The Republican endorsement went to U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett. Making a decision in that race is way more risky for anyone this far out from the primary. Barrett, Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster and Lt. Gov. André Bauer are in a three-way dogfight for the nomination, and it’s only going to get nastier as the months go on until June.

Wednesday afternoon, the Sheheen campaign launched a new Facebook effort: “Hey, folks — let’s beat Gresham Barrett to the 5,000 mark in FB fans! It would be great if you could click on ‘Suggest to Friends’ underneath the profile picture. Thanks!” That was followed by Barrett’s page responding with, “We’ve been challenged. The Sheheen campaign is trying to beat us to 5,000 fans. Help us get there first by clicking the ‘Suggest to Friends’ link under my picture.” Barrett made it first.

All of this is to say that it looks like the leading candidates for both nominations are already preparing to go at it. That means that the other guys — Rex, Ford, McMaster, Bauer — better step up their campaigns, or the general election campaign will start before the June primary showdown.

“I don’t necessarily take any pride in the fact that we let Boeing in because we trampled on the rights of workers to organize,” said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter in the Free Times. “I’m glad Boeing is here, but I quite frankly would like South Carolina workers to have the opportunity to negotiate contracts that will pay them a livable wage and with health benefits similar to what the Boeing workers [in Washington] got.”

Republican leadership in the General Assembly dispute such allegations, saying that making sure card check doesn’t make it to the Palmetto State protects our state’s workers. Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler said, “Boeing’s decision to expand its facility near Charleston serves as a reminder why we must protect our tough right-to-work laws. We are sending a strong message to the world: We want your business, and we’re committed to getting it.” Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell added, “I don’t know of anything more basic to the essence of our nation than the right to a secret ballot election.”

The bill was one of the priorities of conservatives in the General Assembly this year, after it was put on the on-deck circle in the first half of the 2009-2010 session. Following the vote, Sen. Larry Martin took to the Internet to explain what went down.

Unfortunately, amendments diluted penalties in the bill (because legislators want to keep texting while driving?), but it’s a good first step in the right direction in a state known for its dangerous highways.

“As technology changes so must our laws,” Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell said in a statement. “Our state’s teen drivers are the most avid cell phone users and the most inexperienced drivers on the road. The combination of the two is a formula for disaster. Multiple studies have clearly demonstrated the dangers of distracted driving — several concluding it to be more hazardous than drunk driving.”

Evidently, losing by eight and now battling incumbency is not stopping Bustos for making another go. In case you missed it, in the meantime he also lost a race for mayor of Mt. Pleasant. We guess some people like making running for office — and losing — a hobby on par with building model airplanes and sports rec leagues.

Bustos promised to end politics as usual, adding, “Growth of government is out of control, and we must elect new leaders to rein it in.”

Bustos also said his 2009 mayoral campaign will help his chances this time. “I think the door-to-door campaign (last year) worked very well and we were really coming up in the polls, so I think we have a certain amount of momentum in this campaign.”

[sarcasm] Yes, political scientists are universally agreed that losing consecutive races for office makes the voters more amenable to your new campaign. [/sarcasm] If the people who backed Bustos in ‘08 are smart (S.C. Club for Growth, Howard Rich, the Sanford mafia), they’ll spend their money on a race in which their candidate may actually have a chance.

Last fall’s fun and games infused both campaigns with an insane amount of money for a South Carolina race for Congress. Miller now has more money than Democratic Sen. Vince Sheheen, who actually has to run a statewide campaign for governor instead of just one of six districts. Capitalizing on his buzz, Miller has been traveling the country to raise money and making the best of his Internet fundraising.

But other than that, his campaign has largely been a low-key affair. So, it came as an interesting revelation to see the report and fallout from Miller’s appearance at a meeting of the Greater Irmo Democratic Club. From what we’ve been able to gather, the Club invited WIS to the meeting, then there was a brouhaha about who ordered the WIS cameras be kept out.

After a couple days of thinking about this, we consider it Miller’s, or his campaign’s, fault. The woman who spoke for the GIDC, Joanne Hafter, said in a story by WIS, “I just want to set the record straight, neither I or anyone from GIDC made the decision to exclude the media, especially after we invited the media in the first place. It was Rob’s campaign manager who was adamant about not having press coverage.”

We actually met Ms. Hafter years ago, when we went to school with her daughters. Between the person we knew (however briefly) and the person we don’t, we’re siding with the GIDC on this incident. After all, we’ve been alerted to other screw-ups with the media committed by the Miller campaign.

When you’re the underdog in a district that skews against your party, you have to be very careful about what your campaign does, who it courts for support and how you manage your media exposure. Common sense would say that Miller would have known this already. Doesn’t seem like his campaign figured that part out.

ESPN, the main generator of the out-of-control growth of bowl games in the past 20 years, has signed on to broadcast this massive mistake. Dec. 30, outdoors, a bowl game in New York City. Between the No. 3 Big East team and the No. 6 Big XII team, after BCS selections. RATINGS BONANZA!

And, oh, did you know what the official name of this steaming pile? It’s the..

New Era Pinstripe Bowl

Future generations will look back at such an abomination and rightly call us all idiots.

