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(COLUMBIA) State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex will campaign throughout South Carolina’s capital city on Monday before returning to his home county of Fairfield on Tuesday to vote.  The schedule is as follows:

Monday, June 7, 2010
Noon
Main Street Walk
Beginning at Mac’s on Main
1710 Main Street
Columbia, SC

5 p.m.
Door-to-door visits
Begin at Gavilan Road & West Campanella Drive
Columbia, SC

Tuesday, June 8, 2010
10 a.m.
Sue and Jim Rex vote
Dutchman Creek Volunteer Fire Department
6 Dutchman Lane, Ridgeway

7 p.m.
Election Night Celebration
Wet Willie’s in the Vista
800 Gervais Street
Columbia, SC

(COLUMBIA) State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex will travel to multiple counties throughout the final days of the campaign and conclude his “46 Counties in 46 Days” tour in his home of Fairfield, when he and his wife Sue cast their votes on Tuesday. The schedule for Saturday and Sunday is as follows:

Saturday, June 5, 2010

9:00 a.m.
Williamsburg Democratic County Annual Breakfast
Kingstree Senior High School’s West Campus
615 Martin Luther King Avenue
Kingstree, SC

11:30 a.m.
Family and Friends Days: Candidate Showcase
Lilfred’s
8425 Main Street
Rembert, SC

1:00 p.m.
Waffle House
529 U.S. 601
Lugoff, SC

6:00 p.m.
Reception honoring Clayton Richardson
Centenary United Methodist Church
830 South Sixth Street
Hartsville, SC

Sunday, June 6, 2010

10:00 a.m.
Welfare Baptist Church
2106 Bolt Drive
Belton, SC

1:00 p.m.
Dempsey’s Pizza
910 South Broad Street
Clinton, SC

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Representative Joe Neal

(COLUMBIA) – State Representative Joe Neal (D-Hopkins) officially endorsed Jim Rex today, calling him the “best choice for South Carolina during these turbulent times.”  Neal, who represents portions of the Richland and Sumter counties in the South Carolina State House of Representatives, is the former Chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus and former Deputy Democratic Leader.  He currently is the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Chester, SC.

“I am proud to endorse a real progressive, Jim Rex, to be South Carolina’s next Governor.  I have been impressed over these last three and a half years as we have worked together to improve our public schools.  I have been impressed by his accessibility, his intelligence, and his willingness to put politics aside to do what’s right by our state and our working families.  I support his candidacy without qualification and without reservation,” said Neal.

“Jim Rex is tried and true.  He has proven he can win as a Democrat, and not only is he the most qualified – he’s the most likely to be able to beat the Republicans in November,” said Neal.

Neal was first elected to the State House in 1993. He has served continuously since and currently sits on the House Rules Committee as well as the House Ways and Means Committee.

“It is humbling to have the confidence of a man of Representative Joe Neal’s integrity and honor,” said Rex.

Now that the campaign is in the 11th hour, Jim needs your help to convince your friends and neighbors why it is important to vote June 8th for Jim Rex.  Please consider printing out 25 copies of these flyers and sharing with others why Jim is the strongest candidate for Governor.  Please forward an e-mail to your friends and ask them to do the same.  For a small cost and with minimal energy, collectively you can make a big difference in this campaign result.  Thanks for everything you have done to make Jim’s campaign such a success.  He is very anxious to begin the hard work of turning our state in the right direction.

Sue Rex

On Sunday, this newspaper endorsed one of my opponents, counting his legislative experience as more valuable than my executive experience. I couldn’t disagree more.

The truth is, experience matters. I have managed more people, programs and dollars throughout my career than all the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor combined. The governor’s office isn’t about casting votes, introducing legislation or even forming personal relationships with members of South Carolina’s General Assembly. It’s an executive position that requires its occupant to run the state of South Carolina.

Too many times, we have elected people to South Carolina’s top office who have never run anything, and we see where that has gotten us. In addition, these leaders have been incapacitated, not by their inability to get along with the Legislature but by their inexperience and unwillingness to move throughout the state to build consensus among the people of South Carolina to propel our state forward.

I am not a career politician, and I’m not interested in being beholden to the Legislature. As governor, I would do exactly what I have done as state superintendent of education, and that is travel to South Carolina’s 46 counties to build consensus for change.

I have learned that you cannot change South Carolina from Columbia. The next governor must be an interactive governor who speaks directly to the people of South Carolina in order to put pressure on the Legislature to abandon the status quo and move our state in a new direction.

I will be that kind of governor. I am a former high school English teacher, football coach, university dean and college president, and I know how to connect the dots between education and the most pressing issue facing our state — jobs.

While our state has been adrift, mired in political turmoil as we have watched scandal after scandal unfold, the lives of real working families have become dramatically worse.

