When the General Assembly voted on judges, they reelected Justice Don Beatty to the S.C. Supreme Court. He almost got a unanimous vote. Almost. Spartanburg County’s resident padded-cell candidate Rep. Joey Millwood voted no. Mind you, Beatty was unopposed.
A Herald-Journal story reminded people that South Carolinians for Responsible Government and Conservatives in Action actively opposed his nomination when he was up the first time, and CIA put out an ad denouncing Beatty, but Millwood seemed to think it was OK for them to do that, but that Beatty should have taken his beating without saying anything.
“When is the last time you saw a sitting Supreme Court justice give a television interview?” Millwood said. “He should be above the political fray.”
Once again, eyes rolling so hard. Yes, defend the shady groups that got you (barely) elected, and go after the Supreme Court justice. It turns out that Millwood thinks that only Republicans should be judges.
Are you fucking kidding us? “I don’t care who the person is. Give me their political party identification, then I know how I will vote.” Lordy. The definition of ignorant is going to have to be expanded for this guy.
If battles over the budget, voter ID and an abortion waiting period were not enough, the General Assembly takes another crack at school choice this year as Sen. Robert Ford‘s private choice bill and Sen. Wes Hayes‘ public choice bill are taken up by the Senate Education K-12 Subcommittee.
In previous years during Gov. Mark Sanford‘s administration, all but one private choice bill have been killed in committee. The other one was tabled once it got to the House floor.
Conservatives in Action spokesman and Sandlapper Group founder (the firm ran a slate of Howard Rich-funded candidates) Taft Matney has already taken to Facebook to rally the school choice faithful.
The SC Senate K-12 Education Subcommittee will meet on Thursday, April 23, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. in room 308 of the Gressette Building at the Statehouse complex in Columbia.
The discussion will focus on full and open school choice options vs. limited school choice within a closed system.
The Senate version (S.520) of the “South Carolina Educational Opportunity Act” is on the agenda for its first debate.
Also on the agenda is a proposal for public school choice.
Anyone interested in speaking should contact Sally Cauthen by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, April 20, at sallycauthen@scsenate.org or (803) 212-6250.
Each speaker will be allotted 3 to 5 minutes to address the subcommittee.
If you have an interest in bringing educational reform in South Carolina, please make sure you plan to attend and to make your voice heard.
If you have friends and family members who also have an interest in this issue, please forward this message to them. Invite them to join the “Conservatives in Action” group on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27599823211) , and invite them to sign up for updates by e-mailing conservativesact@gmail.com.
As reported on FITSNews late Sunday afternoon, a new social networking site for S.C. conservatives, The Palmetto Network, is going forward to link up and coordinate social conservatives in the state.
In the post, it says that the site is invitation only, but Wolfe Reports registered as a member of the site when consultant Joshua Gross rolled out the site on Feb. 6, through a link in a Facebook news feed.
According to FITS, “FITS agreed not to release any members’ names, several prominent South Carolina politicos have already joined the network – including at least one candidate for governor.”
However, this site is under no such preconditions, and listed below are some of the more prominent members and a list of groups on The Palmetto Network, current as of 7 p.m. on Sunday. As of that time, no group yet had members.
