Back during the Republican gubernatorial primary campaign, after one of the many debates someone asked us if we watched. Internal response was, “Why the fuck would we?” External response was, “No.” It might have had a little bit to do with the candidates, but a whole lot to do with the office and level of political polishing. For most debates for higher office, they’re totally stone-cold boring and contain no new information. Just a competition to see who could most artfully chop up their stump speeches into timed segments. So let’s kill the debates.
Most of the presidential debates, and they began in the summer of 2007 for chrissakes, were just exercises in waiting for the freak candidate to say something weird or drinking games for people who find it hard to get obliterated without rules and points. In races with a lot of people, many candidates say very little and even less of actual import. They would be better served with covering themselves with bumper stickers and turning about for the cameras.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Vince Sheheen decided to a new twist on an exceptionally old trick — did the staff get high and approve this? — by challenging GOP nominee Nikki Haley to fucking Lincoln-Douglas debates. A whole mess of ‘em! And stories were written far and wide. This comprises the vast majority of all action regarding debates. Candidate A proposes something a little out of the ordinary. Candidate B says bah to that. Then so many news stories. It’s just a method to generate news coverage. As a result, most of the people who actually give a damn are those who are directly involved, and nobody else cares.
In that way, more than 90 percent of all political debates between candidates are little different than the presidential nominating conventions. No, they’re actually very much worse. Conventions have political memorabilia to buy, the occasional famous person sighting, entertainment by famous people (this applies mostly to Democrats, or to your definition of “famous”) and those wonderful hospitality parties thrown by big corporations and special interests that have the open bars and free food. Debates, even high-level debates, don’t come close. The best swag you’ll bring home is a press pass bought off some writer at the hotel bar. And about 90 minutes of sheer boredom.
Lower ballot race debates could be worthwhile, but if you’ve had to sit through multiple city council debates or watched State House candidates go at it in some back room in BFE with 11 people attending, you’d agree that the news value is negligible. Columbia would be better served by having the city candidates debate in front of the Metro desk reporters and save everyone else the trouble.
But here’s the connection between the debates and the conventions: as former DNC chairman Don Fowler taught us at Carolina, conventions never help a campaign and if they have effect, it’s bad. Fowler pointed to RNC ’92 in Houston and his own DNC ’88 in Atlanta as examples. The same goes for the debates. They’re only particularly newsworthy and have an effect on the campaign if somebody seriously fucks up, as in George H.W. Bush in ’92 in Richmond (looking at his watch) or Al Gore in 2000 (le sigh).
Discussions, like among the Pub Politics crew or the fabulous C-SPAN broadcast of William F. Buckley and George McGovern from several years ago are different matters altogether. People sitting down with different points of view and talking about them can elicit interesting commentary and analysis. And jokes that aren’t pre-scripted. Operatives, former pols, reporters who are allowed an opinion — Lee Bandy at the Dan Rather thing in ’08 was great — these are people close enough to the action to really know what’s going down, but removed enough to actually say something worth listening to.
But these candidate debates, they’re moribund, they’re out cold. It’s toe-tag time.
The approved one-sided story. It’s not an everyday occurrence, but not unusual for your average daily newspaper. Like, say, The State‘s story today on the elections. Put that one through your noggin: you have to write a story about Democratic prospects in November from the perspective of the Democrats (and one Republican), while trying not to make it sound like a news release. Pain in the ass. However, stepping away can give you some insights.
For instance, how state Democrats are putting the best face possible on an election cycle that could end up as a spectacular failure. The first thing the average person would look at is the Alvin Greene debacle, added to the inability to run a full slate of statewide candidates who are properly funded and have a puncher’s chance. Independent gubernatorial candidate Morgan Bruce Reeves has received more press than several statewide Dems. So what do you do? Play up the four with a chance and hope for the best.
Democrats have put up a field of candidates for statewide office this year the party thinks is as strong as it has had since the days the party dominated South Carolina.
Robert Barber, Ashley Cooper, Frank Holleman and Matthew Richardson represent a long-sought mix of fresh faces and new ideas the party has been longing for, say political observers.
Add to that combination a good dose of political competency, youth and experience, and the party thinks it is onto something in the fall.
