Summer in Review

As the final regular season of Barbecue & Politics comes to a close, and football season nears, it’s time to look back at a few of the highlights of the summer...

Anti-public school oaths, take two. For the second time in his tenure as Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford appointed a signatory of an anti-public school pledge to the Education Oversight Committee. Shameful.

Barack Obama and Lynyrd Skynyrd. An exclusive report.

The Thursday THRASH Awards. Several “South Carolina” groups won the The Howard Rich Advocacy and Shilling for Hire award for pretending to represent South Carolina values while actually being bankrolled from out of state.

• The SC Association of Taxpayers won for taking money from Big Tobacco to fight an increase in our state’s cigarette tax for yet another year.
  

• The SC Policy Council won for advancing an out-of-state voucher agenda, with lots of out-of-state voucher dollars.
  

• Carolinians for Reform got an award because it’s actually a Texas-funded front group for God-knows-what.
  

• The "SC" Club for Growth and SCRG got matching awards to display in their shared, Howard Rich-funded office in Columbia.

Greenwashing. For the first time ever, South Carolina has an anti-conservation group, and it calls itself “Citizens for Sound Conservation.”

Vetting Mark Sanford. Gervais took a look at (Vice President?) Mark Sanford’s “military service,” which began during his campaign for governor.

Buying South Carolina. New York millionaire Howard Rich and associates have spent over $600,000 in 2008 on South Carolina's Republican and Democratic primaries in an continuing his attempt to buy a legislature that will pass his private school voucher bill.

Seuss-gate. Will Folks blew the lid off this important scandal, I just reported on the report.

Conservatives in Action. The group that politicized our judicial races turns out to be another out-of-state front group. Shocker!

Make an omelet. Somebody egged Joshua Gross's car. How do you solve a crime for which the entire state has motive?

From Gervais and the entire Bridges Family, thanks for stopping by Barbecue & Politics over the last few months!

More on "Conservatives in Action"

So yesterday I casually mentioned that South Carolina's "Conservatives in Action," which consists of a website and spokesman Taft Matney, is a Howard Rich front-group.

It really wasn't fair of Gervais to make such a conclusory statement like that without presenting both sides of the issue, so today I thought I'd rectify the situation.

CIA, you may recall, funded attack mail and television advertisements against Don Beatty (now a South Carolina Supreme Court justice) last year during his election to the state's top court by the legislature. Beatty apparently wasn't CIA's preferred candidate.

There were accusations that CIA was funded by outside interests, that the attacks were "big money hijacking the judicial process," to use the words of one lawmaker.

These allegations of out-of-state interests were generally met by "aw, that's crazy" denials.

So as a public service, Gervais decided to find out for myself whether "Conservatives in Action" was set up as a front-group for New York millionaire Howard Rich. I used my patented two-step process:

1. Listen carefully to what the group’s spokesman says about the origin of its funding.
2. Remember that the group spokesman is probably a liar, and find out the truth on my own.

Here’s Step One:

From The State, 9/17/07:

Taft Matney, a spokesman for Conservatives in Action ... declined to reveal the membership of his organization.

"They want to be involved in the political process," he said, "but they don't want to be interviewed on TV."

From The Post and Courier, 5/24/07:

When asked about how the group financed the television ads and whether out-of-state money was used, Matney said, "There are South Carolinians who have a vested interest in their government, and allegations like this and others against the CIA serve to pull away from the real subjects that the CIA has tried to highlight."

And from The Greenville News, 5/26/07:

Matney and officials with two other groups who e-mailed supporters about the race denied their groups had been involved with using out-of-state money or had spent anything like what Beatty said.

Matney called the allegation of any group attempting to buy a judgeship "ludicrous."

And here’s Step Two:


As you can see (click image to enlarge), Conservatives in Action had a little trouble scrounging up a South Carolina phone number on its IRS tax filing, available in full here.

No worries, though. They gave a phone number.

It’s the phone number for Howard Rich’s “US Term Limits.” And Howard Rich’s “Americans for Limited Government.” And Howard Rich’s “Legislative Education Action Drive.” And – well, you get the idea.

CIA's tax forms were also prepared by the same Illinois accounting firm that counts beans for all of Rich's front groups.

John Grisham writes books about this kind of stuff, people.

Barbecue & Politics Spotlight: The Shamlapper Group

Normally I don't write about political consulting firms, because there are enough blogs out there actually written by political consulting firms ... so if there's dirt to be dished, it usually gets dished with the quickness.

However, since unsuccessful State House candidate Kyle Boyd finally disclosed his campaign expenditures this Saturday, over five weeks late, this gives Gervais occasion to discuss the most deceptively named political consulting group in our state: The "Sandlapper" Group.

