Columbia mayor-elect Steve Benjamin isn’t exactly in the best position right now. After winning the runoff and becoming the Capital City’s first black mayor, he could be in some hot water if this doesn’t pan out in the right way. In the early morning hours of Wednesday, near the headquarters of his (Republican) consultants, Richard Quinn & Associates, he got into a car wreck.
But the investigation of the wreck didn’t go like it would if you or us were involved. Though it was in the early morning hours, and the person in the other car was seriously injured, the Columbia police who responded to the accident didn’t administer a breathalyzer or anything of the sort, because, according to witnesses, he looked OK.
Richland County emergency officials say the incident happened on the corner of Gervais and Pickens around 5:45 a.m. when Benjamin’s Mercedes SUV collided with another car. The female driver of the Toyota Tercel, identified by a co-worker as Deborah Rubens, was transported by EMS to Palmetto Health and is listed in fair condition.
Benjamin was not injured according to his spokesman Michael Wukela. He was checked out on the scene by EMS personnel, but later went to a doctor as a precautionary measure.
[...]
WACH Fox asked why the mayor-elect didn’t volunteer for a breathalyzer to avoid any future speculation on whether alcohol may have been involved. Wukela explained that he was simply concerned about the injured woman’s condition.
In addition, the Highway Patrol confirmed the Columbia Police Department’s observation that Benjamin did not seem impaired when they spoke with the mayor-elect shortly after the accident.
The scene does not show any signs of skid marks in the intersection, which suggests that neither driver hit the brakes before impact.
WACH Fox News asked whether Benjamin may have been texting or on the phone. His spokesman said he was not.
[...]
Other media outlets were reporting that the highway patrol was investigating the crash earlier. WACH Fox News talked to Sid Gaulden with the Department of Public Safety, and Joseph Robinson with the South Carolina Highway Patrol. They both say that’s not the case. Columbia City Police remains in charge of the investigation. Highway Patrol was just called in to review the city’s investigation.
At the very least, this whole thing is suspect. Any objective person would say the same. Calling in a third-party law enforcement entity about 18 hours after the event went down is not exactly a signal of transparency, nor is the apparent obfuscation by Wukela to WACH in the story. Benjamin did not take a breathalyzer because he was concerned of the woman’s condition? That just doesn’t fly. Sure, he might have been sober as a judge, but that doesn’t look good (hence, why we favor PR pros, not political hacks, handle campaign communications).
But, hey, he is mayor, and it was a historic election. We’ll see if this story has some legs. Either way, it’s a sad story for the woman involved who is laid up in the hospital. We’re sure the wishes of all of Columbia are with her as she receives treatment and recovers.
The April 10 reports from Columbia mayoral candidate Steve Benjamin and District Four candidate Leona Plaugh have come in, but the ones for Councilman Kirkman Finlay III and Tony Mizzell have not. The results are below. Also, we were told that blogger and drunken foot-smasher Adam Fogle was installed as Benjamin’s campaign manager. What. the. fuck. OK, the kid was a broadcast journalism major at Georgia Southern in the grand metropolis of Statesboro, Ga., then ran a blog in Georgia before he was hired by the Quinns to, naturally, write a blog. We simply can’t believe this. Sure, Benjamin’s likely to waltz to a win on the 20th, but putting a blogger as your campaign manager just seems like a dumbass thing to do. If someone wanted to make us their campaign manager, we’d tell them that they’re obviously smoking the diggity dank and to reevaluate what they’re doing.
Mayor
STEVE BENJAMIN
Contributions: $67,779.62
Expenditures: $46,846.64
Cash on hand: $58,725.26
Significant contributions
Dick Smith Motors, $1,000
Auto dealer
Jack Van Loan, $100
Five Points Association
Zeke Stokes, $50
Consultant
Harvey Starr, $50
USC professor
Richard Harpootlian, P.A., $1,000
Law firm of the former S.C. Democratic Party chairman
Dick Harpootlian, $1,000
Former S.C. Democratic Party chairman
Andy Brack, $100
Editor, the Statehouse Report
Stephen Wukela, $500
Mayor of Florence
Columbia Firefighters Local 73, $502.06
Union
Marshall Meadors, $500
Former state Senate candidate
The Blue Marlin, $500
Restaurant
Stacy Brayboy, $100
Consultant
Capital Legislative Solutions, $500
Consulting firm
Significant expenditures
John Adams (printing), $412, $1,915, $3,221, $222
Joiquim Barnes (canvas), $563
Ike Williams (canvas), $563
Red Carpet Communications, $1,000
The Copy Shop (door hangers), $1,220
Richard Quinn & Associates (consulting), $10,000
Bob Wislinski (fundraising), $1,400
KIRKMAN FINLAY
Report not yet online.
