The Columbia Police Department has been having problems for a while. That’s not to say there aren’t some great cops in town — we’ve been privileged to have met a few, but the CPD has some serious problems. That’s what Tandy Carter was hired to fix, coming from the small North Carolina town of Shelby. Needless to say, his failure to adequately handle mayor-elect Steve Benjamin’s epic car accident pointed to him being totally unable to do the job.
Hence, it was no surprise today that City Manager Steve Gantt put the kibosh on Carter’s job today. In a morning presser, Cater said some ridiculous shit, among them being that he wouldn’t be a, “puppet police chief.” Yeah. All the while, since the election, that looks exactly like what he was doing. It looked like that he wasn’t going to rock the boat of a prominent city Democrat and his prominent Republican consultants.
The whole reason that the CPD needed to be reformed is that it regularly botched investigations, arrests and transparency. We remember when we went to get the report for lobbyist/consultant Larry Marchant’s DUI, the book of police reports was months out-of-date.
What’s heinously fucked up about that is that when we covered the sheriff’s office and a police department in rural central Florida, it was never a problem to get current reports. Then again, while in grad school at Alabama, the Tuscaloosa News was, at the time, in a lawsuit with the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office over same said reports, which were by law available to not only journalists, but to the public in general.
This is some basic shit. If the CPD can’t get it right, how could anyone expect it to get the rest of its operations right? And Carter knew exactly what he was getting into. Yet, he acted petulant, entitled and, frankly, wrong under the circumstances.
Now he’s gone. The State reporter Adam Beam put up the letter that gave Carter the boot.
Maybe this time the Columbia city government will select a guy or gal who will get the job done and really create some true reforms in city public safety that won’t be able to be pilloried in the press and on blogs like this one. But we aren’t holding our breath.
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
Runoffs — the ugly byproduct of close, multi-candidate elections.
The races for Columbia mayor and District Four councilman will be decided in runoffs, as no candidate in either of those races reached the 50 percent-plus-one threshold for winning the election. Joe Azar (bested by fellow Harden Street businessman Aaron Johnson for fourth place) said in a recent one of his famous newsletters that because no candidate was trumpeting polling numbers, the race was likely to be a toss-up. It was, for the top three.
With 76 of 78 precincts reporting, Steve Benjamin was at 35.5 percent (6,067), Councilman Kirkman Finlay III at 32.1 percent (5,485) and Steve Morrison coming in at 29.5 percent (5,053). That’s pretty tight, considering conventional wisdom last year had it that Benjamin was going to run away with the election. With Morrison out of the way, expected thinking would be that Benjamin would consolidate the city’s Democrats and win in the runoff. But, that’s not necessarily so.
Consider that District Four, Finlay’s old seat, will be going up on the same day. Former city manager Leona Plough (32.3 percent, 1,831) will face off against Tony Mizzell (31.4 percent, 1,782). That would mean a bump in people who would normally vote for Finlay, as opposed to if the mayoral election was alone on the ballot.
Then take both these examples and throw them out. Runoffs come down to organization and getting your people out. Whomever has the tightest, best ground game will win the day. The WR betting line is Benjamin, -7.
In the only other competitive race, Grant Robertson mounted an unexpectedly strong challenge to Councilwoman Tameika Issac-Devine, losing 57-41.9 percent.
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.
The day before the city elections in Columbia, it’s time to take some time and look at who’s raising what, and from where. As of right now, the pre-election reports from Councilman Kirkman Finlay III, businessman Joe Azar and Nammu Muhammad are not online, but one imagines that they’re in a nice little file over at the State Ethics Commission. Either way, everybody has to get reports in on April 10, so we’ll find out what the details are — beyond the big numbers — then.
