Carolina Politics Online

S.C. Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, said he will take a stab at passing a helmet law in next year’s legislative session.

With motorcycle use - and, in turn, fatal crashes - on the rise in South Carolina, Edge said his thoughts on a helmet law have “evolved” over the past few years.

Edge said he has heard anecdotally - from hospital CEOs, ER doctors and his brother, Horry County Coroner Robert Edge - that motorcyclists who do not use helmets suffer much more severe head injuries, which leads to overwhelming medical bills, if the patient is lucky enough to survive.

The Sun News

I think it’s incredibly stupid to ride a motorcycle without a helmet.  But you know what?  That’s the great thing about America.  We have the right to live our lives incredibly stupid if we so desire.  Well, at least we used to.  Control over your own life is becoming less and less common these days as the dumbing down of America continues and more people look to government to provide their basic needs.  Edge evidently thinks that is part of his role now as well.

Edge uses the argument that the people who have these accidents helmetless and survive encounter medical bills so enormous that they are unable to pay for them and the cost is thrust upon the taxpayer.  I have a very simple solution to that dilemma.  If they can’t pay, don’t treat them.  Sure, it’s sounds harsh, but why should I, a responsible citizen, have to pay to save some careless idiot’s ass?

I would never get on a motorcycle to begin with because I think they are too dangerous, but I respect the right of those that choose to.  Riding one without a helmet though is Darwinism at work.

The Morning News is reporting today that a Twelfth Circuit judge has shot down an appeal of the primary election by Florence Mayor Frank Willis.  He contested the results of the primary after he lost the election to primary challenger Stephen Wukela by a single vote.  Man, does that suck to be him today.  It’s probaby for the best anyhow.  Florence has a lot of crime issues that aren’t getting any better.  It’s time for someone else to take the helm.

The council’s meeting room holds about 300 people and was almost full. Many arrived an hour before the mayor’s gavel dropped to ensure they had seats to show their support or disdain for the city’s moves toward discouraging bike rally visitors in Myrtle Beach, including passage of a 3-mill property tax increase to fund as-yet-undetermined anti-rally efforts.

Mayor John Rhodes gave each person three minutes to speak during the 30-minute public forum period at the beginning of the meeting. There’s another at the end of every meeting, but those who spoke didn’t even take up the first half hour, and all left when it was over.

The audience appeared to be about 60 percent against the rallies, 40 percent for. Some of those who were there in support of the rallies sported Harley-Davidson patches and insignias to support the 10-day Harley-Davidson rally in May and the shorter, smaller one in October.

The Sun News

I still believe that if Myrtle Beach goes through with this they are going to seriously regret it.  That city’s entire economy is tourism based and they would be throwing out some of their best customers by putting the squash on these bike weeks.  How are they going to replace the bikers with the vacationing families they are looking for?  There is no guarantee they can and they are going to waste millions of tax dollars to run ads and other such methods of enticing these folks there when they can spend no money at all to keep the same revenue streaming in as it is today with the bikers.  What sense does that make?  Furthermore, they don’t even know how they are going to spend that money anyway?  Who the hell would raise property taxes with no clue what they’re going to do with it and what moron would back up a politician who advocates such a think.  Intelligence among the Myrtle Beach City Council seems to be lacking.

Good luck to them trying to bring in new tourists.  I avoide Myrtle Beach because I think it is trashy and too touristy as it is and I know others who feel the same way.  The bikers willing go there annually despite that and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars there.

MYRTLE BEACH — Myrtle Beach City Council hit the gas on eradicating motorcycle rallies by passing a three-mill property-tax increase dedicated to an anti-bike-rally campaign and beginning to enact ordinances that will end motorcycle-related vending inside the city.

All seven council members at Tuesday’s meeting voted in favor of the tax increase, which will raise about $1 million a year. One mill equals an additional $4 in property taxes for every $100,000 of assessed value for all owner-occupied homes, and $6 for every $100,000 assessed value of commercial property and second homes.

City staff members are tasked with coming up with a list of strategies for ending the rallies, and city leaders will choose which ones they want to try and which ones the city can afford.

