By Paul Gable
The Jenna Dukes campaign against incumbent council member Harold Worley for the Republican nomination for Horry County Council District 1 is stretching the bounds of the credulity of voters beyond the breaking point.
According to the S. C. Ethics Commission, the only thing which has to be true on campaign literature is who paid for it. Everything else can be false.
In the case of Dukes’ mailers, everything else is false in the apparent hope that enough voters will believe the falsehoods.
It has been discussed by various media outlets, and can easily be confirmed by studying Dukes’ Campaign Disclosure filings with the Ethics Commission, that her campaign is being funded by the special interest development and tourist cabal. (see attached picture below)
In a recent mailer, Dukes promises to address strains on public resources, manage growth, a citizen task force to address infrastructure and fight to preserve wetlands, rivers and waterways.
Those are exactly the principles that Worley has fought for over the past 20 years he has served on council and the same ones that has Dukes’ backers determined to replace Worley on the council.
Worley has instituted initiatives that limit the number of housing units that can be built on an acre of land in District 1. He worked hard to increase the staffing and pay of police and firefighters and limit development on farm to market roads, such as Hwy 57, until improvements to the road and other infrastructure were in place.
It is said ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’. Can we deduce from Dukes’ mailer that she understands the issues Worley has championed over the past 20 years are the best ones for the citizens?
Down the right side of the mailer is the really interesting part. Dukes accuses Worley of being a political good ole’ boy responsible for exorbitant growth, traffic and overdevelopment.
Does she forget that it is the good ole’ boy cartel that is funding her campaign and that the cartel wants Worley replaced so its members can go forward with no restrictions on development and using county tax dollars to construct I-73, both of which will enrich their personal pocketbooks?
The remaining two paragraphs on Worley’s supposed performance is pure fiction or outright lies, if you will.
Dukes campaign is being assisted by the Walter Whetsell firm of Starboard Communications. Whetsell is also running the campaign for county chairman of Mark Lazarus another darling of the cabal. What the Dukes mailer accuses Worley of is exactly what Lazarus was guilty of during his prior service on county council.
The Whetsell crowd is attempting to rewrite council history to get his clients elected. That’s what so many South Carolina campaign operatives do.
Dukes is a pharmacist and a very good one by all accounts. There is a Code of Ethics for Pharmacists adopted by the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1994. A portion of that code reads as follows:
“A pharmacist acts with honesty and integrity in professional relationships. A pharmacist has a duty to tell the truth and to act with conviction of conscience.”
Is it too much to ask Dukes to live up to the same principles as a candidate for office?
With all the various sources of information available today, voters are much less willing to accept the statements of politicians as fact (the definition of credulity). In the case of the Dukes campaign, most of the information put out is devoid of fact.
Speak Up…