Author: Paul Gable

More Dirty Tricks

The past two days we have attempted to discover the source of a door hanger, that Grand Strand Daily has labeled “dirty tricks”. The door hanger appears to be a push piece favoring one candidate in the House District 56 race while claiming to be a non-partisan informational message to voters.

That quest continues as we are awaiting information from Freedom Works Southeast Regional Director Allen Page as to who printed and who paid for the door hanger. We were told yesterday that Page had all the information and would be in contact with Grand Strand Daily.

Regardless of the provenance of the door hanger and whether it is in fact a partisan piece, one question addressed on it falls into another area of dirty tricks that is much more egregious, in our opinion.

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District 56 Dirty Tricks – Part II

The “dirty tricks” effort to sway voters in the S.C. House District 56 race, with a door hanger allegedly bringing voters a message about the positions of the two candidates in the race, strongly demonstrates to what level elections in America have sunk.

Allegedly funded by Freedom Works, a Washington, D.C. 527 PAC run by former U.S. Representative Dick Armey, the real genesis of the door hanger remains a mystery.

Grand Strand Daily contacted the Washington, D.C. national headquarters of Freedom Works to inquire about the door hanger. We were told Freedom Works knew nothing about it and had no files on either candidate.

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Candidates to Address Conservatives for Responsible Government

The Conservatives for Responsible Government PAC will feature talks from local politicians seeking endorsement from the organization at its regular meeting Thursday October 25, 2012.

This will be an opportunity to hear from candidates who were unchallenged in the June primary elections who are seeking CRG endorsement in next month’s general election.

Scheduled to speak to the meeting are Horry County council incumbents Bob Grabowski, Paul Prince and Marion Foxworth as well as Senate District 28 Republican candidate Greg Hembree and Horry County Republican chairman Johnnie Bellamy speaking for S.C. 7th District House Republican candidate Tom Rice.

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Haley Appoints Ethics Reform Commission

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley appointed a special commission this week to make recommendations on ethics reform in South Carolina governments.

The 11 member commission, created by executive order of the governor, will have until January 28, 2013 to draft an “ethics blueprint” recommending new and/or stronger ethics laws.

Commission members will look into freedom of information, campaign finance and practices, conflict of interest and ethics enforcement by state and legislative ethics panels.

On the surface this sounds good and is certainly needed in South Carolina, a state that is ranked at or near the bottom of all states in ethics and freedom of information by the independent Center for Public Integrity.

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Flow Control Ruled Unconstitutional

A recent decision in a Texas federal court room may have large ramifications for a government established monopoly flow control law in Horry County. A federal judge in Texas ruled earlier this week that a similar Dallas flow control ordinance violates the U.S. Constitution.

The court finds that, despite the city’s proffered justifications, the evidence demonstrates that it implemented the flow control ordinance to raise revenue to advance its economic and proprietary interests…,” the judge wrote in his opinion. “This is an unreasonable exercise of its police powers.”

The virtually identical flow control ordinance in Horry County is currently being challenged in Florence federal district court.

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No Quick Solutions for Carolina Southern Railroad

Last week’s first meeting of the new committee discussing the state of the Carolina Southern Railroad comprised not much more than organizational work.

Comprised of public officials and prominent business people, the committee draws representation from Horry, Marion and Brunswick (NC) counties.

Shutdown since August 2011, he railroad has spent approximately $400,000 repairing bridges along the line, but estimates at least another $1.5 million must be spent to complete the bridge repairs.

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Palmetto Liberty PAC Legislative Scorecard

The Palmetto Liberty PAC released its legislative scorecards for the 2012 S.C. General Assembly session completed in June.

In a state that likes to consider itself one of the most conservative in the nation, the scorecards from Palmetto Liberty PAC, a Tea Party based organization, tell a different story.

A total of 15 votes in the House and 17 votes in the Senate were tracked on the scorecards. Included were the state budget, a proposed rebate to taxpayers, government reorganization and other fiscal issues.

In a year when the state experienced an excess of more than $1 billion in expected revenue, it would have been supposed that state legislators would have put that money to good use.

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Gary Johnson and American Voters

Albert Einstein had a quote that can be used to sum up the case for Gary Johnson with American voters.

When he said ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’, odds are good he was not speaking about American elections, but he may as well have been. Every four years, voters ignore the tired rhetoric, empty promises and true issues and routinely vote for “the lesser of two evils” or in some cases “the evil of two lessers.”

Over the last 30 years, that mindset has brought us higher taxes, more government intrusion, absurd spending, two wars in a decade, a welfare state and has pushed us to the brink of a financial collapse.

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Loftis’ Palmetto Payback Tour Coming Monday

The Palmetto Payback tour of South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis is coming to Horry and Georgetown counties Monday.

The Palmetto Payback Program may be holding unclaimed property which belongs to you. Millions of dollars are transferred to the Program annually by companies who cannot locate the owners. Examples of the type of property covered by the Program include bank accounts, stock certificates, checks, insurance policies and utility deposits. The Palmetto Payback Program does not include tangible property like land or vehicles.

“The property transferred to the Program for safekeeping is held indefinitely for the benefit of the rightful owners,” Loftis said. “If we are holding property for you, you always have the right to claim your property any time at no cost. Until claimed, the funds are used for the good of all South Carolina citizens.”

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The Checkered Past of David L. Rocker

Additional revelations about David Rocker, Chief Operating Officer of Covation, the company associated with the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Authority’s embattled Project Blue, reached Grand Strand Daily in the last several days.

Project Blue ran into trouble a month ago when myhorrynews.com and the Myrtle Beach Herald broke several stories about Rocker’s criminal history, which includes a tax fraud conviction, jail sentence and continuing tax liens.

Among other facts, the stories outlined a Klein conspiracy where corporate receipts from National Capital Group, Inc., an alleged investment entity run by Rocker, were diverted to other bank accounts for Rocker’s personal use. Additionally, a trust account in an ABN AMRO Bank branch in Canada is mentioned.

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