On Primary Day, everyone saw that this year, money didn’t matter. Neither did being more knowledgeable about the issues, having better ideas, or more experience in getting things done. For a lot of voters, it came down to, “You’re not that person.” Naturally, that’s not exactly the best way to elect someone, but the voting public as a whole has never been very wise in how it makes decisions.
For most elections, money in the bank is like an early return. If people and organizations are willing to part with money to further a campaign, that’s seen by some as even more of a personal stake in a campaign than a vote. After all, it stands to reason that if you give a decent amount of cash, you’re even that more motivated to head to the polls. Again, that isn’t the case this time. As reported Thursday and reiterated Sunday by The State, U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett out-rose Rep. Nikki Haley between the primary and Thursday, in their race to capture the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
Barrett sports $299,225, with Haley at $224,271, and the story doesn’t even mention spending, in which Barrett should be far and away ahead because of his distinct dollar advantage going into June. And it doesn’t matter. The same people who closed their eyes and shot into the dark will likely return to the polls tomorrow and give Haley the nomination. This is despite the fact that most South Carolinians don’t want Sanford 2.0, which is what Haley is, in spades. When the S.C. Chamber of Commerce and business leaders across the state are turning hard against a GOP candidate, that should tell you something.
Even though Haley’s fundraising operation has been godawful since its very inception, it’ll take off after the runoff simply because she’s the Republican nominee. Then, Democratic nominee Vince Sheheen will be the person with the small stack. And that’ll leave a lot of right-thinking Republicans in a quandary. Do they vote for Sheheen? After all, even with the recent détente between Gov. Mark Sanford and the GOP leadership in the General Assembly, a Haley administration would be a return to the bad old days of an intransigent ideologue in the Governor’s Mansion, who won’t make the necessary compromises that are needed to make needed changes for our state.
There is a precedent. A lot of Republicans voted for Jim Hodges after David Beasley’s misbegotten term. Unfortunately, when given the chance to pick the right guy in 2002, they dropped the ball. Second chances do abound. Give Sheheen a term, beat him up for four years, then find a strong candidate to run against him in 2014. Either way, a Democrat will win. It’s this cycle or the next one. Because four years of Haley is going to go down like a lead zeppelin.
It might be a better idea for Sheheen to take over this time, because greenbacks will probably matter a lot more in 2014.
The tables have been turned in the money race in the campaign for the Republican nomination for governor. Lt. Gov. André Bauer, after trailing for much of the race, has jumped out in front. For the past several periods, it was U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, followed by Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster, but no longer. Not only did Bauer raise the most money between April 1 and the pre-election report, but he has the most money on hand as the campaign enters the homestretch. Though Rep. Nikki Haley received some money via out-of-staters Sarah Palin and Erick Erickson recently (can’t trust Vikings or Alaskans, can you?), it’s doubtful she can even come close to the front-runners.
GRESHAM BARRETT
Contributions: $209,046.47
(In kind: $18,050.15)
Expenditures: $1,127,641.46
Cash on hand: $647,626.59
Significant contributions
Haynesworth Sinkler Boyd State-Local PAC, $3,500
Political action committee
Citizens United Political Victory Fund, $500
Political action committee
The Presidential Coalition LLC, $500
Political action committee allied with Citizens United
Katrina Shealy, $100, $50
Former state Senate candidate
Cynthia Costa, $500, $250
RNC committeewoman
Daniel Rickenmann, $400
Columbia city councilman
James Edwards, $1,200
Former governor
South Carolina Good Government Committee, $3,500
PAC of the S.C. Chamber of Commerce
Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, $2,000
Insurance company
Virgil Goode for Congress, $250
Campaign committee
Cash American International, $1,500
Payday lending company
Burnie Maybank, $500
Former head, S.C. Department of Revenue
Significant disbursements
Creative Communications (media buy), $45,350, $244,763, $152,288, $128,926, $84,012, $8,000, $59,658
Scott F. Talley PA (legal fees), $2,500
Thompson Creative (media production), $25,233.50, $20,139.43
Ayres, McHenry & Associates (research), $16,194
Under the Power Lines (Web services), $2,750, $500, $2,500, $250, $2,750
First Tuesday Strategies (political consulting), $5,000×3, $350, $3,000
Drea Byers (fundraising consulting), $6,000×2