The State

This is one of the most imbecilic wastes of tax dollars I have seen in a while. I don’t live in Myrtle Beach so I frankly don’t care what they do, but am I the only one this idea strikes as totally asinine? They are raising taxes, thus lowering the economic opportunities of their residents and businesses, in order quell what is an economic powerhouse in their city every single year. Huh????? Give this town a Darwin Award!

What kind of city tells their biggest cash cow that they’re not wanted? Go away! We don’t want you spending your money in our businesses. We don’t want your sales tax revenue from the money you are spending at our shops and hotels.

I’ve been to Myrtle Beach during Biker Week. Yeah, it gets a little loud, but it’s not a big deal.

To further add to the insanity, the City Council doesn’t even know how they are going to spend the money. Their idea is to replace the bikers with families, but they haven’t the first clue how. One, how do you stop the bikers from coming? You can’t make them illegal. Even if they managed to find a way, what do they think they can do to replace them? The two bike weeks are in May and the black biker week is sometime in the fall (I don’t know why black bikers have their own week, but whatever floats their boat). Children are in school during those times of year. Hello, McFly! Anybody home?

If they really want to roll in the dough I suppose they could petition the Bible beaters in Columbia to allow gambling. I’m sure comb over Don would love to sink several million into some brand new casinos along the strip. Of course, then you have to deal with the poverty and squaller that will eventually encompass the surrounding area. The Atlantic City Strip where all the casinos are is just lovely, but you literally walk one block away into the city and it turns into one big pile of shit.  I think Biker Week would be a future.

This year’s budget includes at least four earmarks that could benefit people close to Clyburn.

The veteran lawmaker helped secure $784,000 for the planning and design of the International African-American Museum in Charleston. Clyburn’s nephew, Derrick Ballard, is one of the lead architects on that project.

Similarly, in 2005, Clyburn earmarked $145,500 for a community center to be designed by Ballard.

He also set aside $229,000 in this year’s budget to the Charles R. Drew Wellness Center in Columbia — a facility he helped construct with a 2003 earmark of $990,000. His daughter, Angela, is the marketing and membership director there.

He got $282,000 appropriated for The South Sumter Resource Center, where his sister-in- law, Gwendolyn, is housing coordinator for the center’s community development division. He’s secured $670,000 for the resource center in past budgets.

The Post and Courier

Along with the cost of earmarks, this is the other main reason why they need to be eliminated.  What you have here is pure, unadulterated corruption.  James Clyburn is using his power in the Federal Government to steer our tax dollars into the pockets of his family.  The man should be removed from Congress for this immediately, but that’s about as likely as Bush getting impeached.  So, that leaves it up to his constituents to decide in November and they’ll most certainly keep him.  Clyburn’s district has been drawn especially for him and partisans love a corrupt politician as long as he is of the same stripe.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: KATHERINE JENERETTE’S 75-Day Whirlwind Campaign for US CONGRESS

SUBJECT: Republican Congressional Candidate Katherine Jenerette thanks All-Volunteer Campaign Team - Congratulates U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, Jr. and remarks on the November Election

DATE: June 10, 2008

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.jenerette.org

PHOTOS at: www.jenerette.org/photos

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, Jr. and offer my support to both him and to all the members of the Republican slate of candidates for the November 2008 general elections. With the primary election behind us it is time to ‘bury the hatchet’ and to come together in order to best serve our District and our State of South Carolina in anyway we each can as a party with an agenda for the future.

Two and a half months ago I was an Army Lieutenant at Ft Benning, Georgia, serving alongside some of the best young men and women this nation has to offer and upon returning home to South Carolina I changed back into civilian clothes and along with a great all-volunteer team of supporters from Charleston, Dorchester, Georgetown, Berkeley and Horry Counties I started my campaign for the U.S. Congress.

In a 75-day whirlwind congressional campaign these great team members worked tirelessly and pulled together thousands of voters throughout the district who recognized that times have changed and that a new vision for the future is needed for everything from national security, taxes, energy, the economy, education and illegal immigration. Their efforts were successful in getting out a clear message and we finished the primary election in a solid second place in a three-man race. I am indebted to them all for their hard work in our uphill fight against a four-term incumbent and to each of them individually for their dedication and loyalty to our conservative principles and objectives.

