Politics

The North Charleston SRO Controversy

The introduction of school resource officers into elementary schools in North Charleston drew criticism from a parents group yesterday.

The decision to place SRO’s in elementary schools was essentially a unilateral one taken by North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey. He admitted making it in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings last month. In Summey’s opinion, armed police officers in elementary schools will make them safer.

A group of concerned parents and citizens, Citizens United for Public Schools, sees other potential results from Summey’s actions. Opposing the arbitrary introduction of SRO’s into elementary schools, CUPS has called for a town hall meeting on the issue next week.

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The Fiscal Cliff Deal

You have to give Congress credit, the television spot, sound bite and photo op drama was high as the “fiscal cliff’ was “avoided” in New Years Eve and New Years Day votes in the U.S. Senate and House.

Automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that were set to begin yesterday were avoided, but the health of the U.S. economy remains perilous.

What really happened was business as usual on Capitol Hill. By extending the Bush era tax cuts to everyone earning less than $450,000 per year, middle and lower class workers will pay less in income taxes. But approximately 96 percent of millionaires will also be paying less income tax than they would have paid if no deal was passed and Clinton era tax rates were restored.

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Election Filing Mess Leads 2012 Stories

As we look back on the news of 2012, the top story in South Carolina this year was the election filing mess that kept nearly 300 candidates off the ballot.

Most candidates affected were challengers to incumbent Republicans, although many Democrats got left off too, in the June primary. They were ineligible to be certified as candidates because the state and local Republican and Democratic parties did not understand, and did not make allowance for, a minor change in state law that required electronic filing of the candidates’ Statement of Economic Interests.

The party leaders never saw it coming and they blew it. I don’t believe it was a big conspiracy to keep new candidates off the ballot. Some newcomers did file properly and did get certified, too few for a real democratic process, however.

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Mark Sanford Back in 1st?

The name of former Gov. Mark Sanford has been prominent in the last several days in connection with the S.C. 1st Congressional District seat vacated by the promotion of Rep. Tim Scott to senator.

This is only natural as Sanford once represented a former iteration of the 1st District for three terms in Congress before honoring a personal term limits pledge and stepping away from the seat. Two years after stepping down from Congress, Sanford was elected to his first of two terms as governor.

Sanford’s name is well known as is his strict conservative, libertarian political philosophy. As we have stated before, Sanford was Tea Party before there was a Tea Party.

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Term Limits Proposed for State Legislators

Several prefiled bills for the upcoming legislative session in the S.C. General Assembly propose to establish term limits for legislators serving in the two houses of the body.

The most popular limits, prefiled in both Houses, are six terms for representatives and four terms for senators. The proposed limits in both Houses would be sufficient to allow legislators to be fully vested for retirement and health benefits.

A bill calling for shorter limits of four terms in the House and two terms in the Senate has also been prefiled. In a state where over 90 percent of incumbents who run for re-election are returned each election cycle, this may be the only way of guaranteeing significant changes in the General Assembly makeup.

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Tim Scott Deal Cut Early?

Several inside sources have told us that a deal was cut between Sen. Jim DeMint and Gov. Nikki Haley to name Rep. Tim Scott as DeMint’s Senate replacement weeks before DeMint announced his resignation.

This tracks with events since DeMint’s announcement. Scott’s was the first name heard as a possible replacement. Scott is, reportedly, the choice of Republican leaders at the state and national level because of his conservative credentials and the fact that he could give an immediate, high-profile minority visage to a party that desperately needs one.

Several candidates, eager to replace Scott in the 1st Congressional District, are already sounding out supporters in preparation for a special election.

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Nikki Haley and Economic Development

A recent announcement by the Schaeffler Group that they would be expanding their operations in Cheraw gave Gov. Nikki Haley the opportunity to claim economic development progress as she prepares for her 2014 run for re-election.

Schaeffler is a bearing manufacturer headquartered in Germany with two significant plants already operating in Cheraw with locations in Ft. Mill and Spartanburg as well. The total number of Schaeffler employees in South Carolina already numbers 2,300.

Haley and her propaganda chief Rob Godfrey would have us believe that the announced increase of 190 jobs in Cheraw was the direct result of the governor’s trip to the Paris Air Show in 2011.

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What have you accomplished this year?

What have you done this year? Serious question. If you have an immediate answer to that question, great! But the next (and possibly more important) step is to ask yourself, could your average supporter do the same? If not, how can you expect them to support, volunteer, or take action on behalf of your efforts and organization if they aren’t fully aware of how you’re working to benefit them, society, or an industry?

Every organization likely has its ardent supporters who read every newsletter, follow you on social media, and religiously contribute to your cause. These individuals are essential to any organization and got you to where you are today. If your goal is growth though, you need to constantly and consistently expand the population of “ardent” supporters who may be interested in your organization, but may not be aware of the details of what you actually do and accomplish.

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Lindsey Graham, Taxes and Grover Norquist

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) put himself directly in the bullseye of Tea Partiers and their Republican far right allies when he said over the weekend he would no longer be bound by the Grover Norquist pledge to not raise taxes.

Graham’s comment, “When you’re $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece…” will be used against him over and over during the next two years.

He did not advocate raising taxes at this point, he merely pointed out it is one of the options that should remain on the table as federal legislators attempt to avoid taking the government over the ‘fiscal cliff’ in the next month.

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S.C. Supremes vs. Illegal Gambling

The S.C. Supreme Court struck a blow against illegal gambling this week when it upheld 2006 convictions of five people who were arrested for the supposedly serious crime of playing penny ante poker in a private home in Mt. Pleasant.

Even better, the convictions were based on an 1802 law that a majority of the judges considered flawed and outdated.

Do 1802 laws still count in South Carolina? That’s 58 years before the state seceded from the Union and joined in armed rebellion against the federal government. That losing effort had to void something.

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