County Council, District Four
TONY MIZZELL
Report not yet online.
LEONA PLAUGH
Contributions: $9,105
Expenditures: $13,363.88
Cash on hand: $798.24
Significant contributions
None.
Significant expenditures
Rod Shealy, $7,284, $3,991
For the day before Tuesday’s Columbia city elections, there was some definite interesting news being made, and it didn’t concern the wide-open race for mayor. Perhaps the biggest news was handed down by a three-judge panel who said that the District Two election to replace E.W. Cromartie could not continue.
Because South Carolina is subject to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — widely considered the best-written piece of major law in Congressional history — the U.S. Justice Department has to approve changes made to election procedure. Since that has yet to happen, the election is delayed. It seemed to us like that was certain to be the case, despite hand-wringing on both sides about whether to go ahead with the vote or postpone it.
Then there was the news coming out regarding District Four candidate Grant Robertson‘s use of the consulting services of his brother-in-law Anthony Quattrone, who is linked to the firm of Richard Quinn & Associates, and Robertson’s apparent disinterest in talking about it. Granted, RQ&A’s involvement in Steve Benjamin‘s mayoral campaign is pretty interesting, in Robertson’s case, this looks a little different. From all appearances, it looks like Robertson called up a member of the family in the business to help out for a late push to try to pull the upset.
Lastly, there was where we were going to come down on the mayoral race. The Benjamin campaign’s hiring of RQ&A, yet trying to play up the Obama connections, never really felt right. It’s the sort of uncomfortable that when it happens, makes you walk into the voting booth and simply become unable to press that button. That leads us to Steve Morrison. We have friends who come down on both sides of whether Morrison should be the next mayor. One group swears that he has the ability to lead Columbia forward. Others have not had the best experiences while dealing with him and local community organizations. Don’t know who’s right on this one.
But after thinking about it and talking with people for the past two weeks, we’ve decided to throw our lot — however small it is — behind Councilman Kirkman Finlay III‘s effort. In a Democratic city, Finlay is outspoken conservative, even receiving the endorsements of U.S. Sens. Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham. However, even liberals we know are seriously considering voting for Finlay. It comes down to a matter of making a clean break with the financial mess that has engulfed the city. His budget-hawk manner and his pragmatic plans to continue revamping Main Street are things Columbia desperately needs right now.
We have no doubt that all the candidates for mayor — including Aaron Johnson and Joe Azar, whom we’ve personally dealt with in the past — are committed to making positive change in the Capital City. But it simply appears that Finlay is the best choice right now.
What’s perhaps the best development of all is seeing just about everyone we know, from casual observers to political operatives, get deeply involved in the campaign. We like people who are involved in five different campaigns, and it’s pretty cool that so many young people want to make our city the best it can be, instead of getting fed up and decamping to somewhere else. So, no matter who wins, the city’s future appears to be bright.
Hey, kids. Remember last June when Rep. Tommy Stringer let it be known to all that he thinks it’s funny to joke about killing pets? In the sarcastic words of a former co-worker, “Yeah, he’s a great goddamn American.”
After we publicized that bit of dumbassery, he blocked us on Twitter and unfriended us on Facebook. Because, it’s obviously our fault that he acted like an asshole in public. But, it’s not all bad for the elected official who would like to kill kitties.
NORTHPORT, Ala. — Two garbage bags filled with dead cats were found by Northport Police Department animal control officers, who also found 2 dead dogs nearby, the Tuscaloosa News reports.
Joan Beck, a Northport Public Works superintendent , said she checked the nearby city-owned dump on Tom Taylor Road for more animal carcasses, but didn’t find any. She also said it’s unclear whether the woods the carcasses were dumped in are private property or on Northport right of way.
See, Representative? You’ve got friends just over the river from Tuscaloosa. Probably time for a road trip.
Speaking of dumbassery, he’s “protected his tweets,” but has them in public on his Web site. Now you can see him accuse black lawmakers of racketeering without having to get approved to follow his tweets.
Really — is this the intelligence of all candidates coming out of RQ&A?
We’ve found ourselves perplexed over the recent months regarding the interesting political flexing going on by Steve Benjamin‘s campaign for mayor of Columbia. The man ran as the Democratic nominee for attorney general in 2002, and counts among his strongest supporters top Midlands Democrats. And yet, it’s not a cut-and-dry situation.
Benjamin hired the local political consulting firm Richard Quinn and Associated to run his campaign. This is the same firm who ran Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster‘s race against Benjamin in 2002, and is running McMaster’s gubernatorial campaign. Naturally, that’s giving Benjamin a free pass on RQ&A’s in-house blog, The Palmetto Scoop. Really — Wheels McGee has been at every Benjamin event we’ve ever attended, which is a tad odd for a GOP political consultant and blogger.
