Carolina Politics Online

The Democratic opponent to State Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, on Tuesday said Bryant has demonstrated “a complete lack of understanding” by posting a photo of Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden side by side on his Web site.

“Not only is this offensive to all Americans and shows extreme insensitivity regarding the old racial and cultural stereotypes we have been struggling to change, but it also brings ridicule to South Carolina and the people of Anderson County,” said Dr. Marshall Meadors, Bryant’s opponent in the November general election, in a statement. “It is the same kind of poor judgment we have seen over the last four years and shows Mr. Bryant’s complete lack of understanding of the issues that are of real importance to the people of Anderson County and South Carolina: education, health care, economic development and the environment.”

The Independent Mail

Oh, spare me.  It’s always entertaining to watch politicians seize on a lapse of judgment by their opponent and express their “outrage”, not that there has been any bad judgment on Bryant’s part.  Of course Meadors has to throw out the “insensitivity speech” and express how “shocking” this photo is and its negative effect on cultural “progress.”  LOL.  Meadows is trying to capitalize on the attention this has gotten.  He’s even posted a screen shot on his campaign site.  This is all just plain and simple politics.

If you don’t like the photograph don’t go to Bryant’s blog and look at the damn thing.  It’s that simple.  We have become far too sensitive of a society and make issues out of nothing at all.  Nobody has the right to not be offended.

The below picture was posted on the blog of South Carolina State Senator Kevin Bryant and has caused quite a stir from the Obama supporters.

Senator Bryant has every right to his freedom of speech and expression just as much as anyone else.  Politically, it may not be the smartest move depending on who his constituency is, but if he’s in a safe enough district that may not be a concern.

Read through the comments on his blog for this posting if you have the time.  It’s amusing to listen to the Obama supporters rant and rave about this picture.  I wonder if they hold the same condemnation for the characitures and slanderous comments that have been directed towards our President for the last eight years.  Furthermore some of the commentators are rather ignorant themselves.  One lady who claimed the picture was racist towards Muslims obviously doesn’t know the difference between race and religion.  Another commentator said this behavior is embarrassing coming from a U.S. Senator, except that Bryant is not a U.S. Senator, he’s a State Senator.

York County Councilman Paul Lindemann was “highly intoxicated” and “significantly impaired” when he was arrested in Columbia and charged with driving under the influence last week, according to a police report.

Lindemann, 29, was arrested Wednesday after police suspected him of drunken driving, a Columbia Police Department report states. The time of the arrest is unclear.

The Herald

100 points for running over one of your constituents. 

500 for mowing down a boy scout escorting an old lady across the street.

And the grand poobah of 1,000 if you plow through a bus load of nuns.

In reacting to news that the Greenville County School District may have won its court battle to levy six more mills next year, Butch Taylor, president of the Greenville County Taxpayers Association, this morning attacked the district’s spending program

“They have an enormous appetite for spending money,” Taylor said. “They’ve got a steak taste on a hamburger budget sometimes, and they’ve just got to eat hamburger sometimes like the rest of us do. Sometimes it’s not even that, it’s bologna, if we’re lucky.”

School board chairman Dr. Keith Ray and a school district attorney said last week that Greenville County Circuit Court Judge John Few announced his intention “to rule in favor of the state cap being applied to the district and not the local cap.”

The broader state cap, which allows tax increases based on population growth and inflation should be used, which would allow a six-mill increase this year for a budget of $451.5 million, Ray said.

The Greenville News

School districts across the country waste exhorbitant amounts of money on ineffective administrative positions and top of the line athletic facilities that sometimes rival a university, just to give a few examples.  It doesn’t take a whole of money to hire quality educators who can teach children reading, writing, and arithmetic.  School boards throw more and more money at public schools every year and they turn out a mediocre product at best.  Walk into any university and ask yourself why all the medical and science students are foreigners.  The answer is simple.  Young American adults are too stupid to enter those fields because they were not properly educated in the government schools.

Getting to Greenville County Schools in particular, while I agree with Taylor’s assessment at the macro level, Greenville actually ranks 75th out of the 85 school districts in South Carolina in terms of per pupil spending, so they are one of the most money conscious in the state.  Now that doesn’t mean they still don’t waste money and could afford to trim back a little.  The property tax increase they are asking for is rather substantial and I am willing to bet they could trim the fat a bit if they really made the effort.  This is a problem experienced with any bureaucracy and it exists due to the ignorance of the voters.

