There’s a couple things we’ve never understood about Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex’s finance operation. One was how bad it’s been, and when it was doing decently, how fast that money went out the door. So, when it came down to the final 15 days of the primary race (though there will likely be a runoff), Sen. Robert Ford — Ford — had more dollars to spend. Insane.

VINCE SHEHEEN
Contributions: $145,297.77
(Personal funds: $3,000)
(In-kind: $1,371.97)
Expenditures: $638,237.19
Cash on hand: $307,250.28

Significant contributions
Stephen Wukela, $1,000
Florence mayor
David Adams, $100
Richland County treasurer
Kathryn Fenner, $100
Writer
Tyler Jones, $100
Consultant
Blue Cross Blue Shield of S.C., $1,500
Insurance company
John Palms, $500
Former USC president
Todd Avant, $250
Developer
Southern Wine & Spirits of S.C., $500
Beverage company
Charles Way Jr., $1,000
Former state secretary of commerce

Significant expenditures
BANCO/Bannister (ads), $80,000, $2,907, $50,000, $2,526.71, $2,733.03, $2,903.88, $3,123.31
Mack/Crounse Group (ads), $43,833.10, $871.85, $20,824.58, $23,391.19, $23,015.96, $2,000
S.C. Black Media Group (ads), $4,300
Buying Time (ads), $250,000
Hayden Blanton & Associates (consulting), $5,000, $4,343.04, $5,000
Global Strategy Group (consulting), $40,000

JIM REX
Contributions: $51,072
(In-kind: $542)
Expenditures: $134,093.51
Cash on hand: $30,199.36

Significant contributions
Oscar Lovelace, $500
Former candidate for governor
Dick Riley, $1,000
Former governor
Barbara Rackes, $250
Consultant

Significant expenditure
ZekeStokes LLC (consulting), $2,000×2, $1,000×3, $822.53, $2,500
S.C. Black Media Group (ads), $4,300
Integrated Strategy (consulting), $5,000, $4,135
Strategic B&P (consulting), $2,000
The Rackes Group (Web consulting), $5,000, $2,000
Engage Strategies (consulting), $500
Zata3 Consulting (robo calls), $150, $3,385
Hirshberg Strategies (consulting), $18,000
Hamilton Campaigns (consulting), $4,125

ROBERT FORD
Contributions: $32,750
(Personal funds: $12,000)
Expenditures: $7,436.37
Cash on hand: $78,266.41

Significant contributions
Blue Cross Blue Shield of S.C., $2,500
Insurance company

Significant expenditures
None.

A campaign trail narrative.

Friday afternoon, through an old friend and happenstance, we had the chance to invite ourselves to ride along with Supt. of Ed. and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Rex‘s wife, Sue, as she traveled the state to be a campaign surrogate. Through some strange bit of scheduling, nearly every county Democratic Party was having a breakfast meeting or a fish fry or something that required the candidate or someone representing said candidate to show up at the events.

Now, the morning is not a good time for us. At best, we’re surly and nauseous — at worst, comatose. And still surly. But, the plans had been made and I was interested in tagging along for a daylong witnessing of the meat-and-potatoes of a statewide campaign. We pulled into the gas station just off of I-77 and I-26, met up with Ms. Rex and hit the road.

It was a nice morning to be going out-and-about. The temperature was reasonable and puffy white clouds dotted the sky. It would have been sincerely enjoyable with IV drips of caffeine and adrenaline. So, headed off down to Berkeley County for the Berkeley County Democrats‘ breakfast at the county middle school. For about $6, you could get your share of an egg bake, mini-cinnamon rolls, sausage links, grits and the like. The basic staples of water, coffee and orange juice were available as well.

At the entrance to the cafeteria (or, as the school called it, the “food court”) there were the run-of-the-mill usuals: stickers, signs, palm cards. By the way, an aside — what the hell was up with those four flatscreens and the traffic light? And putting the wifi router high on the wall? Guess it must have been some sort of central location, so the wifi cloud was properly spread. Either way you slice it, it appears middle school cafeteria tech and design has significantly improved in 15 years.

