Tag: SCGOP

SCGOP Seeks to Take Power Away from the People

Over the last several years, the South Carolina Republican Party, under the leadership of Chairman Drew McKissick, has turned its back on democracy in favor of a top-down dictatorial approach to running the party.
Two years ago, after county reorganization meetings were held and the SCGOP state convention was complete, McKissick was not happy with newly elected leaders in some counties. As a result, in a July 8, 2021 article in the Charleston Post and Courier, McKissick said he would put his support behind “rival GOP organizations” (in certain counties).
In July 2022, McKissick reconvened the SCGOP state convention with the sole purpose of passing new bylaws that would allow the state Executive Committee to vote to replace elected county leaders, those elected by the majority of county party members at county conventions, and replace them with leaders chosen by McKissick.
Horry County Republican Party Chairman Roger Slagle objected to the reconvening of the state convention because it was counter to the SCGOP bylaws in place at the time. For this objection, the leaders of the HCGOP were condemned by a vote of the State Executive Committee. Slagle and the rest of the HCGOP leadership tendered their resignations at a September 12, 2022, regularly called meeting of the county party.

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Renegade Members Worked to Undermine HCGOP Leadership

Almost immediately after HCGOP reorganization was completed in 2021, a small group of HCGOP members, unhappy at the results of the election for party leaders, began planning how to undermine the elected leaders of the local party, according to a story initially broken by Chad Caton on his podcast “I’m Fired Up.”
According to text messages released by Shannon Grady, one of the group members, definite plans to circumvent the HCGOP and its leadership began shortly after reorganization was completed. Grady has since apologized for her involvement and called the actions of the group wrong.
The leadership of several county parties were taken over by what can be called non-establishment leaders in the 2021 reorganizations. This led SCGOP Chairman Drew McKissick to advocate for “auxiliary groups” in those counties with which the SCGOP would communicate.
How can you profess to want to participate in the party system in a democracy and refuse to accept the results of an election? Maybe that is not a valid question because it seems this attitude of ‘my way or no way’ is becoming the norm in elections.
The initial group of five members in a private chat called “GOP Pirates” was Reese Boyd, Jim Furry, Don Bowne, Gerri McDaniel and Grady, Chairwoman of the Horry County Republican Women’s Club. Boyd was unsuccessful in his bid to become HCGOP chairman and Furry was unsuccessful in his bid to become a state Executive Committee member in the HCGOP reorganization elections.

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Lazarus Appeals HCGOP Denial of Illegal Election Protest Amid Apparent Misrepresentation of Facts

Mark Lazarus has appealed the decision of the Horry County Republican Party Executive Committee to deny his request for a new runoff primary election for county council chairman.
A hearing of the appeal has been scheduled before the South Carolina Republican Party Executive Committee on Thursday July 14, 2022, in Columbia beginning at 6:30 p. m.
However, there is no legal basis for the SCGOP Executive Committee to hear that appeal.
The formal appeal document, prepared by Lazarus attorney Butch Bowers, contains apparent false statements about facts which render the entire protest and appeal process null and void.
The HCGOP Executive Party voted 40-5 with two abstentions to dismiss the protest on the grounds that it was not filed by the deadline mandated in state law.
State code Sec. 7-17-520 states, “The protests and contests in the case of county officers and less than county officers shall be filed in writing with the chairman of the county party executive committee, together with a copy for each candidate in the race not later than noon Monday following the day of the declaration by the county committee of the result of the election.”
Bowers did not file the election protest until 8:35 a. m. Tuesday July 5, 2022, in an electronic notification sent to and verified by the Horry County Sheriff’s Office.

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Final Campaign Week Messaging and Oddities, Voters Beware

We are in the final week of campaigning before the June 9th primary elections and we are seeing all the oddities and sound bite messaging that come with a final week push.

Cam and Heather Crawford are attempting to use endorsements by Gov. Henry McMaster and the Chairman of the Governor’s Floodwater Commission to prove to voters that they should be reelected.

This pair loves endorsements. However, they didn’t work for their prize candidate former Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus two years ago. The Lazarus campaign trumpeted endorsements by many sitting politicians but the voters weren’t fooled. They understood this is just a ploy used by the establishment to attempt to keep its minions in office. Which brings up the question, why is the SCGOP paying for so many mailers for Heather Crawford?

The Crawfords are bragging about getting ditches cleaned and attempting to get local governments to increase their debt obligations with a so-called ‘buyout program.’ If they were really effective, Heather would have been able to get state grant money, not loans, available for a buyout program. After all, the state had a 2 billion revenue surplus last year.

For that matter, they would have been able to get significant state funding for the Interstate 73 project they love to promote. That hasn’t been accomplished either.

When you look at their supposed list of accomplishments, it is obvious that the rhetoric is high but the performance is low.

