Author: Paul Gable

Horry County Council Chair Special Election

The Horry County Council Chair special election race to succeed Tom Rice is heating up even though Rice has yet to resign his position, something he will have to do prior to being sworn in as the new representative for the S.C. 7th Congressional District.

Even before Rice won his election to the U.S. House of Representatives, former council member Mark Lazarus and former county council chairman Liz Gilland announced they would be candidates in the special election that will fill the remaining two years of Rice’s unexpired term. Gilland bested Lazarus in the 2006 Republican primary election for county council chair.

Tomorrow, current District 11 county council member Al Allen will announce his candidacy for the chairman’s seat.

Continue Reading →

Secession Again?

An unpopular (in some regions) candidate wins a close election in a sharply divided country to serve as president over the next four years. Sounds like a good reason for secession.

1860?

No, 2012, but, once again the secession beat is being heard in South Carolina and thoughts of James L. Petigru come to mind.

Elements in the state are trying to revisit history as new petitions to secede from the Union emerged on the White House website over the weekend following the presidential election.

Continue Reading →

2012 Election Voting Concerns

As we’ve all gone through the 2012 Election period and have seen our candidates talk, debate, state their issues and their platforms, we had a pretty good idea who we were going to vote for. But did that vote get counted?

In the 2000 election with George Bush and Al Gore we saw the election counting stopped by the Supreme Court. Whether you think that was a good idea or a bad idea, it left everyone thinking that there was election tampering.

Since that time we’ve had the 2008 election. We’ve seen the media ramp up their candidate and push as hard as they can for their man. Again, are we convinced that there has been no election tampering?

Continue Reading →

A Call for Political Activism

The need for political activism at the local level is a constant one in my opinion. Our governments, at all levels, are only as good as we demand them to be.

Too often, citizens get hyped up about certain issues, often by outside organizations, as we approach the two-year general election mark. These organizations, backed by big budgets, promote their viewpoint on issues they care about, usually for various selfish benefits.

These issues may be important, but they pale in comparison to the many issues on the local level that pass by, almost unnoticed, on a monthly basis.

Continue Reading →

Election 2012 Review

Election 2012 is now history and we correctly predicted President Barack Obama would be returned to office for four more years.

This was an obvious pick from various polling data over the last week of the race, but the overall results on the national level demonstrated once again that American voters cannot be taken for granted.

Challenger Mitt Romney ran on the economy and the number one concern of voters in exit polling interviews was the economy, yet incumbent Obama was re-elected and it wasn’t as close as we anticipated. In fact, it could be called a landslide in the electoral vote column.

Continue Reading →

Our Election 2012 Predictions

As polls open for Election 2012, we thought it would be interesting to take a shot at predicting the outcome of some of the more difficult and contentious races around the state.

For this we chose two SC House races on the coast where only petition candidates are on the ballot, two contentious SC Senate races in the midlands, the new 7th Congressional District race and the one for that White House in D.C.

These are not endorsements nor are they preferences on our part. They are merely our best guess on who will win tomorrow. Yell at our picks if you wish.

Continue Reading →

Tinubu Hits Rice on Project Blue

At a press conference yesterday, Seventh Congressional District Democratic candidate Gloria Bromell Tinubu charged Republican opponent Tom Rice with crony capitalism for his support of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation’s notorious Project Blue initiative.

Tinubu pointed to deals benefiting EDC board members and Rice contributors associated with the project which purports to have a startup business called Covation bring a 1,000 job call center to Horry County.

At the heart of Tinubu’s charges are the $24-$30 million public dollars incentives for a project with a brand new company whose details have been kept out of public view through a series of county council “executive sessions” to discuss the project.

Continue Reading →

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.”

Continue Reading →

Beware of Local Option Sales Tax Referendum

Voters in Richland and Georgetown counties should be wary when they go to the polls next week to vote on the one-cent local option sales tax referendum they will see on the ballot.

Inspired by politicians as a way to claim taxpayers voted to tax themselves, the referendum couldn’t be placed on the ballot before first passing a three reading ordinance at county council followed by a massive public relations campaign to convince voters this is a good thing.

One only has to look to Horry County to see what can happen.

Continue Reading →

SC data breach ‘about the worst you can get’

Hackers could have in their possession taxpayer information from the S.C. Department of Revenue that would allow crooks to take over bank accounts, file for bogus tax refunds or get fraudulent loans, national data security experts said Monday.

“This is about the worst you can get,” said Avivah Litan, an ID theft analyst with the information technology research group Gartner. Added Rick Holland, an analyst with Forrester Research, “If I were a resident of South Carolina, I would be pretty concerned.”

S.C. leaders are trying to resolve a cyber attack affecting four times as many people as all previous S.C. data breaches in the past seven years.

Continue Reading →
1 … 142 143 144 145 146 … 171