Carolina Politics Online

Kyle Boyd is a Republican challenging incumbent State Representative Carl Gullick in the June Republican Primary for State House District 48. I had an opportunity to ask him a few questions. His answers were short, but to the point, which is all you can ask for. I don’t know if he has a campaign Web site up as of yet or I would link to it.

Q. Governor Sanford has recently requested an increase in the cigarette tax in order to lower the state income tax across the board for all taxpayers. Others in the General Assembly are advocating increasing the cigarette tax to instead expand state funded health care to poorer residents. Where do you fall on this issue?

A. I generally support use taxes over confiscatory taxation and would only support that kind of tax increase if we lower other taxes or spending. I would support Governor Sanford on this issue.

Q. The Municipal Association of South Carolina has been lobbying the legislature to loosen the state’s annexation laws so that municipalities can more easily expand their borders to encompass unincorporated property. Do you support or oppose MASC’s position?

A. Generally I don’t support revenue grabs.

Q. Do you support or oppose allowing legislative “earmarks” in the State Legislature’s annual budget?

A. Oppose

Q. Do you support or oppose school choice?

A. I support tax credits as a means of choice.

Paul Terrell III attended the Mini City Spring fling today that was held at the Green Road recreation center. This community is looking for help that it has not received from the current state government. There are a lot of potential voters and supporters for Republican candidates due to the frustration of being ignored by state democrats. I even sat next to Rodger Koopman. He said he wasn’t giving me a donation or voting for me since Dan Blue is a CLOSE friend of his. No loss here. I did ask him if I could keep my garbage disposal though, and he said yes.

Paul Terrell III

Terrell III for State House
Republican nominee for 33rd district-North Carolina State House
4549 Tollington Drive
Raleigh, NC 27604
919-523-0304 Cell

http://www.wakegop.org/paul-terrell.htm

Last week, Beltram came under fire for selling a variety of services - including automated calls, polling and walking lists - through his company, B Square Enterprises. He runs the company out of the county GOP office, where he pays half the rent.

Beltram said he had about 12 clients, including state Sen. Jim Ritchie; House candidates Steve Parker and Ken Roach; and Spartanburg County Council candidates Jane Hall and Terry Knighton, both of whom are challenging incumbent Rock Adams.

Beltram said he offered the services at a 10 percent markup and that his goal was to make sophisticated campaign tools available at an affordable price. He offered the services in a memo to each Republican candidate, but the memo did not mention that the money would go to B Square Enterprises.

State Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson on Thursday said it was inappropriate for Beltram to operate the business while serving as county chairman, and state Senate candidates Max Hyde and Shane Martin - who are challenging Ritchie - on Friday called on Beltram to resign. Beltram declined to step down, but on Saturday stepped out of providing the services.

The Herald-Journal

Beltram does not need to resign over this. It’s not that big of a deal. Yeah, he’s making money off of the services, but he could do that anyway even if he weren’t County GOP Chairman so I don’t think he’s violated any ethics here. No, he probably shouldn’t sell the services while he is the Chairman as it walks a slippery slope as to what constitutes a conflict of interest and he has agreed to stop doing so. Hyde is just trying to grab a little bit of attention for himself. It’s much ado about nothing at this point.

Republican Mick Mulvaney and Democrat Mandy Powers Norrell have traded barbs for months in their state Senate contest, quibbling over everything from why Mulvaney sends his children to private school in Charlotte to whether he’s a “real” South Carolinian.

New fundraising figures show both candidates will have plenty of money to keep it going. Mulvaney has $110,000 cash on hand, including $22,000 raised in the last quarter, according to reports filed with the S.C. Ethics Commission.

Norrell, 34, boasts a $40,000 war chest, with $31,000 coming in this quarter.

“That’s a fairly good bit of money,” said Winston Smith, chairman of the Lancaster County Republicans. “It surprises me a little bit that it’s that much, this early.”

The Herald

I’m fully behind Mick Mulvaney.  He has been a sturdy defender of responsible use of our tax dollars and not frivolous pork barrel spending.  I think he will succeed in winning this Senate seat.  We need more legislators like him in Columbia to bring some small government, fiscal sanity to South Carolina.

The Senate decided Thursday to put off consideration of the proposed cigarette tax increase until May 6. Because that is a House bill, senators can work on it after the deadline and hand their version back to the House in time for possible passage this year.

The Senate version raises the 7-cents-a-pack tax to 57 cents and allocates the new money to health insurance programs for low-income residents.

The Sun News

I have talked about this asinine Socialist bill enough times so I am not going to get into it again. I’m just going to say that if it passes I will be furious and if either my State Senator or State Representative vote for it they lose my vote in November. That would be Senator Wes Hayes and State Rep Gary Simril (yes, it was Gullick, but I just moved this week to the other side of town). I am sick and tired of listening to the Republican Party spoon feed lies to people about how they are all about small government. We can only hope for a Sanford veto.

The Senate has a pages-long agenda of bills that have not been dealt with that members say they will work on this week and the next.

Among them is another attempt at banning kids under 6 from using all-terrain vehicles and requiring those between 6 and 16 to take a safety course.

The bill is aimed at lowering the number of youngsters who are being killed on the vehicles.

This is yet another intrusion by the state in an attempt to parent other people’s children. I don’t even know how a six year old could use an ATV in the first place, but if parents want to allow their kids to use these things then so goes it. It’s not some pompous, “we know better than you” state legislator’s job to make this decision for them. Taking a safety course isn’t going to do squat other than cost people money.

SUMMERVILLE — State Sen. Randolph Scott, R-Summerville, was arrested late Saturday on charges of driving under the influence after a Dorchester County Sheriff’s sergeant said he saw him driving erratically.

