Tag: Republican Primary

Will Cabal Money Overcome Citizen Interests?

The main story of the 2022 Republican Primary election campaigns in Horry County is going to be one of how the developers and tourist interests of the Myrtle Beach cabal pour money into campaigns of their preferred candidates in hopes those candidates will defeat the candidates who represent the interests of the citizens first.
Several stories have been written in local media over the past few days detailing donors to cabal favored candidates Jenna Dukes, Mark Lazarus and Carla Schuessler.
Dukes is challenging Harold Worley in Horry County District 1. Worley is the longest serving member on county council and one whose signature is to often urge the council to “Do the right thing for the people of Horry County.”
Lazarus, a former Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce board president, is challenging Horry County Chairman Johnny Gardner, who took the chairmanship from Lazarus four years ago, a defeat that Lazarus has yet to get over.
Schuessler, a former Chamber board president, is vying with Conway businessman John Cassidy in the new House District 61 seat in the county.
All three cabal candidates, Dukes, Lazarus and Schuessler were the recipients of the campaign donation largesse of cabal members and associates in the development and tourism industries as the stories in local media documented.
Dukes and Lazarus tried to paint their fundraising as coming from a broad range of donors who are anxious for change from the respective incumbents they are running against. In neither case is that narrative true. Neither has support that extends beyond the limited numbers of cabal members who can’t get their own way with Worley and Gardner and want them replaced.

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Dr. Oz, Russell Fry – Where are Trump’s MAGA Candidates?

Former President Donald Trump’s weekend endorsement of Mehmet Cengiz Oz (Dr. Oz) for the U. S. Senate from Pennsylvania makes one wonder how Trump has drifted so far from his Make America Great Again base.
Most of Trump’s MAGA supporters in the S C 7th Congressional District have been pondering that question for more than a month since Trump endorsed Russell Fry, a bona fide member in good standing of the Horry County ‘Swamp’.
How does a man (Oz) who was born in the United States of Turkish immigrant parents, who still holds dual citizenship (U.S. and Turkey) and who served in the Turkish Army (but not the U.S. Army) in order to maintain his Turkish citizenship get an America First endorsement? Oz has said he will renounce his Turkish citizenship if he’s elected to the Senate, but, apparently not if he loses.
(As a veteran of ten years of active duty service in the U. S. Navy, I find it offensive that a candidate for U. S. Senate would even consider keeping dual citizenship, or, put another way – split allegiance between two countries.)
How does any of this fit into Trump’s ‘America First’ mold?
And the above doesn’t consider Oz’s support of the transgender movement, including voicing support for biological males who are now competing in women’s sports, a No-No for MAGA conservatives.

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Russell Fry’s ‘Goofy’ Campaign for Congress

Filing closed Wednesday for this year’s June 14th Republican primaries. Normally the close of filing brings the beginning of ‘silly season’ in politics.
However, this year, the Russell Fry campaign to replace Tom Rice as the SC 7th Congressional District Congressman started ‘silly season’ early.
Fry waited until August 2021 to announce he was running for Congress until he was virtually certain that establishment pols like Henry McMaster and Drew McKissick could get his campaign endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
Fry also waited eight months to criticize Rice’s January 13, 2021 vote to impeach Trump. Now he can’t stop talking about Rice as a “Trump impeacher.” Fry is a little slow on the uptake.
Fry has used the term ‘committed conservative’ to describe his political voting stance. However, the American Conservative Union gives Fry a 58% overall voting record for his first five years in the SC House. Sounds more like a RINO voting record to me.
After the Trump endorsement last month, the Fry campaign ran its first political ad, a ridiculous cartoon style creation featuring paid actors to portray such characters as the Joker and the Devil.
Then, voters in the 7th Congressional District were treated to a Fry video announcing, “Damn, it sure is great to be a Gangster.”
Since filing for candidacy opened in the middle of March 2022, the Fry campaign has treated voters to two email messages. (see below)

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Allen Beverly Announces Candidacy for Probate Judge

Allen Beverly, the current Chief Associate Probate Judge, last week announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for Horry County Probate Judge.
The current Probate Judge, Kathy Ward, has decided to retire and will not seek another four-year term in office.
Probate Judge is the only judicial position in South Carolina elected directly by the people.
Beverly is a Horry County native with longstanding family roots in the local area. He and wife, Jennifer, have been married for 12 years. The couple has two children, Hampton age 8 and McLaurin age 4.
Beverly is a graduate of Coastal Carolina University and Campbell University Law School. After graduating from law school, he was hired as an associate in the Greg Martin Law Firm in Conway. Beverly concentrated in the areas of Real Estate and Probate law.
“I was fortunate to be hired by Greg Martin out of law school,” said Beverly. “Everybody liked Greg and he had a good practice where I could learn as a young attorney. Real Estate and Probate were the areas I gravitated to.”
When Martin passed away in 2008, Beverly took over his law practice. He remained in his attorney practice until opportunity came knocking in 2019.
“Judge Ward needed an associate judge in the Probate Court and she called me to ask if I was interested,” Beverly said. “I never considered being a judge up to that point but I decided to accept the opportunity.”

