Senator Faces G.O.P. Rebuke Back Home

Senator Faces G.O.P. Rebuke Back Home
Copyright By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: November 11, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/us/politics/12graham.html?th&emc=th


WASHINGTON — Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, has been censured by local Republican officials in his home state.

The executive committee of the Charleston County Republican Party, in a voice vote on Monday, rebuked Mr. Graham “for many of the positions he has taken that do not represent the wishes of the people of South Carolina, such as: passing a ‘cap and trade’ energy bill, bailing out banks and granting amnesty for illegal aliens,” according to the censure resolution.

Lin Bennett, the chairwoman of the local party, said in an interview with The Post and Courier of Charleston, “The feeling is if you’re not going to uphold the platform, then why bother to run as a Republican?”

Ms. Bennett said about 50 members of the executive committee had voted on the censure, according to The Post and Courier.

In a statement, Mr. Graham’s office pointed out that he was ranked the 15th-most conservative senator in 2008 by The National Journal.

Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for Mr. Graham, said: “Working to solve problems and being conservative are not mutually exclusive. You can do both, and that’s what people in South Carolina elected him to do.”

Mr. Graham, who easily won election to a second term in 2008, recently announced he was joining with Senators John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, to try to create a framework for compromise climate change legislation. (Mr. Graham also teamed with Mr. Kerry to write a recent Op-Ed page article for The New York Times on climate change.)

In recent years, Mr. Graham was part of a team of senators that tried, unsuccessfully, to create a bipartisan overhaul of the immigration system. He was also a member of the so-called Gang of 14 that broke an impasse on judicial nominations, and he voted to confirm Justice Sonia Sotomayor in August.

In last year’s Republican primary, Mr. Graham captured 69 percent of the vote in Charleston County.