Back to the matter at hand. Representing the campaign of Sen. Vince Sheheen were his parents, Fred and Rose. Right off the bat, Fred asked Rose to lead off, which she did, with a story about Sheheen’s potty-training. Whether that was inappropriate or endearing is definitely up to whichever side you support. It was definitely the first time we have heard the story, and it goes something roughly like this: From a young age, Sheheen was a determined gentleman, who wouldn’t let any sort of barrier get in his way. So, during his time of potty-training, his mom told him that when he needed to go, in effect, he needed to go. One day, Sheheen ended up being locked out of the house. He used a hoe to break down the sliding glass door to get inside to use the facilities. We meant to ask campaign manager Trav Robertson about this, but cogent thought wasn’t in the offing that early.

Both Sue and Fred did a good job representing their campaigns’ positions, from the opening statements to the questions from the audience, who definitely showed up ready to get some answers about the issues this year. If the feeling in the room is to be believed, the race isn’t decided yet, though this site and others considered the campaign to be closing up considering Sheheen’s money lead and establishment endorsements.

Perhaps it’s the political connections of the Sheheen family, or Fred’s time on the Council on Higher Education and publishing the Camden Chronicle, but he had a way of talking and the body language of an old-time pol. It was a little interesting. Sue’s approach was admittedly different, but she handled the job as effectively as any candidate would like.

Other local and state matters — there was a guy from the Alliance for Climate Protection and the S.C. Democratic Party political director, Abe Jenkins — finished up the breakfast. It should be noted that the woman running the Party down there is young, motivated and the sort of person Democrats need if they want to not be in a permanent minority for the next generation. But in my experience, she’s definitely the exception, not the rule.

After the meeting, it was off for a quick bite on the road — as is the habit with these sort of roadies — and we headed to Jasper County for the fish fry. There really can’t be enough Democrats in this state that really like inexpensive, fried fish, are there? Would it be that hard to have barbecue? Or just a Ham and Collards Fest. Get a few big pots, chock ‘em full of ham and collards, spice it up a little and you’ve got yourself another artery-clogging meal.

By the time we hit I-95 again, it gets weird. A call from the contact on site gave the bad news. It was the understanding of staff that the fish fry started at 2 p.m. and ran to four. It was noon-5 p.m. instead. It was a moment that put the concern level somewhere above confusion and somewhere below panic. The timing mix-up, the cause of which was debated over the course of the day, was compounded by what we were told that Sheheen’s people set up. There were banners, a table, a fucking Sno-Kone machine — a Sno-Kone machine — a band. It was reported to be quite something. To top it off, Sheheen spoke before 2 p.m. and word was that the event was slowly shutting down.

All right — what to do? Sue and her volunteer driver, Joanne Hafter of Irmo, debated the options. One was to just go. Maybe it wouldn’t be as dead as it might seem later, as we were 45 minutes out. And if that fell through, there was always the bustling metropolis of Ridgeland. Hit up some diners, barber shops and whatever other gathering places looked good in the town center. The final decision was to go by the fish fry, with the other option as backup.

As the Sheheen staffers packed up their last, Sue spoke before the crowd, then Sue and Joanne worked the crowd. It actually appeared to work out. Just about every influential person in Democratic politics in the area was still there, enjoying the talk, the people, and trying to finish off the fish — fish, by the way, that was still being made and sold as the event was drawing to a close.

About two lives ago, we would hang out on daylong excursions with candidates, but being with a surrogate was a different experience, so we paid attention to what was going down. Mind you, the day was blazing goddamn hot by this point, the fryers didn’t help, and every breeze was at a premium at the newly-built farmers’ market. Sue handled it really well.

It appeared she talked to just about every person there, which was about 100 at that point. It was more than a grip-and-grin situation, and she spent a decent amount of time with a number of people. Figuring out the difference between the two can definitely affect performance about an event like this one. When we were in high school, we watched Tom Turnipseed live up to his rep as a guy that’ll talk to you at length about just about anything. Sometimes you’ve got to know when to bring it to a close and move along.

We spent about an hour an a half down there before it was time to get back in the car, try to shake off the fried-brain feeling and go back to Columbia.

There’s something about running with a campaign from dawn to dusk that woke up some memories. One is that winning is always possible. Unless you’re Robert Ford and it’s absolutely pointless. Another is the tunnel-vision. It’s worse than the crap we do on a daily basis, which is just to observe, research and make observations. You can always flip over and watch Hulu for 40 minutes and decompress. When you’re with a campaign, and personally involved (whether it’s by volunteering, paid staff or familial relation), it consumes your thoughts, your actions. You dream about the campaign — even your subconscious won’t let you go.