But for now, the real race will be in November’s elections. The battleground is the Presidency and the Congress. And, whether we like it or not, four hundred and thirty five elected representatives set the budget and policy agenda for this entire country. The reality of the unavoidable ‘Obama Factor’ on the voter turn-out cannot be underestimated and our focus must be on Republican results not divisiveness.

The Democrats have successfully painted themselves as the party with a vision for the future and a party with ideas while we Republican’s have had great difficulty in articulating our ‘old’ but principled ideas of limited government, less taxation, national interest, etc. let alone come up with new ideas to deal with our nations future.

These are trying times and Novembers’ election is going to prove itself a historical moment in our nations history. There should be no doubt in any ones mind either Democrat or Republican: This Election 2008 is a fight for the soul of our nation.

We must do a better job reaching a conservative public that has seemed to have lost faith in both politics and politicians with not much more than a status-quo agenda to offer the voters. Boring messages from boring messengers do not bring out the voters.

However, I do know Congressman Brown to be a dedicated and hard worker and I am certain that he recognizes that Washington is a far different place today than it was with a Republican majority in both Houses. The first fight for all of us then is to help Rep. Brown to defeat the challenge from the Democrats candidate for Congress Linda Ketner so he can take the next fight to Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi and somehow slow down her liberal agenda while aggressively carrying the ball for our conservative agenda.

This is no small task.

Anyway, I’ve been active in local, state and national politics since I was old enough to vote and I knew this primary election was going to be an uphill fight. I want everyone who supported me and voted for me to know that I am both humbled and proud of my grassroots organization and the team network that kept us on the playing field through the final minutes of play left on the clock. Thank you.

For me, it’s now time to move forward and look to the future; I’m still pretty young and I’m not planning on going anywhere. South Carolina is my home, my children go to school here, my family goes to church here and we have neighbors, friends and relatives here. And, like many other parents whose children are growing up way too fast, I’m trying to get my son who is in High School to pick a college here in Carolina to attend. Even after this election, the future looks real promising from where I’m standing.

Again, my sincere appreciation to my supporters and to those voters who went to the polls and cast their votes on election day even if they did not vote for me. Our elections are for all the people, which is why I still serve in uniform alongside so many others in the military - so we all could be free to vote our choices and our conscience.

Thank you all and God Bless!

Katherine Jenerette
Email: uscongress@msn.com

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.

ElectriCities Annual Meeting 2008 will be held August 8-9, 2008 at the Marriott Grande Dunes Resort, Myrtle Beach, SC.

Please call Ken Raber, Senior Vice President, NCEMPA Operations/ElectriCities Services and Annual Meeting Project Manager at 1-800-768-7697 ext. 6218 for information.

And to think they had to make major rate increases to pay for this party and to help cover the costs of their bungled refinancing effort.

We have a three way Republican Primary in South Carolina’s First Congressional District. Henry Brown is an incumbent Congressman running for this fifth term. I really have no feelings toward Brown one way or the other. He isn’t one to show up in the media much. He received a rating of 96 from the American Conservative Union for 2007, not too shabby and he’s been involved in government for about 27 years, starting in the city council, moving up to state office and then Federal.

He has two challengers in the primary. The first, Paul Norris, is the President of Southeast Energy Partners. Naturally, he is big on the coming energy crisis that most Americans have not yet awaken to. I also like how he released his tax returns. He feels that if he is going to be handling others tax money, they have a right to see how he manages his own.

The one candidate that really stands out to me out of the three, however, is Katherine Jenerette. A history professor, mother of four, and a second lieutenant in the army reserves, I think Mrs. Jenerette is the total package that disgruntled conservatives and others disoriented with the Republican Party are looking for. Read and learn:

She said she decided to run for Congress partly out of frustration of how Republicans squandered their congressional majorities.

“We had the playing field, and we fumbled,” she said. “We spent like drunken sailors. We left the party platform behind.”

Jenerette said she favors a federal hiring freeze and the Fair Tax, a plan to eliminate the income tax by significantly raising the sales tax. She said her service in the U.S. Army Reserve would make her an important voice on national security issues.

