Politics

Graham Allen Postpones Campaign Event in Myrtle Beach

Graham Allen, the carpetbagger from Mississippi via Anderson, S.C. running for the SC 7th Congressional District Republican nomination, postponed a campaign event scheduled for Myrtle Beach last night.
Campaign events, especially for candidates attempting to raise their name recognition, are rarely postponed except because of exceptional circumstances.
However, according to a posting on Facebook, this one was postponed because the event’s apparent headliners, Republican House members Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene were unable to attend.
Was the Allen campaign afraid nobody would show up if Gaetz and Greene weren’t there?
Does Allen have no message to convey to people he wants to represent in Congress without the help of Gaetz and Greene?
According to the most recent campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission, Allen has raised a total of $642,000 for his Congressional run with almost none of that amount coming from 7th District voters. The amount does not include a $92,000 loan from the candidate to his campaign. The report also shows a total of $435,000 has been spent by the campaign so far with barely a flicker of a rise in Allen’s name recognition among 7th Congressional District voters.
The only thing really known about Allen is he is running against incumbent Tom Rice because Rice voted to impeach former President Donald Trump and Allen vows to save America from the Communists in Washington.
Even if he just addressed those two issues, does Allen not have enough to say about them to convince the segment of Republican voters he is attempting to attract to vote for him?
Apparently not as the message said the event would be rescheduled for a time when Gaetz and Greene could attend.

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Proposed County Fireworks Restriction Ordinance Violates State Law

At its regular meeting Tuesday night, Horry County Council passed first reading of an ordinance that would allow the council to unilaterally designate No Fireworks Zones in the unincorporated areas of the county.
This ordinance, as written, directly contravenes both the spirit and letter of state law.
The proposed ordinance, 155-2021, sub-section c states: “County No Fireworks Areas shall be any geographic location, as determined by County Council, wherein the prohibition against fireworks under this section is deemed appropriate. Such areas may be designated only by Resolution of County Council and must state with adequate specificity the area encompassed as to be readily identifiable by the general public and Horry County officials and employees.”
State law, section 23-35-175 (C) states “an owner, a lessee or managing authority of real property may establish a Fireworks Prohibited Zone by (1) filing a Discharge of Fireworks Prohibited Agreement with the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the subject property.”
State law goes on to say the zone must exhibit at least two signs, stating fireworks are prohibited visible from the street and any adjoining public property. In addition, the owner, lessee or managing authority of the property may request county council to extend the prohibited zone up to 500 feet into any adjoining public property such as a park or to the low water mark of a public beach adjoining the property.
State law is specific in that the initial action must come from the property owner, lessee or managing authority to the law enforcement agency. There is no provision in state law for the initial action to come directly from county council. Any direct action by county council would be a usurpation of property rights by county council on any property included in a county council initiated prohibition and is not allowed by state law.
It is hard to understand how this ordinance even came before council considering how blatantly it violates state law. One would expect the county attorney to explain the conflict with state law to any council member desiring such an ordinance to be drafted.

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Rice Struggling to Re-invent Image While Fry Attempts to Find One

It is just under seven months until Republican primary voters will nominate a candidate for the SC 7th Congressional District election next November.
The two candidates most closely tied to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, incumbent Tom Rice and state Rep. Russell Fry, are still searching for an image to project to voters in order to gain popularity and votes.
Rice is hampered by his January 13th vote to impeach former President Donald Trump. Trump support was strongest in 7th Congressional District among all the congressional districts in South Carolina. Rice won easy re-election, in the November 2020 general election, to his fifth term in office on Trump’s coattails.
Then Rice cast “THE VOTE” to side with Congressional Democrats in the House to file Articles of Impeachment against Trump.
As we all know, Trump was never going to be removed from office by an evenly split Senate (it takes a two-thirds vote from senators to impeach), especially considering Trump was due to leave office on January 20, 2021, and the Senate trial didn’t take place until after Trump was out of office.
What makes Rice’s vote to impeach even more incredible is that twice in the days before the actual voting on the Articles of Impeachment, Rice made public statements that he was NOT going to vote to impeach Trump. THEN HE DID!
One would have thought, after spending four full terms as a Congressman on Capitol Hill, Tommy would have absorbed, even if only by osmosis, enough political savvy to understand that his vote to impeach Trump would be a betrayal to the vast majority of people he represents in South Carolina’s 7th District.
Now Rice is trying to create a new image of himself as a faithful servant of Trump during the former president’s four years in office, citing a 94% voting record supporting Trump initiatives. Rice further claims he was defending the Constitution when he voted to impeach Trump, calling Trump a “very divisive man”, and claiming Trump’s actions (or inactions) incited a riot at the U. S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
What Rice is avoiding trying to explain is why twice, between the January 6th events and the January 13th vote to impeach, Tommy publicly stated he would not vote for impeachment, then did.
Rice claims a ‘new vision’ for the Republican Party that embraces everything Trump except Trump the person. He also claims he will run on his ‘record of accomplishments.’

