INSIDE ISSUE 19.38 | Sept. 18, 2020
BIG STORY: Nine S.C. House races to watch in November
NEWS BRIEFS: Senate unanimously OKs energy study; Spotting trolls
SPOTLIGHT: AT&T
COMMENTARY, Brack: Parasite ad may backfire to help Graham
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: History
FEEDBACK: Didn’t appreciate Ariail cartoon
MYSTERY PHOTO: Where is this theater?
HISTORY: New history of Charleston is now in stores
Nine S.C. House races to watch in November
By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | The solid Republican majority in the S.C. House of Representatives is unlikely to sway much in the Nov. 3 election.
But political observers say nine races — from Lancaster to James Island — will be close as Republicans and Democrats jockey to pick up seats. There are 59 general election races of the 124 seats.
Currently,there are 78 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 1 vacancy in the House. The vacancy is House District 107 in Horry County, formerly held by former GOP Rep. Alan Clemmons who resigned over the summer.
With districts drawn to favor the incumbent party, upsets are rare. But changing demographics in the Charleston area, the Midlands and the Upstate are providing opportunities.
For Republicans, the strategy is to pick up seats from 2018 upsets and from Democrats who see their rural districts getting redder.
S.C. Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick said his party’s House candidates — incumbents and challengers alike — will rely on a consistent message of law and order, and the popularity of President Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. Polls of South Carolina voters show the president with more than a 7-point advantage over Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
“We’ve got opportunities and we’re going to exploit them 100 percent,” McKissick told Statehouse Report. “Every poll, House district poll, Senate district polls, all the stuff we’ve seen shows having the president on the ticket and (U.S. Sen.) Lindsey Graham is a benefit to our down the ballot candidates.”
For Democrats, the strategy will be to maintain its House footprint statewide and grow the party’s foothold in the Lowcountry. Issues rest on pandemic response, health care, social justice and education.
House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford of Columbia said the “influx of Democrats” to the Charleston area means that’s “where all the excitement is going to be.”
Democratic strategist Tyler Jones of Charleston agreed.
“Pretty much everything in Charleston is a real race now,” he said.
Here are the nine races to watch, according to multiple political observers.
House District 15 (Goose Creek)
Democratic Rep. J.A. Moore unseated the House’s only Black Republican, Samuel Rivers, in 2018 in this Hanahan-to-Goose Creek seat. Moore won the seat with fewer than 500 votes — or about 4 percent — over Rivers.
2020 will be a rematch between professional chef Moore and ordained minister Rivers.
Jones said this is a “district to be worried about” for Democrats. He said Moore is favored to win, but it will be tight.
McKissick said the race will be one to watch as presidential-year voters crowd the polls and mark ballots for Trump, potentially swaying the seat back to Rivers.
House District 44 (Lancaster)
S.C. Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell, a Democrat, will face Republican challenger Sandy McGarry in what Republicans hope will be an upset.
Norrell grabbed the seat in 2012, which was the last time she faced a Republican opponent in the general election.
Jones said Norrell’s district is “changing the opposite way that districts in Charleston are changing,” making this a competitive race.
House District 52 (Camden)
Democratic Rep. Laurie Funderburk is facing a challenge from Republican veteran Vic Dabney on Nov. 3.
While Funderburk has beaten back all of her GOP challengers by convincing margins since 2005, the district is trending increasingly red – making it a top target for a potential Republicans flip.
McKissick said his party “feels really good” about the chances of making District 52 and District 44 red this year.
House District 75 (Columbia)
Republican Rep. Kirkman Finlay III is facing another Democratic challenge with attorney Rhodes Bailey.
Finlay was first elected to the seat in 2012 and has consistently beat his Democratic opponents in 2018 and 2016 by double digits. But money is flowing in this race, and Democrats say this will be a tight one for Finlay, who is facing increasing criticism for his attendance record for House votes.
House District 99 (Charleston)
With S.C. Rep. Nancy Mace not seeking reelection as she looks to return the First Congressional District to GOP hands, this open race pits Republican Mark Smith against Democratic candidate Jen Gibson.
The race is expected to be close. Mace fended off a Democratic challenger in 2018 with just shy of 500 votes.
