Statehouse Report 24.24: Dems, lawsuit, Wilson – Statehouse

• BIG STORY:  S.C. Democrats see need for modernization, reform
• MORE NEWS: S.C. senator sues legislature over $18K pay raise
• LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail:  No seismic testing
• BRACK:  Wilson needs to go back to law school to study Constitution
• MYSTERY PHOTO:  Beach chairs
• FEEDBACK: Letters on weather, oil exploration, more

S.C. Democrats see need to modernize, reform

By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau  |  For Democrats in South Carolina and around the country, the numbers are stark — and daunting.

In the Palmetto State, Republicans have controlled every statewide elected office for 20 years and now command supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Nationally, they hold the presidency and both houses of Congress.

And since President Donald Trump’s reelection last November, Democrats’ polling numbers have plummeted to their lowest in a generation, with only 27% of Americans approving of the party (compared to 39% for Republicans), according to a March NBC News poll. What’s worse, Democrats say, is the continuing erosion of support among working class and male voters of all ages, races and ethnicities.

Looking at those numbers, some South Carolina Democrats say it’s time for their party to take a long look in the mirror. For too long, they say, national Democrats have shrunk from the political fight — and allowed themselves to be defined by their Republican opponents.

“Right now, the Republicans say Democrats are calling for violence in the streets,” Charleston Democratic Sen. Ed Sutton said. “There ain’t a single damn elected Democrat in South Carolina who’s calling for violence —  not one. We’ve got to do a better job of defining who we are and what we stand for.”

But to do that, he argued, national Democrats will have to let go of the language and litmus tests that have pushed the party’s traditional working class base into the GOP.

“The message that plays in New York and California doesn’t play here in South Carolina,” Sutton said. “The party needs to get back to talking more like working people and less like college professors.”

Even more, he said, it’s about meeting voters where they are.

“The average voter is just trying to pay the bills,” he said. “They’re not looking for a TED Talk on pronouns. Talking down to people and then asking them to vote for you just doesn’t work.”

A moderate Democratic majority

Winthrop University political scientist and pollster Scott Huffmon says there’s recent evidence to support the idea that Democrats would benefit from a less ideological approach.

“In our latest Winthrop poll, we asked people what kind of party they prefer,” Huffmon said. “And a number of Democrats said they’d like a more moderate party.”

Specifically, the poll found 80% of S.C. Democrats would favor a party that was somewhere between “moderately liberal” and “moderately conservative,” with only 13% choosing “extreme liberal.”

Those numbers, Huffmon noted, are primarily driven by Black voters, who tend to be more religious and culturally moderate than the average national Democrat.

“When it comes to some of those thorny social issues nationally, that makes it a little more tricky for state politics,” Huffmon said. “[The] old maxim that ‘all politics is local’ is no longer true. In fact, it’s the opposite of true. Even local politics is national now.”

Richland County Democratic State Rep. Jermaine Johnson, who’s announced he’s considering a run for governor next year, said he sees the same issues among his constituents.

“The top of the Democratic Party isn’t listening to the bottom of the Democratic Party,” Johnson said. “Most people are just working class people struggling the way my family has struggled, and the national [Democratic] brand has gotten away from everyday citizens.”

 To solve that problem, he said, state Democrats will have to start communicating their values much more clearly.

“We’ve done a horrible job of distancing ourselves from the national political narrative,” Johnson said. “People in South Carolina don’t look at us as regular Democrats going to church and work and school. They look at us as AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, [and] that’s not who we are.”

In particular, he says, Democrats need to refocus on core issues that every voter cares about, and put less emphasis on social issues.

“I want to talk about why that pothole’s been in your road for years, and why our schools and infrastructure are crumbling,” Johnson said. “Those are issues we need to be addressing, not DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] or abortion or which bathroom I have to use.” 

In the trenches

State Democratic campaign professionals agree their candidates need room to diverge from the national party on some issues, though they stress the nuts and bolts of making that strategy work.

