Carolina Politics Online

Fo shizzle…

State Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, who lost his gubernatorial bid Tuesday, said race could have played a role. The Democratic primary electorate is majority black, as is Greene, but not Rawl. “Vic Rawl had money, but he didn’t have enough. He wasn’t able to identify himself with black voters,” Ford said. “No white folks have an ‘e’ on the end of Green. The blacks after they left the plantation couldn’t spell, and they threw an ‘e’ on the end.”

The Post and Courier

I like Robert Ford.  He was my second choice for governor.  But sometimes, he just really shouldn’t talk.

There were no real surprises in the big races last night.  The elections pretty much came down the way the recent polling said it would.

In the Republican gubernatorial primary State Representative Nikki Haley came up just short of the 50% needed to avoid a run off election.  With 48.9% of the vote she will go on to face Congressman Gresham  Barrett who she beat by a more than two to one margin last night.  Hopefully that’s a sign of what’s to come in the run off.  On the Democratic side, State Senator Vincent Sheheen won a decisive victory over Jim Rex and State Senator Robert Ford with 59% of the vote.  He will face either Haley or Barrett in November.

In the First Congressional District State Representative Tim Scott prevailed in a nine person primary and will move to a run off election to face Paul Thurmond.  The winner of the run off will challenge Democrat Ben Frasier who defeated Robert Burton in their primary.

In the Third Congressional District, a Republican run off will be decided between Richard Cash and State Representative Jim Duncan.  The winner of that challenge will face Democrat Jane Dyer who won the Democratic primary and ran against Barrett in 2008.

In the Fourth Congressional District, Trey Gowdy defeated Congressman Bob Inglis, however not enough to decisively win the nomination.  They too will head to a run off and face Democrat Paul Corden in the general election.

In the Sixth Congressional District there was surprisingly a three way Republican primary in this heavily gerrymandered Democratic district.  Jim Pratt and Nancy Harrelson will compete in a run off election to determine who will lose to Congressman Jim Clyburn in November.

In other races, Curtis Loftis defeated incumbent State Treasurer Converse Chellis in the Republican primary.  Leighton Lord and Alan Wilson, son of Congressman Joe Wilson, will move to a run off to determine who the next Attorney General will be.  Neither the AG race nor the Treasurer race was contested by the Democrats.  Ken Ard and Bill Connor will battle it out in the run off to see who the Republicans’ Lt Governor candidate will be.  Mick Zais and Elizabeth Moffly will compete in a run off for the Republican State Superintendent nomination.  The winner will run against Democrat Frank Holleman.

There was a big upset in the State House last night as House Speaker Pro Tem Harry Cato of the 17th House District had the smackdown laid on him by challenger Tom Corbin.  Corbin received 59% of the vote so Cato is outta there!  Two other Republicans in the State House also lost in their primaries.  State Representatives Keith Kelly of the 35th District and Jim Stewart of the 86th were defeated by their challengers.  Additionally, several other State House incumbents were forced into a run off election:  Joey Millwood of the 38th District, Marion Frye of the 39th, Boyd Brown of the 41st, and Richard Chalk of the 123rd.

Finally, probably the sweetest moment of the evening was seeing York County Councilman and scoundrel extraordinaire Paul Lindemann sink faster than the Titanic.  In a four way primary he managed to get less than 12% of the vote.  Republicans David Bowman and Kyle Boyd will move to the run off and the winner will become the next County Councilman for the 1st District as no Democrat filed for the race.

We have a primary election here in South Carolina on Tuesday with some important choices to make.  We’ll be choosing party nominees for the next gubernatorial race and we’ll be getting at least two new Congressmen this year since Henry Brown (R-SC01) is retiring and Gresham Barrett (R-SC03) is making a failed run for governor.  We may be seeing a bigger turnover than that however.  Bob Inglis (R-SC04) isn’t exactly in the greatest reelection shape and some speculate that he could be forced into a run off by one of his primary challengers.  Add that to a strong challenge by State Senator Mick Mulvaney (R-Indian Land) to Congressman John Spratt (D-SC05) in November and we could potentially be replacing over half of our state’s Congressional delegation come January.

