The second edition of “Happy Hour” occurred this week, sponsored by Ragley Public Affairs (thanks for the drinks, J-Dub). The guest for the evening was former The State vice president and editorial page editor Brad Warthen. Then we decided to show up, doing our best to string along a rum and Diet Coke for about 15 minutes.
They say you shouldn’t talk politics at the bar. But, when every waking moment is spent dealing with politics — and a number of slumbering ones (don’t even say you haven’t had a dream about legislation or a campaign), it’s impossible not to talk shop.
Several years ago, we thought of doing something called “Drunk Pundit.” The idea would be that we’d be outside a bar, or on a back deck, dressed in a suit and a fedora, and talk some random bullshit about a leading topic of the day. A friend of ours came up with the idea after a few nights of going out to bars and noticing we could pull together a brilliant Lewis Black-esque takedown. Needless to say, that idea never came to fruition.
Then there was the plan with this site to go to a random local bar with an elected official/consultant/lobbyist and do something similar, but that didn’t go as planned, either. Fortunately, consultant and Senate Republican Caucus political director Wesley Donehue had a similar idea, and this one worked.
The idea, called, “Happy Hour,” includes a point-counterpoint idea. The first one featured Donehue and Senate Democratic Caucus director Phil Bailey at Flying Saucer in the Vista.
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.
As the House and Senate reconvened for the second day of the extended session on Wednesday, everything calmed down until the Boeing announcement came down.
johnroconnor: Spotted: House reading clerk Bubba Cromer wearing an alien mask at the desk.
ZacherMediaPR: John O’Connor, reporting the real news… RT @johnroconnor: Spotted: House reading clerk Bubba Cromer wearing an alien mask at the desk.
johnroconnor: @ZacherMediaPR well if the House isn’t going to make any news, someone has to
yvonnewenger: Statehouse is in a holding pattern … Boeing news could come at any time.
NathanBallentin: patience is a virtue
johnroconnor: Speaker Harrell, Sens. McConnell and Leatherman and Nexsen Pruett attys meeting in McConnell’s office now
RepAlanClemmons: Private meeting in State House. Attending: Speaker Harrell, Sen McConnell, Sen Leatherman, Billy Wilkins, and unknown others. #sctweets
RepAlanClemmons: RT @JenniferDale: RT @WMBFmegmiller: Reports: Boeing calls emergency meeting for 787 employees in Everett
RepAlanClemmons: Two unknown gentlemen just left the private statehouse meeting and went to Gov Sanford’s office.
dphamilton: SC House now considering economic development incentive package for “major economic development.” Passes by a vote of 106-0.
sendavidthomas: BREAKING NEWS via WYFF 4: Boeing to locate plant in North Charleston. Bringing 12,000 jobs
senatortomdavis: Official BEA state revenue impact of Boeing incentive package: http://bit.ly/2uFQu7 Voting on final passage of bill in about ten minutes.
RepAlanClemmons: Swarm of ladybugs just landed on the Statehouse. Good luck sign? http://twitpic.com/nazmc
johnroconnor: Seattle, Wash., just sent us e-mail. Boeing is coming to North Charleston. #chsbrkg #sc #chsnews (via @CRBJ)
shanemassey: Boeing announces that it is coming to SC! Huge win for SC!
wesleydonehue: Standing ovation in senate. This is amazing.
shanemassey: Boeing to build 787s in N. Charleston. Expected 4,000 spin off jobs throughout state. Big day for SC.
RepBoydBrown: Boeing bringing thousands of jobs to SC. Harrell: “SC is back in business”
RepAlanClemmons: Rep Jeff Duncan sporting Boeing lapel pin to commorate today’s big announcement. #sctweets
vincentsheheen: Great news from Boeing today … Just a precursor of what we can achieve with a vision and hard work!
Grooms4SCGov: Senator Grooms helps lay groundwork to bring Boeing to Charleston – More SC Jobs: http://bit.ly/1FkACK #sctweets #tcot #scgop
AntonJGunn: Yesterday and today were my two proudest days as a House Member. Helped unemployed South Carolinians and created 3,800 direct jobs! Yay!
votetimscott: Boeing is coming to N Chas!!! I started working on this project as Chair of county council & now seeing it fly in more jobs to our community
SenJohnLand: Great Day for South Carolina.
RepBoydBrown: Governor, Commerce thank General Assembly for landing Boeing in South Carolina
RepAlanClemmons: Senators Leatherman & McConnell, the main negotiators, bask in afterglow of SC Boeing announcement. #sctweets http://twitpic.com/nb63a
SamPJohnson: elated that General Assembly exteneded Unemployment Benefits and played vital role in Boeing to SC! About time they did something! #sctweets
ZacherMediaPR: Seattle Times: “I bet 25 years ago in Detroit, they thought nobody in the South could figure out how to build cars.” http://bit.ly/3hHfar
VoteConnor: thrilled for what Boeing brings to our states economic future!