Anyway, the party couldn’t recruit and run a decent candidate against U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in his most vulnerable election year, and is having serious problems filling out the roster on down-ballot races with legitimate candidates. The leadership, seemingly not having a problem with this consistent level of epic suck, is pointing fingers elsewhere.

Democratic chair Carol Fowler blames in part, the economy.

“I think a lot of it is just being pragmatic,” said Fowler. “Fundraising is terrible for candidates this year. Fundraising is always much worse for Democrats than it is for Republicans. There’s just not as much money out there as there has been.”

Intense eye-rolling to commence. Democrats across the country usually have less money than GOP candidates. That’s not an excuse. Nor is the economy a good enough explanation. In a state that gives the Republicans roughly only a 10-point advantage, the GOP has no problem fielding multiple candidates for statewide races. This isn’t a 80/20 or 70/30 state. It’s close to 55/45. That suggests more of a problem within the party than it does external factors.

And as long as the SCDP fails to address the problems within its own operation, the more elections will be decided in the Republican primary in June.

Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell, who campaigned on jobs and the economy, led off his term by stripping statewide legal anti-discrimination protection for gays and lesbians, something that was signed into law at the beginning of former Gov. Tim Kaine’s term. That was bad enough. Then, raging wingnut Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli issued the opinion that homosexuals cannot be protected under state law as it applies to state universities. Really.

Keep in mind that these people were elected statewide in the Old Dominion, known as “the birthplace of presidents,” some of the best public and private universities in the nation and home to some of the country’s top businesses. It would seem to us that Virginia voters went to the polls in favor of jobs and turning around the commonwealth’s economy, not culture war.

Virginia Commonwealth University, where we started our experience in higher learning, had about 1,000 people turn up, spread out between four different forums, to express their complaints and grievances regarding the insanity coming out of the Virginia attorney general’s office.

In sometimes-emotional comments to VCU Provost Stephen D. Gottfredson, students and their teachers described Cuccinelli’s action as a threat that reaches beyond sexual orientation.
“This hits me personally and professionally,“ said Carol Schall, an assistant professor in the School of Education.

The opinion affects more than the gay and lesbian community, she said. “It is about the university’s right to establish its own scholarly community and its right to maintain academic freedom.“

Describing the opinion as “mean-spirited,“ Gottfredson said it was just Cuccinelli’s interpretation of the law. “I personally beg to disagree,“ he said.

Diversity and inclusion are “embedded in the very fiber of VCU,“ he said, and those policies will stand unless the board of visitors acts to change them.

“If VCU did not protect sexual orientation, I wouldn’t have come here,“ said Luke Schlimme, a graduate student in social work who pointed out that diversity protection is required in the code of ethics for his field.

It’s taken a little while, but at least McDonnell realized he fucked up, signing an executive order that bans workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians. This is good news, but it’s still a little too specific. For instance, let’s say you don’t get served at a business because, for whatever reason, the person providing the service knows that you’re gay. You would have no legal recourse.

Think it’s not a big deal? Columbia’s own Maurice Bessinger took a case against him to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to stop the government from forcing him to serve black customers the same as he served whites. Fortunately for justice, Birmingham barbecue joint Ollie’s had already been taken to court by the Federal government and required to serve everyone, regardless of color (the Court used the interstate commerce clause to justify Federal involvement).

Regardless, Virginia residents are stepping up and showing that they will not tolerate officials who feel it’s OK to give free reign to discrimination against an entire group of people. McDonnell may get out of this without a problem, and have a chance to challenge U.S. Sen. Mark Warner in 2014. Cuccinelli, however, has motivated people who didn’t like him already to work to make sure he doesn’t have a good election in 2013.

UPDATE: McDonnell continues to backpedal after being totally owned on the issue.

The controversy — it ignited protests online and on campuses as well as in the General Assembly — threatened to tarnish McDonnell’s fledgling administration; made the state an object of ridicule on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”; and could complicate efforts to lure defense giant Northrop Grumman, which has gay-friendly employee policies, to relocate to Fairfax County from Los Angeles.

“It has caused too much fear and too much uncertainty in the business community and the higher-education establishment and among young people in the commonwealth — and I simply won’t stand for that,” McDonnell told reporters.

Yes, sir. Conducting a gigantic fuck-up that extends to businesses and higher education just might be a mistake when you’re trying to create a job-friendly environment.

The issue was thousands of dollars of unpaid taxes and conscious actions to avoid IRS reporting regulations as it comes to deposits and withdrawals. It turns out that Cromartie isn’t the only person around city government with tax problems. Mayoral candidate Gary Myers Jr. also isn’t right with the Feds right now.

Some of our friends are obsessed with minor candidates. We like them because they often do things that well-handled candidates won’t even attempt.

Myers contemplated withdrawing from the race today after The State newspaper questioned a 2004 bankruptcy in which court papers said he owed $74,466 in back taxes to the IRS.

Myers, who is not considered a frontrunner in the race, first said he would drop out if the story was written. About an hour later, he said he was consulting with family and friends who encouraged him to run for office. But by 4:30 p.m., Myers said he was sticking with his campaign.

“God knows if this is an opportunity for my city to move forward I can’t run (away) now,” he said. “This has nothing to do with me running the city.”