Gibson is the director of philanthropy at Trident Literacy Association, and former Mount Pleasant Town Council member Smith is the owner of several funeral homes. Both have been active in their county parties.
House District 112 (Mount Pleasant)
S.C. Rep. Mike Sottile, a Republican, first won this Lowcountry seat in 2008 with few Democratic challengers. In 2018, his Democratic challenger fell by nearly 15 points in the general election despite the district helping to elect then-Democratic Congressional candidate Joe Cunningham.
Sottile announced in March he would not seek reelection. This year, Republican Joe Bustos will seek to keep the seat red against Democratic candidate Daniel Brownstein. Bustos is a council member for the Town of Mount Pleasant, a veteran and a former police officer. Brownstein is a marketing director at the Richardson, Patrick, Westbrook & Brickman law firm and has worked with two solicitors in the state.
Jones said that given Cunningham won this district in 2018 and Brownstein’s large pot of cash on hand, it is likely to swing to the Democrats.
House District 114 (Charleston)
S.C. Rep. Lin Bennett, a Republican, has held this Charleston-to-Summerville seat since 2016, after it had a brief Democratic interruption by Mary Tinkler in 2014 after former House Speaker Bobby Harrell didn’t seek reelection.
Bennett has handily defeated previous Democratic challengers in 2016 and 2018. Now, she will face veteran and small business owner Ed Sutton.
House District 115 (Charleston)
Democratic Rep. Spencer Wetmore will again face Republican challenger Josh Stokes for the second time in three months. The James Island seat was formerly held by Republican Peter McCoy, who stepped down earlier this year to take a Trump administration appointment for U.S. attorney for the district of South Carolina.
In an Aug. 11 special election this summer, Wetmore flipped the seat blue by a 20-point margin over Stokes. However, only 6,220 voters showed up in the race between the two attorneys with civic records. Leading Republicans tsay the seat will be reclaimed in the November election when turnout in a presidential year will mean a much larger percent of the 38,518 registered voters in the district.
House District 117 (Goose Creek)
S.C. Rep. Krystle Matthews, a Democrat, wrestled this seat from Republican hands in 2018 after incumbent Bill Crosby fell by nearly 7 points. Crosby sought a rematch this year, but he was defeated in the GOP primary by real estate agent Jordan Pace.
Jones said Matthews will have to work hard to defend her seat, but said she is favored to win. McKissick said that, like District 15 that also flipped in 2018, Republicans feel hearty about their chances to regain this seat with more voters heading to the polls.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Senate unanimously OKs energy study; Spotting trolls
By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | The S.C. Senate voted 43-0 Wednesday with unanimous consent for final reading Thursday to create a study committee tasked with exploring how utilities in the state buy and sell energy to meet customer demand.
- Previous coverage: Legislature poised to study how utilities meet energy needs
The Senate gave final reading Thursday on House Bill 4940, which seeks to create an energy market reform study committee. The House passed the bill 81-31 in February. Now, it will be up to the House to concur after the Senate “added some clarifying language,” according to bill advocate Eddy Moore, energy and climate program director at Coastal Conservation League. The House will have an opportunity to concur next week, but without that concurrence the bill will be dead until the 2021 session.
“All we need is House compliance,” Moore said. “There should be no substantive dispute and no known opposition that I am aware of. We just don’t want it to slip through the cracks after coming this far.”
The committee will explore how to create a regional transmission organization (RTO) in the state. According to other studies of the southeast, a multi-state RTO would require existing utilities to buy energy from the cheapest energy provider at the time they need it. The reports have said such a model would decrease energy expenses for customers and utilities, and lessen carbon emissions since it would likely favor cheaper renewable energy.
The eight-member committee — four from the House and four from the Senate — will have a 20-member advisory board that includes seats for major utilities and stakeholders.
Here’s a summary of other legislative ongoings this week:
- CARES Act appropriations pass House, Senate. An additional $668 million in CARES Act money — the federal aid sent to help states grapple with pandemic expenses — has been allocated by the S.C. House this week days after the Senate passed its own version. Of the money left, the House seeks to put $93 million toward testing and provide grants of up to $25,000 for small businesses and nonprofits. The House also allocated $450 million toward replenishing the state unemployment fund. Read more.