STEVE BENJAMIN
Contributions: $124,609
(including $20,000 loan)
Expenditures: $135,317.51
Cash-on-hand: $55,211.38
Significant contributions
Friends of Jim Clyburn, $1,000
Campaign committee
Harvey Starr, $50
USC professor
Bob Wislinski, $125
Political consultant
John Yancey McGill Jr., $500
Lobbyist
Richard A. Harpootlian, P.A., $1,000
Law firm
Dick Harpootlian, $1,000
Former S.C. Democratic Party chairman
Vic Rawl, $100
Candidate for U.S. Senate
Zeke Stokes LLC, $100
Political consultant
Marvin Chernoff, $744
Marketing guru
Jack Van Loan, $100
Five Points Association
Christopher R. Hart, P.A., $500
Law firm of the state representative
David Swinton, $100
President, Benedict College
Significant expenditures
Red Carpet Communications (advertising), $5,000
Daybreak Consulting (consulting), $425
John Adams (signage), $3,470.22
Richard Quinn & Associates (consulting), $5,269, $10,000, $1,630, $1,470, $10,000, $502, $6,439
Political Election Service (consulting), $4,900
New Partners (consulting), $5,000, $10,000, $10,000
Democracy in Action (database management), $400
STEVE MORRISON
Contributions: $147,958
(including $40,000 loan)
Expenditures: $142,012.41
Cash-on-hand: $33,786.09
Significant contributions
Tomlin & Co., $1,000
Development company
Don Tomlin, $1,000
Developer
Mary Balbach, $50, $100
Director, United Way
Barry Walker, $500
Irmo Town Council member
Dick Riley, $1,00
Former governor
Robert Royall, $500
Former director, S.C. Department of Commerce
Barbara Rackes, $100
Consultant
Kelly Payne, $100
Candidate for superintendent of education
Significant expenditures
Ferillo & Associates (consulting), $22,905.11, $9,202.24, $14,802.45, $5,602.28, $18,975, $10,937.78, $3,359.11
Trevett’s Direct (mail), $1,777.86, $3,369.64
The Rackes Group (consulting), $3,943.52, $3,252.14, $100, $2,000, $6,750
AARON JOHNSON
Contributions: $1,471.50
Expenditures: $1,225.71
Cash-on-hand: $628.94
Significant contributions
The White Mule, $250 (in-kind)
Bar/music club
Todd Morehead, $5
Editor, Columbia City Paper
New Brookland Tavern, $5, $175 (in-kind)
Bar/music club
Significant expenditures
Facebook (advertising), $28, $1.19
SPARKLE CLARK
Contributions: $210
Expenditures: $372
Cash-on-hand: $102.12
Significant contributions
None.
Significant expenditures
None.
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.
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 Columbia’s bad-to-worse budgeting and general financial problems, public safety in the city has received a serious hit. Fortunately, the fire station on Devine Street is back to full operating strength, bringing back an engine that had been shut down by budget cuts in the Spring.
The money isn’t coming from an increase in taxes or fees, though. Funding for the truck and three firefighters is coming directly from the city’s bravest giving up half their paid holidays. Chief Bradley Anderson said in The State, “It definitely will improve services not only in Engine 9’s primary response area, but it improves coverage throughout the city and county because of the fact that all of these stations work together in the system.”
Of course, proper funding of first responders is one of the top issues in the race for mayor.
“It’s bittersweet. I wish council would spend a little more time finding other ways to do it and not do it on the back of firefighters.”
“We’re in a worldwide recession and we’re able to maintain a high standard of public safety without anybody losing their jobs. It would be Cinderella to expect more.”
Columbia mayoral candidate Steve Benjamin is making one of his first major policy stances this week, calling for the city’s first responders to be considered first for funding during the budget process. Over the past couple years, Columbia’s police, fire fighters and paramedics, et. al., have been getting hit hard and the City Council deals with financial mismanagement in city government, added to the hard times everybody is going through.
Recently, a proposal came down to close two fire engines. For those of you in Shandon, that doesn’t look good, since the Devine Street station has one of those slated to be shut down. About $9 million is supposed to be eliminated from public safety funding, as it stands right now.
“Every society’s most basic organizing principle is safety and it has always been understood that the city’s most sacred duty is to protect its citizens. Unfortunately, by neglecting our police and fire services, Council has abandoned that duty. As a result, we are all in harm’s way,” Benjamin said in a statement.
While he doesn’t plan on raising taxes to restore funding, the idea is to do budget-streamlining things like, “eliminating waste, limiting non-essential spending, instituting a hiring freeze, and … the consolidation of several services with Richland County.”