Sometimes you just have to put on your best face and keep on trucking. Certainly those four are good candidates. They might even have had a chance in a state that is trending a tad more purple, like North Carolina or Virginia. In 2006 or 2008. But this is 2010, a Republican year in a Republican state. So many members of the GOP want to run for office, the primaries were jumping.
Competitive primaries, far enough out from the general to allow a closure of ranks, get your candidates’ names out there and gets the party voters energized. It says a lot about the political climate of South Carolina that so many Democratic nominees were uncontested and that known quantities decided not to get close to many of the races.
In light of what Sen. Hugh Leatherman wants to do with capping tuition increases, it’s funny to think about the sort of world that would happen if the S.C. Policy Council would get its way. After all, the SCPC has seen little of any government – public sector – spending that it likes. And it seems to have a hard-on for defunding all public education in South Carolina, whether it’s K-12 or higher ed.
Now, we’re pretty sure of our audience. We’re pretty sure y’all trade in argumentative fallacies, logical fallacies, the sort of ways about speaking of one’s position that are easily broken apart by level-headed thinking and basic common sense. But those arguments are the bread-and-butter of politics. They’re what you’ll see in handouts, mail pieces, advertisements, stump speeches and stand-up comedy routines.
So let’s have some fun with the Policy Council.
One big player this year, and probably in the GOP presidential primary race, is former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Newt’s a big fan of alternate history, along with writing partner and author William R. Forstchen. Let’s do a bit of alternate future, aye?
Beginning, the SCPC gets what it wants. Government in South Carolina, as we knew it, is gone. No statewide law enforcement, regulation, everything. The Palmetto State falls into “failed state” status as much as we all learned in early-level political science classes. The federal government, fed up with our antics and devoid of S.C. federal officials who will cooperate with the federal government, gives up on us. We devolve into a weird combination of post-1992 Somalia, 18th century Russia and plutocratic rule and a theocracy.
South Carolina does have a government, at its basic form, but it’s really strange. Ceding to people who have been involved, we have multiple capitals. Amalgamated Industry & Agriculture, the corporate group that handles everything dealing with money and commerce, buys the State House complex and handles disputes in Columbia. The rest of the United States and the world consider this the “Commerce Capital.”
A strong band of armed social conservatives claim part of the power vacuum for itself, establishing a ruling order in the Upstate to handle every vice and everything you do with your naughty, naughty genitals. Originally located in Greenville, a breakaway, fundamentalist group establishes a new religious government in Spartanburg. So now you have two groups of statewide religious police checking up on you. Be careful, brother.
The Grand Strand is ceded to North Carolina, and Hilton Head is ceded to Georgia. Too many people were having trouble figuring how to work Yankee-heavy areas into our new combination of free markets and religious fundamentalism. Yankees who feel like they belong apply, and are given permanent resident status, as long as they absolve all fealty to the Big Ten, the NBA and anything regarding to sports north of Baltimore or west of Austin. Being a hockey fan is considered a capital crime.
Congress, working slowly but worked into a frenzy because of the developments, sends Georgia and North Carolina national guard units to run border patrol. Initially, powered by Twitter and Facebook, many moderates, liberals, intellectuals, artists and other sorts took off for Charlotte and Savannah before the borders close. Rural residents and sportsmen who know the border regions and are friendly to criminals who become known as “RINOs,” “Democrats,” “educators,” “reporters,” “musicians,” “good-time Johnnys” and “those who are too big for their britches” are under special scrutiny from the Upstate moralist squads.
As the situation unfolds from the mountains to the river, Charleston figures out what’s up, organizes a government unto itself and rejoins the United States, a historical irony by itself. A city-state of a fashion, the Commonwealth of Charleston maintains its connection to America, but with an independence that befits the Holy City and its denizens. CC takes within its bounds all of Charleston County, and parts of neighboring cities and counties. The Jasper County port situation, to put it mildly, becomes a little more complicated. And by complicated, we mean issues with all-powerful corporations, multiple governmental entities and firearms. Wait – nevermind. That’s exactly how it is now.
Oh, the more things change….
Howard Rich, the Uncle Pennybags of South Carolina politics, wasn’t going to stay out of the primaries this year. No how, no way. What’s most interesting is the people he decided to donate to, with the exception a choice few. For instance, a lot of money went to incumbents, even people who also got money from public education organizations. Then there was Rep. Joey Millwood, who got almost all of his money during the dark period between the pre-election report and the second quarter report.