MEMBERS, in alphabetical order
Elected officials and others
State Rep. Nathan Ballentine
U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett
State Sen. Kevin Bryant
Former Sec. of State Jim Miles
Former state representative candidate Trey Whitehurst
Consultants, operatives and others
Tony Beam, director of Christian Worldview Center, North Greenville University
Nicole Cobb, Spartanburg County chair of S.C. Young Republicans
Chad Connelly, SCRG board member
Sheri Few, founder of SC PIE
Mike Green, consultant
Joshua Gross, consultant
Allen Klump, law student
Ashley Manini, director of MEDPAC at S.C. Medical Association
Taft Matney, spokesman for Conservatives in Action
Matt Moore, executive director of S.C. Club for Growth
Randy Page, president of SCRG
Jeff Quinton, operations assistant at Public Opinion Strategies
Jay W. Ragley, executive director of SCGOP
Oran Smith, president of Palmetto Family Council
Dave Wilson, creative director at McAlister Communications
Media
Adam Fogle, The Palmetto Scoop
Will Folks, FITSNews
Wes Wolfe, Wolfe Reports
GROUPS, in order of appearance
Christian Worldview Center
Dr. Everett’s Ed Forum
FITSNews
Foundation for American Restoration
Gun Owners of SC
HHIRC
Kevin Hall for SCGOP Chairman
Palmetto Family Council
SC Association of Christian Schools
SC Citizens for Life
SC Home School Network (SCAHIS)
SC Independent School Association
SC Parents Involved in Education
SC Policy Council
SCACS-SC Association of Christian Schools (posted twice)
South Carolinians for Responsible Government
The Palmetto Scoop
Monday night’s meeting of the Spartanburg legislative delegation was, as has been the case since November, not the usual. The meeting was comprised of eight of the nine representatives and senators that are of one faction, chaired by Rep. Lanny Littlejohn. The Gang of Four, which broke away under the auspices of weighted voting, were not there. Sens. Lee Bright, Shane Martin, Glenn Reese and Rep. Joey Millwood were all missing (Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler was absent as well, because he was on his way back from Super Bowl XLIII).
It was known what Millwood was doing instead — he tweeted a point-by-point account of his trip to the grocery store and an abortive move to Subway before getting gas and grabbing dinner from Twin Palmetto.
The Byzantine specifics of the dispute between the two sides have been regularly covered by The Herald-Journal, but there is more to the story.
From research by Wolfe Reports, it appears that there are two men working behind the scenes in the drama. One is Kerry Wood, who ran Martin’s successful campaign to unseat Sen. Jim Ritchie. Wood, naturally, is working with the Gang of Four. The other player is Spartanburg County GOP chairman Rick Beltram. The nature of Beltram’s involvement is up for debate.
Sources close to Wolfe Reports have said that it is Wood stirring the pot on the issue and pushing the agenda of the four breakaway legislators.
“No, I don’t think I’m the one stirring it at all,” Wood said. “I’m just trying to help out. I don’t stir anything — I really don’t. I just work for these guys.”
Littlejohn said in early January that he believed the issue came down to judges, not votes for delegation leadership or weighted voting.
“That’s not it at all. That’s been explained to him, over and over,” Wood said. “It’s all about the weighted voting. When these senators are in Columbia, and they vote — a lot of people use that as an example — it’s a one-by-one vote. Every vote counts, you know, one, right? Each of those votes, they go through every so often, like it’s coming up now for them to redraw all the district lines. Why do they do that? They redraw the district lines so their vote is weighted by the redrawing of those lines, so they represent an equal part of the voters, an equal part of the population.”
However, some could cite as circumstantial evidence the membership of Wood, Bright and Millwood in the Conservatives in Action Facebook group. Also, Millwood’s campaign was run by the Sandlapper Group, which was cofounded by CIA spokesman Taft Matney. During the 2008 election cycle, CIA ran Internet banner ads recruiting supporters by using the threat of activist judges, and has run ads attacking legislators for voting Judge Don Beatty to the S.C. Supreme Court.
“I get a lot of things on Facebook asking me to join — if it’s somebody I know, asking me to support an issue, I generally try to help them out,” Wood said. “I really haven’t thought anything about that. I don’t get on Facebook very much.”
On the blog Upstate Update, which is operated by Wood, Beltram is accused of collaborating with Littlejohn to put pressure on Bright and Martin.
In a Facebook wall-to-wall posting with SHJ reporter Jason Spencer, Beltram calls the blog “ridiculous,” and, in reference to a recent news release by Wood, wrote that “I cannot control his fables.”
