BY ANNA SIMON • CLEMSON BUREAU • GREENVILLE NEWS JUNE 4, 2010

CLEMSON – With four days left to campaign before voters go to the polls on June 8, candidates in the 3rd Congressional District aired differences and tossed a few verbal grenades as they played to an overflow crowd at Clemson University’s Strom Thurmond Institute.

Accusations flew and differences were aired as eight candidates – five Republicans, two Democrats and one Constitution Party candidate – took turns responding to questions from the audience on topics from taxation to health care and their thoughts on working across the aisle if elected.

Democrat Brian Ryan B. Doyle, of Aiken, a syndicated radio talk show host, blasted his primary opponent, Democrat Jane Ballard Dyer, a FedEx pilot from Easley, for not facing him in debates earlier in the campaign, saying he took time off from work but she wasn’t willing to do that.

While Dyer didn’t address Doyle’s attacks, Republicans Richard Cash, Jeff Duncan and Rex Rice lobbed shots back when Doyle accused them of changing their message from earlier forums, denying the charges and at times defending one another.

Other attacks were made within GOP ranks as the candidates tried to separate themselves from one another, particularly between political newcomers and Duncan and Rice, both state representatives who have accepted political action committee money, on the issue of special interests.

“Special interest money creates career politicians,” said Cash, who favors term limits.

Rice said he doesn’t take money from some groups, has sent back money meant to influence his vote, and has voted opposite from the views of some who have supported him in campaigns.

Joe Grimaud, a Republican on the ballot who didn’t attend the Thursday forum sponsored by the Clemson Area League of Women Voters, wasn’t exempt from attack that he was using personal wealth to buy the election and doesn’t live in the district.

Grimaud will be in the spotlight today when Republican leaders from the 3rd District hold a press conference to discuss his rented Greenwood apartment – a topic on which he defended himself at a recent forum in Liberty.

Grimaud, who has lived for 30 years in Chapin, in the 2nd Congressional District where he challenged U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson and lost in 2001, said at the Liberty forum that he recently took a second residence in Greenwood.

South Carolina doesn’t require candidates to live in the district they represent, however GOP county chairmen and executive committee members in the district issued a statement Thursday saying that his candidacy, if successful, “could threaten the GOP’s hold on the district as voters become aware that he actually lives in suburban Columbia.”

On the issue of a fair tax to replace income tax with tax on the sale of consumer goods, Doyle said he could possibly support a fair tax, and Dyer called for a stable tax base not based on a sales tax.

Among the Republicans, Cash said he supports a fair tax because it would reduce the power of the IRS and called a progressive income tax “a stepping stone of socialism.”

Neal Collins said Congress would have to repeal the 16th Amendment and reduce the income tax code to make a fair tax workable and add protection so special interests can’t seek exemptions.

Duncan supported a fair tax, elimination of all other taxes to prevent double taxation and called for a balanced budget amendment.

Mike Vasovski said he supports a fair tax as a first step toward no income tax and repealing 16th Amendment.

Rice also supported a fair tax and said he sponsored a bill in the state House to impose a fair tax and eliminate corporate and personal income taxes to help bring industry to the state and reduce the burden on businesses.

Constitution Party candidate John Dalen supports elimination of all taxes, saying they aren’t needed if government stays within its constitutional bounds.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20100604/NEWS/306040015/3rd-Congressional-District-candidates-on-offensive-as-primary-nears