Their most significant accomplishment, if you wish to call it that, is picking a fight with Horry County Rising, a citizens group with many members who are flood victims and who is actually trying to address flooding issues and mitigation.

If the Crawfords were really trying to help, they would attempt to work with this group, but that would take away from the photo ops and attempts to be center stage, which the Crawfords believe will fool the voters.

Another interesting quirk in campaigning comes from county council candidate Terry Fowler. From the beginning of his campaign, Fowler has made rash statements that after June 9th new home building in District 9 will stop. He has tried to paint several competitors as lackeys of the development industry because they are realtors.

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Weighing the Truth of Clemmons and Crawford Campaign Flyers

The truth of explanations for the campaign flyers sent out supporting the candidacies of Alan Clemmons and Heather Ammons Crawford, marked “Paid for by the SCGOP” and “authorized by” the respective candidates, in the races for SC House District 107 and SC House District 68 respectively, have been “weighed on the scales and found wanting”, as the Book of Daniel would say.

There have been three mailers each supporting Clemmons and Crawford marked “Paid for by the SCGOP” and “authorized by” the respective candidate. There must have been some polling showing both Clemmons and Crawford trailing their challengers for the SCGOP to take such blatant, biased actions in a primary election.

The Horry County Republican Party Bylaws specifically prohibit such action by party officials, ” Bylaws Section 1-A. Elected and appointed officials of the Horry County Republican party shall not endorse, work for, assist, or allow their name to be used in support of a Republican candidate who has opposition from another Republican candidate during a Primary or Run-off election.”

There is a very good reason for this prohibition. Primary elections are run by the parties. If an election challenge is made, it is heard by the Executive Committee of either the local or state party, depending on what office is involved.

In the case of Clemmons and Crawford, if the results of their elections are challenged, the challenge must, by law, be heard by the SCGOP Executive Committee, the same group that would have had to approve the sending of the mailers. How could there possibly be an impartial judgement from that committee considering they have already chosen their preferred winner?

I contacted the state party by email over two weeks ago asking why the SCGOP was involving itself in primary elections and who approved sending the mailers. To date, I have received no response.

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SC Republican Leader Seeks Infrastructure Debate

COLUMBIA, S.C. – In an attempt to address the State’s pressing highway infrastructure issue, Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler moved to deviate from the Order of business in the S.C. Senate to consider the roads bill. There were several attempts to prevent that motion by members of the democratic caucus, despite earlier statements that roads were their priority. However Senator Peeler’s motion prevailed stopping the current filibuster for the day. By doing so, the Senate gave third reading to the Pain Capable Bill, which would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks and began debate on the much anticipated bill regarding highway infrastructure.

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Chad Connelly Slander Lawsuit to Mediation

A lawsuit, with former SCGOP chairman Chad Connelly, the SCGOP executive committee and the SCGOP as defendants, will have a mediation hearing next week in an attempt to settle the case before trial.

The lawsuit was filed by Republican Party member Brian Frank on April 25, 2013 in Cherokee County court. Frank’s complaint alleges Connelly both slandered and libeled him with a series of verbal bombs in a speech to the Cherokee County GOP and in an e-mail to a wide group of party members.

In those two diatribes, Connelly compared Frank to the recent ‘Boston bombers’, accused him of “rant(ing) endlessly hateful stuff” and said Frank “has threatened me and my family.” Speaking about Frank, Connelly said, “I’m going to crush him.”

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Malice Aforethought

It’s not a unique event, but the SCGOP and its Chairman Chad Connelly will be defending another lawsuit in the coming weeks, this time over the verbal bombs Connelly has been dropping on fellow Republican Brian Frank over the last week.

According to party records, the SCGOP has spent approximately $366,000 in legal fees during the nearly two years of Connelly’s tenure as chairman. This is all expense that diverts the party from its primary mission of getting candidates elected.

However, that’s another story.

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Brian Frank – Chad Connelly’s Chosen Villain

As a result of a controversy created by Chad Connelly as he seeks to be re-elected as state party chairman at next week’s SCGOP convention, I decided to take a closer look at Connelly’s designated antagonist Brian Frank.

As we reported yesterday, Connelly viciously attacked Frank through e-mails last week and during the Cherokee County GOP meeting Monday night (captured on video).

The only apparent reason for these attacks is that Frank has been actively supporting Connelly’s opponent for the post of state party chairman, Sam Harms, primarily through the use of You Tube and Facebook.

During Connelly’s diatribes, he has inferred Frank is similar to the recent ‘Boston bombers’, accused him of “rant(ing) endlessly hateful stuff” and said Frank “has threatened me and my family.”

It is interesting to note that Frank attended the Cherokee County GOP meeting Monday night without speaking to Connelly. When Frank was prevented from taking video of Connelly’s speech, he chose to leave the meeting. It was only after Frank’s departure that Connelly, pointing to Frank’s empty chair, gave his 47 second rant against Frank, which was captured on video by another individual.

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