Wall Street may be looking up, but tell that to the nearly 100,000 S.C. workers who have lost their jobs this year. The number triples when you include those who entered the recession unemployed or have been forced into lower-paying jobs just to try to make ends meet.

For too long, we’ve allowed short-term thinking and special-interest politics to get in the way of economic progress. If we are going to succeed at creating stable, good-wage jobs in our state, we need to focus on the unique assets that make us strong and competitive.

It starts with our hard-working people and the natural resources and quality of life that can attract new employers and capital investment. Govs. Carroll Campbell and Dick Riley worked hard to attract new businesses to the state, bringing investments, jobs and training programs to develop a skilled labor force. Recently we’ve been in the news for public embarrassment, not ambassadorship. I will turn that around, restoring pride and dignity to our state, ensuring that business leaders across the country and around the world know that South Carolina is a sound investment with a beautiful environment, welcoming people, great quality of life and an educational system on the move.

My jobs plan makes the GED free to those who cannot afford it, so that we can quickly get as many of our citizens into the workforce as possible. It extends unemployment benefits to those getting retrained in high-demand fields. It builds up small business by reducing taxes and unnecessary red tape; and it insists that we hire South Carolinians — not illegal immigrants — and forces South Carolina’s employers to obey these laws.

As South Carolinians, it’s time for us to stop hiring the arsonists — the career politicians — to put out the fire. It’s time to say “no” to the special interests and “yes” to the families who are working hard and playing by the rules.

Let’s not have voters’ remorse yet again this year. South Carolina is ready to change, and I am ready to lead that change. I ask for your support in the June 8 Democratic primary.

BY JIM REX
Guest Columnist
Dr. Rex is the state superintendent of education.

Jim’s new TV ad is ready to release, and you can control when it happens.  Help us raise another $2010 online today by making a contribution, and as soon as we reach our goal, we will release Jim’s ad. It’s just that simple.

And when you give, your contribution will go directly to making sure that we have the resources to keep Jim on TV until the polls close on Tuesday, June 8th. Momentum is with us, and we need your continued support to get across the finish line. Please do all you can today to help us win!

Sincerely,

Zeke Stokes
Campaign Director

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Dear friend:

On Tuesday, June 8, we have the opportunity to vote for a leader we can trust. Jim Rex is running for Governor, and he deserves our support.

As a professional educator, I am excited about the possibility of electing a real educator to the Governor’s Office. For too long, the career politicians have told us that education was their top priority, but actions speak louder than words. The insiders at the State House have not put our kids, our teachers, and our schools first, and it’s time we had a leader who did.

Jim Rex is not a career politician. He’s a former high school English teacher, football coach, and college president.  As State Superintendent of Education, he has led our schools to the best improvement in the nation in on-time graduation, some of the fastest improving SAT scores in the country, and has made us a national leader in providing new and exciting options for our students and their families. Simply put, we need him as our next Governor.

Today, I am writing to ask you to do one or more of the following:

• Make a contribution to Jim’s campaign.  Anything you can do – whether it’s $5, $15, or even $50 – will help us win on Tuesday, June 8.
• Vote absentee. There are a multitude of legitimate reasons for voting early.  To find out more, click here.
• Talk to your friends and neighbors about the campaign and encourage them to vote on Tuesday, June 8.

Our children need Jim Rex.  And Jim Rex needs you.  Please do your part today to help secure a bright future for our schools, our families, and our state.

Sincerely,

Traci Young Cooper
Former State Teacher of the Year

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Yesterday, I was outraged to see this photo on the extremist website, FITS News, depicting my friend, State Senator Robert Ford, as a monkey. But unfortunately, I was not surprised. This photo represents just the latest in racist and closed-minded incidents coming out of the Republican Party.

I urge you to stand up and contribute today to stop the Republican Hate Machine.

Consider these facts:

• Last year, South Carolina GOP operative Rusty Depass compared our First Lady to a gorilla. Contribute today to rebuke Rusty Depasss’ racist slur against our First Lady.
• South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson disrespected our President on the House floor by calling him a liar. Contribute today to tell Joe Wilson that South Carolinans will not stand for a member of Congress who embarrasses our great state.
• And earlier this week, Kentucky Republicans nominated a candidate for the U.S. Senate that opposes the Civil Rights Act. Rand Paul takes particular aim at removing provisions that ended “whites only” lunch counters and prevents privately owned business from refusing to serve African-Americans citizens of our country. Contribute today to say “no” to taking this country back to the sad days of White only lunch counters!

Senator Ford has been a loyal public servant in South Carolina for decades, a civil rights leader who marched with the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and a worthy opponent in this race for Governor. I applaud Senator Ford for his service to our state, and I call on FITS News to apologize to him for this racist depiction of him on their website.

Please join me today in our fight against Republican extremism. The closed mind, racist views of the past have no place in today’s society.

We must stop them.

Jim Rex