Ketner might take on DeMint

By Gina Smith - McClatchy Newspapers

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Former campaign workers are collecting signatures to get Charleston philanthropist Linda Ketner on the Senate ballot as a write-in candidate to race against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of Greenville.

While Ketner, a grocery store heiress, has not agreed to run, "if the people of this state want her to run, she will have a hard time saying no," said Doug Warner, a petition-drive organizer and Ketner's 2008 finance director during her run against U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, R-Hanahan. Ketner, who ran as a Democrat, narrowly lost to the four-term incumbent.

This time, however, Ketner would run as an independent against DeMint and controversial Democratic Party nominee Alvin Greene, who is grappling with questions about whether his candidacy is viable. Greene faces a felony obscenity charge.

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"Neither one of them is capable of serving the people of South Carolina," Warner said. "This is about offering a real choice."

If elected, Ketner would become the first openly gay South Carolinian to hold federal office.

Warner said more than 200 volunteers are working statewide to collect the required 10,000 signatures by the July 15 deadline.

"I will be surprised if we don't get that number well ahead of time," he said.

On her website, lindaketner.com, Ketner writes, "I'm not commenting to the press, rather waiting to see if there's a strong response that this is the place that I can be of service for a better South Carolina."

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