South Carolina: Ketner Opts Against Rematch With Brown
Democrat Linda Ketner, who last year held five-term Rep. Henry Brown (R) to the lowest winning percentage of his Congressional career, has decided to pass on a 2010 rematch in the Charleston-based 1st district.
“I probably will run again for something because the more I found out about government the more disappointed I was,— Ketner said this week. “It depends on what the environment is in 2012.—
Ketner, who is openly gay and recently made headlines for naming three South Carolina politicians who she believes are in the closet, said she made her decision this week so that other potential Democratic candidates can make up their minds about their own 2010 bids.
One of those potential Democrats is state Rep. Leon Stavrinakis who will be in Washington, D.C., next week in part to make the political rounds as he mulls a bid.
Stavrinakis said he’ll probably make an announcement on whether he’ll run “sometime in July— but said he has not set a firm date.
Another Democratic candidate mentioned by Ketner is Robert Burton, a veteran and former commissioner for the South Carolina Housing Finance and Development Authority.
Meanwhile, Brown will have to fight his way through the Republican primary to earn a shot at a sixth term in 2010. Carroll Campbell (R), a businessman and the son of the state’s former governor, and Katherine Jenerette (R), a veteran and former Congressional aide, are already in the GOP primary.