The sergeant made the contact with Scott at a residence on Froman Drive in Summerville.

The Post and Courier

What is the deal with the alcoholic legislators all of a sudden?  Just two weeks ago a Republican State Rep in North Carolina got busted with a DWI.  I wonder if Scott voted in the affirmative for Sanford’s stricter DUI laws.

In the last 20 days, this occasionally inflammatory program — featuring Bob Dumas — has only added to its notoriety.

Over the years, Dumas and his morning crew have encouraged listeners to call in and relate stories about how they terrorized bicyclists, made racially charged statements about American Idol winner Fantasia, and generated more recent headlines for offending American Indians and Hispanics.

Those types of antics raise questions: Just how far will a radio station’s morning show go to gain listeners, and is there pressure at some stations to push the limits to boost the audience and advertising revenue?

“We don’t necessarily talk about creating controversy,” said Mac Edwards, who manages the five Beasley Broadcast Group stations in the local market. “We talk about awareness of what the community accepts and tolerates.”

“Pressure? No. There’s not pressure,” said Dick Harlow, the general manager at WDCG in Raleigh. “We’re constantly trying to entertain as many people as we can entertain.

“Let me just say one thing about Dumas. In one break, Dumas can make you so angry about something you find you’re talking to yourself. And the next break, he can talk to you about life in a way that brings you to tears. He’s just as strong both ways. He’s one of the finest storytellers in radio today.”

But on occasion, Dumas seems to stray from the script — taking his white, blue-collar schtick beyond what is traditionally accepted on traditional American radio.

Lumbees and other American Indians expressed outrage and disgust over racially charged comments that Dumas and his cohorts made on their April 1 show. He called American Indians “lazy,” and Lumbees were said to be inbred. The station suspended Dumas and other “Showgram” personnel for three days.

A day after the Lumbee remarks, the “Showgram” crew insulted Hispanics when Dumas said it made him mad to see a “giant Mexican flag” outside the Mexican consulate in Raleigh. During that program, a staff member wore a shirt with “INS” taped to it at the consulate to ask Mexicans why were they there.

Harlow defended the latest Dumas-orchested escapade by saying his popular morning crew pushes the envelope.

The Fayetteville Observer

The real problem here isn’t Bob Dumas, it’s an overly politically correct society that winces at every little tiny thing that comes out of peoples’ mouths. You can agree or disagree with this kind of radio, but it’s successful because there is clearly a market for it. If Dumas’s show was unpopular and offending a majority of listeners the advertisers would pull their ads of the station and Dumas would be unemployed. That hasn’t happened.

More people in this country need to read the Constitution. I have read it so I know inexplicably that there is no guarantee that we have the right to not be offended. People need to learn to turn the dial if they don’t like what they hear, not infringe on other peoples’ rights to free speech and expression through censorship.

Tom Moore is one of Mecklenburg’s toughest District Court judges — but he’ll have to win two elections to keep his job.

Charlotte lawyers Gary Henderson and Roderick Wright are challenging Moore in the May 6 nonpartisan primary. The top two vote-getters will vie for the judgeship in November’s general election.

Moore, a judge since 2003, is a former school teacher and police officer. In the early 1970s, he served as Mecklenburg’s elected district attorney for four years.

“I’m a good judge,” Moore said. “I’m in court on time. And I don’t leave until the docket is finished.”

In 2004, the Observer reported that Moore had the highest conviction rate among Mecklenburg’s District Court judges in drunken driving trials. Moore had been convicting 86 percent of the DWI suspects who were tried in his courtroom.

Moore also had the third-highest conviction rate among a dozen Mecklenburg judges in cases that went to trial from 2002 to 2006. He found 62.7 percent guilty during that time.

“I’m tough but fair,” said Moore, 66.

Charlotte Observer

Moore is indicative of exactly the kind of judge we need more of in Mecklenburg County. Overall the Mecklenburg judiciary and county prosecutors are an exceedingly weak group. We hear in the news time and time again of criminals committing murders or other violent crimes who have been on probation even after being arrested literally a dozen or more times. This is the direct cause of the overly high amount of crime being experienced in the Charlotte Metro area.

Gary Henderson, 37, has been practicing law since 1999. For the past seven years he has been working for the state’s division of social services, fighting in court to collect unpaid child support.

“I am running for District Court judge because I believe that we need a change in the judiciary that is more reflective of the changes and diversity of our community and more respectful to the concerns of litigants and attorneys,” Henderson said.

“My passion is working for families and children to ensure their financial stability and support. We need more judges who are passionate about their work, and in particular we need more judges who come from a family law perspective.”

Henderson said his legal practice has prepared him to deal with the heavy dockets that District Court judges face.

“I have had experience handling heavy caseloads in child support court on a daily basis, yet maintaining a respectful demeanor to all and providing competent service,” he said.

Henderson said he wants to bring new ideas in sentencing, using alternatives to jail to reduce recidivism. “I believe that our court system needs a jobs/employment program or to partner with existing programs to give more options to judges to help lessen the instances of repeat offenders,” he said.

This kind of stupidity that Henderson is displaying is exactly why Charlotte has the problems I just described. We don’t need a judiciary “reflective of the changes and diversity of our community.” What we need are judges and prosecutors that are going to punish law breaking criminals appropriately whether they’re black, white, Chinese or whatever. We don’t need to understand why they committed the crime and try to rehabilitate them. Jail isn’t for rehabilitation. It’s for punishment and keeping dangerous people off the street. Henderson would apparently allow these people to just roam free contributing even more to the rising crime rates in the area.

Tom Moore has done the job well and deserves another term on the bench. Replacing him would negatively impact the residents of Mecklenburg County.