As for the Iraq war, she said, “We can sit here and be Monday morning quarterbacks. We’re there because of our national interests. We’re there because of oil. What angers me is how we’ve made it into a political football.” She said she supports U.S. Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq and would pounce on his critics.

Jenerette said education is a big issue with her, and she would push to abolish the federal No Child Left Behind Act. “It’s created a nightmare bureaucracy for our schools.”

Marvelous. She hit the fiscal issues, the education issues, and the military issues right on the button. Additionally, she points out how Congressional Republicans have lost their way and threw a platform for success overboard to satisfy their own greed. Ah, it brings tears to my eyes.

It’s very difficult to take down an incumbent, even more so in a primary, but hope springs eternal. I hope enough Republicans who are looking for a return to the Class of ‘94 ideals are paying attention in this race. They have a candidate.

Atlantic Beach town councilwoman Retha Pierce filed an appeal on Thursday against a judge’s decision to hold a new election for mayor.

The declared winner of last November’s Atlantic Beach mayor’s race, Retha Pierce, filed an appeal against a circuit court judge’s decision to hold a new election in the town’s disputed mayoral election.

Pierce beat incumbent Irene Armstrong by just one vote in last year’s election. Since then, Pierce was arrested for resisting arrest and Armstrong was indicted for misusing town money and paying for votes. Both candidates appealed the decision by the town’s election commission to hold a new election. In a hearing on March 17, both Pierce and Armstrong pleaded their sides to a circuit court.

The Morning News

It doesn’t really matter which one of these bimbos won.  Atlantic Beach lost in either scenario.  I don’t know if the Supreme Court will enforce the new election or not, but it’s quite obvious why Pierce doesn’t want another one.  She’ll lose.

I am all for the new election.  Get some completely new people on the ballot and get these two women as far as away from City Hall as possible.

James Clyburn, 6th District congressman and House majority whip, said Wednesday his office has hired the former Orangeburg County Council chairman to serve as a field representative and liaison between the office and district constituents.

Rickenbacker, who was released from a Columbia-based halfway house April 7 after serving a one-year sentence in a federal prison system for federal bribery and extortion charges, will begin working in his new position as early as today, depending on completion of the required applications.

The Times and Democrat

This man was put in jail for accepting a $50,000 bribe not even two years ago and Clyburn hires him to work in one of his field offices?  Who is advising this man?  The public already has a very dismal view of Washington.  I guess he’ll fit in with every other crook that helps make up the Federal Government.

A candidate running for a House seat in Richland and Kershaw counties has asked his opponent to sever her ties with a third-party group that advocates using tax credits to pay for private schools.

In a letter to his opponent, Sheri Few, David Herndon said he has concerns about the campaign tactics of South Carolinians for Responsible Government. In the past, Herndon wrote, the group has attacked candidates with which it has disagreed.

In 2006 the group sent out numerous mail pieces critical of Rep. Bill Cotty, the retiring Republican who now represents the district.

The State

If Herndon can’t take the heat he ought to get out of the kitchen. Of course a group is going to run ads against a candidate whose positions they don’t support. That doesn’t make it an attack ad. Too many candidates seem to think that when they are called on their record they are being attacked. In Herndon’s case, they haven’t run anything against him so why is he making an issue out of something that hasn’t even happened?

I am not going to support nor condemn SCRG’s tactics, but it seems to me they are about the only ones trying to seriously fix the failure of public education in this state.

Gamble said that if she wins the House seat, she would fight for affordable health care.

“That’s something you really need to push for,” Gamble said. “It’s not just going to happen.”

The candidate, who has experience as a substitute teacher, said education is another top issue for her, along with helping seniors on fixed incomes who have trouble paying their bills. She said the government should improve the economy and health care through innovative domestic programs in the style of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and Harry S. Truman’s Fair Deal.

The Morning News

Wow, does this lady need a history lesson. Gamble calls a decade of prolonged recession an economic improvement? The Raw Deal was directly responsible for the continued depression in this country and we only came out of it because of our involvement in WWII. 95% income tax rates, price controls, wealth redistribution, double digit unemployment rates, and extreme government authoritarianism was not the cure for what ailed the U.S. nor will it help the Palmetto State. What we need are less of these things.