One veteran Democratic operative was blunt about the challenge, particularly in a fragmented media environment where the audience for TikTok videos and podcasts dwarfs that of traditional newspapers and TV.

“We’re not talking to people where they are,” he said. “And on the few occasions when we do, we’re usually talking about somebody else’s problem.”

Political consultant and former S.C. Democratic Party Chair Trav Robertson said he sees many of the same challenges, but keeps the focus on individual campaigns and candidates.

“There’s no question that in today’s world, everything is integrated and intertwined,” Robertson said. “But if you’ve got very good candidates and a good organization, you can still cut through that stuff and communicate with your voters. Is that difficult? Yes. Is it impossible? No.”

What’s more, he says, it’s important to not lose sight of traditional Democratic commitments in the process.

“We’re the party that stands up for everyone’s rights and everyone’s freedoms,” Robertson said. “The problem is to not throw out the baby with the bathwater.”

But regardless of the messaging nuances, he said, it still comes down to candidates, campaigns, and a willingness to push back on the other side’s narrative — and that’s what most needs to change.

“At the end of the day, Republicans do a better job of branding Democrats,” he said. “And too many Democrats don’t fight back.”

S.C. senator sues legislature over $18K pay raise

By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau  |  S.C. Sen. Wes Climer, R-York, is suing his fellow lawmakers in the South Carolina General Assembly, saying they are illegally giving themselves what is effectively an $18,000-a-year raise.

The pay raise — technically, a $1,500 a month increase in members’ “in-district” expense allotment — was passed as a budget proviso that’s set to go into effect along with the rest of the state budget in July.

But according to the lawsuit, that violates the state Constitution, which states that “no General Assembly shall have the power to increase the per diem of its own members.”

Climer says that’s why he’s suing to stop payment.

“It’s so important to the quality of our government and the way [lawmakers] think about their jobs that we had no recourse but to stop this increase in its tracks,” he said on June 9. “A lawsuit was the way to do that.”

According to Climer’s legal team, the S.C. Supreme Court has fast tracked the case, and a hearing is expected soon.

In other recent news

S.C. lawmaker arrested for on sex material charges. Republican Rep. R.J. May, R-Lexington, a high-profile co-founder of the hard-right S.C. Freedom Caucus, is being held without bond in the Lexington County jail after being arrested June 11 on 10 federal counts of distributing child sexual abuse material.  May, who was suspended from the House by Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, on Wednesday, pleaded not guilty at a June 12 hearing.

S.C. lawmakers look at modernizing, improving state roads. A new committee at the State House will take a closer look at the South Carolina Department of Transportation in an effort to quell the complaints about poor road conditions across the state from constituents.

Company pauses EV battery plant construction in Pee Dee. The AESC’s electric vehicle plant has been placed on a temporary pause. Meanwhile, Florence moves forward with millions of dollars worth of infrastructure work.

Students stand to lose thousands in Limestone closure. Despite promises that online classes would continue, students who pre-paid for now-shuttered Limestone University summer classes say they’re out thousands of dollars. “I don’t know if I’ll ever see my money again,” one student said. “Everyone is passing the buck. It’s just really shameful.”

No seismic testing

Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way.  This week, he takes on a new scare from the Trump administration – the possibility down the road of offshore drilling, which is hated in a bipartisan way throughout South Carolina.

Wilson needs to go back to law school to study Constitution

By Andy Brack  |  Maybe S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, the MAGA-acolyte who wants to be governor so bad he can taste it, needs to go back to law school.

After hearing his so-called warning about June 14 plans for peaceful protests in a dozen places across the state, he appears to need a refresher on constitutional law, which specifically protects the right to assemble peaceably (First Amendment – right along with freedom of the press.)  

Here’s what Wilson said as the media focused on unrest in California brought on by authoritarian immigration raids: “If you attack law enforcement, destroy public or private property, or endanger lives in our state, you will be arrested, charged, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Well, duh.  Anyone who does anything like that should go to jail – including insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 – the very same insurrectionists who were pardoned by a man who seems to want to be a king, President Donald Trump. 

