Sottile, Bustos gear up for Round Two
In 2008, now-Rep. Mike Sottile ran for the open seat in HD-112, a nice place to live in the Lowcountry. Mt. Pleasant Town Councilman Joe Bustos was the chosen candidate in the Republican primary by the “pro-hit list” forces in South Carolina. Like many of their other candidates selected by that group, Bustos wasn’t very successful, losing 56-44. Sottile went on to win unopposed in the general election.
Evidently, losing by eight and now battling incumbency is not stopping Bustos for making another go. In case you missed it, in the meantime he also lost a race for mayor of Mt. Pleasant. We guess some people like making running for office — and losing — a hobby on par with building model airplanes and sports rec leagues.
Bustos promised to end politics as usual, adding, “Growth of government is out of control, and we must elect new leaders to rein it in.”
Bustos also said his 2009 mayoral campaign will help his chances this time. “I think the door-to-door campaign (last year) worked very well and we were really coming up in the polls, so I think we have a certain amount of momentum in this campaign.”
[sarcasm] Yes, political scientists are universally agreed that losing consecutive races for office makes the voters more amenable to your new campaign. [/sarcasm] If the people who backed Bustos in ’08 are smart (S.C. Club for Growth, Howard Rich, the Sanford mafia), they’ll spend their money on a race in which their candidate may actually have a chance.