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Graham Allen Campaign Filings Raise Eyebrows but not Profile

Quarterly reports on contributions and expenditures by political campaigns are often seen as guidelines of the viability of a candidate.
Often, too much emphasis is placed on the contribution side of the ledger. Actually, it is the value realized from the expenditure side in raising the profile and message of a candidate that provides a more accurate picture of viability.
For that reason, the recent filing by Graham Allen, the non-resident candidate for the 7th Congressional District Republican nomination, raises some questions.
According to the Allen campaign’s most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission, a total of $646,000 (in round numbers) has been raised in contributions over the last two calendar quarters. Added to this amount is a $92,000 loan which brings total receipts for the campaign to date of $738,000, a seemingly good amount for a first-time candidate.
However, according to the filing, the Allen campaign has spent a total of $435,000 over those same two periods with no appreciable increase in Allen’s name recognition or message among 7th District voters. No tv or radio ads, no mailers, no billboards, nothing!
Having never lived in the 7th District and only a recent resident of South Carolina in the Greenville area, Allen was always going to have a difficult time getting voters to know who he is, much less what he stands for. After the reported expenditure of $435,000 this hasn’t changed.
When Allen first announced his candidacy for the 7th District Congressional seat currently held by Tom Rice, my first thought was Allen doesn’t know anybody in the 7th District and nobody knows him.
It now appears that thought was probably mistaken. It appears possible that Allen has had some type of contact with Alan Clemmons, Horry County’s own master of spending campaign funds while not advancing a campaign.
According to Clemmons’ campaign filings with the S. C. Ethics Commission, he spent approximately $480,000 from his campaign funds during the six election cycles from 2008-2018 inclusive but never had an opponent in either the primary or general elections in those years. Included in the $480,000 of expenditures were payments totaling approximately $150,000 to Heather Ammons Crawford noted as “campaign services” or “contract services” before she was elected to the House.

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Local Elections: A Tale of Three Cities

As voters go to the polls tomorrow to cast ballots in local city elections, an interesting contrast exists between issues facing voters in Conway, North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach.
We’ll start with Conway, which is probably the easiest. Residents of Conway seem satisfied with the way city issues have been managed for the past six years or so. There seems to be a team approach among council members to dealing with issues. Growth is happening but not at the frenetic pace seen in other parts of the county. Crime is always an issue but not nearly as severe as in Myrtle Beach, for example.
The city has had issues with flooding, but city council has taken a proactive approach to mitigating where possible. Areas of the city will continue to flood when heavy rain events occur. However, council continues to work on projects to minimize its effects on residents and businesses as much as possible.
All of the above is probably good news for the reelection of incumbents William Goldfinch and Shane Hubbard. The one open seat resulting from the retirement of Jean Timbes should probably be filled by a woman again to keep what has been a presence of two or more women on the council for a number of years. Candidate Beth Helms seems to have distanced herself from the other four challengers in the last couple of weeks and “team” solutions are a strong point of the Helms campaign.
North Myrtle Beach falls into the general atmosphere of satisfaction among North Myrtle Beach voters also. Incumbent mayor Marilyn Hatley and council members Nikki Fontana and Trey Skidmore probably have an inside track on being reelected.
The Ocean Drive seat is open as incumbent Terry White is retiring from office. Two candidates, Bubba Collins and Norfleet Jones, are contesting the open seat.
Jones has been at the center of several controversies in his at least three terms on the Horry County Solid Waste Authority Board. He was among board members who approved the expenditure of over $1 million in lobbying fees during the months of June 2012 and July 2012. The checks were split among the two months so the total expenditure would not appear in one fiscal year statement.
Jones and the board have consistently ignored the original mandate of County Council when it established the authority, namely to find and utilize alternative means of waste disposal to dumping in the environmentally sensitive Hwy 90 landfill area adjacent to Sterritt Swamp. Instead, the board has approved expansion after expansion of the Hwy 90 landfill area. The taxpayers of Horry County will be on the hook for costly cleanup if something goes wrong at the landfill.