Also, let’s face it — it’s a fight. At times a zero-sum game. It takes about all you’ve got, and then some more, if you’re doing it right. Anything on the ground is going to be punishing, as in a ground war, or a ground game in football, or working the field in politics. Some are a little less lethal than others. We got to go home and immediately take a nap, wake up today and reflect on what happened. Sue and Joanne, and everybody else going hither-and-yon before the primaries, had to get up early again on Sunday and do it all over again.

No sleep ’til June 8.

If you’d like Wolfe Reports to hang out with your candidate or campaign surrogate for a day in the weeks before the primaries — fuck it. No, no, seriously, we’d love to come along. But, we just demand a bribe of energy drinks (the big ones, not the tiny cans) and/or cold Diet Cokes for the ride. Thanks.

We are going to go into the cash in the attorney general and superintendent of education races, but first we wanted to go back and fill in the spaces for other races we’ve written about. That basically means the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and the GOP state treasurer race. This is how it ended up. And by ended up, Dwight Drake, who quit the race, still has more money on hand than Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex. That’s messed up. And Curtis Loftis had to loan himself another ton of money, and he’s still far behind incumbent Converse Chellis. Let’s get to it.

Democrat for governor
JIM REX
Contributions: $187,340.13
Expenditures: $102,766.35
Cash on hand: $113,220.87

Significant contributions
Lucille Whipper, $50
Former state representative
Jim Rex, $21,375 (transfer from other account)
State superintendent of education
Barbara Rackes, $10×2, $5
Consultant
Harriet Keyserling, $100
Former state representative
Pat Conroy, $500
Author
Edison Learning, $2,500
Education company
Pedro’s Country Stores, $3,500
South of the Border company
Oscar Lovelace, $100
Former candidate for governor
Doug Echols, $100
Mayor of Rock Hill

Significant expenditures
Zeke Stokes LLC (consulting), $1,000×2, $514, $1,500, $250, $2,500
Hamilton Campaigns (survey), $1,000
Hirshberg Strategies (consulting), $5,000×3
Integrated Strategy (consulting), $1,000, $546.09, $2,000, $5,000
The Rackes Group (Internet services), $1,000, $5,000
Engage Strategies (consulting), $1,000, $2,000
The Macrina Group (consulting), $2,601, $2,500

Republican for state treasurer
CURTIS LOFTIS
Contributions: $91,760
(including a $80,000 loan)
Expenditures: $40,716.05
Cash on hand: $75,156

Significant contributions
S.C. Pest Control Association, $2,500
Industry association
Ben Navarro, $2,000
Businessman

Significant expenditures
Jeffrey Sewell (computer), $200
Alex Stroman (consulting), $500
Sherlock & Gaines (consulting), $2,000
Richard Quinn & Associates (consulting), $8,500, $6,000, $10,000
Campaign Services (advertising), $1,196.50

Democrat for governor
DWIGHT DRAKE
Contributions: $97,850
Expenditures: $192,186.10
Cash on hand: $221,611.97

Significant contributions
Matthew Richardson, $500
Candidate for attorney general
Chad McGowan, $1,000
Former candidate for U.S. Senate
Popowski, Callas and Shirley, $2,500
Law firm
Low Country Title, $250×4
Title loan company

Significant expenditures
New Partners (consulting), $18,176, $29,500
Murphy Putnam Media (advertising), $1,938.85, $25,660.54
NGP Software (Web site), $1,000, $3,000
Ina-Pearl Communications (consulting), $1,145, $1,205, $1,000, $107.73, $1,500
Webstrong (consulting), $7,734.89, $7,000×2
Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough (consulting), $1,107

With the departures of Mullins McLeod and Dwight Drake from the Democratic race for governor, Sen. Vince Sheheen is tightening his grip on the nomination. Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex’s report hasn’t been posted yet, but considering his past fundraising troubles, it’s doubtful he’s going to top Sheheen’s haul. The reason for McLeod’s heavy expenditures is that he refunded a lot of contributions.