Now I obviously can’t vote in all of these races, but I’m happy to offer my thoughts on many of them and point out who I would vote for if I could.  I make these decisions based on who I think is the best candidate to protect our liberties and freedoms from the tyranny of the powers that be.  And so here we go.

York County Council District 1

I don’t typically weigh in on local races because I don’t have the time to analyze the hundreds of races going on in every county and municipality in the Carolinas, but I am going to weigh in one and that is because it is pretty close to my backyard.  If you live in York County, or more specifically Fort Mill or Tega Cay, then right now you are being represented on the York County Council by one corrupt SOB.  His name is Paul Lindemann.  That shouldn’t be a new name for you.  We talk about him all the time.  Despite the publicity of his malfeasance, he is running for reelection.  If you vote for Paul Lindemann you deserve to be flogged, tasered in your groin, and then buried in the sand up to your neck right near a mound of fire ants with honey drizzled over your head.  Is that descriptive enough?  This man is the living characiture of the stereotypical corrupt politician.  Now you may think that Paul is crazy for running again.  How could he possibly get reelected?  Well he’s got three challengers so his ability to survive in a four way race should not be underestimated.  There are plenty of lambs out there who will go to their slaughter on Tuesday to try and install this man for another two years.  Don’t let that happen.  Give your vote to someone with integrity, honesty, and decency.  That someone is Mr. Kyle Boyd.

I have met Kyle Boyd.  He is the headmaster at Walnut Grove Christian School and the father of three children.  He identifies himself as a fiscal conservative and pledges to be a leader on tax reform and government transparency.  We will not be reading stories in The Herald of Kyle Boyd getting DUIs or being a party to a domestic violence dispute, or bouncing $10,000 checks to Winthrop University, or not paying contractors for the work they do on his house.  We will not be reading those stories about Kyle Boyd the way we have read them about Paul Lindemann.  This is an opportunity to put an overall good guy into our county government so please don’t screw it up this time.  Vote for Kyle on Tuesday.  It’s really that easy.

South Carolina Congressional District 1

This is the seat currently held by Republican Congressman Henry Brown.  Thankfully, he is retiring this year so we will no longer have to worry about him stealing our tax dollars and redistributing it to his district.  This has become a huge contest.  There are nine Republicans, two Democrats, and four third party candidates running for this seat.  On the Republican side there are many good candidates to pick from and if I lived in that district I would have a difficult time making a decision.  However, kind of like Highlander, in the end there can be only one.  So that being the case, I would again, like in 2008, go with Katherine Jenerette.  She is an accomplished woman and mother.  She has bravely served this country in our armed forces and I think she has the right ideas to take us forward.  Her agenda on lower taxation, lower government spending, and controlled immigration is a positive plan for the nation.  I think she would be a responsible representative for the people of the Grand Strand.

On the Democratic ballot I like Col. Robert Burton.  He recently retired from military service after spending 32 years in the United States Air Force.  Burton has a strong focus on lowering South Carolina’s unemployment rate, one of the highest in the nation, by championing a lower Federal tax rate on small businesses and actively seeking opportunities to bring technology and energy jobs to the state.  He also realizes the need to stick it out in Afghanistan.  It’s been a long and tiring war on our soldiers and there was plenty of mismanagement of the war by our previous administration, but Burton is correct.  We just can’t cut our losses and leave like some in our Congress would like to see.  Burton is a common sense man with common sense ideas.

South Carolina Congressional District 3

This is the far western district of the state bordering Georgia and currently held by Republican Congressman Gresham Barrett.  As I stated before, he is not seeking reelection and instead decided to lose in the gubernatorial race this year.  He voted for the bank bailout, so I’m not too upset about his current political misfortune.  There are six Republicans running to succeed him and the one I like is State Representative Jeff Duncan.  Duncan has a proven record of fiscal responsibility in our state government.  In fact, he is one of the few that can actually make  that claim.  He has received an “A” rating from the South Carolina Club for Growth whose opinions I take very seriously because they don’t just hand out good grades to anyone.  Duncan’s views on reigning in government spending and excessive taxation is precisely the shot in the arm our nation needs.  He is the guy we need to send to D.C.   We do not want to send State Representative Rex Rice.  He not only supported raising the cigarette tax to expand the nanny welfare state in South Carolina, he was a co-sponsor.  Duncan good.  Rice bad.

