District 25 campaigns fraught with controversy

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District 25 voters go to the polls Tuesday to resolve a contentious Senate race between Republican incumbent Shane Massey and Democratic challenger Greg Anderson, both of them Edgefield residents.

Edgefield attorney Massey took the Senate seat in a 2007 special election upon the resignation of former Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Clearwater. Massey is running on a “Shake Up Columbia” platform. Anderson, also an Edgefield attorney, defeated Aikenite Travis Johnson in the Democratic primary in June.

Anderson established a campaign platform supporting public schools over voucher plans, supporting strong local law enforcement, promising to advocate for economic development in District 25 and opposing expansion of oil drilling. Massey’s campaign, meanwhile, focused on funding for failing public schools, energy efficiency and expansion of drilling, legislator ethics reform and fiscal responsibility in government.

Massey received an endorsement in October from the Aiken Board of Realtors, while Anderson won an endorsement from the Conservation Voters of South Carolina.

“I’m a public education guy; I’m not ever going to vote for vouchers, not today, not tomorrow or in the future,” Anderson said at a meeting of the Aiken Democratic Party in early October. “It’s time we take the State House back to the people. I won’t listen to the governor; I will listen to the people of District 25.”

In October, ads began running in support of Anderson charging that Massey had voted against the Historical Documents Act, also known as the “Ten Commandments Bill,” which would allow historical documents relating to the founding of the nation to be posted in public buildings by government agencies at the local level, including the Ten Commandments. The ads specifically charged that Massey opposed the posting of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools.

Massey’s campaign responded that the Lord’s Prayer clause was introduced into the legislation as a “poison pill” to skew the language of the amendment from history to religion, and the Senator voted against the amendment as framed in those terms.

The legislation passed with the Lord’s Prayer clause intact, opening the amendment up to challenge as an unconstitutional establishment of religion.

Anderson averred that he strongly supports the display of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools, in response to an Oct. 21 press conference by Massey to refute the “Lord’s Prayer” ads.

The controversy led to a heated retort by Massey at a forum held by the Aiken Branch of the NAACP earlier this week.

“This is what’s wrong with politics,” Massey said at the forum. “You don’t tell the whole story, but pick out a procedural vote and make it look like the way Shane Massey really thinks. This is a bunch of nonsense, as low as you can go.”

District 25 campaigns fraught with controversy

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