VINCE SHEHEEN
Contributions: $258,261.98
Expenditures: $201,101
Cash on hand: $800,189.62

Significant contributions
Popowski, Callas and Shirley, $2,000
Law firm
Marshall Meadors, $1,000
Former state Senate candidate
Wilbur Smith Associates, $1,000
Developer
Robert Royall, $1,000
Former director of S.C. Department of Commerce
Nelson, Mullins, Riley and Scarborough PAC, $3,500
Law firm
Joel Lourie, $250
State senator
Andrew Safran, $750
Attorney
Boyd Summers, $100, $150
Chairman, Richland County Democratic Party
John Land, $1,000
State Senate minority leader
Chad McGowan for Senate, $600×2
Campaign committee
Sheraton Downtown Columbia Hotel, $1,145
Hotel
Dick Harpootlian, $3,500
Former S.C. Democratic Party chairman
George Sink Injury Lawyers, $2,000
Law firm
Alex Sanders, $1,000
Former U.S. Senate candidate
Law Offices of J. Todd Rutherford, $200
Law firm of a state representative
A Fund for a Better South Carolina, $1,000
Group by House Minority Leader Harry Ott
Harry Ott, $500
State representative
Lachlan McIntosh, $100
Consultant
Marc Poser, $100
CPA
Stephen Wukela, $1,000
Attorney
Bank of America PAC, $2,000
Bank
Nick Theodore, $500
Former lieutenant governor

Significant expenditures
Hayden Blanton & Associates (consulting), $5,000×2, $7,000
NGP Software (Web site), $325, $619, $2,400
Banco/Bannister (consulting), $2,563.74, $2,577.47, $2,839.61, $2,541.68, $2,577
Information Management Services (consulting), $25,500, $25,000
WideEye Creative (Web site), $4,975
Global Strategy Group (consulting), $33,711.11

JIM REX
Report not yet online.

ROBERT FORD
Contributions: $31,650
Expenditures: $20,024.94
Cash on hand: $51,952.78

Significant contributions
Blue Cross Blue Shield, $1,000
Insurance company

Significant expenditures
Election Mall Technologies (Web site), $295×3
Concorde (bags), $2,483.25, $3,240.63

You’re out!

DWIGHT DRAKE
Report not yet online.

MULLINS MCLEOD
Contributions: $9,950
Expenditures: $269,566.59
Cash on hand: $7,189.03

Significant contributions
None.

Significant expenditures
Ralston Lapp Media (media services), $10,000, $467.10
Anzalone Liszt (research), $5,000
The Strategy Group (consulting), $10,000
McIntosh Consulting (consulting), $12,000, $3,500, $3,850
Harbor Light Media (Internet), $250, $1,250
Stanford Campaigns (consulting), $2,000×2
The Dover Group (fundraising), $2,000, $8,823.58, $7,000
WGG Consulting (consulting), $2,000×2, $1,000
NGP Software (software), $2,490

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.

Unless Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex has an election leprechaun running around with a pot o’ gold and votes, it looks like Sen. Vince Sheheen can now be called the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor. Shortly after noon on Friday, attorney and lobbyist extraordinaire Dwight Drake ended his campaign.

I got into this race because I believed that South Carolina’s families deserved much more than they were getting from their Governor. We are facing the toughest times in a generation, and we can only take that on with dedicated, experienced leadership that is focused on putting our people back to work and building a better future for our kids. I have ambitious ideas for getting our state back on track, and I have the knowledge and experience to put those ideas into action.

But a statewide campaign for office is not just about these things. It also requires resources – campaign dollars to run in a competitive primary and in a competitive general election.

This comes on the heels of former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mullins McLeod dropping out of the race and endorsing Sheheen. As of now, Drake has not announced an endorsement, but anybody paying attention to the race knows the Democratic race has been decided.

The McMaster for Governor campaign — a comedy of errors. Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster has flubbed one issue after another in his run for governor, and can’t seem to stop himself from doing it again. Either his political instincts disappeared overnight a few months ago, or his advisers are giving some really wretched advice. McMaster’s latest political impression of Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford is yet another example.

For a while, the General Assembly has struggled to pass a tax increase on cigarettes that would bring South Carolina up to the national average. It’s not an unreasonable policy. Even though we fell victim to Demon Nicotine, ciggies will kill you. Heart disease, lung cancer, you name it. Increasing the cigarette tax just seems like the soundest idea coming out of the intersection of Main and Gervais in some time.

This year, it really could happen. In a story in The Independent-Mail, Sen. Thomas Alexander said a bill to put South Carolina on par with other states is on pace to be fast-tracked. That’s good news for raising cigarettes to a price point to where people will quit, and help pay for the health care costs that come from long-term smoking that the state has to deal with.

But don’t tell McMaster it’s a good idea. We have this image in our head of him reading that story and letting out a Colbert-esque, “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Because, God forbid we raise taxes on anything, especially something that will kill you and drains the state coffers.

