When it comes to the election debacle in South Carolina, I have to hand it to the Democrats; they have played this quite well. Approximately 200 candidates (all challengers and no incumbents) have been tossed off the ballot, in large part for a paperwork technicality which involved failure to file a Statement of Economic Interest (SEI) form (which is a blank form in most cases). This failure to file the SEI is simply the failure to file a paper version of something practically all candidates filed electronically. The real victims here are not the booted candidates, but the thousands upon thousands of voters who will not be able to participate in the upcoming Primary Elections because there will be no candidates to choose from in much of the state.

If the Primary Election is allowed to go on as scheduled, I believe we are going to have an angry public when they realize our State Supreme Court removed their choices from the ballot over a technicality and enforced an obscure law for challengers and not incumbents, and our Republican Controlled Legislature (who happen to appoint the judges) did very little to rectify the situation for the voting public.

The thing is, the Democrats lost more candidates across the state and they have done nothing to help this situation either. There can only be one explanation; they actually want their voters to be angry going into the November Election. After all, the stage has been set where the blame will have to fall on the Republican controlled Legislature, complete with a Republican fall guy (Senator Jake Knotts of Lexington) who has already been clearly defined as a racist with his “raghead” comment regarding Nikki Haley.

I have no doubt the Democrat mantra will be something like: “Forget Voter ID, we just won’t let them vote at all in South Carolina.” They will point their fingers at the Republican Legislators and proclaim them all racists and do what the Democrats do best; create a divisive and hostile environment while claiming the higher ground. Their campaign tactics will become all about how “we were not allowed to vote in June, so we must turn out and show them in November that we will not be denied our right to vote.”

Make no mistake, what they are doing is creating a tragedy, and they will not let it go to waste.

For background on this story:

Lauren Hale: 179 candidates thrown off SC ballot

Spartanburg Tea Party: Potential Fallout from Lexington Lawsuit

Easley Patch: A Letter from the Pickens County Republican Party President

Crosspost from Spartanburg Tea Party

I’ve had it in mind to write this for about 8 months now, tonight’s the night!

This week I’ve chatted/communicated directly with a Congressman, a county council member, a handful of state senators and house members about issues, bills, legislation, campaigns, the state of our state and nation. There’s no trick to it, you just call, email, or text them. Now, because I am the organizer of the tea party I may be slightly higher on their radar screen, but that’s just an advantage in an initial contact. Once you become someone who reaches out to your elected officials … and if you have dialoging skills (and not just complaining), it’s a great partnership.

I get SO tired of people who I’ve met through the grassroots movement whose first response to anything that an elected official does is to complain about them. Sometimes they don’t vote our way, or sponsor or don’t sponsor a bill we want, but I confess running through my mind sometimes with these EEYORES (you know Pooh’s pal who never saw a situation he couldn’t complain about) is … if YOU could do better why didn’t YOU run for office?

And then there’s the invective launches. They “always” cave in, they collaborate with tyranny, they shackle our liberties, they ignore the Constitution blah blah blah. REALLY? Every time? Even if you could make a case for that … what have YOU done about it? Sure you sent them 58 emails about Agenda 21, many containing 20 minute videos, yeah I’m sure they had time to examine them all, and make a living, and raise their families. And despite your best efforts at nagging and complaining THEY don’t do what WE want.

You may think that’s strange for me to be writing that since the tea party movement has been all about holding feet to fire. And if you’ve been around this website for a while, I’ve done plenty of that! But some people want all of the accountability from their elected officials with none of the shared responsibility. And that’s my point.

Occasionally I get a vision of some folks who ALWAYS complain and bitch and threaten without getting their own feet wet as similar to the medieval indulgences. I’m sure I’m taking this a bit out of context, call it poetic license! I see us voting politicians into office and once they go off to serve, we dust our hands and say “Well, that’s that”. As if being involved in the voting process is our payment, our offering of “indulgence” and now it’s up to the politician to do the work. And folks like that have a tendency to speak in terms of THEY and WE … when it really needs to be US working together.

