Decorated Airborne Ranger Bill Connor Jumps in Race for Lindsey Graham’s Senate Seat

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Decorated Airborne Ranger Bill Connor Jumps in Race for Lindsey Graham’s Senate Seat

Posted on 15 November, 2013 by clyde
via freedom outpost
by Joshua Cook

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I first broke the news that Lt. Col. Bill Connor was considering running against Sen. Lindsey Graham. This week Bill Connor officially announced his candidacy at a Veteran’s Day event for the Myrtle Beach Tea Party.
According to Connor’s official Facebook page, he is a resident of Orangeburg, S.C. He is a decorated Army Reserve LT. Colonel (Airborne Ranger), and is an expert in counterinsurgency combat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...;v=82fEF_7SxFQ

He served as Senior US Advisor to Helmand Province, Afghanistan where he received the Bronze Star. Connor is a graduate of The Citadel and the University of South Carolina (USC) School of Law. He is a former candidate for S.C. Lieutenant Governor (making the runoff election in the Republican primary 2010.) Connor served as National Security Advisor for presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
Connor told Javan Browder from South Carolina Conservative Dot Com that many factors have led him to enter the race against Graham, such as Graham supporting Obama’s nomination of extreme leftist Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Connor adds that defeating Graham must be the top priority of conservatives, not just in SC, but from across the nation.
“It’s not only going to take the support of people here in S.C., but also the support of conservatives in states like California who have little chance of electing a conservative to Congress in their state, but who can send us support and help us defeat Graham,” Connor said.
He added, “This is a nationwide effort, for conservatives to reclaim the GOP.”
Connor is the only candidate who has combat experience, and this gives him an advantage over other candidates, even Graham himself.
FitsNews, a political news site in SC, explains Graham’s Achilles’ heel:
“While campaigning for Congress – and on his official website as a then-member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the mid- to late 1990s – Graham repeatedly referred to himself as “an Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran.” He also repeatedly referred to himself as a “Gulf War veteran.”
Graham’s problem? He’s not a Desert Shield veteran, nor is he a Desert Storm veteran, nor is he a Gulf War veteran. While real soldiers were shipping off to fight in these engagements, Graham was a military lawyer whose closest brush with death came in preparing the wills of departing military personnel. Not only did he never see any action, he never even left South Carolina.
Asked to explain himself, Graham told The Hill it was all okay because he “never intended” to “lie.”
Graham continues to sink in the polls as candidates chip away at his http://benswann.com/south-carolina-c...graham/” target=”_blank”>liberal voting record.
Despite Graham’s dismal voting record and decline in poll numbers, he still has a $7 Million war chest at his disposal. He also has strong support from the Republican establishment that controls South Carolina politics. The former SC GOP’s Chairman Chad Connelly and Graham supporter dropped out of a lawsuit the day before he resigned that sought to close Republican primaries.
The current SC GOP chairman Matt Moore refused to enter back into the lawsuit even though the work was done pro bono. Moore was asked to rejoin the lawsuit by attorney Steven Brown, but Moore told him that he didn’t believe in judicial activism and would not rejoin the lawsuit.
The federal judge (who Graham confirmed) dismissed the case because the SC GOP dropped out as plaintiffs and had no legal standing. Sadly, the attorney handling the case never had the chance to present the concrete evidence that Democrats do in fact manipulate elections because they vote in Republican primaries.
Open primaries help Sen. Graham because Democrats vote for him in the Republican primaries. This audacious move by the SC GOP stacks the deck in Graham’s favor. But despite the assault on the grassroots and tea party from establishment Republicans Graham challengers are optimistic on defeating graham.
Connor is the 4th person to enter into the race to unseat Graham following state Sen. Lee Bright of Spartanburg, businessman Richard Cash of Easley and Nancy Mace of Charleston.
One of the concerns with a crowded race is that it may split the vote and deliver Graham another victory. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. All the challengers are focused on attacking Graham and his record, and not each other.

http://gopthedailydose.com/2013/11/1...s-senate-seat/

13 Hours Ago by Joshua Cook

Decorated Airborne Ranger Bill Connor Jumps in Race for Lindsey Graham’s Senate Seat

6 Comments

I first broke the news that Lt. Col. Bill Connor was considering running against Sen. Lindsey Graham. This week Bill Connor officially announced his candidacy at a Veteran's Day event for the Myrtle Beach Tea Party.

