By Paul Gable
Three candidates are competing for the Republican Party nomination for the Horry County District 3 school board seat in next week’s primary election.
Tracy Winters is the incumbent board member. During her current four-year term, the board has passed fiscally responsible budgets, increasing teacher and staff salaries as well as the arts and athletic programs with no tax increases.
Winters also pushes transparency and accountability, continued fiscal responsibility, expanding course and extracurricular offerings to meet the diverse academic and career interests of students and a push for a second high school to serve the ever growing needs of the Carolina Forest area.
Challenger David Frierson spent most of his life as a pastor. Frierson presents himself as an outsider with no connection to the board or schools who can bring a new and fresh perspective to the board. Frierson advocates addressing the values students are learning particularly with “wokeism” (his word) he believes has come into the schools. He believes the board can help with moral problems and unacceptable behavior he says are going on in schools.
Challenger J. D. Davis is a retired Lt. Col. from the U. S. Army. After retirement, Davis served as JROTC Army Director for Horry County Schools and was a nine-year member of the City of Myrtle Beach Military Appreciation Committee. Davis wants to use his leadership skills and believes his commitment to serving students and families is not over.
Checking a little deeper into the campaign literature and advertising of the candidates, some discrepancies appeared with respect to the Davis campaign.
Kathy Hazelwood, a former attorney for the South Carolina Ethics Commission, told me years ago, in a telephone conversation, the two things that state law requires on all campaign literature, mailers and advertisements is who paid for the material and the address of the payor.
Davis’s handout or palm card, a mailer sent to Republican voters and an ad run for multiple weeks in the Carolina Forest Chronicle all failed to have a “Paid for by” line and no address. Such omissions are a violation of state ethics laws and a lack of transparency on the part of the candidate and his campaign.
Additionally, Davis as a candidate was included in a “Community Health and Wellness” event on May 16th in Carolina Forest along with several local businesses “through People Over Profit Lloyd Foundation, Inc.”, according to the literature advertising the event.
The literature stated, “Come and meet your local candidate J. D. Davis for Horry County School Board, District 3.” It is obvious Davis was the only candidate to be included in the event.
People Over Profit Lloyd Foundation, Inc. is a registered 501(c)3 charitable non-profit organization, according to its filing with the South Carolina Secretary of State Office.
According to the official website of the Internal Revenue Service, “Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. “
Davina Lloyd, Founder and CEO of People Over Profit Lloyd Foundation, Inc., said she was “honored to serve as his (Davis) Campaign Community Coordinator in a May 17th Facebook post.
It appears Davis’s appearance in an event with People Over Profit Lloyd Foundation, Inc. was a violation of the Internal Revenue Code. This apparent violation of the Internal Revenue Code combined with the violations of state law on the campaign literature mentioned above raises questions about Davis’s preparedness to serve, if elected, on a board which establishes school district policy.
Early voting has been going on for a week. Primary election day voting is Tuesday June 9th with polls open from 7 am to 7 pm.
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