The Check that Made Alvin Greene Famous

Here is the $10,440 check that Alvin Greene wrote out on March 16 to enter the South Carolina Primary for U.S. Senate, which he won on June 8. There has been a lot of speculation and controversy about where he got the $10,440, with the suggestion it was some mischevious Republican political operative, or not the act of a sane man in Alvin's circumstances.

I hold to the theory that Alvin was playing the pot odds. The U.S. Senate seat pays $174,000 for a total of $1,044,000 over the six year term of office. The filing fee is just 1% of the potential paycheck. With even just a 1 in 100 chance of winning, that's a good bet.

Note: A lot has been made about "Alvin M. Green for Senate" being handwritten at the top of the check. The story from the Demoratic state party chairwoman explains that. Avin Greene tried first to pay with a personal check, which she refused to accept because it was not a campaign account. He left her office, opened a new bank account, transferred funds into it, and came back the same day to pay with a new check. That check was necessarily a blank starter check because the account had just been opened.