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Mayor Bethune is “Miss Lead” on Ho Residency, Other Issues as Voting Nears

(The title of the cartoon accompanying this article is “Miss Lead”)
At a candidate forum hosted by the Myrtle Beach NAACP last week, Mayor Brenda Bethune made a statement that inferred opponent Gene Ho was not a resident of the city.
Bethune brought several pieces of paper to the lectern then said, “Unless something has changed in Horry County, where you pay your 4 percent primary residence property tax is where your primary residence is. (Looking at Ho) And last time I checked your primary residence is in Prestwick.”
Unfortunately for Bethune, she was working from old information. A further check would have revealed that for the current year (2021), Ho is back at his condominium in Myrtle Beach as his primary residence and the home he owns in Prestwick is back at a 6 percent tax rate and is currently being rented.
It is unclear whether Bethune’s statement was the result of incompetent opposition research, incompetent campaign messaging or both.
But why ruin a good sound bite with facts?
Another interesting statement from Bethune during the forum was, “It’s about having empathy and respect for others. That’s how we get equity, diversity and inclusion. And it’s not just about race, it’s about sexual preferences, it’s about if a child decides they want to be a male of a female, it’s about loving everyone.”
I suppose Bethune believed that statement painted her as an empathetic, loving mayor who respects her constituents.
However, the statement runs counter to her actions in office.
Where was Bethune’s empathy and respect when she led the passage of an overlay zone on Ocean Boulevard which restricted mainly Jewish owned businesses from selling products that are readily sold throughout the rest of the city?
In fact, there has been no empathy or respect shown to those businesses and others in the traditional downtown business district during Bethune’s current four-year term. That’s why there are so many empty, commercial buildings in that area.

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Chamber Response to County Council Rejection of I-73 Funding is Arrogant and Threatening

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce issued an arrogant and threatening email response to the rejection by a majority of county council Tuesday night to a resolution funding Interstate 73 from local county tax revenue.
Whether she authored the email personally or it was authored by one of her underlings, Karen Riordan as MBACC President and CEO bears direct responsibility for its contents.
Responding to questions about the email from a local media outlet, Riordan attempted to pass off its contents as showing “appreciation to the Horry County Council members who voted for funding Interstate 73.”
Such a statement would be true if the email was limited to the first and last two sentences in its content.
However, when the statement, “Make no mistake about it, we need local and county support for this Interstate and there will be additional votes at county council,” was included the email crossed the line from congratulations to arrogant threat.
According to comments I’ve received from several of the six county council members who voted against the resolution, the Chamber email was not viewed favorably by any of the six and apparently the email has stiffened their resolve to oppose local funding for Interstate 73.
The entire lobbying effort for local government funding for I-73 by the Chamber was mishandled from its start. I would submit it demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of local citizens’ attitudes and local politics in today’s environment.
For example, four members of county council who voted against the resolution, Harold Worley, Mark Causey, Danny Hardee and Al Allen, were born, raised and make their living in the council districts they represent. They know the desires of their constituents much better than the Chamber group.
Council member Orton Bellamy, a Horry County native, represents a district that derives little to no benefit from Chamber marketing or the proposed I-73 and is a retired Army officer who will not be intimidated by the Chamber lobby.
Council Chairman Johnny Gardner, a Horry County native, was opposed by the Chamber group when he ran for office and wasn’t even invited to attend any of the private meetings hosted by the Chamber in which the need and strategy for obtaining local funding was discussed. Instead council member Dennis DiSabato was included in that group and DiSabato could not convince six members of council to join him in voting for the resolution.

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Horry County Council Rejects I-73 Funding

By a 6-5 vote, Horry County Council, at its regular meeting Tuesday night, rejected a proposal to dedicate $4.2 million per year for 30 years from hospitality fee revenue to the construction of Interstate 73.
The margin was one vote, but it wasn’t that close. It was a clear demonstration that six members of council are solid in their determination to vote in the interests of the citizens not special interests.
The vote was a clear defeat for council members Johnny Vaught and Dennis DiSabato, the two on council who drank the Chamber Kool-Aid and spearheaded the effort to dedicate funding to I-73. It wasn’t their idea, but Vaught and DiSabato agreed to ‘carry the water’ for the Chamber and its cronies in this latest effort to obtain local funding for the road. They spilled most of that water.
The question now is, have Vaught and DiSabato destroyed any hope for the Chamber to secure local funding for its pet project?
The effort to secure funding for I-73 from countywide hospitality fees has been four and one-half years in the making. It began in Spring 2017 when former council chairman Mark Lazarus convinced county council to remove the sunset provision from the county ordinance establishing hospitality fee collection.
Lazarus next tried to convince council to dedicate the entire approximately $45 million annual revenue from countywide hospitality fees to fund construction of I-73. However, the people were beginning to be heard as their rejection of Lazarus for reelection in 2018 demonstrated, and Lazarus, in his final days in office, was only able to push through authorization for the county to enter into a funding agreement with the South Carolina Department of Transportation for up to $25 million per year from hospitality fees for I-73 construction.
That funding agreement was immediately challenged by a lawsuit brought by the cities against the county and the agreement was cancelled by county council in late 2019 with no money having ever been sent to SCDOT.
The settlement of that lawsuit included vague language that the county and the cities would work together to try and find alternative means of providing local funding for I-73.
After a break due to the uncertainties of the effects of Covid on local governments, a small group reportedly consisting of Chamber officials, state Rep. Case Brittain, Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune, North Myrtle Beach Mayor Marilyn Hatley and DiSabato began meeting last summer to concoct a new local funding plan for I-73.
The spin at the time was dedicated funding from local governments could be taken to the S. C. General Assembly to lobby for state funds to be appropriated to I-73 construction and that resulting package could be taken to Washington to lobby for federal funds.
That entire concept seems to be upside down logic. Why should local governments be the first to dedicate funding for an interstate highway in an attempt to convince the state and feds they should contribute?