I think I’m particularly invested in writing this blog because this is primary season and 6 weeks from today we vote. I don’t have to explain to the regular readers how important these primaries are. The primaries are EVERYTHING. And we have candidates who are walking neighborhoods 6 days a week, meeting voters, asking for votes, getting up to speed on issues, having constructive conversations. And just a handful of people are helping.

That’s where I see a clear distinction currently between THEY and WE. THEY are running for office and WE hope they do well, but we’re kinda busy. THEY are spending time away from families and WE can’t’ miss too many dinners or ballgames or book clubs. THEY knew what they were getting into, while WE didn’t count on really having to help out that much. And so when THEY are elected you wonder why you don’t feel part of the team, why you have a hard time getting hold of them, why you are confused about what exactly is going on in Columbia.

Indulgences and shared responsibility. What would happen, what would the dynamic be if our candidates held us, the electorate as accountable for ensuring that South Carolina is the freest state in the nation as we do them? What would that partnership be like … if they called and emailed and texted us requesting us to step up and act on issues of liberty? If they had a list of voters they called, urging us to come walk neighborhoods with them during election season? If they had the expectation of partnership of financial responsibility to fund campaigns? If they didn’t have to ask for help and money, but we just filled those needs because we look at them as our partners?

Don’t send candidates to office as if they are your indulgence, dust off your hands as if your work is done. Be their partners, beginning with their campaigns. This is it. Six weeks.

Thanks to those of you who are calling the candidates asking “what can I do to help you today?”

There need to be more like that.

Cross Post from Spartanburg Tea Party

A brief BRIEF summary:

The SC Election Commission changed the rules from last election to this election. Last election (and previous elections) candidates had to fill out their Statement of Economic Interest on paper form at the same time they filled out the other forms they needed to file to run for a seat. In the interim the rule was changed … candidates now have to file their Statement of Economic Interest electronically.

Incumbents, having previously held office, often had already filed their statements. Challengers had an additional step to take, to file online, and many challengers … up to 200 statewide in South Carolina in a variety of races … not having been informed of this rule change by the GOP county chairman at the time they filed … left their filing having done all that was asked of them from the people who took their filing. These challengers (perhaps because the rule changes was not sufficiently communicated from the election commission) were not asked to file their online statements at the time they filed the rest of the paperwork. Many filed later that day, others filed as soon as the miscommunication was made known.

Tuesday May 1 the SC Supreme Court will have a hearing to determine whether up to 200 candidates will be tossed off the ballots because of this rule change (which did not impact incumbents … or did it?)

Here are a series of articles by Paul Gable at Grand Strand Daily. They are quite complex. Today we learned that TWO of the judges have recused themselves. Now, in SC we already have the unfortunate situation where our judges are APPOINTED by legislators. What does it mean for accountability that TWO of them have recused themselves, at least one of those being replaced by a retired judge … a retired judge has accountability to no one, not legislators, nor voters through their support of legislators.

Oh … and … SC military ballots have already been mailed. Hope the online community will keep their eye on this situation in South Carolina.

Article April 23

Article April 24

Article April 25

Article April 28

Judges recuse April 30

Although I’ve been blogging about this topic for a couple of years, I stole the term “Marketplace Ballot” from this article at American Thinker by Bruce Walker:

Every time conservatives stop watching CNN or take children out of public schools or stop supporting an organization which was once benignly neutral on ideological issues, conservatives cast marketplace ballots that count.

I have subscribed to People Magazine for 30 years. I had to check that math… how can anyone do ANYTHING for 30 years!!!

But I have. It’s my Saturday night reading each week. A mindless guilty pleasure, accompanied by either a diet Dr. Pepper or a hot chocolate, depending on the season.

I’ve kept up with pop culture that way, all the while ignoring the glorification of progressive libs like Clooney, Hanks, Affleck, Damon … that crowd.