Boyd, whose campaign was was funded 55% from the LLC's and associates of New York millionaire Howard Rich, relied on the Sandlapper Group in his unsuccessful primary race against Rep. Carl Gullick in June.

So did Jim Whitehead, who got an unbelievable 97% of his funds from Rich and his associates in a loss in House District 83. And so did Ed Rumsey, who got 65% of his funds from Rich and associates in his loss in House District 2.

Trey Whitehurst and Roger Nutt also used Sandlapper in their losses in House Districts 3 and 35. They were each funded about 40% from Rich and other out-of-state education privatization enthusiasts.

Sandlapper also scored a Rich-funded victory: Joey Millwood, whose campaign was funded 65% from Rich's LLC's and associates, won his June primary in House District 38 by nineteen votes.

Sandlapper's candidates lapped up an incredible $25,000 per week from Rich and associates from May 9th to June 12th. Needless to say, these guys didn't let the voters know Mr. Rich was funding their campaigns. Here's the breakdown:

The Sandlapper Group
Candidates: 6
Wins: 1
Average out-of-state funding: 60%
Total Howard Rich funding: $125,000
Howard Rich funding disclosed before election: $12,000
Misleading South Carolina name: 1

It seems that sucking off Rich's teat under a misleading Palmetto State logo is a way of life for Chad Connelly and Taft Matney, the brain trust behind Sandlapper.

Connelly previously earned $63,250 a year shilling for Howard Rich as a director of his front-group "South Carolinians for Responsible Government." (source). Matney is most famous for his involvement in another Howard Rich front-group, Conservatives in Action, which tried to get Karen Floyd elected in 2006.

In other words, these boys might call their new consulting outfit "Sandlapper," but the gravy train they're riding is straight out of New York City.


UPDATE: A couple of commenters mention Chad Connelly's Amway involvement. For a good story about Connelly allegedly bilking a downstream distributor and then threatening to "take care of" him when he protested, see here.

In the spirit of the Olympics...

...Gervais found this old post from about two and a half years ago. Enjoy!

Sanford brings home silver in Jobsledding

Below: Sanford poses with an out-of-state supporter
Competitors drive economies downhill in new winter sport

B & P News – Torino, Italy

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford secured a silver medal Friday in the newest sport in the Winter Games – Olympic Jobsledding. The sport, in which competitors see who can drive a state economy downhill the fastest, is Sanford’s “second-favoritest sport in the world, next to bicycle riding.”

“It’s taken me three years to become the second best jobsledder in the world,” said Sanford in a telephone interview from Italy. “My hat goes off to Gold Medalist Mississippi. Enjoy it while it lasts.”

But not everyone shares Sanford’s enthusiasm. Critics have smeared Sanford’s second-highest unemployment performance with claims that the governor is using performance-diminishing drugs to attain such a high level of joblessness so quickly.

“When we tested the jobsledders, Sanford’s urine was found to contain large levels of doping agent,” said Olympic nutritionist/economist Boris Kryzlwnkskovsky in a press conference. “But after talking to him, I realize it may be naturally occurring in his case. We’re going to re-test it.”

Sanford says that his job performance was not aided by any foreign substances.

“I achieved this distinction based on my own inabilities, not performance diminishing drugs,” said the medalist. “Ten percent lack of inspiration, ninety percent lack of perspiration. Seven percent unemploymentation.”

The Governor is the second South Carolina political entity to earn a medal in Torino. Last week, former Sanford spokesman Will Folks earned a bronze in “gurling,” another new sport which features male competitors pushing a girl across a length of ice towards a piece of furniture.

Charleston millionaires try to finally gain influence in SC politics

If Gervais has said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: Charleston millionaires simply have too little influence in our state government.

A few months ago, I discussed how the South Carolina Club for Growth is here to fix that problem, by using synchronized contributions from a small group of Charleston millionaires to fund candidates around the state.

Now some folks, like Mike Huckabee, have derisively called the Club for Growth the “Club for Greed.” But Mike Huckabee has been too busy slapping his bass guitar to see the extent to which Charleston millionaires are bound by the shackles of a government dominated by an insidious special interest: non-Charleston non-millionaires.

This is especially true in districts such as House District 3 (Pickens Co.), House District 35 (Spartanburg Co.) and Senate District 23 (Lexington Co.), where non-Charleston non-millionaires have held sway since time immemorial.

When I first noticed this orchestrated funding phenomenon back in April, I only assumed that the Charleston funders were millionaires, based on the amount of money they were throwing around. This time, I decided to actually check, by using Zillow.com to look at the value of their homes.

Zillow is a great resource, especially when you're invited to a home for a party and you don't know whether to bring a bottle of wine, or a box of wine.

Anyway, for those of you as intrigued by campaign finance as I am, here’s a look at the 10 GOP primaries these Club for Growth millionaires played in, along with Gervais' unofficial box/bottle determination.

