Candidate’s Poetry Target of Criticism

BY ROBERT BEHRE
The Post and Courier

In the race for James Island’s House seat

And asks voters to respond with their feet.

Eugene Platt, the Democratic challenger for the House District 115 seat, said this week’s mass mailing that features excerpts from three of his racier poems apparently has backfired.

The campaign mailer says Platt “promotes deviant sexual behavior in erotic poetry collection,” lists Platt’s telephone number and urges people to “tell him his values aren’t our values.”

But Platt said Thursday he has yet to receive the first negative call.

Platt also said he senses the hand of his opponent, incumbent Republican Rep. Wallace Scarborough, adding, “If Mr. Scarborough feels that this kind of mailing will benefit his campaign, he is so far out of touch with the values of our community that he does not deserve to represent it in the Legislature.”

But Scarborough said he knows nothing about it. “That’s the risk you run when you run for public office. People want to tear you down. I think that’s unfortunately the way politics is some time.”

The mailer was paid for by South Carolinians for Responsible Government, a Columbia-based conservative group that normally focuses not on poetry but on

lower taxes, property rights and school choice. Spokesman Denver Merrill said the group doesn’t endorse candidates but tries to educate voters.

“When you read it (Platt’s poetry), it’s pretty disturbing, to be honest with you,” Merrill said. “That was our logic behind putting out that piece of mail.”

The mailing includes excerpts from three of Platt’s poems, including this passage from “Blue Robe”: “lying awake, i await your entry. my position is that of rest, but my attitude is anticipation. you delay erotically with womanly preparation.”

Platt said it’s absurd to think there’s anything wrong with that. “I’m not promoting deviant sexual behavior any more than William Shakespeare or the Bible, with the Song of Solomon. In time immemorial, since human beings began making scratches on the walls of the caves, humans have celebrated intimacy with human beings.”

Mark Gainer of James Island agreed. He was one of about 20 callers who called Platt not to complain about the poem but about the mailing.

“I thought it was despicable slandering of a candidate and has nothing to do with any of the issues. I feel that Mr. Platt can write any kind of poetry he wants and it should have no bearing on his candidacy,” Gainer said.

Platt’s verse has lurked in the background of his political life since he ran for Congress in 1990 and his opponent, Republican incumbent Arthur Ravenel, joked: “His poems don’t rhyme!”

Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771 or at rbehre@postandcourier.com.