Carolina Politics Online

Dority has called for “demagnetizing” North Carolina as a destination for illegal immigrants by cutting social services. Illegal immigration, he said, “should be referred to as an invasion of criminal elements bent on destabilizing our lawful society.”

Ed Wharton, former Republican chair of the 1st Congressional District, helped Dority run for Congress. “He just comes across to me as a down-to-earth person who doesn’t talk over your head,” Wharton said.

Campaign reports show Dority has $288 in his campaign account, compared with $1 million in the account of rival Robert Pittenger of Charlotte.

Charlotte Observer

Both of these issues should be the numbers one and two priorities next year in Raleigh.  It’s great that Dority is on the right side of these issues, however, with only $288 in his campaign account, he has absolutely no chance of winning this race.  Nobody will know who he is when they see him on the ballot.

The cigarette tax increase proposal has been bouncing all over the board this week. First a committee approved it, then it got stalled, now it is moving forward again to have the increase in taxes go to Medicaid.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman voted for both versions of the bill.

“I want to see the cigarette tax go on so we can cut down on smoking particularly among the teenage youngsters out there,” said the Florence Republican, who added he wants the extra tax money used for some type of health care program.

Hugh Leatherman thinks it’s his job to legislate your lifestyle. Instead of people making a conscious decision on their own to decide whether or not to smoke he thinks he’ll help make that decision for them. He uses the old “it’s all about the children” mantra to justify his authoritarianism and expansion of the Socialist nanny state. The man is another shining example of what is becoming big government neo-conservatism in the Republican Party.

Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia, said he will be back on the Senate floor with a proposal to use the money collected by raising the cigarette tax as a break for all taxpayers.

Senator Courson, on the other hand, has it exactly right. Use this money to lower taxes across the board for all South Carolinians or don’t do anything at all.

Senator Hugh K. Leatherman, Sr.
District 31 - Darlington & Florence Cos.
Contact Address:

E-Mail Address: SFI@scsenate.org