According to the South Carolina Department of Education, Greenville County Schools spent $7,163 per student in the 2006 fiscal year.  That’s more on par with our European counterparts, but even though Greenville has a reputation for being one of the better school districts in the state in terms of academic achievement, I would still bet on the Belgian kid to beat the pants out Greenville’s students in an academic decathlon. 

City of Union Director of Building and Zoning Jeff Lawson has been put on administrative leave without pay, the city clerk said this morning.

Lawson and former mayor Bruce Morgan were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury for accepting more than $30,000 in bribes from contractors bidding on city projects. Morgan resigned from his position as both mayor and city administrator yesterday morning.

The Herald-Journal

Did Morgan really do anything that doesn’t go in Washington?  Think about it.  Lobbyists are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to get legislators to pass or oppose laws in their favor.  In exchange these legislators get campaign donations and votes.  Is that not bribery?  Why is it ok for the Feds, but not the local guys?

I guess I jumped the gun yesterday.  According to The Herald-Journal as of two hours ago, the Spartanburg County Voter Registration Board disqualified 91 out of the first 500 signatures Brannon submitted yesterday.  That puts him below the threshold of 915 to qualify for the November ballot for the 38th House District race.  I’m sure Millwood is breathing a sigh of relief.

Update: Brannon has had too many signatures disqualified and will NOT appear on the November ballot.  Please see new post “Brannon Will Not Appear on Ballot.”

Doug Brannon, the former mayor of Landrum submitted his petitions today to the county elections office to run as an independent for the House race in South Carolina’s 38th House district.  He will face Republican Joey Millwood and Democrat Mark Chambers in the general election in November.  Apparently, the big wedge issue in this race and what played a large decision in Brannon’s entry is the subject of school choice.

Whether tax dollars should be used to support private school education will be a key issue in this race, as will out-of-state campaign funding.

The Herald-Journal

I take this to mean that Brannon is in favor of the status quo and throwing more money at a failed education system as if that will somehow make any difference.  Until choice, competition, and entrepreneurship are introduced into the public school system it will continue to turn out a damaged product.  I generally get behind the third party candidates because we need more of them, but Brannon doesn’t interest me.

His entry could spell trouble for Joey Millwood, however.  I don’t know how heavily Republican leaning this district is, but if Brannon ciphens enough votes away from Millwood it could flip this House seat to the Dems.  I imagine Chambers was clicking his heels gleefully today upon hearing this news.

In Senate District 12 Lee Bright has defeated State Representative Scott Talley 3,100 votes to 2,828.  In Senate District 13 Shane Martin absolutely pummeled Jim Ritchie, winning with 4,037 votes over Ritchie’s 1,923.  In Senate District 17 Creighton Coleman edged out Leah Moody by 5 percentage points.  Moody was my pick for that race.

I got some of what I wanted tonight, but I am pissed about Knotts winning.

This was not at all expected.

Gov. Mark Sanford, despite saying he wouldn’t get involved in the Senate District 12 race, on Monday endorsed Lee Bright over state Rep. Scott Talley.

Sanford announced his endorsement at Bright’s campaign headquarters at 1220 John B. White Sr. Blvd. in Spartanburg, only a few hundred yards from Talley’s law office.

The Herald-Journal

This endorsement has sent waves through Talley’s campaign because Sanford has praised Talley in the past as a taxpayer hero. Personally, I would like to have seen Talley support more of Sanford’s vetoes and maybe that has a little something to do with it. Perhaps he thinks Bright can be more reliable in that area. It’s funny because I was actually leaning towards Bright in this race myself, but as I said a couple of weeks ago I still believe that any of the guys that were running in this race would be a good fit in the Senate.

In case you missed it six people were arrested last Saturday at Fort Mill High School’s commencement, for what you may ask?  Not for fighting.  Not for causing a disturbance.  They were arrested and charged for cheering or clapping when their child’s, niece’s, nephew’s name was called.

Now, I have attended graduations where there have been a few obnoxious people in the crowd, but nothing overboard.  That can be handled very simply by escorting the disruptive person out the door.  That’s all.  Nothing else needs to be done.  For the Rock Hill Police Department to actually take these people to jail is over zealous and I think every single one of them should fight these arrests and sue the city for a civil rights violation if necessary.  These people can be fined up to $1,000 and spend 30 days in jail.  For clapping!!

So bear that in mind the next time you hear about what a wonderful city Fort Mill is to raise a family and what a spectacular school system they have.  You may want to think twice about living there.

I made a brief post last night summing up the results of several primaries across the state. There were candidates I was really gunning for who came up short and others I was hoping would fall on their faces who managed to eek it out, but nonetheless, the reformers made gains.