JOEY MILLWOOD
Republican, House District 38, lost primary runoff
Contributions: $28,400
Expenditures: $30,526
Cash on hand: $6,164.28
Significant contributions
Asheboro Investors, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Vanguard Prime, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Rosemead Investors, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Cobden LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Coolcal LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
SpringRich, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund, $1,000×2
Howard Rich shell company
New Rich LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund, $1,000×2
Howard Rich shell company
Bradford Management of N.Y., $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
538-8 Realty, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
188 Claremont LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Howard Rich Sole Proprietorship, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Silver & Silver Properties, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Rich Acquisitions LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Rich Lending Corporation, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
SteeleRich LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Spinksville LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
S.C. Club for Growth PAC, $1,000×2
Political action committee
Bill Lowndes, $1,000, $500
Businessman
Ralph Norman, $200
State representative
Significant expenditures
Skyagunsta (consulting), $20,000, $6,066
A few other legislators, including people who were targeted by Rich and his pals two years ago, have been getting checks here and there, and certainly did during the last period, though nobody really cleaned up in the way Millwood did. This could point to a change in strategy — trying to influence the already-powerful instead of the previous attempt of coup-by-campaign contributions. But even this strategy wasn’t perfect. Like Millwood, a few other incumbents — and others who received support — didn’t get by this year.
HARRY CATO
Republican, House District 17, lost primary
Contributions: $39,425
Expenditures: $74,665.22
Cash on hand: $56,168.65
Significant contributions
470 W 166 LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Free and Strong America PAC, $1,000
Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney’s PAC
Stilrich LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Rich Lending Corporation, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Bradford Management of N.Y., $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Coolcal LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
123 Lasalle Associates, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
188 Claremont LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Silver & Silver Properties, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
332 E. 11 LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Significant expenditures
Starboard Communications (consulting), $1,574.07, $920.84, $3,212.46, $16,029.18, $5,780.40
Gadsden & Greene Strategies (consulting), $5,000
On Point Consulting (consulting), $500
RICHARD CHALK
Republican, House District 123, lost primary runoff
Contributions: $28,705
Expenditures: $33,333.45
Cash on hand: $2,741.72
Significant contributions
Spinksville II LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Rich Lending Corporation, $1,000×2
Howard Rich shell company
Coolcal LLC, $1,000×2
Howard Rich shell company
Stillrich LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Cobden LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Palmetto Patriot Leadership Committee, $1,000
PAC of Rep. Alan Clemmons
470 W 166 LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
123 Lasalle Associates, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
188 Claremont LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Significant expenditures
Conquest Communications Group (polling), $3,000
JIM STEWART
Republican, House District 86, lost primary
Contributions: $8,275
Expenditures: $22,089.76
Cash on hand: $13,668.57
Significant contributions
470 W 166 LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Palmetto Leadership Council, $1,000
Organization of Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell
188 Claremont LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
123 Lasalle Associates, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Silver & Silver Properties, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Coolcal LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Significant expenditures
Donehue Direct (consulting), $2,398.05 $9,787.75, $7,976.61
CHRISTOPHER WILSON
Republican, House District 26, lost primary
Contributions: $12,489.33
(Loan: $1,304.33)
Expenditures: $15,475.84
Cash on hand: $314.98
Significant contributions
123 Lasalle Associates, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Silver & Silver Properties, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
123 Lasalle Inc., $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
332 E. 11 LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Bradford Management of N.Y., $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
188 Claremont LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Stillrich LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Coolcal LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Rich Lending Corporation, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Significant expenditures
The Sandlapper Group (consulting), $13,200, $1,154.33