- Absentee voting expanded for November. On Wednesday, top Columbia leaders gathered for a ceremonial signing of a law expanding absentee voting to all registered voters in the state. Read more. Advocates say, however, the measure does not go far enough toward eliminating barriers of voting caused by the pandemic. Republicans kept the requirement for a witness signature and declined to increase the number of ballot-drop boxes around the state.
- State budget passes the Senate, stalls in the House. House Ways and Means Chair Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, said he wants to wait until January to pass a state spending plan two days after the Senate passed 40-3 a $9 billion budget that included $70 million in teacher raises and state employee bonuses. Smith said waiting until January will ensure that lawmakers aren’t spending money that the coronavirus pandemic has stripped from the coffers, and pledged to pass a budget similar to the Senate. Like Gov. Henry McMaster, he is advocating for a continuing resolution, something lawmakers passed before the fiscal year began July 1. Read more.
- See the Senate schedule here.
- See the House schedule here.
Can you spot the troll? Here’s how to beat Clemson’s quiz
Two Clemson University professors want to fight online misinformation by giving everyone a pop quiz. But don’t worry, it’s only eight questions.
Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren have debuted this week “Spot the Troll,” an educational tool to guide users toward being better informed on social media while asking participants to divine the legitimate profiles from those linked to foreign governments.
Spreading wrong or deliberately false information online often starts with fake accounts. A post is then shared by real people who feel the posts speak to their personal or political beliefs. Linvill and Warren have identified millions of such posts since the 2016 election where U.S. officials uncovered efforts by Russians to sow disinformation on social media.
Social media’s proliferation of disinformation has been listed as a top security concern for the 2020 election. This week, intelligence officials warned that Russian meddling has intensified.
If the thought of a pop quiz is giving you anxiety (hello, recurrent nightmare in the meritocracy), you’re not alone. Linvill told the Charleston City Paper he is hearing from participants who are “overthinking” or not going with their gut (although, he warned, sometimes your gut isn’t always right). And for those who just want to get it right? Relax — no GPAs to worry about.
“This quiz is about the journey, not the destination. I don’t care what your score is. I care that you went through it and thought about it,” Linvill said. “Our goal is to get people to consider who they’re engaging with, who they are retweeting and not do it lightly because their accounts are the tools of disinformation. Disinformation doesn’t spread without people spreading it.”
The quiz is part of Clemson’s new Media Forensics Hub, which seeks to engage and educate the public at large, to make it easier to spot disinformation.
So, how can you get a perfect score on the quiz?
“The main thing is to be wary. When something looks too good to be true, it probably is. And at the end of the day, strangers don’t always have your best interests at heart. There are signs one can look for that someone is a real human being,” Linvill said. “Trolls don’t have depth.”
In other words: Legitimate profiles tend to have personal posts and information scattered amid the political beliefs and post-sharing.
- Take the quiz at: spotthetroll.org.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
AT&T
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. Today’s featured underwriter is AT&T Inc.
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Parasite ad may backfire to help Graham
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | It’s gotten so bad in the caldron of American politics that you wonder whether people are itching to argue about the color of the sky.
“It’s blue,” one might say. “No,” says another. “It’s orange. I saw it on TV in Oregon.”
“You’re both wrong, it’s black.”
In truth (real truth, not fake truth), all three are correct. On a glorious day in South Carolina, the sky is blue. On a wildfire day in the far West, the sky is pumpkin orange. At night, the sky is black.
Three different realities can be true at one time. Everything doesn’t always fit neatly into an either-or cubbyhole. People can walk, talk and chew gum at the same time. But in an America increasingly torn apart by leaders spewing caustic venom and peaceful protests gone awry, too many politicians want you to forget how many answers or positions in politics are varying shades of gray. They want you to think things are black or white.
With just six weeks left in a campaign season on acid, they’ll keep trying to manipulate you because you can either vote for or against someone. The tone of politics isn’t going to get better in South Carolina or anywhere else. Increasingly negative political ads will continue to air around the clock. Why? Unfortunately, because they work — and because voters fall for them without doing enough research.
