Changes are going down in the Holly Springs VFD commission, and perhaps the strange dealings may be coming to an end. If you recall:

…those commissioners are appointed by Sens. Lee Bright and Shane Martin and Rep. Joey Millwood. From what we’ve been told about the four appointments, not everything’s been on the up-and-up, which is simply shocking when it comes to a couple savants like Bright and Millwood. It’s all a bit Byzantine, but hang with us here. First of all, when it was time for applications for a couple of the positions, they were not supposed to be allowed after Jan. 1. But, these got passed through. They were Clarence Gibbs, who owns Inman Realty, and Roscoe Kyle, a retired police officer. First, Gibbs employs Kelly Waters, who is another commissioner. Second, commissioner Ryan Phillips has a home loan with Gibbs. Third, Kyle grows crops on Gibbs’ property and is pals with him and Phillips.

The good news is that Gibbs has left the commission, so there’s some progress being made. Maybe in the coming weeks, it might open up more to Freedom of Information Act requests and basic government transparency measures. And perhaps because of this, Gibbs said in The Herald-Journal that he’ll be freed up to say what he wants and still interact with the commission without being subjected to those little irritants that let people in the district know what the hell is going on.

This surely won’t be the end of this story, but it’ll be interesting to see how the tempest in a teapot will end up.

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

Just what in the hell and hootenanny is wrong with Spartanburg County? Every time something nefarious comes up, it makes no damn sense. Like what’s been going on with the Holly Springs Volunteer Fire Department. See, the local VFD has a commission, and those commissioners are appointed by Sens. Lee Bright and Shane Martin and Rep. Joey Millwood. From what we’ve been told about the four appointments, not everything’s been on the up-and-up, which is simply shocking when it comes to a couple savants like Bright and Millwood.

It’s all a bit Byzantine, but hang with us here. First of all, when it was time for applications for a couple of the positions, they were not supposed to be allowed after Jan. 1. But, these got passed through. They were Clarence Gibbs, who owns Inman Realty, and Roscoe Kyle, a retired police officer. First, Gibbs employs Kelly Waters, who is another commissioner. Second, commissioner Ryan Phillips has a home loan with Gibbs. Third, Kyle grows crops on Gibbs’ property and is pals with him and Phillips. That’s a great damn environment for a lack of transparency, back-slapping and glad-handing, which all three legislators supposedly ran against.

Allegedly, the board has skirted FOIA requests, and a local fire chief is supposedly under the gun by a guy whose freight is delivered by none other than Bright’s company. Gadzooks — can’t these guys get their acts straight? And speaking of getting something right, the people who are on the VFD commission might be well advised to learn the government’s listing of ethnic groups. Looking over their applications, we’re pretty sure Irish (Gibbs) is a nationality, white (Waters) is a color and white-American (Kyle) is both a color and a nationality. And on top of everything else, Phillips actually said on his application that his appointment to the board would be a conflict of interest.

There is certainly good government going on in this state, but it surely isn’t happening in Spartanburg County.

Rep. Joey Millwood — thankfully, mercifully voted out of office by Republican voters in House District 38 on June 22 — can’t stop acting the fool. It seems to be part and parcel of his personality. The House’s part of the Spartanburg County’s incompetent duo (co-starring Sen. Lee Bright) is just a bottomless well of “what the fuck?” moments. Tuesday, as the House finished up its work for the year, he did it again.

See, when someone leaves a chamber of the General Assembly, no matter how short their term or poor their service, they get a fawning going-away party with local members wishing them bon voyage. In this case, Rep. Rita Allison got up and said some nice things. Then, and the details are murky, Millwood decided to have some words with Rep. Steve Parker.

Here’s Millwood’s take, in all its beautiful silliness:

“I mentioned to him, ‘Steve, I know what you were doing to me in the race. And I know the leadership knows, and a lot of other people know.’ Then he called me an arrogant S.O.B. — but he said the words — and said something about if I’d gotten along more with the delegation, we wouldn’t have done that,” Millwood said.

Millwood said he responded by likening Parker to a used car salesman.

“That wasn’t any cause for him to get in my face with his finger, and tell me we were going to go,” Millwood said. “He got nose-to-nose to me, and said, ‘We can take it back to the office, where he would kick my A-double-S.’ And he said that over and over. And then (Speaker Pro Tem) Harry Cato got between us. And as (Parker) was going out, he told me the offer still stands in Spartanburg.”

“A-double-S?” Hahaha. We didn’t know adults spoke like that. Anyway, the two were separated and Parker left the chamber, though Millwood claims Parker challenged him to fisticuffs. That wouldn’t be a far fight, anyway. All you have to do is recall the strategy of beating King Hippo in “Punch-Out!!” and Millwood’s going down.

Hey, Representative — you didn’t deserve to win last time and the voters corrected the result this time. Now go back to working far, far away from Columbia and save your sour grapes for people who give a damn.

Huzzah. Raise a flagon, ladies and gents, and celebrate the end of Rep. Joey Millwood‘s first and only term. He went down to defeat on Tuesday to former Landrum mayor Doug Brannon in the House District 38 GOP primary runoff, 51-49, a measure of 80 votes. But as they say, it ain’t horseshoes and it ain’t hand grenades. Just like that, the IQ quotient of the House went up a few points. And that’s a good thing.

Millwood was the only one of the Sandlapper Group‘s candidates (all hit list recruits) to win in 2008, and that was by a super-close margin as well. We were big fans of Millwood’s Web site that year, which looked just like, oh, every other site Sandlapper made for its clients in the cycle. If we thought we could make good money rolling out cookie-cutter sites with the candidates introducing themselves with basically the same script, we would have gone into that racket a long time ago.