JERMAINE HUSSER
Republican, House District 117, lost primary
Contributions: $16,740
Expenditures: $10,664.95
Cash on hand: $12,403.42
Significant contributions
123 Lasalle Inc., $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Silver & Silver Properties, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Rich Lending Corporation, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
123 Lasalle Associates, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
332 E. 11 LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Stillrich LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
188 Claremont LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Coolcal LLC, $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Bradford Management of N.Y., $1,000
Howard Rich shell company
Significant expenditures
Starboard Communications (consulting), $318.31, $215.70, $5,000, $2,259.96, $1,741.78, $424.23
CONVERSE CHELLIS
Republican, state treasurer, lost primary
Contributions: $45,065
Expenditures: $328,283.12
Cash on hand: $0
Significant contributions
Leaders in Education Administration PAC, $250
Public education PAC
Hall & Bowers LLC, $2,500
Law firm
123 Lasalle Associates, $3,500
Howard Rich shell company
188 Claremont LLC, $3,500
Howard Rich shell company
Significant expenditures
Homeyer Strategy Group (fundraising), $16,455.90, $10,513.56, $10,801.30
Donehue Direct (Internet), $250
Starboard Communications (consulting), $254.98, $67,190, $808.33
Public Opinion Strategies (polling), $500
The Strategy Group for Media (consulting), $10,000
It ain’t easy out there for a Democrat. The leadership isn’t leading, candidates aren’t stepping forward to run for office and all too often, party members are reduced to delaying maneuvers in the General Assembly. And then there’s the Alvin Greene debacle, showing no chance of slowing down while entering into its second month of mirth for some and misery for others. The miserables, they keep looking for someone else beside Greene (and the Green Party candidate — it’s all anti-Green(e) over there).
The last best chance was likely Linda Ketner. When her former staffers and volunteers began canvassing he state for signatures to put her on the ballot, she seemed interested and intrigued. But when it finally came down to it, she told her erstwhile followers to lay down their clipboards. She wasn’t going to expend the time and capital needed to fight U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and his gigantic warchest. But Thomas Nast didn’t depict Dems as donkeys for nothing. Stubbornness ruled the day for a few in the Lowcountry, and they reeled in their line and cast it back into the water.
They were looking for an academic at the Charleston School of Law. Alex Sanders? He did mount a decent campaign against Lindsey Graham in a bad Democratic year. No. They went to — who? — professor Constance Anastopoulo. She is originally from Virginia, has a firm in Charleston, went to school at Virginia and North Carolina, appears to be an excellent trial lawyer and according to ratemyprofessors.com, her students like her. We haven’t heard of her, and she has the online profile of a General Assembly candidate, so an independent run for U.S. Senate with any legitimate chance is probably a bit too much at this time.
She seemed to agree, and said in a statement, “While I am flattered by all of the phone calls and e-mails, I am fully committed to my work and my students at the Charleston School of Law.” Alright, guys. Y’all couldn’t find serious candidates for U.S. Senate, the First District and the Third District, Fourth District, secretary of state and got lucky when two decent candidates — Matthew Richardson and Robert Barber — got into the attorney general and comptroller general races. Yet, you keep beating the bushes like madmen looking for a replacement candidate.
It’s too late, kids. Should have been working on 2010 right after the 2008 races were over.
Summer of an election year. Better than summer of an off-year, but last year we had the Sanford scandal to amuse ourselves with. Sure, there’s a couple interesting things worth talking about as it comes to state politics, but the pickings are pretty slim. Oh, man — the abject boredom. If only there was a big scandal to have some fun with.
It’s always this way after the primaries. It’s like the weeks after the conference championship games at the beginning of December. There are other games coming up, and some exciting moments, to be sure. But the real fireworks are over. Two more months until football season and when the general election campaigns really start going at it to any meaningful degree. Carolina baseball has been a nice diversion, but even that’s over this week.
How boring is it? We blew straight through the “Evil Dead” trilogy last night. And it sucked. That’s 4 1/2 hours, gone.
Shadowy “independent” groups aren’t unusual in South Carolina politics — just ask the reigning dean of the tactic, Gov. Mark Sanford. But the broadside against Alan Wilson‘s attorney general campaign came a little out of the blue. As did the lawsuit to block the ad, and the hiring of Todd Kincannon to block the suit. But considering that the race for the Republican nomination scored barely a blip on our radar, we left it alone.
Until today.
Intrepid WIS reporter Jack Kuenzie tweeted early this morning that the person who likely paid the cash to put the ad on the air, the executive director of “Citizens Against Litigation Abuse,” which is backing the Truth Squad, is a 22-year-old (former? current?) Carolina student named Avra Callie Brannon. Behold, her MySpace page.