South Carolina Congressional District 4

I think this goes without saying.  Bob Inglis is in some pretty deep shit and may very well be the next incumbent to get booted in his party primary.  Inglis is facing the hostility of a very conservative electorate in his district who are not all that pleased with the direction the Republican Party has been going in.  He has also taken some heat for voting to reprimand Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC02) for his infamous “You lie!” outburst to President Obama during this year’s State of the Union address as well as voting against “the Surge” in Iraq in 2007.  Furthermore, the man has hit my boiling point over his insistence on us needing to implement a carbon tax over the fraudulent man made global warming scam.  In my opinion, there is no need to stop the national political bloodletting here in South Carolina.  Give Inglis the boot.

My recommendation is Spartanburg attorney Trey Gowdy.  Gowdy is strong advocate of job creation by lessening Federal restrictions on businesses that make it difficult for them to thrive.  Of course, he is mortified by the irresponsible spending going on in D.C. otherwise I wouldn’t recommend him.  He is also a staunch supporter of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments of the Constitution meaning he is very much opposed to the recent Federal grab of our health care system and their unconstitutional insurance mandate.

South Carolina State Superintendent

This is a race that doesn’t get talked about much but really should.  Public education in this state has a poor reputation and we haven’t seen much improvement.  We just keep getting more of the same and Jim Rex has been no different.  I like Gary Burgess for this seat.  He’s big on school choice and eliminating programs that have not shown any merit.  The main reason we spend so much money on education in this country but do not get the bang for our buck is because the vast majority of the money goes to bureaucracy.  Burgess wants school spending accounted for.  But the real idea that sold me on Burgess is his philosophy on school choice, that the tax dollars should follow the student.  My God, how many times have I written about that very same idea on this Web site?  Make the school districts compete for the students.  With the students comes the money.  It is a winning formula and mark my word if Gary Burgess could accomplish that he would be the most successful state superintendent in this country.

South Carolina Governor

And finally we get down to the big one.  I have a candidate for both the Republican and Democrat parties.  On the Republican side I have been an ardent supporter of State Representative Nikki Haley and despite the calamity that has surrounded her over the past two weeks, I am sticking with Nikki Haley.  Accusations are not proof of guilt.  It was different with Mark Sanford because there was proof of his indiscretions and he came right out and admitted it.  Maybe Nikki Haley has been unfaithful.  I don’t know, but what I do know is that there isn’t a single shred of proof out there to support these accusations.  If there was we’d have seen it by now.  We are innocent until proven guilty in this country.  I believe that of all four Republican candidates Nikki Haley has the best ideas to take our state forward.  She has a record of fighting for transparency in government and against wasteful spending.  Prior to the recession our state budget increased an average of 11% per year for four years and that was with Republicans in control.  You know, the party that claims to be for small government?  Haley has fought against that kind of government growth and I think she can be a real powerhouse in the governor’s mansion.  She has my vote.

On the Democratic ticket I think State Senator Robert Ford is an outstanding choice.  Senator Ford took a brave stand last year going public with his support for school choice so that the parents of the poorer children in this state can get those kids out of these failing schools and get them a better education.  Ford took a lot of flack from his party and fellow legislators over that stance because his party has been in bed with the teachers union for decades and have been preserving the failing status quo in public education in order to keep the donations coming in.  Ford recognized the problem in education and chose to speak out.  I also support Ford because of his push to bring back video poker to South Carolina.  According to Ford’s estimate it could bring in a billion dollars in revenue for the state and create several thousand jobs, but it’s not just that.  I am a grown man and if I want to go to a bar and gamble some of my money on a video poker machine, who in the hell is the State of South Carolina to tell me that I am not allowed to do that?  This is an issue of liberty and I said at the beginning of this post that was the primary goal I was looking for in these candidates.  Robert Ford fits the bill.

So that’s what I’ve got for Tuesday.  Man am I tired after all of that.  Vote wisely and good luck to all of the candidates.

