Tag: tom rice

Conservatives for Responsible Government Endorsements

The Conservatives for Responsible Government, probably the most truly conservative group in Horry County, announced their candidate endorsements this week.

CRG supports low taxes, low spending and individual freedom through limited government. It is not an automatic endorser of candidates spouting labels and clichés.

“Party labels are not important for our endorsement,” said CRG chair Chris Panos. “We are not interested in whether candidates have an “R” or a “D” behind their names. We want candidates who live by our principles of small government and individual liberty.”

More Dirty Tricks

The past two days we have attempted to discover the source of a door hanger, that Grand Strand Daily has labeled “dirty tricks”. The door hanger appears to be a push piece favoring one candidate in the House District 56 race while claiming to be a non-partisan informational message to voters.

That quest continues as we are awaiting information from Freedom Works Southeast Regional Director Allen Page as to who printed and who paid for the door hanger. We were told yesterday that Page had all the information and would be in contact with Grand Strand Daily.

Regardless of the provenance of the door hanger and whether it is in fact a partisan piece, one question addressed on it falls into another area of dirty tricks that is much more egregious, in our opinion.

Candidates to Address Conservatives for Responsible Government

The Conservatives for Responsible Government PAC will feature talks from local politicians seeking endorsement from the organization at its regular meeting Thursday October 25, 2012.

This will be an opportunity to hear from candidates who were unchallenged in the June primary elections who are seeking CRG endorsement in next month’s general election.

Scheduled to speak to the meeting are Horry County council incumbents Bob Grabowski, Paul Prince and Marion Foxworth as well as Senate District 28 Republican candidate Greg Hembree and Horry County Republican chairman Johnnie Bellamy speaking for S.C. 7th District House Republican candidate Tom Rice.

Revelations Rock(er) Project Blue

New revelations this week about Covation LLC COO David Rocker’s criminal past brought further questions to the viability of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation’s now infamous Project Blue.

Among other revelations, Rocker failed to file income tax returns for 14 consecutive years while participating in a Klein conspiracy to interfere with the lawful government functions of the IRS.

This new information comes to light as the EDC is lobbying for third reading approval, by county council, of an ordinance that would approve the issuance of $8 million in county general obligation debt as part of an estimated overall $24 million incentive package.

Controversial EDC Project Blue on Hold for Now

Public Money, Corporate Welfare

The revelations Monday of a tax fraud conviction and jail sentence for one of the company officials associated with the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation’s Project Blue leads to a conclusion of an apparent shocking lack of due diligence by a number of entities charged with fiscal responsibility for the expenditure of public money.

In many state and local jurisdictions throughout the U.S., conviction of a felony by a corporate officer, especially one associated with tax fraud, would automatically exempt a company from consideration for public money economic development incentives. Such does not appear to be the case in Horry County or South Carolina.

The EDC has put together a deal that would involve approximately $24 million in local and state incentives to Covation, a startup company with no demonstrated performance records.

Top Secret Economic Development

The secrecy surrounding a project of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation, which will soon be up for second reading by county council on an ordinance to issue $8 million in public debt for the project, may be very good news for county residents.

I have had several conversations recently with local Republican activist, and one of the founders of the South Strand Republican Club, John Bonsignor about possibilities for the project. Bonsignor said he was asked, by EDC board member and former county Republican Party chairman Robert Rabon, to help promote passage of the ordinance by council members.

Even though he was given few details of the project, Bonsignor agreed to do so. Bonsignor did mention to me that he was of the understanding the total incentive package for the project totaled approximately $30 million for a 1,000 job call center. Bonsignor said he would like to get more details to have confidence in the project.

Why All the Secrecy

Several days ago, we ran a story about how South Carolina ranks dead last among the 50 states for freedom of information access to government information. Thursday night, we learned that Horry County is attempting to rank at the bottom of the state’s 46 counties for public disclosure of information about its actions.

Horry County Council voted 7-2 Thursday night to pass first reading of an ordinance that would allow the issuance of $8 million of general obligation debt while refusing to publicly state what the money will be used for. Council members Harold Worley and Marion Foxworth voted no on the ordinance while members Brent Schulz, Paul Price and Paul Prince were not present at the meeting.

This vote took place during the second specially called council meeting in three days, both dedicated to executive sessions on a Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation initiative called “Project Blue.”

Tom Rice, Gloria Tinuibu Win Impressively

Tom Rice, Gloria Tinubu Win Impressively

Tom Rice and Gloria Bromell Tinubu secured the nominations, in impressive fashion, of the Republican and Democratic parties respectively for the new 7th Congressional District. The two will meet in the November general election to see who goes to Washington.

Both scored significant double digit wins in defeating opponents Andre Bauer (Rice) and Preston Brittain (Tinubu) on Tuesday’s primary runoff elections.

We offer our congratulations to both.

Based on turnout in the primaries and the makeup of the district, Rice has to now be considered the serious favorite to become the new Congressman from South Carolina in November.

That having been said, I am sure there are some out there, looking for a personal statement from me. So here we go.

Questions for Tom Rice

Questions Submitted for Tom Rice

We voted for Tommy Rice’s new best friend Nikki Haley two years ago and a lot of us chumps are not too happy with how that turned out…So, before we make the same mistake again, we first want to ask attorney Tom Rice here a few questions before we give him our vote.

By the way, did Tom or anybody else tell the gov why this is called “the Independent Republic of Horry?” Didn’t think so or she wouldn’t have been here yesterday. People don’t like to be told what to do here as the defaced campaign signs from two years ago demonstrated at the campaign stops.

Mr. Rice, a lot of questions folks wanted answers to questions that didn’t get asked of you at the debate the Myrtle Beach Chamber put on. Maybe that’s ‘cause the two TV stations which did the debate are both on the board of the Chamber. And maybe not.

State Ethics Committee Violated State Law

Nikki Haley & Tom Rice Anything But…

“Haley has her own problems. She faces an ethics inquiry beginning Thursday for her actions as a House member. Haley is no reformer, far from it. She rode the coattails of the Tea Party movement into office and promptly forgot it.”

~Grand Strand Daily

On this penultimate day of the primary election season, the forces of Gov. Nikki Haley and Congressional candidate Tom Rice will be joined in a stop Andre Bauer mode.

What a pairing. Haley endorsed Rice last Friday after she unsuccessfully tried to have Bauer stop Sen. Jake Knotts from blocking her proposed administration bill one day before.