Author: Paul Gable

Trump Joins the Swamp with Fry Endorsement

Donald Trump, the man who promised as president to go to Washington and ‘Drain the Swamp’, has instead jumped right into the middle of the SC 7th Congressional District swamp by endorsing Russell Fry for Congress.
Trump apparently made this endorsement without ever meeting any of the candidates. It was evidently enough that a few establishment politicians like Gov. Henry McMaster and GOP Chairman Drew McKissick, RINO’s to most South Carolinians, spoke up for Fry. The swamp also had former candidate and carpetbagger Graham Allen ready to immediately chime right in on Fry’s behalf.
It was a neatly staged production to get Fry the endorsement, but it didn’t work with most voters. The true conservative base and most MAGA devotees in the 7th District immediately took to social media to express their dismay that Trump would endorse Fry.
One popular post shared numerous times read, “I stand with Trump but not this time. No to Fry.”
When is Fry going to stand up and publicly declare he agrees with Trump that the 2020 presidential election was stolen? And when is Fry going to publicly agree with Trump that Lindsey Graham is truly a RINO?
When is local Red Hat leader Don Bowne going to publicly demand Fry stand with Trump and make those declarations?
Fry will gain a few votes from those who allow Trump do their thinking for them, those who would immediately book tickets to Jonestown and drink the Kool Aid if Trump told them to. But they are a very limited group in the 7th Congressional District.

click on headline above to read more

Continue Reading →

Chamber Candidates Rice and Fry versus the Field in 7th Congressional District Race

When President Donald Trump ran for office in 2016, a major pledge of his candidacy was to “Drain the Swamp” of Washington, D.C., a phrase that attracted many voters.
Draining the swamp included key items like clamping down on the influence of lobbyists and ending the practice of politicians being the puppets of ‘big money donors.’ As was said at the time, big money controls politics, often at the expense of average citizens.
While Trump was able to partially drain some of the influence of the swamp, the idea that more draining must be done still rests in the minds of many voters, especially Republicans.
The special interests in Horry County, the lobbyists and big money donors, include the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, the Grand Strand Business Alliance and the cabal associated with them.
One hears an almost constant din from the Chamber, the GSBA and their allies about the need for Interstate 73 and the federal, state and local tax dollars needed to build it. Could it be because members of the cabal stand to gain financially from construction of I-73?
Interstate 73 has been the subject of recent Facebook ads by the South Carolina Taxpayers Association asking the voters of South Carolina to call SC Senate President Thomas Alexander and request the General Assembly to address the maintenance and upgrading needed on all the roads throughout the state rather than a ‘special interest’ project like I-73.
Rice went to Congress nearly 10 years ago with the promise to get the money needed to build I-73. It hasn’t happened. The Chamber, to date, continues to support a Rice reelection even after Rice’s vote to impeach President Donald Trump made him extremely unpopular with the majority of voters in the 7th Congressional District.
SC Rep. Russell Fry took eight months, after the impeachment vote, before he made any public remarks about Rice’s vote to impeach President Trump. It was only after Fry announced his intention to challenge Rice in the upcoming Republican Primary that he began to criticize Rice and the Fry criticism of Rice to date has been lukewarm at best, rather like criticizing a family member.

Continue Reading →

Richardson Profile Grows, Allen Exits 7th Congressional District Race

Four and one-half months to go until Republican Primary voting for the SC 7th Congressional District nomination and things are starting to heat up.
Ken Richardson, Horry County School Board Chairman and Congressional challenger to incumbent Tom Rice, made a big splash this week with the Make America Great Again supporters in an op-ed Richardson wrote challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election and support for true election integrity. Richardson’s article was a featured piece on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast.
Because of his fundraising, continuous trips to speak throughout the 7th District and growing national attention, Richardson’s candidate profile continues to grow.
Richardson only began serious fundraising activities last week. As he said last week, if the race is going to be decided by money alone, he would just write a check. He put his money where his mouth is by loaning $500,000 to his campaign fund. In addition, Richardson raised approximately $200,000 last year and spent approximately $150,000 of that amount on various campaign expenses.
His campaign account currently boasts $557,030.08 with checks beginning to roll in from the over $200,000 in donation pledges Richardson solicited in the last two weeks.
Graham Allen, a conservative activist and media personality, who never lived in the 7th Congressional District, decided to suspend his campaign and concentrate on his nationwide appeal as a media personality.
Allen said he is currently working on forthcoming projects and issue advocacy with his media company and will continue to spread “a message of freedom, personal liberty and America First conservatism across the country…”

