Tag: Drew McKissick

SCGOP Seeks to Take Power Away from the People

Over the last several years, the South Carolina Republican Party, under the leadership of Chairman Drew McKissick, has turned its back on democracy in favor of a top-down dictatorial approach to running the party.
Two years ago, after county reorganization meetings were held and the SCGOP state convention was complete, McKissick was not happy with newly elected leaders in some counties. As a result, in a July 8, 2021 article in the Charleston Post and Courier, McKissick said he would put his support behind “rival GOP organizations” (in certain counties).
In July 2022, McKissick reconvened the SCGOP state convention with the sole purpose of passing new bylaws that would allow the state Executive Committee to vote to replace elected county leaders, those elected by the majority of county party members at county conventions, and replace them with leaders chosen by McKissick.
Horry County Republican Party Chairman Roger Slagle objected to the reconvening of the state convention because it was counter to the SCGOP bylaws in place at the time. For this objection, the leaders of the HCGOP were condemned by a vote of the State Executive Committee. Slagle and the rest of the HCGOP leadership tendered their resignations at a September 12, 2022, regularly called meeting of the county party.

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More About HCGOP Pirates Actions

On January 6, 2022, I wrote a story about how a group calling themselves the “HCGOP Pirates” schemed with SCGOP Chairman Drew McKissick to undermine the elected leadership of the HCGOP.
The leadership of several county parties, including the HCGOP, were taken over by what can be called non-establishment leaders in the 2021 reorganizations. This led SCGOP Chairman Drew McKissick to advocate using “auxiliary groups” in those counties with which the SCGOP would communicate.
The original five members of the HCGOP Pirates were Reese Boyd, Don Bowne, Jim Furry, Gerri McDaniel and Shannon Grady. Grady later determined that the efforts of the Pirates were counter to the will of the people as expressed in the 2021 reorganization vote for HCGOP leaders. Grady released a multitude of messages and other communications to expose what the Pirates were doing.
The HCGOP Pirates were formed at a July 2, 2021 meeting, according to meeting notes released by Grady. Under action items it can be seen that Boyd (RRB) will reach out to McKissick (DM). I have detailed subsequent communications among the HCGOP Pirates in an earlier article in Grand Strand Daily.

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Renegade Members Worked to Undermine HCGOP Leadership

Almost immediately after HCGOP reorganization was completed in 2021, a small group of HCGOP members, unhappy at the results of the election for party leaders, began planning how to undermine the elected leaders of the local party, according to a story initially broken by Chad Caton on his podcast “I’m Fired Up.”
According to text messages released by Shannon Grady, one of the group members, definite plans to circumvent the HCGOP and its leadership began shortly after reorganization was completed. Grady has since apologized for her involvement and called the actions of the group wrong.
The leadership of several county parties were taken over by what can be called non-establishment leaders in the 2021 reorganizations. This led SCGOP Chairman Drew McKissick to advocate for “auxiliary groups” in those counties with which the SCGOP would communicate.
How can you profess to want to participate in the party system in a democracy and refuse to accept the results of an election? Maybe that is not a valid question because it seems this attitude of ‘my way or no way’ is becoming the norm in elections.
The initial group of five members in a private chat called “GOP Pirates” was Reese Boyd, Jim Furry, Don Bowne, Gerri McDaniel and Grady, Chairwoman of the Horry County Republican Women’s Club. Boyd was unsuccessful in his bid to become HCGOP chairman and Furry was unsuccessful in his bid to become a state Executive Committee member in the HCGOP reorganization elections.

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Russell Fry and His Cast of Cartoon Characters

You have to give Russell Fry credit, he and his campaign have come up with the most absolutely ridiculous political ad ever created.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, it is available for viewing on the Fry for Congress Facebook page.
Using a number of cartoon villains, the ad tries to paint a Tom Rice character as one of them, but fails in that message when they tell the Rice character to leave their Villains Anonymous meeting. The villains are obviously looking for a Rice protégé to support.
The use of a Lucifer character as one of the villains in the cartoon has drawn considerable criticism from the Christian conservatives in the district.
Fry has been notable for sending out numerous emails begging for campaign contributions while commissioning this ad, which was obviously filmed on a sound stage with professional actors and was not cheap.
Now, if the Fry campaign hires a professional script writer to come up with some sensible message to voters, maybe his next ads for television will at least make some kind of sense.
In the ad, Rice is portrayed as being against term limits because of his five terms in Congress. Now this is an interesting one. The normal proposed term limit amount for House members is three terms or six years. Fry is currently serving in his seventh year in the SC House, so he obviously does not believe in term limits for his current seat.
Fry says he supports term limits legislation. This is an old ploy used by many politicians. They will profess all day to be for term limits but never introduce or vote for a bill that would actually mandate term limits.

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