Author: Paul Gable

Voters Need Complete Home Rule

The election mess in Richland County is another example of why Home Rule should be totally implemented throughout the state of South Carolina.

We know combining Home Rule and South Carolina in the same sentence is an oxymoron, but we’ll give it a try anyway.

Back in the days before the Supreme Court issued its “one man, one vote” ruling, one senator was elected from each of the state’s 46 counties. For all intents and purposes, the senator was county government, ruling in almost a feudal manner.

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The Re-election Lies of Mark Suben

Every so often, a story breaks that demonstrates everything that is wrong with American politics. Such is the case with Cortland County (NY) district attorney Mark Suben and the manner in which he lied his way to re-election last week.

According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, Suben was re-elected to his second term as Cortland County district attorney by a 9,815 to 7,507 vote margin over opponent Keith Dayton.

Here’s the hitch, in the last weeks before the election, information surfaced that Suben had acted in pornographic movies in the early 1970’s. Suben categorically denied the information, telling a reporter, “I didn’t make porno movies, That’s a categorical ‘No.’ That’s the truth.”

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South Carolina Trails in Secession Protest

Seven states have already garnered the required 25,000 signatures on their secession protest petitions and South Carolina is not numbered among them.

Texas is in the lead with over 100,000 signatures with Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee reported to have over 30,000 signatures each.

Once a petition reaches 25,000 signatures, the White House will make a statement on the issue at some time.

It is distressing that South Carolina trails so miserably in this effort. Where is the fervor the state demonstrated in December 1860? Where are James Chestnut, James Hammond and William Gist when you need them?

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Horry County Council Chair Special Election

The Horry County Council Chair special election race to succeed Tom Rice is heating up even though Rice has yet to resign his position, something he will have to do prior to being sworn in as the new representative for the S.C. 7th Congressional District.

Even before Rice won his election to the U.S. House of Representatives, former council member Mark Lazarus and former county council chairman Liz Gilland announced they would be candidates in the special election that will fill the remaining two years of Rice’s unexpired term. Gilland bested Lazarus in the 2006 Republican primary election for county council chair.

Tomorrow, current District 11 county council member Al Allen will announce his candidacy for the chairman’s seat.

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Secession Again?

An unpopular (in some regions) candidate wins a close election in a sharply divided country to serve as president over the next four years. Sounds like a good reason for secession.

1860?

No, 2012, but, once again the secession beat is being heard in South Carolina and thoughts of James L. Petigru come to mind.

Elements in the state are trying to revisit history as new petitions to secede from the Union emerged on the White House website over the weekend following the presidential election.

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2012 Election Voting Concerns

As we’ve all gone through the 2012 Election period and have seen our candidates talk, debate, state their issues and their platforms, we had a pretty good idea who we were going to vote for. But did that vote get counted?

In the 2000 election with George Bush and Al Gore we saw the election counting stopped by the Supreme Court. Whether you think that was a good idea or a bad idea, it left everyone thinking that there was election tampering.

Since that time we’ve had the 2008 election. We’ve seen the media ramp up their candidate and push as hard as they can for their man. Again, are we convinced that there has been no election tampering?

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A Call for Political Activism

The need for political activism at the local level is a constant one in my opinion. Our governments, at all levels, are only as good as we demand them to be.

Too often, citizens get hyped up about certain issues, often by outside organizations, as we approach the two-year general election mark. These organizations, backed by big budgets, promote their viewpoint on issues they care about, usually for various selfish benefits.

These issues may be important, but they pale in comparison to the many issues on the local level that pass by, almost unnoticed, on a monthly basis.

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Election 2012 Review

Election 2012 is now history and we correctly predicted President Barack Obama would be returned to office for four more years.

This was an obvious pick from various polling data over the last week of the race, but the overall results on the national level demonstrated once again that American voters cannot be taken for granted.

Challenger Mitt Romney ran on the economy and the number one concern of voters in exit polling interviews was the economy, yet incumbent Obama was re-elected and it wasn’t as close as we anticipated. In fact, it could be called a landslide in the electoral vote column.

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Our Election 2012 Predictions

As polls open for Election 2012, we thought it would be interesting to take a shot at predicting the outcome of some of the more difficult and contentious races around the state.

For this we chose two SC House races on the coast where only petition candidates are on the ballot, two contentious SC Senate races in the midlands, the new 7th Congressional District race and the one for that White House in D.C.

These are not endorsements nor are they preferences on our part. They are merely our best guess on who will win tomorrow. Yell at our picks if you wish.

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Tinubu Hits Rice on Project Blue

At a press conference yesterday, Seventh Congressional District Democratic candidate Gloria Bromell Tinubu charged Republican opponent Tom Rice with crony capitalism for his support of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation’s notorious Project Blue initiative.

Tinubu pointed to deals benefiting EDC board members and Rice contributors associated with the project which purports to have a startup business called Covation bring a 1,000 job call center to Horry County.

At the heart of Tinubu’s charges are the $24-$30 million public dollars incentives for a project with a brand new company whose details have been kept out of public view through a series of county council “executive sessions” to discuss the project.

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