Ceips comes out swinging at candidate forum

Sen. Catherine Ceips came out swinging at a candidate forum Thursday,criticizing her opponent for a "negative, nasty mudslinging campaign" then quoted a black state Supreme Court justice's likening political nonprofits to "the new face of the Klan."

As in the Ku Klux Klan.

What the state Supreme Court and white supremacists have to do with Tom Davis, her Republican primary opponent for the state Senate District 46 seat, was not clear to the booing crowd that gathered at the Technical College of the Lowcountry in Beaufort for the forum.

All within her first two minutes of speaking.

The ugly tone continued as Ceips responded to a question about quality of life with an allegation that Davis had a connection to some sort of lewd Web site, founded by a felon and criminal domestic abuser.

Davis asked, "And I'm the one running the negative campaign tonight?"

They hit on familiar talking points on education and tax policy but they were lost in the back-and-forth between the candidates.

"I'm glad you joined the Republican Party," Ceips said at one point, a dig at Davis' turn from the Democratic Party.

In defense of his affiliation with the lewd Web site and in a Ceips rebuttal to a question about the Jasper port deal, Davis tagged Ceips as uninformed.

His affiliation to the company running the Web site in question was as a registered agent, a duty as an attorney that simply means he is a point person for the company.

Davis, when given the chance, stuck to a policy-oriented script in the 30-minute forum.