According to Connor's official Facebook page, he is a resident of Orangeburg, S.C. He is a decorated Army Reserve LT. Colonel (Airborne Ranger), and is an expert in counterinsurgency combat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=82fEF_7SxFQ

He served as Senior US Advisor to Helmand Province, Afghanistan where he received the Bronze Star. Connor is a graduate of The Citadel and the University of South Carolina (USC) School of Law. He is a former candidate for S.C. Lieutenant Governor (making the runoff election in the Republican primary 2010.) Connor served as National Security Advisor for presidential candidate Rick Santorum.

http://cdn.freedomoutpost.com/wp-con...s1-272x300.jpg Connor told Javan Browder from South Carolina Conservative Dot Com that many factors have led him to enter the race against Graham, such as Graham supporting Obama's nomination of extreme leftist Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Connor adds that defeating Graham must be the top priority of conservatives, not just in SC, but from across the nation.

"It's not only going to take the support of people here in S.C., but also the support of conservatives in states like California who have little chance of electing a conservative to Congress in their state, but who can send us support and help us defeat Graham," Connor said.
He added, "This is a nationwide effort, for conservatives to reclaim the GOP."
Connor is the only candidate who has combat experience, and this gives him an advantage over other candidates, even Graham himself.
FitsNews, a political news site in SC, explains Graham's Achilles' heel:
"While campaigning for Congress – and on his official website as a then-member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the mid- to late 1990s – Graham repeatedly referred to himself as "an Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran." He also repeatedly referred to himself as a "Gulf War veteran."
Graham's problem? He's not a Desert Shield veteran, nor is he a Desert Storm veteran, nor is he a Gulf War veteran. While real soldiers were shipping off to fight in these engagements, Graham was a military lawyer whose closest brush with death came in preparing the wills of departing military personnel. Not only did he never see any action, he never even left South Carolina.
Asked to explain himself, Graham told The Hill it was all okay because he "never intended" to "lie."
Graham continues to sink in the polls as candidates chip away at his liberal voting record.
Despite Graham's dismal voting record and decline in poll numbers, he still has a $7 Million war chest at his disposal. He also has strong support from the Republican establishment that controls South Carolina politics. The former SC GOP's Chairman Chad Connelly and Graham supporter dropped out of a lawsuit the day before he resigned that sought to close Republican primaries.
The current SC GOP chairman Matt Moore refused to enter back into the lawsuit even though the work was done pro bono. Moore was asked to rejoin the lawsuit by attorney Steven Brown, but Moore told him that he didn't believe in judicial activism and would not rejoin the lawsuit.
The federal judge (who Graham confirmed) dismissed the case because the SC GOP dropped out as plaintiffs and had no legal standing. Sadly, the attorney handling the case never had the chance to present the concrete evidence that Democrats do in fact manipulate elections because they vote in Republican primaries.
Open primaries help Sen. Graham because Democrats vote for him in the Republican primaries. This audacious move by the SC GOP stacks the deck in Graham's favor. But despite the assault on the grassroots and tea party from establishment Republicans Graham challengers are optimistic on defeating graham.
Connor is the 4th person to enter into the race to unseat Graham following state Sen. Lee Bright of Spartanburg, businessman Richard Cash of Easley and Nancy Mace of Charleston.
One of the concerns with a crowded race is that it may split the vote and deliver Graham another victory. But that doesn't seem to be the case here. All the challengers are focused on attacking Graham and his record, and not each other.

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