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Lazarus Campaign Kickoff Attempts to Rewrite History

Mark Lazarus officially kicked off his campaign to recapture the chairmanship of Horry County Council Thursday night surrounded by his friends – Myrtle Beach Chamber and Grand Strand Business Alliance members as well as other members of the local cabal.
From the talking point clips and quotes attributed to Lazarus in local media over the last several days, it is obvious Lazarus is trying to rewrite the history of his years as chairman from 2013-2018.
Lazarus pledged to get county government ‘back on track’ when the only track it has left was the autocracy track the Lazarus years led it down toward funding I-73 and other initiatives to benefit special interests.
The most comical quote I have seen attributed to Lazarus is his promise of “investing in police services”, something he absolutely refused to do when chairman. There was a reason the police and fire organizations of Horry County endorsed current Chairman Johnny Gardner four years ago, in his run against Lazarus, and it wasn’t because Lazarus did anything to improve their lives.
The most memorable quote by Lazarus in the 2018 campaign was when he called the public safety personnel of the county “Thugs” late in the campaign because they asked him difficult questions about how they were treated at a campaign event.
In fact, Lazarus was not popular with the county employees in general as he, in coordination with former administrator Chris Eldridge, treated county employees as ‘serfs’ subject to the whims of the ruling duo.

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Fake Fry, Fake Campaign

Last week the Russell Fry campaign sent out an email saying the campaign was “running red hot” but then went on to beg for money.
Nearly all political campaigns shade the truth and spin their message, but this email is a perfect example of just how much BS is coming from the Fry campaign.
If the Fry campaign actually gained momentum from the endorsement of Fry by Donald Trump, money would be pouring in. Obviously, it’s not.
Last week also saw a rumor begin making the rounds in Horry County that Ken Richardson was going to drop out of the race and endorse Fry. Nothing could be further from the truth. Richardson is not dropping out and he wouldn’t endorse Fry under any circumstances for any political office, let alone Congress.
And, an article appeared, authored by Audrey Hudson, which attempted to paint Fry as the only candidate in the race that has the leadership skills and conservative record to defeat Tom Rice in the upcoming June 2022 Republican Primary.
Hudson used examples such as Fry’s votes for the “heartbeat” bill and the “2nd Amendment” bill as proof of Fry’s conservative and constitutional credentials.
Of course, she didn’t mention Fry’s vote for the largest gas tax increase in state history, his attempt to have the state legislature dictate to Horry County that it must spend its hospitality tax revenue on Interstate 73 and his vote to allow extension of the Myrtle Beach Tourism Development Fee, which is nothing more than a giveaway of more than $30 million taxpayer dollars per year to the Myrtle Beach Chamber.
Hudson went on to smear Richardson with a completely inaccurate record of Richardson’s handling of restrictions and enforcements of mandates in Horry County Schools due to Covid. But why let facts get in the way of your spin in a story?

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Voter Opposition to Fry Endorsement Hardens in 7th Congressional District

Signs opposing the candidacy of Russell Fry for the Republican nomination for the SC 7th Congressional District are going up all over Horry County today.
The order for the signs was made by businessman Drexel Drew after Fry’s candidacy was endorsed by former President Donald Trump last week.
“I am a long time Trump supporter and will probably vote for him if he runs again,” said Drew. “But the endorsement of Fry is just politics as usual around here. Fry is nothing but Rice 2.0.”
Drew said he doesn’t believe most of the Pro-Trump people in the 7th Congressional District will buy into the Fry endorsement.
“If it’s not right for the people,” Drew said. “You don’t have to vote the way you’re told to. Trump was not given good information about local politics. It wasn’t a smart decision on his part to endorse Fry.”
Drew said he is tired of the same old buddy system and the attempts by the Myrtle Beach Mafia to control local politics.
“Putting out the signs was something I wanted to do to help get the truth out there,” said Drew.
Drew does not stand alone in the Pro-Trump, Anti-Fry camp.
According to sources with knowledge of the Fry campaign, the Trump endorsement has not immediately increased fund raising to anywhere near the level the campaign expected and a Fry campaign event held last week after the endorsement only drew a minimal number of people in attendance.
Local political activist and social media influencer Chad Caton was present at an event at the Mar a Lago Trump Resort on the day the Fry endorsement by Trump was announced.

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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…”

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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.”

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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.

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