Let the (election) season begin

Filings are complete and the field is  full

MARCH 31, 2010 10:24 a.m. (0)

The year 2010 is huge for politics in South Carolina, with every statewide seat, every state and U.S. House seat and 21 Greenville County positions (not including nonpartisan school board and water commission seats) up for grabs.

But while the competition is proving fierce for the open governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, education superintendent and two U.S. House seats, unchallenged incumbents make up the majority of candidates locally.  Continue reading...

 

Six in District 21 race

Five Republicans, one Democrat want to replace the late Rep. Bill Wylie

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 10:48 a.m. (0)

Five Republicans and one Democrat want to fill the South Carolina House District 21 seat left vacant by the unexpected death of Rep. Bill Wylie last month.

Real estate broker Steve Dowd, former Greenville County Republican Party Chairman Samuel Harms III, former Greenville County Council Chairwoman Phyllis Henderson, Greer homebuilder Keith Smith and former Bi-Lo Vice President John Symons are seeking the Republican nomination.

Susan Scarborough Smith is the only Democrat to file for the seat.  Continue reading...

 

Who is Jim DeMint?

The senator from South Carolina

OCTOBER 22, 2010 8:39 a.m. (2)

Jim DeMint is riding a tea party wave into national prominence that could see him go from Republican outsider to a powerbroker in the United States Senate, political observers said last week.

If DeMint’s stable of tea party insurgents win on Nov. 2, he could become the leader of a coalition of hyper-conservatives with tremendous power in a sharply divided Senate.

Currently, he enjoys regular Republican support from Sens. Tom Coburn and James Inhofe, both of Oklahoma.  Continue reading...

 

"Now it's our turn"

Immigration, health care repeal on governor elect's to-do list

NOVEMBER 4, 2010 12:02 p.m. (0)

Governing South Carolina next year won’t be for the faint of heart and Tuesday night Nikki Haley looked like she was so ready to jump in she was giddy.

Consider: South Carolina’s unemployment rate is 11 percent, sixth highest in the nation.

State government likely will have $1 billion less to spend. This year’s budget is $21 billion.  Continue reading...

 

Gowdy goes to Washington

The freshman congressman talks values, voting and his dream for District 4

NOVEMBER 16, 2010 8:18 a.m. (4)

You can almost see Jimmy Stewart in his role as Jefferson Smith smiling in the background when Trey Gowdy talks about his plans as the newly minted Congressman from the 4th District.

On a surface level, at least, there are seeming similarities between Gowdy’s vision of his role as a congressman and the naïveté of the Boy Ranger leader turned senator portrayed by Stewart in “Mr. Smith goes to Washington.”

Certainly, there is dead-ringer likeness between Gowdy and the movie character in passion for ideals and it was ideals that propelled Gowdy to his stunningly one-sided victory over veteran congressman Bob Inglis in the June primary runoff.  Continue reading...

 

Let the politics begin

Charles Sowell blogs from the GOP debate: UPDATED 10:35 pm:

MAY 5, 2011 10:13 p.m. (3)

10:35 pm: The big surprises in tonight's debate were how well Herman Cain and Tim Pawlenty played before mainstream South Carolina Republicans. Ron Paul will come out of tonight's debate with his tea party base intact. How far that will carry him through the primary season remains to be seen. In the end, Obama holds the bully pulpit of incumbency against a still unformed GOP field.

10:30 pm: We're down to the joke questions now, the feel good kind of stuff that's designed to take some of the sting out of earlier questioning. Not that there was much sting in this particular debate – unless you happen to be President Obama.

10:18 pm: Ron Paul defends his stance on freedom of choice (he's for personal freedom to use drugs if a state allows it) by comparing it to First Amendment rights. "We don't have the First Amendment to talk about the weather. We have it so we can talk about controversial things." Former New Mexico Gov. Johnson took a similar stance. How that will play with socially conservative South Carolinians remains to be seen, outside of the tea party.  Continue reading...

 

The new trickle-down economy

Campaign spending means money, jobs for the Upstate

JANUARY 12, 2012 12:09 p.m. (0)

As the Republican presidential primary heats up, so do businesses in the Upstate that serve campaigns without taking sides.

“Every four years there is an economic windfall in South Carolina that people are not aware of,” said Hollis “Chip” Felkel, a Greenville-based political consultant who is sitting out this GOP primary.

“Whether it is a Republican or Democratic primary, there’s an influx of cash that is unnoticed that can be significant, particularly in bad economic times.”  Continue reading...

