspoon to quit the group.

At first, Witherspoon declined. Then, he renounced his ties with the group during a tearful speech at a 1999 state party meeting.

"I'm a member. I'm not that active. I don't go to all the things," Witherspoon told The Washington Post in 1999. "They have always been people I have had no problem with. Everything to me is fine from what I see and hear."

Witherspoon also told The State at the time that he had been to three meetings in the past year.

Witherspoon now says he was never a member of the group and the Charleston meeting was the only one he ever attended, going only to introduce Barr.

"If I, in fact, said I was a member, maybe I misspoke at that time," Witherspoon said last week. "I know a lot of those people. They are good, hard-working people."

Witherspoon said he learned later the national group held "questionable" views, but defended the local group as part of the Southern heritage movement. Witherspoon is also a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

But for former Richland County GOP chairman Rusty DePass, Witherspoon damaged the party.

"I think Buddy has been an embarrassment to the Republican Party for a long time," DePass said, noting a strain of white GOP separatists "that we sort of wink at."

"There's no place for that."

DePass said Witherspoon should have resigned his state GOP post when the party learned of his ties with the group.

Evangelical comfort

Witherspoon has strong ties to the state's religious conservatives and wears his faith visibly, such as at the campaign stop at Evangel Cathedral in Spartanburg.

Witherspoon held hands and prayed with members during Bible study, drawing support from the faithful when he delivered a prayer at the service.

"Be in prayer about our nation," Witherspoon told the church. "We certainly need to stand up at this point in time if we want to see this nation stay with God's hand upon it."

Mike Dixon, a Spartanburg GOP activist who invited Witherspoon to the church, has known the candidate for a dozen years. Dixon said Witherspoon is as back-slapping folksy as he appears.

"Buddy is one of us. He thinks the way I think," Dixon said. "I want somebody who represents me in Washington, that remembers where he came from."