click on headline above to read more

Continue Reading →

Patience Pays Off for Richardson Campaign

Ken Richardson has prepared for the final five-month push to the Republican Primary where he expects to unseat Tom Rice for the nomination for the SC 7th Congressional District.
Since announcing his candidacy in February 2021, Richardson has spent the last year speaking throughout the district to over 100 groups of Republican voters.
“I wanted to spend one year talking to voters about what they think are the important issues facing the 7th Congressional District,” said Richardson. “The other candidates in the race were all about raising money. If representing the people of the 7th Congressional District was only about money, I would just go write a check.”
After a career as a successful businessman, Richardson owned the only Mercedes, BMW and Cadillac dealership under one roof in the United States, Richardson, after selling his dealership, entered politics in 2018 winning the Horry County School Board Chairman race.
From the beginning, being school board chairman was only the first stop for Richardson.
“I always had challenging Tom Rice in the 7th Congressional District in my sights,” Richardson said. “Initially I had targeted 2024 as the year, but, when Rice voted to impeach President Donald Trump on January 13, 2021, I moved my timetable up by two years.”
The SC 7th Congressional District is one of the most pro-Trump Congressional Districts in the nation. In his talks to voters over the past year, Richardson has found Rice’s vote to impeach the president is foremost in their minds.
“Tom Rice and his campaign manager both said over time the people would forget about Rice’s vote to impeach President Donald Trump,” Richardson said. “What I have found over the past year is not only have the voters not forgotten that vote, they also have not forgiven Rice for casting it.”

click on headline above to read more

Continue Reading →

McMaster’s Liberal I-73 Agenda in State of State Speech

Governor Henry McMaster revealed what a pseudo-conservative he really is by including funding for the proposed Interstate 73 project in his State of the State agenda.
In his speech, McMaster said, “Our booming economy and rapid population growth have outpaced the state’s ability to keep up with improvements to our transportation infrastructure.”
Anyone driving on South Carolina roads would agree.
McMaster went on to say that he was asking the General Assembly to appropriate $660 million from the state’s share of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds and $600 million from the state’s excess revenue to the SC Department of Transportation.
McMaster said this one-time injection of $1.26 billion into the DOT budget would allow accelerate work on “some of the state’s highest priority projects.” Among those “highest priority projects” named was “the long-awaited start of construction on Interstate 73 from the Pee Dee to the Grand Strand.”
I’m sure McMasters’ words warmed the cockles of Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Karen Riordan’s heart and those of the special interests gathered around the Chamber supporting I-73.
Can we conclude payback to those interests for the many campaign contributions made to McMaster’s war chest?
Consider this:
When McMaster attended a Chamber press conference on I-73 last fall, he announced he would ask the General Assembly for $300 million from ARPA funds to construct six miles of the road in Dillon County. Fifty million dollars per mile, even for this boondoggle, seems a bit rich, but those are McMaster’s words.