William Baker/ Ruth Baker
188 Bolly Bunion Dr., Kiawah Island
Zillow estimated value: $6,299,000 (bottle)
$1,000 3/28/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 3/28/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 3/28/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 3/28/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 6/12/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 6/16/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 5/7/08 Tom Davis
$1,000 5/7/08 Tom Davis
$1,000 6/6/08 Roger Nutt
$1,000 6/6/08 Roger Nutt
$1,000 4/9/08 Tim Scott
$1,000 4/9/08 Tim Scott
$1,000 6/4/08 Mike Rose
$1,000 6/4/08 Mike Rose
$1,000 6/2/08 Kyle Boyd
$1,000 6/9/08 Kyle Boyd
$1,000 6/13/08 Joey Millwood
$1,000 6/13/08 Joey Millwood
$3,500 12/13/07 SC Club for Growth PAC
$3,500 12/13/07 SC Club for Growth PAC

John Barter/ Mary Barter
40 Schoolbred Ct., Kiawah Island
Zillow estimated value: $7,497,500 (bottle)
$1,000 3/22/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 3/22/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 6/11/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 3/22/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 3/22/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 5/29/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 4/26/08 Tom Davis
$1,000 4/26/08 Tom Davis
$1,000 5/6/08 Roger Nutt
$1,000 5/6/08 Roger Nutt
$1,000 4/7/08 Tim Scott
$1,000 4/7/08 Tim Scott
$1,000 6/12/08 Scott Singer
$1,000 5/8/08 Trey Whitehurst
$1,000 5/8/08 Trey Whitehurst
$1,000 6/9/08 Joey Millwood

William Hewitt/ Laura Hewitt
34 Priloleau St. Unit B., Charleston
Zillow estimated value: $3,435,000 (box)
$1,000 3/24/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 3/24/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 6/11/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 6/11/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 3/24/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 3/24/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 6/11/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 6/11/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 5/7/08 Tom Davis
$1,000 5/6/08 Tom Davis
$1,000 6/6/08 Roger Nutt
$1,000 6/6/08 Roger Nutt
$1,000 4/3/08 Tim Scott
$1,000 4/3/08 Tim Scott
$1,000 6/12/08 Scott Singer
$1,000 6/12/08 Scott Singer
$1,000 5/30/08 Mike Rose
$1,000 5/30/08 Mike Rose
$1,000 6/9/08 Kyle Boyd
$1,000 6/9/08 Kyle Boyd
$1,000 6/9/08 Joey Millwood
$1,000 6/9/08 Joey Millwood
$3,500 3/7/08 SC Club for Growth PAC
$3.500 11/27/07 SC Club for Growth PAC
$3,500 11/27/07 SC Club for Growth PAC

Wilbur Prezzano/ Sheila Prezzano
28 Murray Blvd., Charleston
Zillow estimated value: $4,473,500 (bottle)
$1,000 3/25/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 3/25/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 6/11/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 3/25/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 3/25/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 4/28/08 Tom Davis
$1,000 4/28/08 Tom Davis
$1,000 5/13/08 Roger Nutt
$1,000 5/13/08 Roger Nutt
$1,000 4/7/08 Tim Scott
$1,000 4/7/08 Tim Scott
$1,000 6/12/08 Scott Singer
$1,000 5/18/08 Trey Whitehurst
$1,000 5/18/08 Trey Whitehurst
$3,500 12/20/07 SC Club for Growth PAC
$3,500 12/20/07 SC Club for Growth PAC

Steve Swanson/ Emily Swanson
615 Pitt St., Mt. Pleasant
Zillow estimated value: $4,128,000 (box)
$1,000 4/8/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 6/11/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 6/11/08 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 4/1/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 4/8/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 6/6/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 6/9/08 Lee Bright
$1,000 6/3/08 Tom Davis
$1,000 6/3/08 Tom Davis
$1,000 6/6/08 Roger Nutt
$1,000 6/6/08 Roger Nutt
$1,000 4/15/08 Tim Scott
$1,000 4/15/08 Tim Scott
$1,000 6/12/08 Scott Singer
$1,000 6/12/08 Scott Singer
$1,000 6/4/08 Mike Rose
$1,000 6/5/08 Trey Whitehurst
$1,000 6/5/08 Trey Whitehurst
$1,000 6/25/08 Kyle Boyd
$1,000 6/13/08 Joey Millwood
$1,000 6/18/08 Joey Millwood

Kyle Boyd comes clean: 55% of funds from Howard Rich & Associates

When campaign finance disclosures were due on July 10^th, Gervais waited patiently to find out how much money SCRG voucher/tax credit candidate Kyle Boyd got from NYC millionaire Howard Rich and his associates, in his recent loss to GOP Rep. Carl Gullick of York.