Of course, this leaves a bit of a void for rampant dumbassery in the General Assembly. Indigo Journal‘s Tim Kelly said that he’ll have to find another person to make mugs about. We would suggest that he can’t go wrong with Sen. Lee Bright. The man’s positions are positively paleolithic, and he has a habit irritating nearly everybody in the Senate with his half-baked ideas and poorly thought-out actions.

There are some new people coming in, though. We’ll see what happens when Todd Atwater (HD-87), Bill Crosby (HD-117) and Andy Patrick (HD-123) hit the floor in January, not to mention the other likely new legislators who won primaries outright on June 8.

The two-year dumbassery of Rep. Joey Millwood may well be coming to an end, and none too soon. We still maintain that some illicit shit went down with his election in 2008, considering it was the only win by the Sandlapper Group, and it was so close. And that he’s such a fucking idiot. Really.

You know, if we knew that it was easy to sell out to an out-of-state financier, and be an overweight small-town sports editor, and get elected to the House, we would have done it long ago. Hell — we handled the sports sections of TWO small-town papers before we came down here. A tad bit more responsibility than Herr Millwood. By the way, did he have to take his own pictures, edit them and design his own pages? Because that’s a massive pain in the ass. Liked it a lot before when at other papers we just had a lot on our plate and only had to write.

It’s good to see that Millwood, as an incumbent, received less than 40 percent of the vote in his primary. He only beat former Landrum mayor Doug Brannon — a guy who actually makes sense — by about 1.16 percent. If you think the supporters of John Moore are going to go wholesale for Millwood, you’re suckling on the teat of the batshit crazy.

So, Milly, enjoy your last three days in the House. We’ll be having a party when you get sent back home.

It’s no surprise — Rep. Joey Millwood is in trouble, looking to secure his second term. He’s frequently made headlines, for all the wrong reasons. Even The Herald-Journal endorsed one of his opponents in the Republican primary, John Moore. Former Landrum mayor Doug Brannon is also in the race, and if the money is any indication, as into the game as the other two. There really isn’t any good reason Millwood was elected in the first place. This gives HD-38 voters two different people with which to correct that situation.

JOHN MOORE
Contributions: $1,450
(In-kind: $350)
Expenditures: $5,033.42
Cash-on-hand: $14,889.32

Significant contributions
None.

Significant expenditures
Dark Horse Strategy Group (consulting), $2,872.96, $642

JOEY MILLWOOD
Contributions: $11,945.50
(In-kind: $400)
Expenditures: $12,295.61
Cash on hand: $8,290.68

Significant contributions
S.C. Club for Growth, $1,000
Political action committee
Chad Walldorf, $1,000
Chairman, S.C. Club for Growth
S.C. Good Government Committee, $500
Political action committee of the S.C. Chamber of Commerce
S.C. House Republican Caucus, $5,000
Legislative caucus
Bo Aughtry, $100
Developer
Palmetto Patriot Leadership Committee, $1,000
Allied with Rep. Alan Clemmons

Significant expenditures
Skyagunsta (consulting), $5,005.89, $3,164.64

DOUG BRANNON
Contributions: $11,965
Expenditures: $10,415.28
Cash on hand: $3,577.37

Significant contributions
S.C. Trial Lawyers Association PAC, $1,000
Political action committee
Conservation Voters of S.C., $1,000
Environmental group

Significant expenditures
Campaign Research & Strategy (mail), $3,500

Via Sen. Kevin Bryant’s blog, we get the notice that several senators will host a fundraiser in Columbia for Rep. Joey Millwood, who hails from the border town of Landrum. Why they would do this boggles the mind. Sure, we’re not surprised Sen. Lee Bright is involved — they’re intellectual (anti-intellectual?) brothers from another mother. But we thought the other guys were smarter than this.

The man is a The Daily Show joke in waiting. He’s one of those guys that a lot of South Carolinians would say, “How did that dumbass ever get elected without nefarious means?” We’re just disappointed that these gentlemen decided to be involved. Sometimes you’ve got to use better judgment when it comes to political alliances.

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.

Last spring, we were told that real estate magnate Howard Rich had pulled his money out of South Carolina, considering that his lackeys in this state hadn’t been able to accomplish diddly-squat, except to bitch and moan and act like because they yell loudest, that they’re the “majority.” Maybe some consultants have lost out, but money’s still going to candidates and elected officials.

JOEY MILLWOOD
State representative
(2009, Fourth quarter)
538-14 Realty, $1,000
Silver and Silver Properties, $1,000
332 E 11, $1,000
Rich Lending Corporation, $1,000

GREG DELLENEY
State representative
(2009, Fourth quarter)
Rich Lending Corporation, $1,000
188 Claremont, $1,000
538-14 Realty, $1,000
332 E 11, $1,000

TRACY EDGE
State representative
(2009, Fourth quarter)
332 East 11, $1,000
538-14 Realty, $1,000
4220 Broadway, $1,000
Silver and Silver Properties, $1,000
188 Claremont, $1,000

TOM DAVIS
State senator
(2009, Third Quarter)
188 Claremont, $1,000
4220 Broadway, $1,000
51 First Avenue, $1,000
123 LaSalle, $1,000
405 49 Associates, $1,000
332 E 11, $1,000
470 W 166, $1,000
Bradford Management of New York, $1,000
Dayrich, $1,000
Bayrich, $1,000