In the meantime, he’s also hired several people who were a part of President Barack Obama‘s campaign during South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary (Craig Schirmer and Laurin Manning, among others). Early Thursday morning, Benjamin’s campaign announced it would start running a radio ad playing up his Obama connections in the Democratic-leaning capital city.
COLUMBIA, SC – Steve Benjamin’s Mayoral Campaign broke onto the airwaves this week with a radio ad featuring a 2007 voicemail left by then Senator Barack Obama.
“I’ve saved this voicemail for well over two years now,” Benjamin explains. “It has been a personal inspiration for me because I still believe in what we can do when we work together. I still believe in hope.”
The radio spot, Benjamin’s first, went into rotation this week and can be heard on radio stations all across Columbia and at www.stevebenjamin.com.
This takes an extraordinary amount of hubris, considering that his consultants ran U.S. Sen. John McCain‘s Republican presidential primary campaigns in this state not once, but twice. Quinn Sr. was a close, unpaid advisor on McCain’s campaign for president in 2008. Then there’s something else.
Interestingly, the child, who seems fit to consider the majority of Republicans in the General Assembly as socialists, has been slurping Benjamin since the very outset. Baldy ran a line of smack against former Speaker of the House David Wilkins, writing, “Anyway, given how ferociously Wilkins promotes (and protects) his reputation as a “Republican,” we were a bit surprised to see him hosting a fundraiser earlier this week for uber-liberal trial lawyer Steve Morrison, who is running for mayor of Columbia, S.C. on the Leftist Lying Bastard ticket (j/k … it’s a non-partisan election).”
Mind you, he never says things like this about the Quinn firm and its relationship with Benjamin, even while assailing RQ&A when it comes to Innovista. It’s often said that a man is judged by the friends he keeps. Another old bromide is “actions speak louder than words.” Benjamin’s words try to play up his connection to Obama. But his actions in regard to people like the Quinns, Folks and Fogle say so much more.
And at this point, we’ve been totally soured on Benjamin, Morrison and City Councilman Kirkman Finlay III. Somebody put a call in to Aaron Johnson.
Maybe it’s just us, but it seems like the gentleman who likes to roll over people’s feet got a little owned Monday evening through some Twitter exchanges. Couldn’t happen to a better fella.
GinaNSmith: Spent the day flying around S.C. w/ Gresham Barrett for a story. So windy that little plane was flying sideways! Glad 2 b back on ground!
PalmettoScoop: @GinaNSmith I’m sure you’ll straighten it all out in your “objective” story about @GreshamBarrett.
GinaNSmith: @PalmettoScoop excuse me?
SCSenatelawyer: @GinaNSmith didn’t get the memo? Unless you’re biased in our favor you’re not objective. :)
SCSenatelawyer: @SCSenatelawyer and I didn’t mean “our” as I’m a mcmaster guy
LoganJames: @GinaNSmith I’m also interested in his explanation. If you’re gonna take cheap shots, at least make them understandable :/
GinaNSmith: For the record, we’re writing profiles on each of the 10 gov candidates. Each candidate gets their own story. We’re hanging out w/ em all!
GinaNSmith: t fair reporting? Oh well. Thanks for letting me vent.
GinaNSmith: dSCSenatelawyer hi. Yeah. I find it hillarious when BLOGGERS who get paid under the table question our objectivity. What the heck do tho …
GinaNSmith: dSCSenatelawyer hi. What do those guys know about fair reporting? Oh well. Thanks for letting me vent.
wesleydonehue: @GinaNSmith you’re not direct tweeting him. you need a space between your d and “scsenatelawyer”
wesleydonehue: @PalmettoScoop You’d think that after @ginansmith’s ass kicking of Gov Sanford, you’d learn not to screw with her. I did.
scott_english: @wesleydonehue @GinaNSmith What Wes said. Also Ubertwitter is good.
Municipal politics can be strange endeavors. Not the least of which in Columbia, where loyalties get all sorts of crossed up. That’s certainly coming to a head this year, as incumbent Mayor Bob Coble has already announced that he will not run for another term. One, if not the main reason, is the momentum of local attorney Steve Benjamin. As early as spring 2009, a number of civically-engaged people we knew in the city were looking at a Benjamin candidacy as the next best move for Columbia.
But after going to a few of Benjamin’s events and seeing Richard Quinn & Associates so involved, it weirded us out. Why would a guy, a Democrat, sign up with a GOP consulting firm to win an election in a Democratic city? Strange. Crossing the streams, you might say. If it got to the “Ghostbusters” level, Benjamin might be in trouble, but we doubt that. City Councilman Kirkman Finlay III‘s disclosure has yet to go up by 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning, but it doesn’t take a genius to say that Benjamin wins this race relatively comfortably, with Finlay in second and Democratic challenger Steve Morrison in third. That’s just the instant analysis from this corner of the city.