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A new poll out from Public Policy Polling now shows Nikki Haley holding a 21 point lead over Henry McMaster in the Republican gubernatorial primary.  Haley holds 39% of the vote, just one point away from the magic number of 40 which she would need to secure the nomination and avoid a run off.  PPP says even with allegations surfacing from Will Folks about allegedly having an affair with Haley a few years back, she has enough support to almost certainly make it to a run off election.  McMaster trails Haley with 18%, followed by Gresham Barrett at 16% and Andre Bauer at 13%.

On the Democrat side, State Senator Vincent Sheheen is the current front runner.  Sheheen leads Jim Rex 36% to 30%, with 11% going to State Senator Robert Ford and 23% undecided.

Last month the South Carolina State House after a year and a half of wrangling over their own ethics, unanimously passed State Representative Nikki Haley’s roll call voting bill, H 3047, and sent it on to the Senate to presumably be passed and then put into law.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  You see, I never presumed that would happen.  Kind of like the Federal government, you can always count on the RINOs in the Senate to muck things up.

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Larry Martin, R-Pickens, told The Nerve on Tuesday that the Policy Council’s latest findings are misleading.

“You get into the 50-percent (recorded vote) range if you don’t include third readings,” Martin said, explaining that most debate on bills is done on second reading, and that third-reading votes typically are routine.

Martin said senators are “trying to be diligent” in complying with rule changes last year that required more roll-call voting, adding, “I’ll talk to the (Senate) clerk today to make sure we’re complying.”

House Rules Committee Chairman Brian White, R-Anderson; House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston; and Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, did not respond to The Nerve’s written requests for comment on the Policy Council’s latest analysis.

Martin is chairman of a three-member Senate Judiciary subcommittee considering companion roll-call voting bills (S. 11, H. 3047). The House bill, sponsored by Rep. Nikki Haley, R-Lexington, unanimously passed the House last month, including a 104-0 roll-call vote on second reading.

Both bills would require roll-call votes for:

• Each section of the budget bill on second reading.
• Passage of any other bill or joint resolution on second reading.
• Passage of any bill or joint resolution on third reading if amended.
• Agreement by one chamber of the other chamber’s amendments.
• Adoption of conference committee reports.

Martin said he opposes the bills, though 23 of his colleagues have signed onto the Senate version. Another member of the Judiciary subcommittee, Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, told The Nerve last month that the Senate bill would never come up for a vote in the subcommittee.

The third member of the subcommittee, Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, told The Nerve last week he wasn’t aware of the bill, and that he could not comment until he could review it.

Like Martin, neither Knotts nor Ford is a co-sponsor of the Senate bill. Martin pointed out that the full Judiciary Committee likely would not consider either version if at least two of the three subcommittee members opposed it.

That effectively would kill the bills, Martin said.

The Nerve

Ain’t that just grand?  Typical southern political corruption.  Hide the malfeasance so nobody knows about it and make up every excuse in the book to keep it covered up.  Who does Martin think he’s fooling?  Do you honestly believe that Senator Ford doesn’t know about the legislation?  It’s been a hot potato in Columbia for well over a year now.  And as for the Fat Man, well, it’s vital for his political survival that he keeps his big government leftism under the radar as much as possible.

The Republicans really need to clean house in the State Senate.  They are harboring too many big government leftists masquerading as conservatives in districts where the people could easily elect true small government Republicans.  Just as a reminder, here is the official CPO South Carolina Senate RINO list:

• Tom Alexander
• Paul Campbell
• Ronnie Cromer
• Wes Hayes
• Jake “the Fat Man” Knotts
• Hugh Leatherman
• Larry Martin
• William O’Dell
• Luke Rankin

A poll released by Inside Advantage shows the current match up for this year’s gubernatorial elections in South Carolina.  The numbers weren’t too surprising, but there was one ranking that stood out.  Gresham Barrett is tanking.  As I predicted a year ago, his Wall Street bailout vote was political suicide.

If the Republican gubernatorial primary were held today, the results would be as follows: Henry McMaster and Andre Bauer would tie with 22%, Nikki Haley would follow with 13%, Barrett is fourth with 9%, and Larry Grooms brings up the anchor with 6%.  28% are undecided at this point in time.

