Is Ted Pitts serious about being Lt. Governor

Lexington County State Representative Ted Pitts entered a crowded field for the GOP nomination for Lt. Governor last May. When he entered, there were rumors that Pitts might have the resume and the money to capture the nomination.

However, five months into his campaign and some Republican activists are now asking "Is Ted Pitts serious about being Lt. Governor?" Those activists point to the absence of Pitts at events, such as the recent Lowcountry Republican Breakfast and the fact Pitts's website still has "coming soon" blaring across the top of it when it is searched.

Perhaps Pitts is taking the course that his money and his resume will be enough to win the nomination without having to get out and mingle with the "little people." With the Governor's race stealing the major media attention, such a course has proven to not be wise.

In 1994, Howell Clyburn took that course, only to finish third to Henry Jordan and eventual Lt. Governor Bob Peeler. In 2002, State Senator David Thomas took that course to lose to eventual Lt. Governor Andre Bauer. Indeed, in Bauer's dramatic primary runoff win over Mike Campbell in 2006, it was Andre Bauer's years of working the grassroots and mingling with the "little people" that made the difference.

If Ted Pitts is merely testing the waters for Lt. Governor and is going to run for re-election to his House seat instead, then his course is fine. However, if Pitts is serious about being the next Lt. Governor of South Carolina, he needs to stop heeding the advice of those who tell him to sit back and let the media buys win the race. Such might work in US Senate or Governor's races. But, in down ballot races, with so much political air being sucked out of the room by the bigger races, people tend to vote for a candidate that they met and talked to or a candidate that their neighbors talk up.

Historically, down ballot constitutional office races in South Carolina tend to go to the candidate who works the hardest, and tend to be races in which favorites on paper who do not work hard to organize find themselves defeated on primary day.

UPDATE: PITTS IS LEAVING THE LT. GOVERNOR'S RACE AND NOT RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION TO HIS SEAT IN THE SC HOUSE. INSTEAD, PITTS IS GOING TO DEPLOY WITH THE SC NATIONAL GUARD TO AFGHANISTAN. GOOD LUCK AND GOD SPEED, MR. PITTS.