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Horry County Council Members Face Choice on I-73 Funding Resolution – Listen to Voters or Donors?

Horry County Council will vote tonight on a resolution to dedicate funding from locally collected hospitality fees to construction of Interstate 73.
This latest attempt at I-73 funding comes on the heels of a visit last week by Gov. Henry McMaster to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce at which the governor announced his proposed funding plan for the road.
The governor proposed a plan that included $795 million from state funds, $430 million from federal funds and $350 million in total funds from Horry County, Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach. None of the funds have been appropriated and the sources are generally unidentified.
The governor could not give promises the funds from the state would be appropriated. The only thing he could do was tell the gathering he would ask the General Assembly to appropriate the funds he recommended.
Additionally, none of the state funds will be spent in Horry County. They will be spent in Dillon and Marion counties, according to the governor’s plan. Horry County residents are expected to fund construction of I-73 within the county on their own.
Information from the S. C. Department of Transportation is there are no funds currently available for construction of a new highway. To further complicate the funding problem, the state is on notice from the U. S. Department of Transportation that it must upgrade Interstate 95 from the North Carolina border to the Georgia border. Included in the requirements from the federal government are additional lanes and bridge repair/replacement, all of which are extremely costly items.
SCDOT said the I-95 improvements are the number one project for the agency since failure to meet the federal requirements would cost the state federal highway funds.
After the governor’s visit, the Horry County Administration Committee held a special meeting, called by committee chairman Johnny Vaught, to approve the resolution the council will vote on tonight.
The obvious question for county council tonight is, with 77% of the governor’s proposed funding for Interstate 73 (the state and federal portions) unidentified and unappropriated, and neither Myrtle Beach nor North Myrtle Beach to date having committed funds, why the rush for the county to pass its resolution?
Despite an alleged Chamber poll, which supposedly said 82% of 405 statewide voters responding supported construction of I-73. The internals of the poll have never been released by the Chamber and there is significant reason to believe no such poll exists because it is very difficult to find any voters in Horry County who support spending local raised tax revenue to build the road.
The lack of voter support was demonstrated by a reader poll conducted by a local media outlet recently which showed 67% of those responding did not want local tax funds to be spent on I-73 construction.

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Where is Mayor Bethune?

Last week, Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune missed two opportunities to answer questions from voters about why she should be reelected.
Instead, the Bethune campaign put out two emails extolling the virtues of spending local tax dollars on the construction of Interstate 73 and what she had done to address crime issues in the city.
Had Bethune taken the time to actually talk to voters, she may have learned that crime is still the number one issue concerning residents of Myrtle Beach and constructing I-73 ranks very far down on the list.
And Bethune’s message was countered by a story about Myrtle Beach being the third most dangerous city, per capita, in the nation. The story could be found on the website of Coastal Law, the firm with which Congressional candidate Russell Fry is associated.
Interestingly, Fry and Bethune both support the construction of I-73 in Horry County with local tax dollars.
Talking to and listening to voters is not high up on the list of things to do for most politicians today. They certainly want to be elected and reelected but they prefer to do it with slick mailers and emails as well as orchestrated messages in television and radio ads. These messages hit what politicians consider to be a few hot button issues for voters.
Then, if they fool enough voters to be elected or reelected, many of the politicians will go on to serve their own self-interests or those of the big donors to their campaigns. In some cases, such as Interstate 73, these politicians try to make it a hot button for voters with outlandish promises of what it will do for voters while it is really meant to serve the interest of their donors.
I-73 will permeate many election races through the Republican primaries in June 2022 and those politicians promoting it as a good idea are not working in the best interest of voters.
Fry joined Bethune and incumbent Congressman Tom Rice at Gov. Henry McMaster’s press conference about funding I-73 in Myrtle Beach last week.
Fry is running a rather schizophrenic campaign attempting to be a clone of Rice sometimes, then running away from Rice at other times when he (Fry) tries to wrap himself in the Donald Trump cloak.

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