On the Democrat side of the aisle, Jim Rex leads with 21% followed by Dwight Drake with 15%.  Vincent Sheheen comes in third with 8% and Robert Ford and Mullins McLeod trail each with 6%.  The undecideds are much higher among Democrats, 44%.

No general election match up was done yet to see how who would fair against who.

The latest polling from Public Policy Polling of the South Carolina gubernatorial race shows the Republican candidates with comfortable over the Democrats.  AG Henry McMaster at this point seems to be the best prospect for the GOP as he leads Democrats Jim Rex 40 – 31, Vincent Sheheen 41 – 26, and Robert Ford 42-27.  Congressman Gresham Barrett has similar leads but with slightly smaller gaps.  McMaster has the highest approval rating of the three Republican candidates polled while Barrett has the lowest.  The only real competitive match up at this point would be between Lt Gov Andre Bauer and Jim Rex in which Rex actually holds a one point lead over Bauer.

Republican candidate Nikki Haley was not included the poll.  She is the only Republican I consider supporting at this point.  Robert Ford is the only Democrat I would vote for.

State Sen. Robert Ford, whose gubernatorial bid has raised only $1,300 during the past three months, said he’s being blackballed by Democratic donors.

“I don’t like that word ‘blackball,’ but the public understands what that means,” he said. “They should not be allowed to control the nomination like that.”

Ford has raised only $7,797 for his campaign, including almost $3,000 of his own money, according to the most recent campaign disclosure forms. He had $31 on hand as of July 10.

Ford said some Democrats “want Sheheen or Mullins to have the nomination because, in their sick way of thinking, a white Democrat has a better chance of winning than me.

The Post and Courier

I wouldn’t be surprised if in the back of their minds they are thinking that, but I don’t think that is the problem Ford is facing.  This is:

But it’s not true. I have two issues that are very popular with people” — school choice and legalizing video poker.

School choice does seem to be growing in popularity around the state.  Unfortunately for Senator Ford, it’s the kiss of Judas within the Democrat Party.  For some reason the failure of public education is one of the holy grails of the Democrats and I have honestly never understood why.  Is it to placate the unions and the teachers to keep the millions in campaign donations coming in?  They continuously engage in fearmongering to the general public that any form of school choice will ruin the public education structure.  First of all, public education in this country is already ruined and it hasn’t improved regardless of how much money has been thrown at it.  Secondly, in a sense, they are right.  School choice will ultimately destroy the failed status quo and open parents and their children up to bigger and better educational opportunities.

Ford understands all of this, but he’s probably in the wrong political party to get the support he needs and even as a Republican it would be a gamble.

Senator Robert Ford (D-Charleston) is getting a taste of what it’s like to buck his party and challenge status quo leftists with logic, facts, and reality.  Now, Republicans and us libertarian minded folks go through this daily so we’re well equipped for these kinds of battles, but actually Ford seems to be holding his own quite well.

Black legislative, community and education leaders joined state Superintendent Jim Rex on Thursday in denouncing a bill filed by Sen. Robert Ford that would offer tuition tax credits to students who attend private schools.

The opposition comes two days after Ford, a Charleston Democrat, advocated using public money to allow students to transfer out of failing schools. It’s the latest battle in the state’s ongoing debate about private school choice. While Ford’s bill would give money to public school students who transfer to higher-performing public schools, the most controversial part of the legislation is its redirection of public money to private schools.

“As an African-American and an educator, I’m shocked and appalled that this is the position that someone who is supportive of our community would propose,” said former state Teacher of the Year Traci Cooper. “It’s bad legislation.”

The Post and Courier

A former Teacher of the Year finds it appaling that someone would want to get kids out of dangerous, failing schools.  I wonder if the committee that awarded Ms Cooper with this honor were the same people who gave Yassir Arafat the peace prize.

Here comes the good part.

After hearing the names of those who spoke out, Ford said that none of them have made “one contribution to black people or to education.” None would send their children to a failing, predominantly black school, and they should be more worried about the hundreds of thousands of black families in that situation rather than criticizing him, he said.

Ouch!

I bet that stung and it should have because Ford is right.  All of these Chicken Littles, where do their kids go to school?  What have they done for these communities?  Not a damn thing.

