On Thursday, the South Carolina Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision to kick about 100 candidates off the ballot for the June primary. I’m not going to re-hash how this happened, suffice to say that the filing rules were changed in a way that favored incumbents and confused their challengers.

Everyone is outraged, and rightly so, but what should we do? What I am going to say may surprise you, but I believe it is the truth. Please hear me out.

Frankly, we need to accept the fact that we can’t win this ground back before the June primary. Realistically speaking, all the political rallies you and I can muster are not going to make up for lost time.

Borrowing Michael Porter’s words, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do,” so I would like to propose three things not to do:

1. Don’t give up. This is a time to refocus; this is NOT a time to retreat.
2. Don’t take their bait. Guess what? Larry Martin—Larry Martin of all people—is making like he’s all outraged over this and is going to change the law to get the candidates put back on the ballot. Senator Martin is one of those incumbents who was favored by this rule, and his challenger, Rex Rice, was kicked off the ballot. What he knows, but won’t tell you is, it won’t do any good this year, because the ballots have already been mailed! Those of you who plan to make a big stink in Columbia over this issue are to be commended for your intentions, but at the end of the day, I’m afraid it will prove to be a diversion and a waste your time and energy. Don’t take their bait.
3. Don’t let the remaining candidates down. Let’s refocus on those candidates who are still on the ballot. But wait, we can’t turn our backs on these candidates whose rights are being violated! Look at it this way: these candidates that got kicked off the primary ballot now have a six-month head start on a petition candidacy in the November election. It isn’t over. This fiasco is sure to be a big subject on the campaign trail, and I feel confident that one way or another you’re gonna see all of these guys on the ballot in November.

So who will be on the ballot in June? You can see the full list here, but I would like to mention three specifically:

• Anderson: Riley Harvell, running against incumbent RINO Billy O’Dell
• Greenville: Jim Lee, running against incumbent RINO David Thomas
• Greenville: Chris Sullivan, running against incumbent RINO Mike Fair

Jon Corzine once said, “the only thing really worth [anything] is ‘hustle.” I think he’s right.

When it comes to political activism, there’s the fun stuff—the big, public, exciting rallies—and there’s the not-fun stuff, which is the day-to-day grunt work of political campaigning. Knocking on doors, putting out signs, making phone calls. That boring stuff that gets people elected.

Guys, time is running out. We have 5 short weeks, and we’re gonna have to hustle. Conservatives like Riley Harvell, Jim Lee, and Chris Sullivan face uphill battles against entrenched Senate RINOs. THEY NEED YOUR HELP. Please don’t abandon these guys who are putting it all on the line to to Columbia for us to make SC the freest state in the nation!

Sincerely,

Jonathon Hill

P.S. This is a good illustration of why having good GOP chairmen matters. It was their job to make sure the candidates knew the rules, and to help them comply in a timely manner. Dan Harvell did this here in Anderson County, and not one of our candidates were kicked off the ballot.

The South Carolina Senate is playing politics with the future of thousands of South Carolina students. The House passed historic school choice bill H.4894 last month, but the Senate is holding the bill hostage, with some members trying to delay a vote until the end of the session in June.

The usual suspects are responsible, five “Republican” Senators hold the key to bringing H.4894 to a vote.

• Sen. Wes Hayes: (803) 212-6410 (District 15, York County)
• Sen. Larry Martin: (803) 212-6340 (District 13, Greenville, Spartanburg, Union Counties)
• Sen. Luke Rankin:  (803) 212-6132 (District 33, Horry County)
• Sen. Billy O’Dell: (803) 212-6040 (District 4: Anderson, Abberville, and Greenwood Counties)
• Sen. Jake Knotts:  (803) 212-6350 (District 23: Lexington Counties)

Will you take a minute to remind one or two of these Senators that school choice is a Republican platform issue?

P.S. Senator O’Dell was asked last night at a forum why he doesn’t support school choice. His response was not surprising!

Retire Jake Knotts

That’s right! Besides the embarrassment he is to South Carolina, Jakie is one of the foremost Senate RINOs, a gatekeeper notorious for letting good bills die in his drawer without seeing the light of day.

Check out Knotts’ Horrible Legislative Record and see for yourself!

Conservatives across the state are joining the effort to remove Senator Knotts and replace him with a principled, accountable leader. One who has the courage to advance bold tax reforms, and move our state’s economy from pitiful to prosperous.

