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Pat McKinney Drops Candidacy, Statewide Vote Recount Cancelled

An automatic statewide vote recount to finalize the second position in the Lt. Governor’s race was cancelled this evening when unofficial second place finisher Pat McKinney dropped out of the race.

McKinney, who finished in second place in unofficial vote tallies after Tuesday’s primary, led third place finisher Mike Campbell by 1,250 votes triggering an automatic recount because the margin separating the two was within a 1% margin of the total vote.

According to campaign manager Taylor Hall, McKinney decided to drop out of the race for personal reasons having lost his father and father-in-law within the last two months.

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The Governor’s Race and Casino Gambling

The desire for casino gambling has never left the minds of certain players along the Grand Strand.

In 2009, this group put its initial support behind Gresham Barrett in the governor’s race. Remember the $85,000 funneled to Barrett that was part of Coastal Kickback?

It only takes the signature of the governor on an agreement with a Native American tribe to bring casino gambling into the state. Both state and local governments are not part of the process.

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The Media Education of Chris Christie

New Jersey governor Chris Christie discovered the real meaning of the political microscope in the last couple of days when a scandal that had been brewing around his administration broke into the national spotlight Wednesday.

Whether Christie knew about it or not, closing a couple of traffic lanes to cause massive traffic congestion into the George Washington Bridge for a couple of days as retribution for failing to get the endorsement of a small time New Jersey mayor is peanuts as far as political scandals go.

However, when you are thought of as a leading candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, it takes over national news.

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The Internet Sweepstakes Clean-Up

Raids on internet sweepstakes cafes continued in Horry County yesterday and, for the first time we can confirm, several locations within the city limits of Myrtle Beach were targeted by SLED officers.

For the first time since internet sweepstakes cafes began operating in Horry County over two years ago, there is a consistent policy being carried out that the games are illegal throughout the county.

Prior to yesterday’s raids, internet sweepstakes cafes were declared illegal by a county magistrate and subject to closure and confiscation in the unincorporated areas of the county, but were allowed to operate unimpeded by law enforcement within the Myrtle Beach city limits.

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Ethics Reform Discussion on Wrong Track

The current discussion on ethics reform for public officials in South Carolina appears to be veering off the main track that will establish public confidence in the governing process.

The discussion this week appears to be about additional funding for the S.C. Ethics Commission. Extra funding is necessary for this agency, which has been way underfunded for way too long.

According to ethics commission director Herb Hayden, approximately 70 percent of the funding for the agency’s budget comes from fees and fines.

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Bill Fixes Election Filing Requirements

The South Carolina Senate moved quickly in this new session to clear up candidate election filing requirements so that, hopefully, another filing disaster, like the one that occurred for the 2012 general elections, will be avoided.

Under the new rules, incumbents and challengers both must file a Statement of Economic Interests electronically with the S.C. Ethics Commission prior to filing a Statement of Intention of Candidacy or Nomination for Petition.

A party executive committee may not accept a SIC unless the committee has verified that the candidate has electronically filed a SEI.

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SCDOR Cyber-Hacking Scandal

A S.C. House special committee investigating the cyber-hacking scandal at the S.C. Department of Revenue heard shocking testimony from former SCDOR security officer Scott Shealy yesterday regarding incompetence at the agency.

Shealy worked as an IT security officer for DOR from 1997 – 2011 when he resigned to go to work for the S.C. Judicial Department. His testimony described an agency that was more interested in pinching pennies than assuring security of the records it was responsible to protect.

Maybe Shealy’s most shocking revelation was that the data security chief position he held went unfilled for 10 months after his departure while the data security team that worked for him was effectively dismantled.

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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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Bureaucracy vs. The Taxpayer

It’s great to talk about holding the line on taxes, cutting government spending and protecting taxpayer dollars but the real roadblock to fiscally responsible government is the giant bureaucracy built up over the last several decades.

A great example is the current response from government workers being asked to pay a minimal increase in their taxpayer funded healthcare costs.

Make us pay $7.24 per month more in premiums for our health insurance? “No way,” state workers said and immediately sued state government.

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