I wonder how long these piss poor schools are to be given chance after chance after chance to clean themselves up before these kids are finally allowed their right to a real education instead of being turned out as a dumbed down deficient product of the government education system.  Then again, I also sometimes wonder if that is really the actual intention of those who would seek no change.

The State Senate, lead by Senator Robert Ford (D-Charleston), is finally going to hold public hearings next Monday and on the 30th about legalizing church raffles and what is being termed as “friendly” poker games.  It would be nice to see South Carolina move into the 21st century and rid ourselves of some of these archaic 19th century blue laws.  The fact that our state wastes resources on raiding homes of private citizens playing Texas Hold’em while we have the highest violent crime rate in the country seems to indicate a set of misplaced priorities, not to mention that it kind of goes against that whole freedom and liberty thing they keep telling us we have, you know?

Public hearings are scheduled for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday in North Charleston City Hall and March 30, beginning at 5:30 p.m., in Greenville County Council Chambers.

To speak, attendees will have to sign in when they arrive and comments will be taken as time permits.

The Post and Courier

A black state senator is pushing a bill that would require South Carolina cities and counties to give their workers a paid day off for Confederate Memorial Day or lose millions in state funds.

Democratic Sen. Robert Ford’s bill won initial approval from a Senate subcommittee Tuesday. It would force county and municipal governments to follow the schedule of holidays used by the state, which gives workers 12 paid days off, including May 10 to honor Confederate war dead. Mississippi and Alabama also recognize Confederate Memorial Day.

The AP

I’m not a native southerner, yet despite that I have at many times defended the flying of the Confederate Flag at the capitol in Columbia because I understand the pride that many people here have of that history and heritage despite the fact that some of it was pretty ugly.  However, I don’t agree that we need to add an official state holiday immortalizing a pseudo-nation that hasn’t existed in almost 150 years.  I think adding this holiday will only cost the taxpayers money in lost productivity for that day out of the year while every city still has to pay their employees.

Let’s get real here too.  If people in South Carolina are going get a day off of work for Confederate Memorial Day how many of them are actually going to take even a second out of that day to pay homage to the war dead from so long ago?  Very few.  I work for a bank.  I get 11 paid holidays a year and to me, like most people, they’re just a free day off.  I don’t think twice about Messrs. Washington and Lincoln on President’s Day or Martin Luther King or the dead on Veteran’s Day and both my father and grandfather are war veterans.  For me, these days are extra days for me to sleep until noon and get some errands done.  I don’t see the sense in the state adding one more.

I also don’t know why Jim Davenport, who wrote the quoted article, felt the need to mention that Senator Ford is black, but that was apparently important to him.

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State Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, presented $1,000 in checks — much of it from his personal or campaign funds — to Charleston Progressive Academy Friday morning to help it fight a plan to close it.

The K-8 school at Meeting and Ann streets is among several the Charleston County School District has targeted for closure as the district struggles to cope with a financial shortfall.

Ford gave $450 from personal checking accounts, $250 from his campaign fund and $200 from the Twin City Outreach Ministry Black Community Developers. Three other individuals and businesses contributed $100.

The Post and Courier

A very generous act on behalf of Senator Ford, the kind that you rarely see from a politician, let alone people in general.

As lawmakers found themselves in the position of cutting services for autistic children, draining funds for land conservation and eliminating an advocacy program for disabled residents, they started asking the half-a-billion-dollar question:

What’s happening to the state’s money?

The Post and Courier

Is this a serious question??  What has happened to the money???  It’s been spent on crap!!  How many posts have been made on this blog and others throughout the state hammering the state legislature for reckless spending?  How many think tanks in the state like the Club for Growth and South Carolinians for Responsible Government have detailed all of the wasteful pork projects the legislature throws our money away on every single year?  This has to be a rhetorical inquiry.

Those changes set the backdrop in a state that’s becoming increasingly dependent on the volatile sales tax that also gives $1.5 billion in exemptions to everything from furniture purchased by churches to paper used to print the news and fuel burned by shrimpers.