The Party filed the complaint Thursday morning with the Horry County Court of Common Pleas, claiming that McKown falsely claimed his legal residence on his voter registration. According to a press release, McKown listed 521 48th Ave. South North Myrtle Beach, SC as his primary residence. The Party says this property is still under development and is not currently occupied.

The release also says that McKown gave another false address when he filed to run for Senate. The Party says when he filed, he put down his address as 2504 S. Ocean Blvd North Myrtle Beach, SC. They say this address is currently vacant and listed with a rental agency as a vacation home.

The Morning News

The achievement award is confirmation the coalition is serving it’s purpose, Florence Mayor Frank Willis said during a press conference held Thursday at the Northwest Community Center.

“It means that we undertook a program that works,” he said. “It means that we have done something positive and provided the leadership to get a positive juvenile crime program in place.”

The amount of crimes committed by juveniles has decreased tremendously, Willis said.

In 2007, the number of felonies committed by juveniles dropped 44 percent in Florence, while the number of misdemeanors  committed by juveniles decreased about 54 percent, he said.  The number of juveniles referred to the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice in Columbia also has decreased by 35 percent, Willis said.

The Morning News

These are very impressive numbers.  I hope that other mayors across the state will look to Willis’ program as an example.

The Myrtle Beach City Council this morning talked about the possibility of increasing the city’s millage rate to help support Coast Regional Transportation Authority, as well as to pay for increasing service needs within the city.

The city’s budget proposal has not called for an increase to date, but City Manager Tom Leath last week sent an e-mail to councilmembers suggesting a 3-mill hike.

The Sun News

Or, you can not raise taxes at all and let the public who are riding the transit actually pay for it.  Now that’s a novel idea.

First District congressional hopeful Ben Frasier hired a lawyer at 3 p.m. Wednesday and four hours later got a ruling letting him remain on the Democrats’ June 10 primary ballot.

Nancy Suefert of North Charleston challenged his candidacy, claiming he is not a legal resident of South Carolina and therefore shouldn’t be considered eligible to vote here.

The Post and Courier

A Dorchester County mom with a knack for research is challenging whether Ben Frasier should remain a Democratic candidate for South Carolina’s District 1 Congressional seat.

“He’s a Maryland resident, and he’s . . . claiming that South Carolina has been his home,” said Nancy Suefert. “I have his tax records, which shows he’s been declaring since 1999 that Maryland has been his residence.”

Frasier, who did not return five telephone messages left Monday and Tuesday, gave four contact numbers to the South Carolina Democratic Party when he paid the $3,386 filing fee last month. Three of them have Maryland area codes. The other appears to be to his house on Wadmalaw Island, which he gave as his address.

To qualify as a congressional candidate, Frasier must be a “qualified elector” in the First District. Suefert has challenged whether Frasier’s ties to Maryland should render him ineligible to vote here. The Charleston County Board of Elections and Voter Registration will hold a special hearing on the issue at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The Post and Courier

County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland announced Monday that she will challenge Sen. Luke Rankin for the state senate seat for District 33, which includes Myrtle Beach and about half of Conway.

Gilland, who filed her candidacy Monday with the Horry County Republican Party, has served on the council for 14 years and has been chairwoman for the past six years. Gilland said she wants to be a voice for local government at the state level.

“Those of us who serve on the county level continually fight edicts handed down from Columbia by the General Assembly by representatives who don’t have much knowledge about what goes on at the local level,” she said.

The Sun News

Gilland would be the second candidate in the primary, but the first challenger to Senator Rankin, Greg Killian, just dropped out of the race citing an aversion to dirty politics being committed by a third party group against Rankin.  Rankin is rumored to be on the alleged Mark Sanford “Hit List.”

FLORENCE — Florence attorney Stephen J. Wukela will run against Florence Mayor Frank Willis in the city’s upcoming Democratic primary. Wukela said he stands for leadership, openness and change in what he calls a city “divided against itself.”

“The center of that division, as I see it, is downtown Florence — it’s been left to rot,” he said. “It serves as nothing more than a haven for drugs and gangs. And for all of our leadership’s talk about downtown revitalization, nothing has been done in that core of our city, and that division remains.”

Morning News