The two most watched races in the Senate both had positive results. Tom Davis managed to knock off RINO Catherine Ceips last night in Senate District 46. With Davis being Sanford’s former Chief of Staff, we know we’ll have someone in there who will support the Governor’s low tax, low spend, pro-growth agenda far more than Ceips did, which was practically never.

The other race was in Senate District 23. Katrina Shealy, the Chairman of the Lexington County Republican Committee came up short by five points, but managed to force Jake Knotts into a run off election. I think Shealy would have won this race by her own right had there not been a third candidate running, but that no longer matters. Knotts received 45% of the vote, which means the majority didn’t want him to return. The run off election will be determined by who has the best ground game.

Randy Scott is out in Senate District 39. He was defeated by former State Senator Mike Rose who is another reform minded conservative. With Scott gone that is one less RINO working against our governor for a better South Carolina.

Jim Ritchie may be seeing his final days in the Senate since Shane Martin also held him to a run off. Martin actually beat Ritchie by almost 18 points last night, but he didn’t make the 50% mark. He ended up with 49.63% of the vote. Doh! Fortunately, since Martin did so well I think the odds are in his favor in the run off.

There was some improvement in the House as well, but the Senate is the one that really needs gutted. I would have preferred to see a few more victories last night. We needed Carl Gullick out of the House and it almost happened. We also needed B.R. Skelton out and his opponent gave him a bit of a scare. Luke Rankin is another worthless glutton in the Senate we could have done without.  Hopefully, the strong efforts by the challengers that came up short will be enough to force these guys to reevaluate what it is they are doing in Columbia. Of course, I am not holding my breath.

Overall, I am happy with the results of the election and I hope to see some better things from the new legislature in 2009.  As for the survivors who should have been voted off the island and didn’t, now is the time to start finding their replacements.  We have two years to prepare them.

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.

Carl Gullick survived a strong primary challenge tonight from Kyle Boyd, retaining his seat by a mere 183 votes. I was out working at some of the polls today and I have to wonder how many Democrats may have voted in the Republican primary in this district to keep Gullick. After all, he is de facto Democrat in a safe Republican seat. The polls I went to had voters overwhelmingly taking part in the GOP primary which arouses my suspicion.

Kyle and everyone who donated their time and money to his candidacy deserve a huge pat on the back for their efforts in coming so close to bringing some needed change to the 48th District. They definitely had ole Carl on the ropes.

My “esteemed” Congressman Jack Spratt (D-SC-05) who most certainly has had his share of fat, is running around bragging about the record $3.1 trillion budget that the Democrat Controlled Congress has passed in Washington. This is a reckless and irresponsible budget for a great many reasons.

One, it eliminates cuts to Medicare and Medicaid which are both a huge drain on our tax dollars and becoming more of a financial burden on the Federal government with each passing year. These entitlement programs need to be drastically cut back or they are going to consume a piece of the pie far too large for us to sustain in the not so distant future. The budget also expands SCHIP, another Socialist entitlement program that addicts our newborn citizens to the government nanny state the moment they exit the womb.

Spratt claims that we will have a balanced budget by 2012 with a large surplus, but that is also a flawed assessment. This balance will only be achieved if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire which will result in the largest tax increase in American history, heavily hitting the middle class and if the are no further military expenses regarding operations in Iraq and Afghanistan after 2009. If John McCain becomes President that is out the window and if Barack Obama becomes President it’s not likely to happen despite what he says.

This is a feckless spending plan that throws the baby out with the bath water.

There are three candidates in the Tuesday’s primary to determine who the Republican nominee will be for the 12th Senate District. The 12th covers part of Spartanburg County and is currently represented by State Senator John Hawkins who is thankfully retiring. The three candidates are business owner Lee Bright, State Representative Scott Talley of the 34th State House District, and business L.B. Watson.

Bright has a firm and outspoken position on lowering the income tax burden on state residents and reigning in the disgusting 40% growth of government we have experienced over the past three years in Columbia. He is correct in his assessment that if we lower the income tax and institute some type of tort reform it will be a beacon for industrial growth here in South Carolina.

Talley also has a taxpayer friendly record. Governor Mark Sanford named him a “taxpayer hero” for his efforts at cutting taxes and frivolous spending.

As a State Representative, Scott:

• Served on the committee that drafted the property tax relief package…cutting property taxes by $500,000,000.

• Backed a plan to eliminate grocery taxes, saving taxpayers $200 million per year.

• Supported a plan to cut income taxes by $86 million per year.