There is nothing wrong with depending on a sales tax for state revenue.  Tennessee and Florida do not have a state income tax and rely heavily on their sales tax to provide money for the government.  They’ve been existing in that form of government since day one.  I do agree that South Carolina has too many exemptions in our sales tax and many of those should probably be removed.

Several lawmakers also are calling for the creation of a commission to review the more than 100 sales tax exemptions, many of which have been in place since 1951.

Quite frankly, I think everything should be subject to sales tax and we should do away with the income tax in this state.  Minor adjustments can be made to the tax each year if there is a suspected revenue shortage or windfall in the near future.

Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, wants South Carolina to legalize gaming, a cash cow he said could cure all the economic woes.

I agree with Ford on this.  Why the hell not?  Of course, it’s not going to happen.  This is a state where we still have dry towns and counties that won’t allow bars to serve alcohol on Sunday, God forbid ye be cast into the firey depths of Hell.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, has been lobbying for a constitutional amendment that would limit what the Legislature can spend during a given year, based on average of revenue collections over a decade.

Another good safety guard that would help the state so naturally, we’ll never see it.

Republican Gov. Mark Sanford said he thinks the Legislature simply is spending too much, and doing it recklessly. His potential vetoes of the budget cuts could bring lawmakers back on Oct. 31, with all likelihood that any changes to the tax structure will wait until next year, when a new Legislature convenes.

Sanford is right on the money as usual.  People in this state are not paying attention to what their representatives are doing.  They better wake up or this kind of incompetence will continue to plague this state.

You can view all of the cuts here.

S.C. Sen. Robert Ford of Charleston is unfazed by the urging of Democratic leaders for party unity. Wednesday, he’ll cast his delegate vote at Denver’s Democratic National Convention for longtime friend Hillary Clinton.

“Party unity? That’s national media crap,” Ford said Monday between bites of bacon and sausage at the S.C. delegation breakfast. “Democrats have always had divisions.”

The State

I have no doubt that Obama will get the nomination.  Circumventing the primary results by superdelegates would be political suicide for the Democratic Party.  They aren’t that stupid.  I am intersted to see, however, in what way this will carry forward to the general election.  There is a deep divide among the party nationwide with Hillary backers feeling snubbed.  Several polls show that a large chunk of them will not vote for Obama in November or haven’t decided.  In the end, the I think the majority of those people will come around and pull the lever for him, even if holding their noses, but the chance of a sizable enough portion of them sticking to their guns and voting for McCain or not at all could and costing the Dems the election is plausible.

Gee, didn’t see this one coming.  Yes, that’s sarcasm.  This is how liberty is stripped away.  It always starts out as some bright idea from some authoritarian politician in Town A.  Then after it’s passed Town B thinks, “Gee, what a great idea Town A had.  Let’s do that here too.”  Then more towns jump on the bandwagon.  Eventually the state lawmakers decide it’s their jobs to save the entire population so they pass a state law and some times even D.C. takes notice and goes for the full monty.  Whether its banning smoking in public places, trans fats in restaurants, fast food bans in South Central Los Angeles or criminalizing saggy pants it always starts the same way.

Jasper County passed a ban on saggy pants a few months back.  Since then other parts of the state have followed their lead and predictably a member of the State Senate wants to eradicate it statewide.  Today’s authoritarian is State Senator Robert Ford (D-Charleston).

State Sen. Robert Ford is the latest to try to bust the sag. And as sure as politicians have opinions, he won’t be the last to hitch his star to the issue.

Ford said Friday that he wants to take local efforts to ban the clothing style one step further by trying to stop it with a new state law, but a host of critics, including civil liberty groups, have come forward.

The Charleston Democrat said he believes that sagging pants worn below the underwear line — a style widely believed to have come from emulating prisoners who are not allowed to wear belts — is a setback.

“If these guys want to look like prisoners, what’s the next step?” Ford said. “We, those of us who fought civil rights battles in the ’60s and early ’70s, anticipated wonderful things for African-Americans once we broke down a lot of barriers.

“This generation hasn’t built upon anything except destructive stuff.”

I’m not necessarily disagreeing with Ford’s assessment of today’s generation and it’s not just black kids, but kids of all creeds who enjoy shuffling around town with their pants drooping around their ankles like a bunch of ass clowns.  What I don’t agree with is the government exercising its will on the people and making a proclamation of what we can and cannot wear.  I’m not going to be told by Senator Ford or anyone for that fact how I am going to dress on my own leisure.