Then, by way of Rep. James Smith, comes this cell phone picture of the vote board in the House:
Often, people on the Internet do not hot link for two reasons: 1) it is considered bad form, and 2) the person on the other side of the link can do whatever they feel like and mess with you.
As it happens, there was the latest issue with S.C. Hotline proprietor Jeffrey Sewell locking and loading against another Palmetto State consultant, Wesley Donehue.
The original post that Sewell put up featured a picture from Donehue’s latest Web video venture, Livin’ Venti. But, Sewell made the mistake of hot linking and not putting the picture on his own server.
So, the following happened:
Jeffery Sewell, S.C. political consultant and noted RINO hunter, recently sent out an email advertising his access to the S.C. Election Commission voter file. In the subject, he writes, “Complete ‘08 SCEC file complete with appendeges e.g. no dead, felons etc blah blah…buy from me or pay twice the price…available right now.”
Now, Sewell has been kind to this site in the past, which surely means Wolfe Reports will join the number of recently axed sites from his news aggregator. That is fine. It is only a matter of time until we piss off nearly everyone and find ourselves begging for money for cheap beer like the rest of the homeless in Five Points.
However, how does a guy who has taken pride in going after “Republicans In Name Only” offer his voter file to Democrats? One of the email addresses listed is Jay Parmley, executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party. Not only that, but Parmley is a member of the RISE SC Facebook group. RISE SC, as you may recall, is totally opposed to school choice, which Sewell says he favors and in which movement he has been involved.
But, that is not all. He has also offered the list to Rick Beltram, chairman of the Spartanburg County Republican Party. It should not take most people long to wonder why a guy who says he is a supporter of Karen Floyd and says she will be the next S.C. Republican Party chairman would be offering his list to one of her opponents.
And, still, there is more. He also offered it to people he called RINOs in the past, like S.C. operatives Rod Shealy and Wesley Donehue. What is not known is if the other people on the listing, like SCGOP chairman Katon Dawson, Richard Quinn & Associates’ Rick Quinn, McAllister Communications‘ Dave Wilson and Starboard Communications‘ Mike Green are considered to be in the same camp as the others, or just open to cut rate voter file access.
Either way, there are more things afoot in S.C. politics than anyone could even imagine.
In the past presidential election, much hay was made over then-Sen. Barack Obama’s use of the Internet, and how he and his campaign used it to raise record amounts of money and organize the Democratic Party’s activist base. Former Gov. Howard Dean had opened up the ground for the Dems in 2004, but Obama was the first national candidate to turn that tactic into part of a winning strategy.
Nationally, the GOP has been lagging behind the Dems in using the Internet to its full potential. But, in South Carolina, the situation is different. Republicans are leading the way.
“We’ve had a high turnover in the S.C. Republican Party. It’s the new guys you see really pushing the Internet in South Carolina,” GOP consultant Wesley Donehue, who is helping lead the new media changes, said. “I’m hoping the established legislators follow the lead of U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, State Reps. Nathan Ballentine and Dan Hamilton and start using the Internet as their primary communication tool. Just this week State Sen. David Thomas joined Twitter and has been very active. State Sens. Glenn McConnell, Harvey Peeler and Larry Martin have been very active on blogs and video. I think they are all starting to realize that the Internet is the future of communications.”
In the past few weeks, Donehue and Hamilton teamed up to start SCtweets.com, which is a clearinghouse of Twitter messages and pages of state elected officials, party staffers, consultants, journalists and bloggers.
Phil Bailey, of the S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus, acknowledged that Palmetto State Democrats are working from behind when it comes to embracing new media.
“I’m the first to admit that Democrats are behind on that in South Carolina,” he said. Bailey, though, is one of few Democrats, including Rep. Anton Gunn, who actively use Twitter, Facebook and other Web applications.
But, how did what was known as a Democratic advantage nationally become a Republican advantage here?
“Republicans, especially the younger ones, understand that the Democrats schooled us in the last two national election cycles because we were weak online,” Donehue said. “Republicans are starting to understand that the Internet is the future of communications and campaign strategy implementation.”
Bailey said that S.C. Democrats are working to bridge the gap.
“There’s some talk. I know [Sens. Vince] Sheheen and [Joel] Lourie are wanting to get involved in this, as far as the new generation of senators,” he said. “Twitter is looking like a press gaggle right now, looking at the TV and print media that are using it. It’s a new way to push stories, and the mainstream media picks up on it, and the constituents read it. Lourie and Sheheen are working on that aspect of the tool — the media.”
To take full advantage of what the Internet has to offer, though, you can’t just depend on a shiny Web site.
“Too many candidates believe that a pretty website with a weekly update is enough. It’s not. We will see a lot more failure [for Republicans] if the top of the ticket candidates don’t start using the Internet for their daily and primary means of communications,” Donehue said. “The S.C. gubernatorial candidates better use YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and blogs effectively like Sen. DeMint or they will be embarrassed by someone like Vince Sheheen.”