Also, some evidence of circumstance:
We don’t have a dog in this fight — a fight that will be settled this evening — but this all seems highly suspect. Really, what the hell is going on here?
As we said on Monday, and as The State wrote today, S.C. Republicans walked up to conventional wisdom, started a game of Rochambeau and, as Eric Cartman would say, kicked it square in the nuts. The State allies conventional wisdom with experience. That doesn’t work. Candidates tend to run on experience when they have nothing else to use — “Vote for me, because you’ve elected me the last times.” No, two things that almost always carry the day are money and name recognition.
It didn’t work for Speaker Pro Tem Harry Cato, or for Reps. Keith Kelly and Jim Stewart. House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Cooper just about lost in another massive upset. Rep. Mike Sottile, who had a ton more money and running against a guy who lost his past three elections, also had a close win. Will Folks missed out on his chance to coordinate with Gov. Mark Sanford and S.C. Club for Growth by two years. If he launched his hit list strategy this year — and kept Howard Rich’s money in the state — it damn well might have worked, instead of failing spectacularly.
The reason why this sort of thing happened can be explained rather simply. In mid-term primary elections, the advantage goes to the motivated. The teabaggers were motivated, and constituted about 40 percent of Republicans voting yesterday. When a lot of House elections are determined by 1,000 or fewer votes, that makes a big difference. But there’s a problem for the GOP in general that this group wielded so much influence.
In elections where Democrats can be competitive — governor, superintendent of education, perhaps attorney general and comptroller general — that’s a major detriment. Teabaggers aren’t a “silent majority.” They even aren’t a majority of Republicans. When you have candidates being elected by the right of the right, those candidates are going to have to run from the margins to keep their volunteer, fundraising and voting base. That’ll turn off a lot of independents. All Sen. Vince Sheheen has to get is a simple majority in the general election.
Naturally, the state GOP will be strong in the long term, but we’ll see if this primary is going to hurt it in the short term.
By the way, we doubt Gen. Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau ever was involved in an activity of swinging kicks to the groin.
We get a lot of weird emails over here, and this is the fruit of one of the weirdest, and most entertaining. Behold, the rhyme of the S.C. primary.
“We Got a Primary”
Jim Clyburn robo-callin’ me all day like a stalker ex
Vinny Sheheen sayin’ ain’t no runoff with Jim Rex
Kelly Payne damn changin’ the game for ed
Joe Wilson all “You lie” — oh, no, that’s what Haley said
What, what — it’s the primary down here in S.C.
What, what, got CNN, Chuck Todd, MSNBC
What, what, got Jakie Knotts, two more shots, burning crosses in Santee
What, what, know Wes Wolfe can only vote absentee
Callin’ all you Tea Party yellow coiled snake flag wavers
McMaster clowns got Will Folks doin’ Andre Bauer favors
Got emails, videos, private eyes out takin’ pictures
Bill Connor goin’ all “Too much of this” on Larry Richter
Everybody tweetin’ “Where the party at tomorrow evenin’?”
Bauer got a bus full of young chicks, cross the state line he leavin’
What, what it’s the primary down in Succa-lina
What, what, got national politicos sayin’ “Mmmmmm, nothin’ fine-uh”
What, what, got Gina Smith and her homeboy John O’Connah
What, what, got a primary down in Succa-lina
What, what, got a primary down in Succa-line
We like to kid the teabaggers. When we went to the rally at the State House on April 15, we hadn’t seen that many angry, old white people with the exception of a canceled Skynyrd concert. But with turnout expected to be light tomorrow, the motivated make the decisions. And angry, old white people can be pretty motivated.
Consider the recent survey by Public Policy Polling (yes, we know they lean Democratic, and Rasmussen leans Republican and blah blah blah — get over it). About 29 percent of people responding said that they self-identify as Tea Partiers, and Rep. Nikki Haley and Curtis Loftis, both Tea Party/S.C. Club for Growth candidates, are benefiting.
From what we’ve been hearing, this is holding true in races across the state. Candidates with distinct financial disadvantages, who should have no chance in hell of being competitive, much less winning, have chances to be and do just that. Conventional wisdom — something we live by as students of history and lovers of trends — is getting a swift kick in the twig and berries.