Katrina Shealy needs your help to compete with Jakie’s special interest money. Your contribution of any amount will help send Jakie and his RINO buddies a clear message: conservatives across the state are sticking together to remove RINOs from the SC Senate!

Donate to Katrina Shealy

Thank you for all you do to advance the conservative cause!

Bad bills

H4451, Texting-while-driving ban

• Sponsored by Rep. Don Bowen
• This bill has passed the House, and is now in the Senate
• Rep. Joshua Putnam was one of only 15 Reps to vote against the bill
• Some allowance can be made since this is a controversial issue, but we would rather err on the side of liberty, and feel that current laws against reckless driving are sufficiently enforceable without adding new laws

H4740, FOIA loophole for law enforcement

• This bill gives legal cover to law enforcement agencies to withhold information from the public
• Reps. Bowen, Thayer, Putnam, Hearn, Hamilton, Stringer, Owens, and Taylor have withdrawn their sponsorship of the bill; Rep. Brian White did not
• One Representative told us the following: “Here’s the real story. This legislation was requested by a low country sheriff’s department after an embarrassing incident where they held a suspect in cuffs and allowed the K-9 to attack the suspect. This was caught on dash-cam and was released due to FOIA. Yep, that’s where it started!”
• The bill has stalled, best we can tell, but we’ll keep watching it.

S235, “Property Police” bill

• Sponsored by Sens. Massey(!), Cleary, and Ford
• This egregious bill would allow cities or counties to make it illegal to fail to maintain your property to the community’s satisfaction (i.e. failing to cut your grass, leaving junk laying around, etc)
• Recent, real-life example: “Woman jailed for messy yard gets helping hands“, The Post and Courier, 01/13/2012
• After much public outcry, Sen. Massey finally pulled his sponsorship
• The bill has died in subcommittee

H4628, “Property Thieves” bill

• This even more egregious bill would allow cities or counties to file suit against a property owner for multiple code violations, and would allow the judge to confiscate the property and give it to an entity whom the judge chooses
• Currently in committee
• ACTION ITEM: call your representative to stop this bill!

Good bills

H4894, School Choice

• Offers certain tax deductions and credits to help make other educational choices more affordable for parents
• Was passed out of the Ways and Means committee, and is being debated in the House

H3110, Registration by Party

• Closes primary elections to people who are not registered with the party of their choice; would prevent Democrats from swaying Republican primaries in favor of moderate or liberal Republican candidates
• Recently passed out of subcommittee and reported favorably to the full committee

H3066, Budget & Control Board restructuring

• Fatally flawed in six key areas, as passed by the Senate
• Harry Kibler of RINO Hunt explained some of these issues in detail, and shared information about a FOIA campaign to discover who the opposition was in the Senate to proper, common-sense restructuring
• ACTION ITEM: call your representative to fix this bill!

Candidates

We heard from two candidates who will be filing on Friday:

• Mr. Denny Floyd, candidate for Anderson County Council District 5 (incumbent is Tommy Dunn)
• Dr. Craig Gagnon, candidate for SC House District 11, Abbeville area (incumbent is Dem. Paul Agnew, who is retiring)

Both of these gentlemen were well received. We hope that this is a sign of things to come, and that we will see many more candidates file in the next two weeks.

The massive bill that set up “Obamacare” had one useful provision: states could vote to opt-out of coverage for abortion.

Seeing this opportunity, SC Senator Larry Grooms introduced a bill (S.102) to do just that. But, pro-abortion Senators responded, placing a “minority report” on the bill. That means this important legislation is on page 26 of the Senate Calendar! The bill will stay there and will die there if we don’t act now.

The only way to save the opt-out bill is to “set it for Special Order.” A Special Order would require the Senate to take the legislation up and vote on it.

TUESDAY MORNING Senators will meet together to decide which bills should be set for Special Order. Your calls are needed OVER THE WEEKEND AND ALL DAY MONDAY to get S.102 up to bat.

Please contact Senators O’Dell and Bryant now. Leave a message asking them to set Senate Bill 102 for Special Order on Tuesday, February 14. Otherwise, the new Obamacare exchanges could allow taxpayer dollars to pay for taking the lives of unborn children.

• Billy O’Dell: (864) 943-0905
• Kevin Bryant: (864) 202-8394

Thank you for your help!