Boyd waited until nine days after the deadline to disclose that he had neither received nor spent any money in the final two weeks of his race.

Nada. Zilch. Zero. No Howard Rich money. Swear to Gosh.

I don't think anyone was really fooled, especially not Vierdsonian Democracy.

Yesterday, Boyd finally came clean with the out-of state cash that made up 55% of his campaign funding for the election.

Of course, all but $2000 was given during the “blind spot,” after pre-election disclosures were due, so voters would have no idea the campaign was being bankrolled from out-of-state.

Kyle Boyd, House District 48 (lost)
$1,000 6/02/2008 538-14 Realty LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 Joseph D Stilwell, 26 Broadway 23 Floor NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 Yvonne Rich, 211 West Rd 1, Mountain Home, AZ
$1,000 6/02/2008 John Kirtley 339 S Plant Ave, Tampa, FL
$1,000 6/02/2008 Rich Acquisitions LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 507 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 Secure Data LLC, 73 Spring St Ste 507 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 The Stonecreek Group (Kevin Spillane) Sacremento, CA
$1,000 6/02/2008 Dayrich LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 Newrich LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 507 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 Rich & Rich LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 507 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 Bradford Mgmt of NY Inc., 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 Howard Rich Sole Proprietor Bayrich LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 Rich & Rich & Associates A Partnership, 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 4220 Broadway LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 470 W 166 LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 51 First Avenue LLC, 73 Spring St. Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 405 49 Associates, 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 118 Claremont LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 4220 Broadway Inc., 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 A Partnership 332 E 11 LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 6/02/2008 Alan J Pomerantz, 767 5th Ave NYC
$1,000 5/23/2008 Douglas Levine, 2760 N Bay Rd., Miami Beach, FL
$1,000 5/22/2008 Spooner LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 5/22/2008 Silver & Silver Properties LLC, 73 Spring St. Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 5/22/2008 Silver & Silver Properties LLC, 73 Spring St Rm 408 NYC
$1,000 5/12/2008 LaSalle Associates, 73 Spring St. Rm 507 NYC
$1,000 5/12/2008 LaSalle Associates, 73 Spring St. Rm 408 NYC

Vouchers are not an end in themselves; they are a means to make a transition from a government to a market system … I sense that we are on the verge of a breakthrough in one state or another, which will then sweep like a wildfire through the rest of the country… ”

- Milton Friedman, Public Schools: Make Them Private (1995)

20,000 foot view of SC politics

I once had a boss who would always advise taking the "20,000 ft. view" of things. It was his way of saying you should occasionally take a step back and look at the big picture if you really want to know what's going on.

Anyway, I was working on the graphic below for an upcoming thing when I remembered that expression. The graphic illustrates the 17 House primaries where Howard Rich and his associates spent at least $10,000 this year in his effort to build a State House that will pass his private school voucher and tax credit experiment in our state.

Little Pigs Barbeque: Timelessly terrific

The first time I ate at Little Pigs Barbeque, this blog wasn’t even two months old.

It was November of 2005, and a reporter for The State newspaper had contacted Gervais by email about doing a story on this new-fangled political parody blog called “Barbecue & Politics.” I agreed to meet him if The State could preserve my “pseudonymity.”

The reporter and I had a nice lunch at Little Pigs as we dished on Palmetto State politics and dined on a buffet stacked with the goods: collard greens, green beans, cole slaw, whole kernel corn, three types of pulled pork (mustard-, vinegar-, and tomato-based), fried chicken, hush puppies and tons of other selections. At the time, I wasn’t eating much dessert, so I just stared longingly at the banana pudding and chocolate delight on the dessert mini-buffet.

Since that meeting in November 2005, a lot has changed in SC’s political “new media.”

The reporter, Aaron Gould Sheinin, has skipped town and is now covering presidential and Peach State politics for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He’ll be blogging the presidential conventions this year, which I suspect will be a lot of fun.

Barbecue & Politics took a turn for the serious in 2006, when it first started to become apparent that out-of-state ideologues opposed to public education were trying to hijack our state’s political process.

And the South Carolina “blogosphere” in general has become inundated with sites run out of consultant shops, instead of cluttered dining room tables.

But one thing that hasn’t changed since 2005 is the awesomeness of the Little Pigs buffet.

Last Thursday at lunch, some friends and I headed out towards the intersection of I-20 and I-77, where Little Pigs has been located for the last 30 years. After making a few trips to the buffet and one excursion to the desserts, Gervais was ready to loosen the ol’ belt and take a siesta.

I have no idea what “the weblogs” will look like in the future, or where Aaron’s talents will have landed him. But I feel sure that in another three years, and probably another thirty years, Little Pigs Barbeque will still be there on Alpine Road, serving up one of the best buffets in Columbia.