Starboard Communications (printing), $1,437.99, $8,872.26, $4,470.66, $355
On The Mark (printing), $359.52, $273.49, $270.92
LDR Services (media consulting), $25,966.54
HENRY MCMASTER
Contributions: $141,7905
(In kind: $14,135)
Expenditures: $1,029,613.03
Cash on hand: $545,443.81
Significant contributions
Kristin Maguire, $1,000
Former chairwoman, state board of education
Arthur Ravenel, $250
Former U.S. representative
Jason Zacher, $75
Public relations professional
Haynesworth Sinkler Boyd PA, $3,500
Law firm
George Shissias, $500
Power broker
Significant expenditures
BMH Consulting (expenses, consulting), $1,812.91, $7,620, $2,448, $1,623.77, $649.35, $5,756, $3,800, $321.44
Campaign Services (printing), $5,927.50, $1,451
Strategy Group for Media (media buy), $37,000, $252,874, $42,315, $70,470, $202,980, $215,480
Connell Donatelli (Web site), $3,933.93
Richard Quinn & Associates (tech, rent, expenses), $4,138.73, $29,663.09
Conquest Communications (telemarketing), $4,229.56
Campaign Solutions (Web site), $14,479.44, $4,398.48
The Philips Group (fundraising), $22,666
ANDRÉ BAUER
Contributions: $274,315.26
(In kind: $6,755.40)
Expenditures: $943,315.55
Cash on hand: $736,394.76
Significant contributions
Ravenel Development Corporation, $3,500
Developer
Steven Mungo, $1,000
Developer
Thomas Ravenel, $500
Former state treasurer
Significant expenditures
Dresner, Wickers & Associates (media buy), $114,100, $1,848.99, $8,940, $139,000, $130,400, $146,700
Alexon IT (Web site), $927.39, $704
SCPR Associates (sign supplies), $1,800, $9,621
S&S Strategies (film production, consulting), $14,933.74, $5,340.21, $3,000
Black Label Strategies (consulting), $2,125.50
NIKKI HALEY
Contributions: $102,761.82
(In kind: $7,604.33)
Expenditures: $245,426.51
Cash on hand: $387,347.85
Significant contributions
John Cattano, $1,000
Former S.C. Republican Party Treasurer
S.C. Club for Growth PAC, $3,500
Political action committee
Chad Walldorf, $3,500
Chairman of S.C. Club for Growth
Significant expenditures
Red Sea (ads, consulting), $161,573.15, $15,000
Early this morning, Will Folks continued his week-long period of self-aggrandizement by posting text messages from the past while. While we feel like screaming to the sky, “HEY — THIS STORY IS FUCKING TRUE,” that’ll be borne out soon enough. But the news here is Folks is who we thought he is. If he was or wasn’t getting paid by the gubernatorial campaign of Rep. Nikki Haley, and there’s a myriad of ways to “clean” the money, he was certainly working hand-in-glove with it.
The number of texts between Folks and Haley campaign manager Tim Pearson are simply staggering. And Folks’ paranoia is, well, damn heartwarming. Then there’s the interesting roundabout involving the local news industry. Folks is scared shitless about by AP reporter Jim Davenport, but he was actually behind on the story, as the Free Times‘ Corey Hutchins was doing his due diligence on it. And The State was way, way behind, as per usual. We got a laugh out of this Pearson text: “I talked to oconnor. Feel a little better abt things. Will call later.” It’s good to know The State can be reassuring campaign staffers when it’s getting its pants beat off on a story.
You might have also noticed them talking about “last year.” Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was regarding us. Yeah, don’t know how the word spread, but apparently a little less than a year ago, Folks got himself all worked up in a lather thinking that we were going to break the story that’s consuming so many people these days. But we weren’t. Never were. Never even considered it. Whole thing kind of caught us off-guard at the time.
The last bit, which should be disconcerting to U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, is that it looks like a higher-up in his campaign has been regularly leaking information to Folks. We know who it is, obviously Folks knows who it is, and the leaker knows he should probably keep a lid on it from here on out. Not telling Barrett what to do, but if we had an employee leaking information to a guy who had a direct line to a competing campaign, heads would roll.
The big news today is the latest Rasmussen poll on the Republican gubernatorial race, showing that Rep. Nikki Haley is in the lead with 30 percent, followed by Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster at 19 percent, U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett at 17 and Lt. Gov. André Bauer showing up at 12 percent. Haley’s Tea Party supporters are wetting their pants at this news, but we have a word for this sort of thing: “boomlet.” You don’t go to fourth to first in a week without that support being very, very weak.
Sorry to burst your bubble, kids, but the reason these sort of things happen — a fairly unknown candidate getting a big gain — is because that candidate gets a lot of earned media without being properly challenged or having their record adequately questioned, and voters can project whatever they want on that candidate. You see it all the time in presidential primaries.