If Senator Ford really wants to address problem in the black community he might want to try and tackle the 70% out of wedlock birth rates among black children for starters.  That can be tied to just about all of the other issues that typically plague black communities and other poor neighborhoods:  drugs, gang activity, violence, etc.  It is the welfare state that Ford’s party thrust upon us a couple of generations ago that has perpetuated those problems.  Telling kids they can’t wear sagging pants isn’t going to eliminate these nuisances from society.  Senator Ford and his Columbia comrades ought to be spending their time on more pressing matters and solutions with actual results, not feel good dribble such as this.

The State Elections Web Site is not up to date that well. Some races have already been called in the media, but the state site still shows them unreported. What I know so far is the following:

In Senate District 46 Tom Davis has ousted RINO Catherine Ceips. This is a huge, huge win for all the reformers in this state and it shows that Mark Sanford still holds a lot of clout with his constituents even though the legislature snubs him.

In Senate District 23 Katrina Shealey has managed to push Jake Knotts into a run off election, as I predicted would be the case. This is another good turn of events because Knotts is the sorriest excuse for a Republican probably in South Carolina history.

In Senate District 42 Robert Ford managed to miraculously keep his seat from challenger Dwayne Green and by a 50 point margin. I don’t know how he pulled this one off. Ford must have made a deal with the devil.

In House District 38 Joey Millwood has ousted incumbent RINO Bob Walker by 19 votes! This is another victory for those hoping for government reform.

Scott Talley has won the race for Senate District 12. I commented the other day that all three of these guys were decent so this was a win, win situation and step forward.

In House District 37 Steve Parker has trounced incumbent Ralph Davenport by 25 points!

The State is reporting that Senator Randy Scott has lost to his primary challenger, Mike Rose, but I can’t find any returns on that race yet.

Jim Ritchie will have to face challenger Shane Martin again in a run off election for the 13th Senate District.

B.R. Skelton prevailed over challenger Trey Whitehurst in House District 3.

Bob Leach was defeated by his challenger Bill Wylie in House District 21.

Charleston lawyer Dwayne Green decided to run against state Sen. Robert Ford after he heard Ford say that if U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois were to win the Democratic presidential nomination, it would doom the party’s candidates in the fall.

Ford apologized soon afterward, but the comment was out there.

Ford, who needs to defeat Green in the June 10 Democratic primary to get re-elected to a fifth term, was not impressed with his opponent’s reasoning.

“That’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard in my life, somebody running because of a comment I made about another candidate,” Ford said, adding that Green mentions how he graduated from Princeton University. “If that’s the kind of craziness they teach at Princeton, then they need to shut down that institution.”

The Post and Courier

What did Ford apologize for, being honest? Obviously that is how he really feels or he wouldn’t have said it and there is nothing wrong with his opinion. As far as Green challenging, well maybe it is a silly reason, but Green can run for whatever reason he wants. Green’s fund raising has been very competitive so apparently many voters in the 42nd are ready for a change. This is one to watch next month.

State Senate challenger Dwayne Green has raised twice as much campaign cash as incumbent Sen. Robert Ford, a sign that their Democratic primary showdown might be one of the Lowcountry’s closest races this June.

Green, who has raised more than $60,000 and still has about $25,000 on hand, said he was pleased to have such support. “Incumbents have a natural advantage,” he said, “I know that finances are only half the battle, but it’s encouraging. I hope it will help me to get my message out.”

Ford has reported raising $31,698, including a $2,000 loan and a $5,000 contribution from the South Carolina Democratic Caucus. He has about $5,896 on hand.

Ford said Tuesday the contributions don’t foreshadow a close race, partly because of his style of politics and because of his frequent mailings to voters.

The Post and Courier

Robert Ford can pooh-pooh this all he wants if it helps him sleep better at night, but he’s in serious trouble. Fund raising is campaigning. The vast majority of the time he who raises the most wins and when an incumbent is being out raised two to one, he may want to start making plans to fill up a lot of the free time he’s going to have in the future.