 

Religious leaders stay out of GOP contest

No presidential hopefuls have visited former campaign staple Bob Jones University

JANUARY 19, 2012 1:33 p.m. (0)

The religious right and tea party are badly fragmented going into Saturday’s South Carolina Republican Primary with usual power brokers like Bob Jones III and Southern Baptist leaders wielding little influence over their flocks, political observers say.

Bob Jones University has, for decades, been what has been termed one of the stations of the cross for Republican presidential hopefuls hoping to make an impression in socially conservative South Carolina.

This year not a single presidential hopeful has visited the campus and Jones hasn’t endorsed Gov. Mitt Romney’s bid as he did in 2008. Romney, who was about a 10 minute drive from the BJU campus last week in Greer, didn’t bother to come over to see Jones.  Continue reading...

 

Fant announces run

Former state representative says he was humbled by scandal 20 years ago

JANUARY 19, 2012 2:20 p.m. (1)

Incumbent South Carolina State Senator Ralph Anderson said he’d decide in the next couple of weeks whether to seek re-election to the District 7 seat.

There’s one announced candidate for the seat so far.

Former state Rep. Ennis Fant, one of 17 state legislators convicted in the Operation Lost Trust statehouse corruption scandal more than 20 years ago, has announced his candidacy.  Continue reading...

 

Somers, Corbin, Miler battle for District 5 Senate seat

Suit aims to keep last week’s entrants off primary ballot

APRIL 26, 2012 11:19 a.m. (0)

Within one week after S.C. Sen. Phil Shoopman withdrew from the District 5 Senate race, two new candidates had entered the competition, while a third had filed for an injunction to prevent them from appearing on the ballot.

On Sunday, April 16, Shoopman announced his decision to withdraw from the race for District 5, which includes parts of northern Greenville and Spartanburg counties. By the next day, state Republican Party Chairman Chad Connelly had decided to re-open filing for the seat for a 48-hour period, which ended at noon Wednesday, April 18.  Continue reading...

 

Lawmakers rush to clean up election mess

S.C. Supreme Court ruling sweeps 180 from ballots, including 15 in Upstate

MAY 11, 2012 9:00 a.m. (0)

In the wake of the South Carolina Supreme Court’s decision last week that effectively disqualified 180 candidates statewide from primary ballots, lawmakers are scrambling in Columbia to get most of the candidates reinstated.

The chairman of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Larry A. Martin (R-Pickens) – whose own primary opponent, Rex Rice, was removed by the Supreme Court ruling – called an emergency meeting of the committee Tuesday morning, May 8, to discuss legislation to get the disqualified candidates back on their ballots. The committee voted to pass legislation that would allow all disqualified candidates back on the ballot, provided they had filed all of the necessary paperwork by April 20.  Continue reading...

 

Ballot challenge dies, but petitions bring new hope

Lawsuit accused state Election Commission of violating the federal Voting Rights Act

MAY 18, 2012 8:48 a.m. (0)

With the failure of a lawsuit brought by a Greer candidate for state Senate, it appears likely that the 180 candidates – including more than a dozen in the Upstate – who were disqualified by a South Carolina Supreme Court decision will remain off the ballot for the June 12 primary.

But that doesn’t mean that grass-roots organizers across the state intend to give up.  Continue reading...

 

‘No opinions, just representation’

Jeff Sumerel has a novel idea for Washington: pure democracy

MAY 25, 2012 9:19 a.m. (1)

Jeff Sumerel has a few different campaign slogans in mind. “It’s been said to lead, follow, or get out of the way. I promise to get out of your way” is one. “Politics as unusual” is another. There’s a reversal of Barry Goldwater’s classic slogan: “In my heart, I know you’re right.” And there’s “Don’t vote for me – vote for you!”

But the slogan featured most prominently on his campaign materials – boiling down to two words the philosophy behind his bid to take Trey Gowdy’s seat as the next U.S. congressman from South Carolina’s 4th District – is “Just Representation.”  Continue reading...

 

Swann, Turner to face off in runoff

Thomas will vacate seat he’s held for 27 years

JUNE 21, 2012 10:13 a.m. (0)

With none of the five GOP candidates for state Senate District 8 earning a majority of the votes cast in last Tuesday’s primary, Joe Swann and Ross Turner, the top two vote-getters, are now preparing to face each other in a runoff election next Tuesday, June 26.

Meanwhile, the incumbent, David Thomas, is preparing to leave the Senate seat he’s held for 27 years. The bottom two vote-getters, Chad Groover and Jim Lee, have both endorsed Swann in the runoff.  Continue reading...