There’s about three weeks until the primary. If Haley even makes it into the runoff, much less pulls anything like 30 percent, we’ll eat a bowl of improperly-cleaned chitlins.
The other Haley news of the week is how her campaign — wait, ReformSC — was totally pwn3d in court on Wednesday as a judge ordered the Sanford shell organization to pull their ads that are basically campaign ads for Gov. Mark Sanford‘s hand-picked successor.
Circuit Court Judge J. Mark Hayes II said in his temporary restraining order that the allegations from Barrett and three donors to ReformSC, which funded the ads, indicate — if true — a “coordinated scheme” that appears to be “intentionally designed to unlawfully evade accountability measures required by South Carolina law.”
The cherry on top of this cupcake of wonderful is that the attorney for the plaintiffs was none other than former Rep. Scott Talley, who encountered such coordinated schemes among the Sanford cabal to back his opponent for the GOP nomination for Senate, Sen. Lee Bright. So, it’s not hard to say that he knew exactly what he was doing and how to do it. The real damning part is that three ReformSC donors (Dan Adams, Jim Agostini and Russell Phelon) came forward to be a part of the suit. If it’s anything like it was when we looked into the organization a couple years ago, it only has so many couples, and a few individuals, providing it with its cash.
In granting the injunction, the judge writes something particularly pertinent: “As such, while this Court acknowledges the political setting from which the allegations arise, the Court cannot ignore the significance of the alleged unlawful conduct and evidence rendered by the Plaintiffs in this matter. Simply stated, a judge’s failure to act when he should act can be an abandonment of his duty, as Chief Justice Roberts analogized, as the referrer of justice. More importantly a judge’s failure to act due to the power or influence of those associated with alleged unlawful conduct is never acceptable in a society governed by the rule of law. As one commentator has recently stated ‘Justice is blind and no one is above it.’”
When will these Sanford jokers ever learn? Oh, right — they don’t think the rules apply to them.
We got caught up with some other things over the weekend, so one story that flew under the radar was allegations by voters around Aiken that there’s been some push-polling going on in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Via The Aiken Standard, people in three counties received phone calls from well-known firm Conquest Communications, in which the questions appeared to be slanted and U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett was placed into a negative light.
“Why would you have a survey that ended that way if it was a real call?” asked Linda Tyner of Abbeville of her call Tuesday. “I felt it was a farce; it was a purely political move by someone seeing that Gresham Barrett doesn’t get elected. They tell outright lies.”
Tyner said she is a Barrett supporter. When she asked the party questioning her the response would have been if she had selected another candidate, she was informed there was no follow-up for any candidate other than Barrett.
When asked by two individuals whom the pollsters were representing, they replied “Conquest.” Conquest Communications Group is a Virginia-based firm that specializes in direct contact programs for campaigns.
All last week, there were rumors of such a thing going down, and that the campaign of Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster was to blame. According to Conquest’s client list, McMaster is the only candidate in the race retaining its services. Not surprisingly, McMaster campaign manager Trey Walker tried to spin it like the whole thing was on Barrett and his supporters. We wonder that as more revelations come out about McMaster’s mishandling of his rental properties, if that can be somehow flipped on a political opponent, too.
We’d say we were surprised by this sort of thing, but we’re not.
This year, as opposed to 2008 and 2006, Gov. Mark Sanford‘s lack of political capital has led his cabal of “independent” groups, non-profits and political consultants into a reality where they are no longer tightly united and starting to go their own way. Even his out-of-state allies aren’t on the script anymore. The national Club for Growth endorsed U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett for governor, while the S.C. Club for Growth, a typical close Sanford ally and member of said cabal, endorsed long-shot Rep. Nikki Haley.
Reform S.C., one of Sanford’s toady groups, is going on the air with new TV ads. Most people would say that it seems odd, considering it involves advocating for legislation this year, in particular. Where was the organization last year? Hm. And what’s the legislation? Well, that would be none other than a bill by Haley on more roll call voting. Color us surprised that the group’s first ads in some time are backing the Sanford candidate, one who is having significant fundraising trouble compared to the Big Three of Barrett, Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster and Lt. Gov. André Bauer.
It’s rather funny. And if there’s one thing that investigating Sanford’s groups told us, any conspiracy theory isn’t theory. The facts are likely more outrageous than what you could imagine.
At the S.C. Republican Party Silver Elephant event on Saturday, most of the statewide campaigns were out in force with stickers, palm cards, all the basics. Later on in the evening, and while attendees left, something else was being passed out. It was one of those fake dollar bill attack jobs that have become cliché these days. It was ripping U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, returning to that old line of how he voted on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (it’s a tarp!).
