南卡羅萊納州長Nikki Haley宣布茶黨運動成員、財政保守主義者、非洲裔眾議員Tim
Scott (SC-1)被指定為Jim DeMint辭職後的聯邦參議員繼任者。這是南方各州在1881
年後的第一位非洲裔聯邦參議員、美國有史以來第七位非洲裔聯邦參議員。同時會是
1970年代之後的第一位共和黨籍的非洲裔參議員、亦是當前國會唯一的一位。
Tim Scott留下的眾議員席位將舉行特別選舉，他的任期任期將到2015年一月，屆時
將與同州參議員Linsey Graham同時面對連任選舉。
追記：夏威夷州聯邦參議員Daniel Inouye過世，享年88歲
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/12/17/nikki-haley-to-
appoint-rep-tim-scott-to-senate/
Nikki Haley appoints Rep. Tim Scott to Senate
Posted by Aaron Blake and Chris Cillizza on December 17, 2012 at 10:51 am
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) announced Monday that she will appoint
Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to the Senate.
Scott will replace Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who is leaving the chamber in
January to head up the conservative Heritage Foundation.
“It is with great pleasure that I am announcing our next U.S. senator to be
Congressman Tim Scott,” Haley said. “I am strongly convinced that the
entire state understands that this is the right U.S. senator for our state
and our country.”
Sen.-designate Scott, 47, will become the only African-American currently
serving in the Senate and the first black Republican to serve in the upper
chamber since the 1970s. He will also be the first black senator from the
South since Reconstruction.
Scott, in his remarks after Haley, emphasized fiscal conservatism and praised
DeMint and the people who made him the person he is today — most importantly
his mother.
“I am thankful for a strong mom that understood that love sometimes comes at
the end of a switch,” Scott said.
His selection is little surprise, as his name quickly rose to the top of most
people’s lists mere hours after DeMint announced he was going to resign.
There are plenty of ambitious Republican politicians in South Carolina, but
Scott made sense for the appointment for a whole host of reasons, including
his close relationships with Haley and DeMint and his ties to both the
conservative base and the party establishment.
Scott’s new Senate seat will be up for a special election in 2014, when the
final two years of DeMint’s term will be at stake, and in 2016, when a full
six-year Senate term will be up. It remains quite possible that he could face
primary opposition.
Haley and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will also be up for reelection in
2014, making it a huge year in the state’s politics. Scott’s House seat,
meanwhile, will be up for grabs in a special election to be held in mid-2013.
“This is a day that’s been long in the making in South Carolina,” Graham
said. “And I’m glad to see it come.”
DeMint added: “I can walk away from the Senate with confidence knowing that
someone is replacing me who is better than I am. I can tell you, Tim, you’ve
inspired me from the moment I saw you speak in public.”
Scott was first elected to the House in 2010, winning an open seat after
defeating the son of longtime Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), the former
segregationist who held the state’s other Senate seat for nearly 50 years
until 2003.
He will become just the seventh African-American to serve in the Senate and
the first black senator from the South since the 1880s.
Only three black senators have been voted into office by their constituents:
Sen. Edward Brooke (R-Mass.), Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.) and
now-President Barack Obama (D-Ill.). The others were elected by their state
legislatures (before direct election of U.S. senators began) or appointed.
Haley, the state’s first Indian-American governor and first female governor,
said she picked Scott because of his merits and not his racial identity.
“It is important to me, as a minority female, that Congressman Scott earned
this seat,” Haley said. “He earned this seat for the person that he is. He
earned this seat with the results he has shown.”
Four other Republican were on Haley’s short list as of last week: Rep. Trey
Gowdy, former state attorney general Henry McMaster, former state first lady
Jenny Sanford and Haley appointee Catherine Templeton. Sanford notably is the
ex-wife of former governor Mark Sanford (R), whose fast-rising political
career was thwarted when he admitted to an affair with a woman in Argentina.
Scott said he expects to assume his new office on Jan. 3.
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※ 編輯: ncyc 來自: 114.32.131.92 (12/18 09:32)
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