Attorney General Henry McMaster, spurred by a weekend of back-and-forth discussion on the issue with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Rex, said Monday he would not support raising the tax, spokesman Rob Godfrey said.

[...]

About three-quarters of state residents support raising the tax to $1 a pack, from its current 7 cents a pack, according to a 2008 survey by the Republican-leaning polling firm Public Opinion Strategies. The poll was conducted for the S.C. Tobacco Collaborative, a coalition of nonprofit and public health groups that support raising the cigarette tax to cut smoking rates.

[...]

“Henry McMaster is not raising taxes under any circumstances,” Godfrey said, noting McMaster had signed a national anti-tax pledge. “It’s a good way to make a bad economy worse.”

If the Attorney General appeared on “Car Talk,” one of the Magliozzi brothers would be giving him a dope slap. Hey — there’s a difference between being for cutting taxes and small government, and being so foolish as to think keeping cigs as cheap as possible is actually smart thinking.

And while we’re not always on point with former The State editorial page editor Brad Warthen (his ambivalence toward football can’t be processed over here), he nailed the hell out of this insanity today, writing:

So basically, Henry is trying to out-wingnut the others in his party, to establish himself as SO anti-tax that he won’t, under any circumstances, raise the one tax that three-quarters of the state’s voters say should have been raised to the national average years ago.

That is sufficiently extreme to remove Henry from the ranks of people who deserve to be governor. As you know, some time ago I completely lost patience with people who didn’t want to raise the tax to the national average. To oppose raising it at all is just… indefensible.

Warthen goes on to say it has nothing to do with Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex and Rex’s announcement of his support for raising the tax. True enough. And McMaster just gave his opponents a massive club with which to beat him with from here on out.

We didn’t have much hope for Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex when he entered this Democratic gubernatorial primary campaign. As we’ve said, he barely beat current S.C. Republican Party chairwoman Karen Floyd, and that was just from the push-back against school choice. He also hasn’t been able to fundraise well, which is severely limiting when the front-runners — Sen. Vince Sheheen and attorney Mullins McLeod, have several hundred thousand dollars on hand. Not to mention the two GOP leaders have more than $1 million in the bank.

But it gets so much worse. With the release of his disclosure report Friday, Rex spent more than he took in — an oddity this far out form the primary — and is in fifth place in cash-on-hand behind Sen. Robert Ford. The problem appears to lie in two places. One is extensive spending on travel, meals and events. It’s all over the place. The old adage, “You have to spend money to make money,” extends to fundraising, but the idea is that you more than break even. That didn’t happen. He also appeared to be a cash cow for consultants. Rex went to multiple firms and threw the money around like it didn’t matter. Unless he’s got a million-dollar house to mortgage, or a rich uncle about to kick, or a leprechaun on staff who’s hoarding a pot of gold, things don’t look very good.

JIM REX
Contributions: $117,282.04
Expenditures: $133,047.55
Cash-on-hand: $28,647.09

Significant contributions
Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, $3,500
Insurance company
Edward Sellers, $2,000
CEO, BCBS of SC
Edison Learning, $1,000
Education company
Emile DeFelice, $100
Former commissioner of agriculture candidate
Molly Spearman, $500
Executive director, S.C. Association of School Administrators
Zeke Stokes, $3,500
Consultant
S.C. Bankers State PAC, $500
Political action committee
Linda Ketner, $2,000
Former candidate for SC-01
Doug Echols, $250
Rock Hill mayor

Significant expenditures
S.C. Department of Education (use of state vehicle), $641.20
ZekeStokes LLC (consulting), $1,000, $500, $500, $1,000, $164.70, $1,000, $2,000
The Macrina Group (consulting and travel), $2,595, $5,639.20, $2,500, $2,500
The Rackes Group (Internet services), $5,000, $2,000, $5,000, $500, $2,885
Integrated Strategy (consulting, expense, travel), $1,077, $7,258.06
Signs Now (advertising), $4,969.88, $4,000
Strategic B&P (consulting), $2,500
Hamilton Campaigns (research), $5,125, $9,085.03
Snipe Hunt Films (media services), $901
Squier Knapp Dunn Communications (consulting), $5,000

UPDATE: In the middle of all those payments for travel, events and consulting, we missed the one where Rex had to pay the State Ethics Commission $100 on Nov. 1 for a penalty resulting from his initial disclosure report.