Who exactly was doing all this? The people passing out the pieces appeared to be young volunteers, so no help there. Well, it’s a political thing — there had to be a “paid for by” bit on it. Sure enough, it says “Paid for by BailOnBarrett.com.” We get home and think, OK, let’s look up this site and see what we can find out. But that’s the problem. It’s not there.
The domain was registered with GoDaddy.com on February 18 of this year, through domainsbyproxy.com, which allows a registrant to hide their identity. Very curious. It would seem that the site was registered only as a way for a campaign to keep its hands clean.
We were told that Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster‘s people was behind this latest effort. And no wonder, with the evening’s straw poll showing a near-deadlock between Barrett and McMaster for the gubernatorial nomination.
Whoever is behind the effort, it would probably be a good idea to actually set up a site, since this is obviously clear political message laundering.
During a significant portion of our lives, we covered sports for a living. More often than not, a nosh wasn’t available, but for college games — even covering Blinn College football games — there would always be something. It’s an old joke that sportswriters live and die by the food at the events they’re at. For instance — Carolina football’s catered spread was woefully lacking. The Gamecock basketball set-up was much better.
So, naturally, downshifting into the sportswriter lizard brain, we have to again rave about the catering at the S.C. Republican Party‘s Silver Elephant Dinner. As Brad Warthen talked about, we did, “annex a salad.” But it wasn’t his — it was one from one of the open spaces. Still tasty. The dessert wasn’t bad, either. It was a custard creation in an edible bowl with fruit and whipped cream garnishing. Mmm.
U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett and U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint were not in attendance, which certainly took away from the spectacle. It would have been great to see them in action. U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham seemed to do a good job, alternating, as we said in a tweet, between red meat and vegetables. Gov. Mark Sanford‘s speech was largely forgettable, as is typically the case. Lt. Gov. André Bauer, Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster and Rep. Nikki Haley gave their well-honed speeches, and didn’t deviate too far out from what was expected from them.
Former presidential adviser Karl Rove‘s speech was, well, too long. But that’s just us — we tend to zone out when being lectured to. However, it started out pretty well, and his recollections of former RNC chairman Lee Atwater were classic. Actually, his remembrances were the best part of the speech, along with his closing story about getting a gentleman of more than 60 years old an exemption to join the Marines and be a medical officer in Afghanistan.
Of course, those of us with an obsession for numbers were waiting for the straw poll results to come in. The announcement went pretty quick — we were unable to jot down all the numbers — but the end up of the gubernatorial poll was striking. Barrett took the poll with 37 percent, followed by McMaster with 34.2, Haley at 18.4 and Bauer rounding out the field with 10.4 percent. Considering that Bauer has a money lead of about half a million dollars more than Haley, getting beat this bad by the field may say a few things about the viability of his campaign (insert bromide about Bauer being counted out and bouncing back).
Also winning were Ken Ard for lieutenant governor, Alan Wilson for attorney general, Mick Zais for superintendent of education, Converse Chellis for state treasurer and Richard Eckstrom for comptroller general. Unless someone was quick with the pen, we’ll have to wait until the sun rises again to search for the exact numbers.
As for the straw poll, we’re of two minds on this. One is that the people voting are committed to the party and people like them are very much more likely to vote in the Republican primaries. The second is that there are a lot of people out there without the money, time or inclination to come to an event like the Silver Elephant Dinner, and they could have a very different outlook on these statewide races.
Regardless, it was a solid event and with the exception of the UStream feed going down and Warthen’s computer not wanting any part of the convention center’s wifi signal, it appeared to be a pretty successful evening for the state GOP.
Wednesday, the S.C. Chamber of Commerce released its endorsements for the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries. Sen. Vince Sheheen took the nod for the Democrats, which is not very surprising. With the exit of Charleston attorney Mullins McLeod and Columbia lobbyist Dwight Drake from the race, it’s not hard to figure out that Sheheen will best Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex and Sen. Robert Ford for the nomination.
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.
The joke around town after the Americans for Job Security ad against U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett came out was that the organization was really named, “Americans for Nikki Haley.” Guess it’s not so far-fetched. Per the petulant child, Haley consultant Jon Lerner was involved with the advertisement and Gov. Mark Sanford solicited donations to put it on the air.
That rumbling sound you heard emanating from Columbia on Friday was a collective expression of, “Pfft. No shit.” Nobody except for a reporter for The State would think that an ad like that would be regarding anything else beside the race for governor.