click on headline above to read more

Continue Reading →

Jay Jordan Another ‘Good Ol’ Boy’ in State Senate Bid

The special Republican Primary for state Senate District 31 next Tuesday presents a classic ‘good ol’ boy’ versus outsider matchup between current House member Jay Jordan and businessman Mike Reichenbach.
It will be a test of how dedicated Republican voters are to see change in the way politics are conducted in South Carolina.
House incumbent Jordan has Starboard Communications, the political consulting firm of Walter Whetsell, running his campaign, which should be a red flag for voters who want change. Whetsell is the consultant for Congressman Tom Rice and is closely tied to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and its Interstate 73 project.
Another interesting fact is how the South Carolina Association for Justice (SCAJ) has provided maximum contributions to the Jordan campaign. SCAJ has its own named political action committee, SCAJ PAC, which gave the maximum to Jordan. Then, there are 10 more associated PACs, Justice PACs 1-10, all of which have the same address as the SCAJ PAC and each of these supposedly individual PACs gave maximum contributions to the Jordan campaign on the same day – December 6, 2021, according to Jordan’s campaign disclosure filings.
Eleven supposedly individual PACs, all with the same address as the South Carolina Association for Justice PAC, appears on the surface to be an attempt by an association of lawyers to circumvent the state’s campaign finance law.
Supposedly independent PACs with the same address have been funded by the Grand Strand Business Alliance, which is funded by the Chamber, to support Chamber candidates in the past. It may be technically legal but it doesn’t pass the smell test.
It should be noted these lawyer PACs provided the same type of support to Horry County Sen. Luke Rankin in his 2020 reelection campaign. That campaign and its internal associations are now the subject of a lawsuit by Rankin opponent John Gallman.

click on above headline to read more

Continue Reading →

Rice Fishes for Voters While Fry Fishes for Money

It’s been one year since Congressman Tom Rice’s vote to impeach former President Donald Trump.
That fateful January 13, 2021 vote marked the beginning of Rice’s rapid fall from grace with the Republican voters of the SC 7th Congressional District, who constitute a considerable majority of the total voters in the district.
The SC 7th Congressional District is one of the most pro-Trump Congressional districts in the nation. From a political standpoint, Rice could have done nothing worse than his betrayal of the president to the constituents he represents.
Shortly after Rice’s fatal vote, Rice’s political consultant, Walter Whetsell, the go to guy for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, told news media that a week is like a lifetime in politics and the voters would forget about the impeachment vote in a couple of weeks.
Whetsell’s statement only goes to prove how out of touch Whetsell is with the realities of current day Republicanism in the 7th Congressional District.
Rice has chosen to run for reelection telling media representatives that the Republican Party must move on from Trump and that he (Rice) will run on his record of accomplishment for the nearly 10 years he has represented the 7th Congressional District.
But, Rice has no record of accomplishment in Washington. He went to Washington with two big goals – secure funding for Interstate 73 and bring “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” to the district. Despite working with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives for his first six years there, Rice was unable to secure any significant funding for I-73.
While Rice likes to point to the Dillon inland port as an example of his ability to create jobs, that project actually owes its existence considerably more to former state Sen. Hugh Leatherman than anything Rice produced.
I-73 will probably be at the core of Rice’s reelection effort. It was the Chamber and the cabal of would be ‘movers and shakers’ associated with it that first got Rice elected to Congress and has been as the center of his reelection efforts since. The thought was that Rice and lobbying efforts in Washington would secure funding for the road’s construction.
Whetsell is firmly attached to the I-73 project as the “poll(?)” he conducted last year on the project for the Chamber demonstrates. And Whetsell represents Chamber candidates such as Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune, state Reps. Case Brittain and Tim McGinnis and will represent Mark Lazarus’ attempt to win back the county chairman position he lost in 2018, all with the idea that local tax dollars must be dedicated to I-73.

click on headline above to read more

Continue Reading →

Gov. McMaster Tries to Keep I-73 Project Alive

Gov. Henry McMaster requested the General Assembly appropriate $300 million, from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds the state received from the federal government, to construction of Interstate 73 as one of the items in the executive budget he submitted to the legislative body earlier this week.
McMaster made good on the promise he made to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce at an October 2021 press conference when he said he would request the I-73 funding from the General Assembly.
Traditionally, executive budgets submitted by governors of this state have received minimal consideration before being shelved and ignored when the SC House writes the budget. There is no reason to believe the same won’t happen with the governor’s request for I-73 funding.
McMaster presented a funding plan for the I-73 project which consisted of $800 million from the state, including the $300 million which is actually federal funds given to the state, an additional $450 million from the federal government and $350 million from the local governments in Horry County.
However, Chamber President Karen Riordan attempted to spin the governor’s remarks at the October press conference as a pledge that the I-73 project would receive $300 million from the state. She was joined in that spin effort by Rep. Case Brittain, who in his first year in the SC House was made president of the I-73/74/75 Corridor Association, which is a high-sounding name for a Chamber created entity.
In addition, Congressman Tom Rice and SC Rep. Russell Fry were prominent at the press conference and enthusiastic in their statements on I-73 funding. Fry, of course, announced in August that he was challenging Rice for the Congressional seat because Rice has been a failure to his constituents in the 7th Congressional District. GSD has said over and over that Fry is really a clone of Rice who hopes to gain Chamber support for his Congressional run should Rice continue to falter with voters.
Actually, the press conference and statements by the various elected officials was nothing more than an attempt to keep the I-73 project on some kind of life support.
What has happened since that October press conference?

