By Paul Gable
We are in the middle of the ‘silly season’ of campaigning and no campaign has been sillier than Russell Fry’s.
His campaign ads and constant pleas for donations have to be the most pathetic I have experienced in many years of covering politics.
I have said before that his campaign is filled with terminological inexactitudes about his history and voting record. That’s the nice way of saying he’s lying.
Of course, political ethics require the only thing to be true in any political ad, mailer or other solicitation is who paid for it.
From his opening cartoon character ad through his tale of growing up in a house with no heat to his most recent tale of having nothing for dinner but a can of peas to share with his father, he called it “splitting pees” when he posted it, the Fry ad campaign has been bad, bad, BAD!
I have had a number of people ask what is the purpose of Fry’s ads. The answer remains unclear. One speculated Fry was trying to gain some kind of rapport with voters of humble origin.
Maybe Fry believes this story of growing up in a home with no heat and having nothing but half a can of peas for dinner gives him a Lincolnesque stature.
Students of American history are certainly aware that Abraham Lincoln grew up poor. But even Lincoln, whose childhood was nearly 200 years before Fry’s, had heat in his humble cabin. We know that because of the stories of Lincoln studying by the light of fire in the fireplace.
Sources I have spoken to who know of Fry and his family background tell me his family certainly wasn’t rich but it wasn’t destitute either. And if the family cupboard was as bare as Mother Hubbard’s, as Fry claims in his current ad, where did he get the money needed for his rise to Eagle Scout, of which he is so proud?
And if Fry really did go to bed cold and hungry at night (in the 1980’s and 90’s in Horry County), what does that say about his family, friends, neighbors, teachers and church family?
It seems Fry and his campaign advisors thought the endorsement by Trump was going to be the magic wand to defeat Tom Rice and send Fry to Washington.
If so, they are sorely mistaken because his campaign has received no boost to date from the endorsement. Everything about the campaign, including Fry himself, has been lackluster at best. And he continues to dodge in person appearances at various gatherings of Republicans.
There is a reason why Fry received only 12% of the votes in the recent Horry County GOP straw poll. He isn’t well liked by those who know him.
Fry cannot beat Tom Rice in the upcoming June 14th primary. Maybe Trump will realize that fact in the next three weeks and pull his endorsement of Fry just as he did from David Perdue for Governor of Georgia.
For those of you who still may vote for Fry, please send him more money. The rest of us need his ads to keep coming to remind us of why we’re not voting for Fry.
Speak Up…