But today I’m choosing not to renew my subscription. They won’t miss me. No one will notice. I’ll notice big time and will selfishly miss that weekly infusion of fashion … latest books and movie reviews … covert look into the lives of the rich and famous and somewhat interesting.

But I’m determined to fight the war on America in every way, on every battlefield, at every opportunity. Today … People Magazine. Take That!

What are you doing with your Marketplace Ballot?

(cross post from Spartanburg Tea Party)

South Carolina has been burdened for decades with a monstrosity called the Budget and Control Board which shares responsibility for making governing decisions. Because the responsibility is shared between Executive and Legislative branches, there is no real accountability to the voters … and a lot of finger pointing and blame shifting. We are the only state in the union that governs like this and the tea parties have been very proactive in trying to reform our state government, bringing true accountability to voters and transparency and separation of powers.

Last session the efforts failed because the legislators in Columbia did not pass legislation.

This session the efforts failed because the legislators in Columbia passed legislation that did not give true reform, left the powers shared, and provided cover for the Governor and the legislators to not answer directly to the voters. In addition, the Senate broadened its power through legislative “investigative committees” – which have the authority to question and depose not only state employees, but private citizens if they deem them to have relevant information!

(Did I mention we have a Republican House, and Republican Senate, and a Republican Governor?)

If you want to read one of the posts at the Spartanburg Tea party which details this struggle, click here .

At this point the bill needs to go back to the House, but the Governor and Senators in Columbia are feeling pretty good, in fact they are taking victory laps in the media, proclaiming what a GREAT JOB they did in restructuring SC government. But as you can see by reading the link above, that is far from the truth. Still … now that the vote is taken and the legislation is sure to pass … what can the South Carolina tea parties do other than write some blogs, some letters to the editor, and make a few more phone calls?

We can FOIA (Freedom of Information Act).

In response to questioning about why true reform and separation of powers was not achieved, we have heard that there was “a lot of pressure from the other side, we did everything we could.” But if you watched the hearings and listened to the amendments that were voted down … by Republicans … you have to question that. Who stood in opposition to the grassroots conservative agenda of real reform and separation of power? That is a great question. And, it’s one we plan to get answers to.

We are asking tea party/liberty group members across the state to send each Senator, Representative, and Governor Haley FOIA requests for “copies of all correspondence, including, but not limited to, letters, memos, faxes and emails, to and from you, as well as to and from any of your staff, between June 1, 2011, and the present date regarding the creation of a Department of Administration, dissolution of the Budget and Control Board or any other issues related to restructuring in state government.”

We’ll be keeping a record of how many FOIA requests go out by CC-ing them to one email address which we’ll monitor. Every tool we can use, every time we can use them until South Carolina becomes the freest state in the nation!

Click here to see more details and a copy of the FOIA that will be sent beginning tonight.

Thanks to RawStory.com for this live stream of the South Carolina Tea Party Convention being held Sunday/Monday in Myrtle Beach.

Here is the posted agenda:

Agenda Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012

11am Welcome Brunch Joe Dugan
12pm Prayer Pledge
12.10pm Convention opening Sen. Jim DeMint
12.50pm SC Congressional Delegation Congressmen Scott,
1.50pm Raging Elephants Apostle Claver
2.20pm Strong America Now Michael George
3.00pm Break
3.15pm SC GOP Chairman Chad Connelly
3.25pm MB Chamber of Commerce Brad Dean
3.30pm Reserved
3.35pm Tea Party Patriots Founder Jenny Beth Martin
3.45pm Sharia law Ryan Mauro
4.15pm Freedomworks Max Pappas
4.45pm Closing remarks Joe Dugan

7.00pm Reserved
7.40pm Freedomworks Dean Clancy
8.10pm “Free Market Warrior” Loren Spivack
8.40pm Constitutional Lawyer Larry Kobrovsky
8.45pm ROAR Allen Olsen
8.50pm Music