click on headline above to read more

Continue Reading →

Rice, Lazarus and I-73 in June Republican Primary

The entry of Mark Lazarus to challenge county chairman Johnny Gardner for the Republican nomination in the coming June primaries brings an interesting aspect into the political discussion.
Lazarus joins Congressman Tom Rice as the two major proponents of Interstate 73 construction with local tax dollars in the Republican camp.
Both candidates will use political consultant Walter Whetsell to run their campaigns. It was Whetsell’s Starboard Communications that supposedly conducted a poll for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce a few months ago that alleged nearly 80% of the approximately 600 voters contacted statewide supported construction of I-73.
The poll itself remains an issue of question in that it presented the results the Chamber desired without publicizing any of the actual questions used or details of where the respondent voters live.
Nevertheless, Chamber President Karen Riordan used the poll to promote the Chamber’s desired propaganda about I-73. With the pollster running the campaigns of two of the biggest races in the area, we can expect a barrage of I-73 propaganda to play a major role in the utterances of Rice and Lazarus.
There is an additional component to the I-73 issue. Both Rice and Lazarus have consistently promoted the need for local tax dollars to be given to the SC Department of Transportation for construction of the road. In one of his last acts as chairman in 2018, Lazarus convinced county council to appropriate approximately $30 million per year to SCDOT for I-73 construction.
Gardner, who defeated Lazarus in 2018, was able to get council approval to cancel that appropriation before any county money was sent to the state.
Rice, even when he was a welcomed member of the Republican House caucus, something that changed when he voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, was generally unable to acquire any significant federal dollars for I-73 construction. Hence his decision to press for local tax dollars as he continues to push for the road.

Continue Reading →

The Crawford Factor in County Vote on $11.5 Million Bond Issue for CCU

(Above photo Cam Crawford being sworn into office by his wife Heather Crawford)

It is ironic that Horry County Council is considering second reading of an ordinance for a $11.5 million bond issue for Coastal Carolina University tonight.
The request for the bond issue came to council from the Horry County Higher Education Commission, a quasi-governmental, non-funded (by state government) entity created by the SC General Assembly in 1959, before county governments existed, to oversee the use of county tax millage for Coastal Carolina University. Its members are recommended by the county legislative delegation and appointed by the governor.
The Higher Education Commission currently is funded at the rate of 0.7 mils on every property tax bill sent out in the county. It is unclear in the ordinance if the bonds will be repaid from the revenue generated by the current millage rate. CCU also receives revenue from the one-cent sales tax for education levied in the county. That tax will be up for renewal by referendum in November 2022.
The bond issue is not unique through history since 1959, but several factors call it into question at this time. Recently, the news of county council member Cam Crawford’s November 2019 termination of employment from the university made headlines.
According to a story written from the documents provided by CCU, Crawford was the subject of a Title IX complaint by a female student, who also worked part-time in a position Crawford supervised. The female student reported “discriminatory behaviors relating to physical contact with student employees, kissing of a student employee’s head, and additional behaviors of a sexual nature.” After investigating the complaint, the university concluded, “evidence does support a finding that Mr. Crawford violated University policies UNIV-466 Title IX Statement of Non-Discrimination and UNIV-468 Sexual Misconduct Policy.”
The termination was kept under wraps for two years before surfacing last month. According to stories published in two local newspapers, Freedom of Information requests on the termination were treated differently by CCU. One newspaper received documented information about the termination while the other was told no documents existed related to its FOIA request.
To date, there has been no explanation from CCU as to why similar FOIA requests received totally opposite responses.

click on headline above to read more

Continue Reading →
1 … 14 15 16 17 18 … 171