• Pushed a plan to suspend the state’s $16.75-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax for three months.

• Introduced a plan to cap state spending at the rate of population growth plus the growth in personal income..

Scott has also consistently backed a plan that limits the growth of government spending to population + inflation.

L.B. Watson has also proclaimed himself to be have a conservative view on spending public dollars. I’ve a harder time finding more information on him.

I think the state will probably do well with any one of these guys in the Senate which is a nice change of pace and they’ll certainly be an improvement over Hawkins. This is a win-win situation no matter the outcome.

The Herald -Journal today wrote an article about the Senate District 13 race claiming that the three Senate candidates are on the “same page” when it comes to spending. It’s quite apparent that Robert Dalton, who authored the article, didn’t take even five minutes to look up Jim Ritchie’s abysmal record in the area of spending. Ritchie may tout his proposed constitutional amendment that would have imposed a spending cap on the budget, but he doesn’t practice what he preaches.

The 2007-2008 budget contained an 11% spending increase over 2006. This budget was stuffed full of wasteful pork and misuse of our tax dollars. Where was Jim Ritchie on this? Why, he voted in favor of it.

In 2007, when Governor Sanford vetoed 243 budget items for a total savings of $167 million of taxpayer dollars, Jim Ritchie voted to sustain only one of those vetoes. One, out of 243. In 2005 he voted to sustain a meager 10. And in 2004, Ritchie voted to sustain 8 budget vetoes out of 106.

The South Carolina Club for Growth, a taxpayer watchdog group, gave Jim Ritchie a failing grade of “F” for the 2007 session.

Hyde and Martin are the reformers in this race. Ritchie is the bankrupt status quo. To claim that Ritchie is on the same page as his two challengers on issues of spending is simply fraudulent.

“The Velvet Hammer.”

She earned the nickname from the Black Caucus and the Democratic Caucus. Years ago, she told another House speaker — in a tone that caused the House to halt like a tornado had struck –”I will not be disrespected!”

On Tuesday, Moody-Lawrence thanked her peers, and in the next breath, she threw down a gauntlet of challenges. She may have had cancer, but her voice sounded like thunderclaps.

Moody-Lawrence spoke for just a few minutes, yet the place was spellbound. She did not talk of laws she created or defeated. All she talked about is what is right and what is wrong.

“People have put you here because they have confidence in you,” she said. “They thought you had good sense.”

So, she demanded action.

“Improve the human condition,” she told the legislators, using her longtime catch-phrase. “Do it for ordinary people. Every nationality. Rich and poor. Young and old. Black and white. Make life better for that little boy or girl, barefooted today, so they can be contributors to society. Not fodder for prisons.”

The Herald

Fundamentally, I agree with everything Bessie said. I just take difference with her as to the method of how we achieve those goals.

And she’s right about those who have been elected. People put the trust in them to go to Columbia to make the right decisions for the state. So far, most of those who have been elected have failed in their duty. It’s yet another reminder that we have an important primary coming up on Tuesday and have some important changes to make.

Good luck to Bessie Moody-Lawrence and Godspeed.

Contact: Gary Coats
Phone: 864.641.5591
E-mail: gary@steveparker08.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 4th, 2008

Boiling Springs, SC - The Steve Parker Campaign(State House 37) has learned that DHEC has reviewed their documentation, the mailers sent by Ralph Davenport, and the Conservation Voters of South Carolina (CVSC) and is prepared to inform the media that their allegations attacking Steve Parker are false. More information as the various Media outlets break this story.

Media contact at DHEC : Thom Berry

Images of False Allegation Mailers
Conservation Voters of SC Mailer Front
Conservation Voters of SC Mailer Back
Davenport Mailer Front
Davenport Mailer Back

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Contact: Gary Coats
Phone: 864.641.5591
E-mail: gary@steveparker08.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 3rd, 2008

Boiling Springs, SC - On Monday, June 2nd, a mailer titled “DUMPED” hit mailboxes in House District 37 making accusations that are totally false. The accusations are based on two anonymous calls to DHEC that were proven to have no validity in 1999.

We, the campaign and supporters of Steve Parker, demand Ralph Davenport to publicly denounce this literature, distance himself from the Conservation Voters of South Carolina (CVSC) and disavow their endorsement.

###

It’s official!  Glenn McCall was overwhelmingly elected South Carolina’s next RNC committeeman, replacing Buddy Witherspoon who is running against Lindsey Graham in next week’s primary.  I have stated before that McCall is an excellent choice for this position.  He puts principle above politics and that’s hard to come by.