Monday Jan, 16, 2012

9.00am Opening Remarks Prayer
9.10am 2012 Governors Priorities Governor Nikki Haley
9.40am Author of Throw Them All Out Peter Schweizer
10.10am Freedomworks Matt Kibbe
10.30am Fair Tax John Steinberger
11.00am United States’ Military Role as a Global leader; Post-Obama Future Major General James E. Livingston
11.30am Agenda 21 Tom DeWeese
12.00pm Lunch-Marlin’s Restaurant
12.50pm Music
1.00pm SC Treasurer Curtis Loftis
1.10pm Returning from Afghanistan Katherine Jenerette
1.15pm SC Attorney General Alan Wilson
1.25pm Education Supt. Mick Zais
1.35pm Tea Party Patriots Founder Mark Meckler
2.05pm Presidential Candidates

Here’s a list of the 50 bills in Congress that moved people to contact Congress about them. (boy that is an unfriendly grammatical sentence!)

It’s good info to have. However … it’s extremely depressing to see how many of the bills We The People thought important enough to communicate with Congress about are unpassed, still in committee, or never got a vote.

Really cements the reality that it’s not the People’s House any longer. Pissed about that? Me too.

Ready to put aside your lives, recreational time, money, agendas, short term plans to change that?

We’ll see. I know some of you are. I know some of you are getting there I believe, based on my own experience, that there are more of us out there who just need some information and understanding of “What Can I Do About This?” … go find them. We need them.

An informed electorate is a politician’s worst nightmare.

Happy New Year. A year from today, let’s check in again, and I pray we’ll be more free, more secure, more optimistic about our future, less worried about our children’s future.

Cross post from the Spartanburg Tea Party

I had a chat with my good friend Linda today, we were both kinda feeling the pain of not having had any “wins” yet. A win, like an actual budget. Some regulations abolished. A showdown with the Senate or the Obama Admin that we don’t cave to. A South Carolina law passed that an activist judge or the DOJ doesn’t squash.

But I got to thinking about the retirement of Ben Nelson. And Barney Frank. And Herb Kohl. And Mike Ross. And Kent Conrad. And Dan Boren. And more. All Dems, all used to having the power, and the chairmanships and the committees. All resigning before the next election cycle, before their primaries. What this tells me is that they know … THEY KNOW! that they will not be in power after 2012. Their retirements tell me more than polls, more than pundits, more than tea party blogs swearing they will defeat those traitors … They tell me the Dems KNOW they are headed for disaster.

Why else give up all the power of a Senate seat before they have to fight to defend it? It’s still a while away, long months to come, and we will probably have our hearts and spirits broken a few more times, however … “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

And I think a few seeds are beginning to take root.

Cross post from Spartanburg Tea Party

I pulled into my driveway today I saw the guy was there do to my termite bond inspection. He pointed to the Spartanburg Tea Party magnets on my car door and smiled and said “Ah! Tea Party!”

We chatted, and had the same conversation that you’ve probably all had. How’s it looking for President. Our disappointment that Cain had dropped out. How angry he was, as a combat veteran and Ranger, at the state of our country. The gap between those who pay taxes and those who live off entitlement programs. But then … as I’m wont to do … I narrowed it down. Explained that while the rallies have had their day, it’s time for “boots on the ground” in this battle for our country. That the new fight is to spend the hours and days it takes to knock on doors for a candidate you are volunteering for. To spend 6 hours sitting in a chair labeling and putting stamps on mailers. Driving across the county to staff a candidate appearance.

We agreed that neither of us gave much thought to politics before, and we had similar volunteer backgrounds. I helped run a spay/neuter program for 7 years, he volunteered for Animal Rescue Foundation by building a kennel in his backyard and fostering and vetting dogs. He remarked that it’s disheartening that our votes don’t seem to count these days, and I shared with him the story of how one of our local school board candidates, with a strong commitment to reform, had recently won a school board seat by 3 votes, and that I and two of our tea party folks voted in that election.

