In late September, Charlie Baker, the Republican who is the party's gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts, told female reporter Sharman Sacchetti, who had already asked him a series of questions: "OK, this is going to be the last one, sweetheart."
That was enough to send the press into a tizzy. Jack Coleman at NewsBusters noted how Rachel Maddow at MSNBC turned Baker's statement into proof that the GOP is engaged in a "war on women," even though Baker quickly apologized directly to the reporter and indicated that, as paraphrased by the Associated Press, "the comment was a mistake and doesn't represent his work attitudes." This would be the same Associated Press which has, based on searches, not had a single national or local story on South Carolina Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen calling incumbent Republicn Nikki Haley a "whore" — even though Sheheen waited four days to (insincerely, in my view) apologize.
Though it might be justified based on the significant lead Haley has in the polls, it isn't like the AP has been totally ignoring the South Carolina governor's race.
On Wednesday, the day before Sheheen's offensive remark, the wire service's Jeffrey Collins filed a 13-paragraph story bemoaning how Sheheen, who lost to Haley in 2010, is "finding (his) second go at S.C. governor tougher":
... Sheheen is struggling to get traction from voters who already know him. While Haley has weathered several small scandals, there is no big issue to hang on her as she runs for a second term.
Sheheen also faces independent candidate in Tom Ervin. Their campaign war chests are similar – each has about $3.5 million – although Ervin is using his own money, while Sheheen had to raise his. Both offer a lighter brand of conservative than the governor, and both want South Carolina to take money for Medicaid expansion, want to increase teacher pay and think Haley is a poor manager who only reacts when there is a crisis.
... A survey of likely voters by Winthrop University at the end of September had Haley at 44 percent with Sheheen about 10 percentage points behind. Recent polls have looked worse.
And Haley has managed to get through her first term avoiding any big problems that stick in the minds of voters.
I've got news for you, Mr. Collins. If you are advocating Medicaid expansion, you're not conservative — "light" or otherwise — even though certain Medicaid-expanding Republicans like John Kasich are still pretending that they are.
On Thursday, apparently shortly before Sheheen's "whore" speech, Collins filed a brief story carried nationally covering former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's campaigning on behalf of Haley.
On Friday, the day after Sheheen's shenanigans, the AP's Meg Kinnard filed a 13-paragraph story carried regionally on third-party challenger Tom Ervin. At least she was more forthright about where Haley's opponents are on the ideological spectrum:
Even with low polling numbers, Ervin still having effect on SC governor's race
... Ervin, a former judge and legislator, entered the gubernatorial race this year as Gov. Nikki Haley's primary challenger. But he withdrew from the Republican contest days after filing to run, saying he needed more time to introduce himself to voters.
In July, Ervin secured a spot on the November ballot after collecting twice the required 10,000 signatures. He has spent millions of his own money to stay relevant, crisscrossing the state for events and showcasing his ideas in television ads.
On some issues, though, Ervin has seemed at times aligned with Democratic state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, who has in at least one instance echoed Ervin's message. Earlier this month, Ervin held a Statehouse news conference saying Haley shouldn't have taken campaign contributions from companies she was recruiting to do business with South Carolina. Days later, Sheheen critiqued the governor for the same thing.
Ervin also has criticized Haley for refusing to accept federal money to expand Medicaid, another issue on which Sheheen has seized. Both Ervin and Sheheen also have said teacher pay should be increased.
Ervin was a Democrat when he served two House terms representing Anderson County, starting in 1979, when Democrats ruled the state. Other Democrats he served with in the Legislature now lead the Senate's GOP majority, and Ervin says he's changed parties but not his views.
That messaging aside, political experts say Ervin could potentially carve votes away from Haley if voters see him as the "independent Republican" he's claimed to be, tipping the scales in favor of Sheheen.
Closer observers of Palmetto State politics would have to confirm this, but it would appear that Ervin might be a stalking-horse candidate whose mission is to take enough votes away from Haley to let Sheheen slip into the governor's mansion with a plurality of the vote. That kind of cynical strategy depends heavily on your favored guy not screwing up. Calling your female opponent a "whore," and then enjoying it as the crowd whoops it up, qualifies as a definite screw-up.
So the AP and the national press took an interest in and made an issue out of a Republican gubernatorial candidate calling a reporter "sweetheart," but has been almost completely uninterested in covering how a Democrat has called his Republican opponent a "whore," even though in the AP's case stories on the race are appearing on a regular basis.
What a mind-boggling double standard.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