But that’s not what’s going on with Wilson’s bombast.  He has a completely different agenda.  He craves the spotlight and wants to fuel fear in South Carolina as the country deals with citizens who are more and more disenchanted with the over-the-top zeal of federal immigration stormtroopers across the nation.  Wilson is trying to jump on Trump’s coattails to whip up a South Carolina political base for his gubernatorial run by appearing to be a strong man.  Instead, he’s a straw man who is wrongly threatening people who want to exercise the freedom that patriots fought and died for to shrug off a tyrannical king.

Let’s be clear:  Donald Trump is not a king.  He was elected by 49.8% of American voters.  Current polling shows a majority of Americans disapprove of his job performance on a range just the kind of issues that cause people to protest.

So the MAGA-enthused Wilson might also need to go back to law school.  He might also learn from some former Republican presidents about the ideals of freedom and democracy.  

• President George W. Bush (2001-2009):  “You can’t put democracy and freedom back into a box.”
• President George H.W. Bush (1989-1993):   “Freedom is not the same as independence. Americans will not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local despotism. They will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred.”
• President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989):  “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
• President Gerald Ford (1974-1977):  “Remember that none of us are more than caretakers of this great country.  Remember that the more freedom you give to others, the more you will have for yourself.  Remember that without law there can be no liberty.  And remember, as well, the rich treasures you brought from whence you came, and let us share your pride in them.”
• President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961):  “Freedom under law is like the air we breathe.” 

Those five leaders were in a Republican Party that had honor.  The current GOP in Washington seem like zealots mixed with lemmings.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report.  Have a comment?  Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

Beach chairs

Here is just the kind of place that lots of people are looking for at this time of the year. Where is it?  Bonus points: Tell us more about this place. Make sure to add your name and hometown to your guess and send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.  

Our most recent mystery, “Stark building,” shows an old picture of Black Mingo Baptist Church in Nesmith in Williamsburg County.  What’s interesting, as some readers mentioned to us, is that the Greek Revival church is no longer there, having been destroyed by fire in 1992.

Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, said the church was built in 1843 by Cleland Belin, a merchant, businessman, and contractor.  The church included a segregated gallery for enslaved worshipers, some of whom likely helped to build the church. 

The church fire was “the result of vandalism, leading to the complete loss of this historic structure. Despite the destruction of the building, the surrounding cemetery remains intact, preserving the final resting places of Cleland Belin and other early congregants.”

Congratulations to Peel and other eagle-eyed sleuths for identifying the church: Jay Altman of Columbia; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Frank Bouknight of Summerville; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Bill Segars of Hartsville; and Lynn Vicary of Awendaw.

• Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but  make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)  Send to:  feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission.  Thanks.

Love Ariail’s weather forecasting cartoon

To the editor:

]Love the comment as all of South Carolina and the East Coast must be made aware they [forecasters] are threatened and there will be no early warnings since [they’re done by] NOAA and the EPA along with other resources to create spaghetti models to track the more and more powerful and dangerous storms! 

– James Hill, Charleston, S.C.

No to offshore drilling and exploration

To the editor:

How this is even under consideration is beyond me.  The Caribbean and Florida are dealing with more frequent sargassum wash-ups, meaning our beaches and marine resources are even that much more precious.  Please don’t think about your re-election, think about your legacy.

– Lynne Vicary, Awendaw

Allow games on television

To the editor:

The state needs to allow playing games on tv, gambling, will generate more revenue for the state.   North  Carolina allows this.  This is no different than playing the lottery.

– Chris Martin, Rock Hill

Send us your thoughts

Please send us your thoughts about politics and policy in South Carolina, but make sure to leave phone numbers and hometowns to help us verify them for publication.  We publish non-defamatory comments, but unless you provide your contact information – name and hometown, plus a phone number used only by us for verification – we can’t publish your views.  

• Have a comment?  Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com.  Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification.  Letters are limited to 150 words.

Statehouse Report, founded in 2001 as a weekly legislative forecast that informs readers about what is going to happen in South Carolina politics and policy, is provided by email to you at no charge every Friday.

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