Let’s get to the numbers.
STEVE BENJAMIN
Candidate for mayor of Columbia
Contributions: $100,735
Expenditures: $116,656.16
Cash-on-hand: $42,734.89
Significant contributions
Edward Sellers, $1,000
CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina
J.T. McLawhorn, $250
Columbia Urban League
Cynthia Hardy, $100
Public relations executive
Steven Mungo, $200
The Mungo Companies
Frank Knapp, $100
Public relations
Cromartie Law Firm, $125
Law firm of Columbia city councilman E.W. Cromartie
Boyd Brown, $200
State representative
Luther Battiste, $100, $200
Former Columbia city councilman
James Smith, $750
State representative
Pete Strom, $1,000
Attorney
Boyd Summers, $250, $100
Richland County Democratic Party chairman
Jack Van Loan, $100
Five Points Association
Jim Hodges, $1,000
Former governor
Zeke Stokes, $100
Consultant
Charles Way, $500
Former secretary of commerce
Lourie Law Firm, $500
Law firm of Sen. Joel Lourie
Significant expenditures
Banco Bannister (consulting), $2,500×2
WideEye Creative (Web design and construction), $4,225
New Partners Consulting (consulting), $19,800
Richard Quinn & Associates (consulting), $19,668.38, $304.95
With seven Republican candidates jockeying to replace U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett in the Third District, there’s definitely some parity when it comes to fundraising and cash-on-hand. However, several candidates are burning through their cash, and it’s pretty early in the cycle.
Rep. Rex Rice, who is second in cash, spent over $10,000 more than he raised this quarter. Rep. Jeff Duncan, who’s in third, topped $21,000 in disbursements. The vast majority of the money went to campaign consultants. Rice paid firms of operative Robert Cahaly $14,404.63, while throwing $27,471.64 toward entities of Richard Quinn & Associates. Duncan gave Allen Klump’s Peacecraft Strategies $8,000 and $5,000 to WW Consulting.
For these reasons, Sen. Shane Massey leads the field, winning the award for campaign fiscal restraint. He only spent $8,028.59, leaving him with the most cash-on-hand going into the fourth quarter on 2009.
Sen. Shane Massey
Contributions: $23,221
Expenditures: $8,028.59
Cash-on-Hand: $39,365.31
Rep. Rex Rice
Contributions: $45,068.05
Expenditures: $58,499.56
Cash-on-Hand: $33,928.26
Rep. Jeff Duncan
Contributions: $37,136.25
Expenditures: $21,733.08
Cash-on-Hand: $29,615.62
James Galyean
Contributions: $40,462.58
Expenditures: $42,929.85
Cash-on-Hand: $22,618.39
Richard Cash
Contributions: $21,449.91
Expenditures: $17,154.95
Cash-on-Hand: $14,266.35
Mike Vasovski
Contributions: $6,777
Expenditures: $9,522.95
Cash-on-Hand: $8,896.80
Neal Collins
Contributions: $5,519
Expenditures: $5,513.17
Cash-on-Hand: $5,385.83
This is fun. So, alleged Richard Quinn & Associates new media firm “Two Lantern Media” constructed “bailoutbarrett.com,” a site dedicated to ripping gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett. Per Wesley Donehue’s site, the coding for bailoutbarrett.com was the same as other sites the firm constructed — notably, Palmetto Scoop, Rep. Rex Rice‘s congressional campaign site and Rep. Nikki Haley‘s campaign site.
This morning, after the site was called out, it was taken down within minutes. From what we heard, Haley’s campaign was thrown under the bus as the proprietors of the operation. According to Donehue’s post, the guy now “officially” responsible said that the whole thing was done, and we’re not shitting you, by “a rogue coder.”
We’re of the opinion that Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster‘s consultants are so scared of Haley, they’re totally willing to blame another gubernatorial campaign for an anonymous attack that they generated. After all, remember “TheRealWolfeReports?” These guys couldn’t find their ass with two hands and a flashlight.
A while back, we were told that all sorts of hell was going down at the S.C. Policy Council, because allegedly SCPC head Ashley Landess wouldn’t back a report taking Gov. Mark Sanford to task for his abuse of state planes. It’s finally come to a head, as we were told SCPC spokesman Bryan Cox left because of the issue.
The whole situation is pretty interesting, considering that the Policy Council chairman is none other than Rick Quinn. That naturally drags Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster into the mess, which could reflect badly on his gubernatorial ambitions. After all, what’s up with an organization that his political consultant is running pulling punches about Sanford?
Come on, Rick — ‘fess up. Why are you protecting America’s most-despised governor?