South Carolinians for Responsible Government‘s boy Friday at FITSNews, in between showing off his penchant for T&A jokes that an eight-year-old would find sophomoric, tried to make a recent video taken at an education conference into a joke about Gov. Mark Sanford. The Governor has a history of loving media attention (well, before late June, anyway). But, something says that the impetus for the video had nothing to do with Sanford.

Yes, SCRG staffer Neil Mellen was running the camera. And, check out where it was pointing — the camera was pointed at Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex the whole time. Even when Sanford spoke, the camera didn’t move. The expression of irritation on Rex’s face is a dead giveaway. He knew what was happening, even if SCRG’s apologist-in-chief would like to take some hits on his old boss to divert attention.

What Sanford was appearing to do was fire back at his old Devine Street buds in order to defend Rex, a guy he has damn near to nothing in common with when it comes to education policy. It seems to us that Sanford was kind of pissed off at this bush-league maneuver that, while normally seen at rallies and debates, is rarely employed at roundtables like the one taped.

Guess SCRG is starting early with its slash-and-burn election tactics. Now, we’re ready for the misleading direct mail attacks and advertisements (in conjunction with half a dozen other groups comprised of the same people) that usually come with its election-year activities.

Last night’s gubernatorial debate between 10 — 10 — candidates was largely a genial affair in which the Democrats and Republicans were mixed with each other by alphabetical order. Because it was sponsored by an environmental organization, the questions centered around environmental protection and issues surrounding economic development, energy exploration and their impact on the flora and fauna, air and water of our state.

In truth, it was more fun to watch the unusual things. Like, say, Lt. Gov. André Bauer‘s high-performing eyebrows. This is an old story, oft-told, but it’s just too damn entertaining. Years ago, we were hanging out at a bar where Liberty is now. It was back when, we believe, Bauer was still in the House. A gal from Carolina who did some work at the S.C. Democratic Party ran into Bauer there one night. She was tall, had red hair, always had the just-right clothes and makeup. From our perspective, she was pretty hot and the type of gal who had a penchant for older men. Anyway, they meet and start talking and hit it off, and he invited her to hang out on a boat on Lake Murray. Then, he kind of had a unibrow thing going on, and it tweaked her a little bit. The way she told the story, she went out to the boat with shaving cream and a razor, which was not received well. Ah, fun and games.

Somebody please head out to the store and pick up Sen. Robert Ford a neck. His head is sitting right there on his shoulders with nothing separating them. Where did the neck go? Is there a lost-and-found for body parts that just up and disappear? This sounds like it rises to the level of a full-blown legislative investigation. We just can’t keep allowing needed parts of our elected officials to go off on their own.

In an interesting occurrence, we switched Sen. Larry Grooms with U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, circa 2004. Let’s see if they notice! The end-of-debate push for text updates was simply classic. It eerily reminded us of Lieberman’s debate exhortations for watchers to go to joe2004.com. The man has Groomentum.

There was a second Folger’s slight-of-hand, in which we switched Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster with Colonel Sanders.

We’re wondering when the S.C. Policy Council is going to lay the wood to its friend, Rep. Nikki Haley, for saying that South Carolina needs to provide incentives to businesses. The leadership in the General Assembly did a pretty damn good job of putting together an incentive package to bring Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner production to the state, and the Policy Council went on a week-long wet blanket party afterward.

Also, cavemen, Aaron Eckhart and a few handsome gentlemen.

On a serious note, we were impressed with Dwight Drake‘s performance. If he can challenge for the Democratic lead in the money race, he is going to be a real force. However, his continual references as a gubernatorial adviser is beginning to sound like former U.S. Sen. John Edwards’ “son of a mill worker” refrain.

Choice quotes from the night:

Ford: “We got the natural resources in South Carolina. That’s why I propose ‘South Carolina the Beautiful,’ which is a part of my platform, which would employ 100,000 new people in the largest film movie studio industry in the country.”

Ford: “Tell the members not to steal my idea, my ‘South Carolina the Beautiful’ theme.”
Moderator: “Is your idea for sale?”
Ford: “Probably not.”

McMaster: (pats McLeod on the back) “I’ve known Mullins for years. Excellent lawyer. Whole family of lawyers.”

Ford: “That’s why I introduced S. 42, which called for offshore drilling. I would like to remind the panel that in Louisiana, they have serious, serious hurricanes. In fact, during Katrina, the worst hurricane in American history, not one pelican was lost.”

Grooms: “I want to be the first governor to drill a hole.”