Author: Paul Gable

State Farmers Market Purchase on Hold

13 Million Will Buy You A Toxic Waste Site

One of the state budget items to be discussed this week by the House/Senate conference committee is the proposed purchase of additional land at the current site of the state farmers market in Lexington.

The House put $1 (one dollar) in the budget for the purchase while the Senate was much more generous with $13 million. Quite a large range to discuss and there are many reasons why.

When the state moved the farmers market two years ago, sites in Lexington and Richland counties were considered. Sources in the General Assembly say the Richland site was preferred for a long time until a late drive with petitions and the like secured the market in Lexington.

What wasn’t known at the time, according to legislators we talked to, was that the Lexington site has considerable environmental issues. It was a toxic chemical waste dump for many years and there are EPA warning signs on the property to this day.

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Lexington GOP Knottso Smart

Lexington GOP Knottso Smart

The most foolish thing I have seen in this year’s election cycle so far is a resolution “regarding” Sen. Jake Knotts proposed by the leadership of the Lexington County Republican Party.

The resolution proposes to censure Knotts and kick him out of the Republican Party. Why? Essentially, for being smarter than his opponents.
Included in its whereases are statements that Knotts: “orchestrated a lawsuit that took advantage of a deeply flawed and contradictory law concerning the filing of a “Statement of Economic Interests,” and “selfishly abused the law in order to eliminate his opposition from the ballot for the June 12, 2012 GOP primary.”

It is well known that Sen. Knotts and Gov. Nikki Haley don’t have much use for each other. Haley’s BFF Katrina Shealy filed to run against Knotts in the Republican primary for his Senate seat.

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Our Shadow Quasi-Governments

Government waste, sacred cows, special interests are all topics of almost constant conversation among the taxpaying public especially in difficult economic times as we have now.

Everybody has an opinion on where public money is wasted. Citizens can quickly point out how they, their neighborhood or their community needs are being ignored while someone else’s are being favored.

And everybody has a concept of what we call special interests working behind the scenes to get favorable treatment at the expense of the general public.

But what do we really know about what we suspect is happening?

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SCEC Rules Gloria Bromell Tinubu Winner

SCEC Rules Gloria Bromell Tinubu Winner

For the time being, Gloria Bromell Tinubu is the winner of the Democratic primary election for the nomination for the new 7th Congressional District.

The S.C. Election Commission voted 3-2 Friday to not count the approximately 2,300 votes cast for withdrawn candidate Ted Vick in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election for the new 7th Congressional District.

By not counting the Vick votes, Gloria Bromell Tinubu wins the nomination because she garnered nearly 53 percent of the votes counted to 39 percent for second place Preston Brittain.

But, in this year of one election lawsuit after another, the decision will now go to court.

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Finally, Fireworks in 7th Congressional District

Political fireworks are finally being launched in the 7th Congressional District primary races.

To date, the complete lack of buzz about the race district wide has been its most noticeable characteristic. Now that 10 of the original 14 candidates have been eliminated, we are finally getting down to some “good ole Pee Dee politickin.”

The biggest issue right now is if there will be a Democratic runoff election between Gloria Bromell Tinubu and Preston Brittain. The S.C. Election Commission will certify the election results from the primary Friday. There are two possibilities, one that Tinubu will be ruled the winner outright or two that a runoff will be held.

At issue are the nearly 2,300 votes Ted Vick received in Tuesday’s voting, two weeks after Vick dropped out of the race. Vick’s name remained on the ballot. With the Vick votes included in the vote totals, Tinubu captured 49 percent of the total vote and a runoff would be required. Without the Vick votes included, Tinubu took 52 percent of the total which would give her the win outright.

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Preston Brittain Campaign Claims Runoff

Preston Brittain Campaign Claims Runoff

The Preston Brittain for Congress Campaign sent out an e-mail to volunteers and supporters Wednesday night saying there would be a runoff for the 7th Congressional District Democratic nomination.

The e-mail said, “I am proud to announce that we have won a spot in the runoff election.”

However, indications are that the final determination will be made by the S.C. Election Commission when it meets Friday June 15, 2012 to certify the results from the June 12th primary election.

At issue are the nearly 2,300 votes Ted Vick received in Tuesday’s voting, two weeks after Vick dropped out of the race. Vick’s name remained on the ballot. The S.C. Election Commission did not include Vick’s votes in its published results on scvotes.org.

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Depressed Voter Turnout is Primary Story

Depressed Voter Turnout is Primary Story

South Carolina held elections Tuesday and almost nobody bothered to show up. Voter turnout, or lack of it, was the story of Tuesday’s primary elections. Less than 10 percent (9.88%) of registered voters statewide bothered to come to the polls.

Low turnout was expected as continuing stories of candidates being struck from the ballot over the last two months dominated the news, but, under 10 percent is horrible. The old Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union had more voter excitement in the past than this election generated.

Even Horry County with the new 7th Congressional District, four contested House races and one contested Senate race to vote for barely broke through the 10 percent voter turnout threshold.

In the new 7th Congressional District, Gloria Bromell Tinubu may have avoided a runoff and won the Democratic nomination outright after nearly 8,000 votes for Ted Vick were tossed out of the ballot count. Vick dropped out of the race two weeks ago when he was arrested for DUI and weapons possession in Columbia.

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Election Day at Last…

The election day that we weren’t sure was going to happen is now upon us.

With nearly 300 candidates wiped from the ballot due to their failing to file required paperwork properly and several unsuccessful attempts at the state court level to have at least some of them restored, one last ditch effort was attempted yesterday at the federal court level to hold off the election.

It only took hours for a three judge panel to decline to issue an injunction holding off the primary. According to reports, the judges met in a conference call and denied to hear the case.

In all honesty, it was a long stretch to attempt to find standing in federal court for the five plaintiffs that filed the case. They were all candidates, some from each party, who were tossed from the ballot earlier due to irregularities with their paperwork.

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South Carolina’s Pension Push Into High-Octane Investments

South Carolina’s Pension Push Into High-Octane Investments

New York Times Curtis M. Loftis Jr., South Carolina’s treasurer, says he worries that state pension officials have had their heads turned by Wall Street players who stand to benefit from state money. “This is a world where people have private jets, massive apartments overlooking Central Park, people who live […]

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Light Goes Out at CASA

I was saddened last week to read that SLED is investigating Citizens Against Spouse Abuse for misappropriation of funds.

My first thought was ‘there goes another point of light, extinguished through the selfishness of public policy.’

On second thought, I realized this has nothing to do with public policy, because in today’s political environment, there is no public policy. There is government policy, business policy, even wine policy but the public doesn’t deserve a policy.

President George H.W. Bush warned this was coming in his inaugural address nearly 24 years ago:

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