South Carolina's congressional election: Same again, please WHEN Jim DeMint resigned from his senate seat to head the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, Nikki Haley, South Carolina's governor, appointed Tim Scott to take his place. That left Mr Scott's congressional seat vacant. Political hopefuls in the state's first district reacted much like a pack of hyenas would to a porterhouse steak: 18 candidates - 16 Republicans and two Democrats - applied. The field is full of celebrity connections: among the candidates are Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, the older sister of Stephen Colbert, a satirist and TV-show host; Teddy Turner, the son of Ted Turner, a media mogul; and Mark Sanford, a former governor of South Carolina and three-term congressman from the first district best known for a personal scandal that made "hiking the Appalachian trail" an American euphemism for committing adultery (in 2009, when then-Governor Sanford's whereabouts were unknown, a spokesman told reporters that's what he was doing when in fact he was visiting his mistress in Argentina). Mr Sanford's ex-wife Jenny was also rumoured to be interested in the seat, but in a crushing disappointment to political journalists, she declined. But it also serves as an early field test of Republican efforts at rebranding. After Mitt Romney's loss to Barack Obama in last autumn's presidential election, prominent Republicans have taken to telling their party that (and the suggestions have been heavy on "that" and light on precisely "how") it must change. Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's governor and a presumptive candidate for president in 2016, said Republicans needed to "stop being the stupid party" and start "talk[ing] like adults." Paul Ryan, the Republican nominee for vice-president and also a presumptive candidate in the next presidential election, urged Republicans to stop dividing Americans "into "our voters" and "their voters."" This week Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida and another possible presidential candidate (and a notable exception to "that" not "how"), released a book urging Republicans to moderate their stance on immigration. At last Monday evening's monthly meeting of South Carolina's Greater Bluffton Republican Club, four of the candidates showed up. One seemed to have heeded the rebranding message. Jonathan Hoffman, a law professor and military prosecutor who worked in George W. Bush's White House, said that Republicans need to "stop vilifying the opponents" and "stop telling people how to live," and instead focus on providing opportunities for everyone to live as they choose. He, however, was the exception. Mr Turner complained about having "liberal, outspoken enemies of the constitution" on the Supreme Court, and in answer to a question about compromising with Democrats, said he wanted to "reach across the aisle, head-butt them and say "Let's go."" Andy Patrick, a state representative, won perhaps the loudest applause of the night when he advocated eliminating the Department of Education. And Ray Nash, a former sheriff, told the crowd that "every time Congress passes a new law one of your freedoms is taken away." The only sign of Mr Sanford was a pile of flyers: his fame (or infamy) means he need not work so hard to introduce himself to the district's voters. The primary takes place on March 19th; most expect Mr Sanford to get the most votes, though if he fails to take a majority he will find himself in a run-off. In that case, anti-Sanford votes could coalesce around a candidate farther to the right. The district remains solidly but not overwhelmingly conservative; whoever wins the Republican primary remains likely to win the general election. But the last thing Congress and the Republican brand need now is yet another congressman who hears compromise and thinks head-butt.