We talked about how “they” don’t seem to want to do what it takes to make the changes we need. I explained that by becoming a precinct delegate and then a county and state delegate that “WE” can become “THEY” and set the direction for our party. He admitted that he was not even registered to vote. So I set him a mission … between now and the end of the year he was to register so he could vote in the June 2012 primaries … and no backing out just because he didn’t want to be called for jury duty! Which, he admitted was the major reason he hadn’t registered yet We kinda agreed that complaining without being in position to do anything about it wasn’t a good strategy.

So he took my tea party business card, said he’d get on our email list right away. He also wants to check out the RINO Hunt since he lives in Greenville/works on Spartanburg.

So … one thing that I’ve found applies to volunteers in both the animal advocacy field and the tea party field is to give people a “task” … a “next step”. A belief that if they take action, they can make things change. Registering to vote is step one. Getting on email list step two. Finding a candidate and volunteering is step three. I don’t even know the guy’s name, but I envision that either Harry Kibler or I have found a new partner in liberty. I can see him being the “go to” guy for one of our statehouse candidates in the Spring.

Let me give you a task. Find someone between now and the end of the year, have a similar conversation, give them a vision for impacting change instead of just being angry. Chat with them about their next step.

Cross post from Spartanburg Tea Party

For a couple weeks now, Michele Bachmann’s campaign in South Carolina has been attacking the tea party movement by accusing tea party supporters of Newt Gingrich of being bought off.

Now that Michele Bachmann herself has decided to throw fuel on the fire, and this issue has become national news, we as leaders within the South Carolina tea party movement feel we must speak out to defend our integrity.

The South Carolina tea parties have a well-developed network and history of working together on statewide campaigns and legislative issues, and we are disappointed and angry that the Bachmann campaign is using this negative strategy in an attempt to divide us.

Speaker Gingrich has often said that he has one opponent – Barack Obama. He is right, because we must be unified as a team if we are to defeat President Obama and restore Constitutional government from the ground up.

When the Presidential campaigns leave our state on January 22, we will continue to work together to make South Carolina the freest state in the nation. There is support for many presidential campaigns among our organizations, but contrary to the inaccuracies being spread by the Bachmann campaign, there is no Bachmann/Gingrich war amongst our members.

Some of us may disagree on our choices, but those disagreements will not divide us, despite the attempts by Michele Bachmann and her campaign.

There are many Tea Party leaders who have decided to support Gingrich as a candidate. While 3 of them went on to join his staff, the vast majority of them are volunteers. We encourage our members and leaders to get involved at every level with campaigns, even staff positions. What better way to have an impact on those candidates!

The undersigned repudiate the negative tactics of Michele Bachmann’s campaign, and ask that she repudiate this continued questioning of the integrity of the movement she claims to represent.

Brit Adams
President, Concerned Citizens of the Upstate
Rick Santorum Supporter

Dianne Belsom
President, Laurens County Tea Party
Unpaid County Chair for Newt 2012

Jeffrey Betsch
Fairfield County Tea Party/Vice Chair Fairfield County GOP
Rick Santorum Supporter

Talbert Black Jr.
SC Campaign For Liberty
Not voting for Gingrich

Joe Dugan
Chairman, Myrtle Beach Tea Party
South Carolina Patriots. State Coordinator
Gingrich-not paid a penny

Charlotte Hendrix
President, Florence Tea Party
Unpaid Gingrich Supporter

Chris Horne
Charleston Tea Party
Gingrich Staff

Harry Kibler
Founder, RINO Hunt
Leaning Santorum

Karen Martin
Organizer, Spartanburg Tea Party
Unaffiliated

Gerri McDaniel
Treasurer and Board Member, Myrtle Beach Tea Party
Gingrich Staff

Allen Olson
Former Chairman, Columbia Tea Party
Unpaid Gingrich Supporter

Shery Smith
Chairman, Sumter Tea Party
Unpaid Gingrich Supporter

Linda Weeks
Coordinator, 912 Greenville
Undecided