The worst — the absolute worst — is a new ad that spews a comparison of GOP U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham to a parasite. Buttressed by gross images of creepy-crawly bugs and decaying animals, this ad is shameful. Aired by the Lincoln Project, a group of traditional Republicans who desperately want Trump Republicans off of the national stage, the ad is nothing less than Republicans eating their young — or in this case, those who enable Trump. They want more of the old-time, country club GOP to return to focus on fiscal conservatism, a strong military and steady foreign policy instead of the directionless ranting of a president supported by lemmings who have forgotten how to think.
“Some animals are parasitic,” the ad says. “They drink the lifeblood of their host, infect whatever they touch and spread like a virus. They’re often right under our noses, camouflaged, convincing their hosts they’re not harmful at all.”
The graphic, disturbing ad is referring, of course, to how Graham built a maverick reputation in Congress, in part, by being an acolyte of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. During the 2016 GOP presidential primary season, Graham, one of several candidates running for the top office, loudly criticized Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.” Then after McCain’s death, something happened as Trumpism ascended. Graham, perhaps worried that someone in the GOP in South Carolina would threaten his power, veered to Trump, eventually becoming one of his chief supporters in the Senate.
The Lincoln Project, fronted by some of McCain’s top aides, targeted Graham. But the group’s efforts seem more like a personal vendetta than a difference of political opinion. It may have gone too far.
Recent polling shows Graham tied at 48 percent with Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison, who has been impressive in raising tens of millions of dollars to counter Graham. Harrison has a real chance.
But it’s possible the nastiness of the Lincoln Project’s ad will backfire. Conservative South Carolinians like Trump. They’re not as enamored with Graham, but they’ll vote for him.
Hanging in the balance is the 4 percent of voters who haven’t decided. What has got to be keeping Graham and Harrison up at night is whether something like the Lincoln Project’s parasite ad is enough to turn people off so much that they cast a sympathy vote for Graham because people from out of state were mean to him. It could happen.
Just think about how you feel when somebody criticizes your favorite football or baseball team. Your natural reaction is to double-down and ramp up your support. For those on the fence, tough, gross criticism of Graham could cause voters to refuse to take the negative ad bait and push Graham over the finish line first in a squeaker.
- Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. His column also is published in the Charleston City Paper, Florence Morning News, Greenwood Index Journal, The (Seneca) Journal, Camden Chronicle Independent and Hartsville Messenger. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
History
Enjoy this week’s cartoon by Robert Ariail, republished from our sister newspaper, the Charleston City Paper. Love it? Hate it? What do you think: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Didn’t appreciate Ariail cartoon
To the editor:
On the seagull cartoon: Hate it. Charleston has always been about preserving history until now. I’ll never go back to Charleston. Found cartoon despicable.
— Ken Temple, Aiken, S.C.
Editor’s Note: Thanks, Ken. Comments on Facebook have been overwhelmingly positive. “Love Ariail’s work,” one reader told us. Check out this week’s toon.
Send us your thoughts
We love hearing from our readers and encourage you to share your opinions. But to be published, you’ve got to provide us with contact information so we can verify your letters. Letters to the editor are published weekly. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. Comments are limited to 250 words or less. Please include your name and contact information.
- Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Where is this theater?
This mystery could be tough. This old sign fronts a theater somewhere in South Carolina. Where? Send to feedback@statehousereport.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.
Our previous Mystery Photo
Our Sept. 11 photo, “Lonely building?,” isn’t all that lonely. It’s Darrah Hall, one of several buildings at the historic Penn Center on St. Helena Island in Beaufort County. Mary Greene of Columbia, who identified the photo, reminded us that the Penn Center is “now part of the Reconstruction Park declared by President Obama before he left office.”
Others who correctly identified the photo were: George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; John Hearn and Jay Altman, both of Columbia; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Henry Eldridge of Tega Cay; Jacie Godfrey and Barry Wingard, both of Florence; Steve Willis of Lancaster; and Carol Corbin of Beaufort.
Graf added: “At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Union Army forces quickly captured Saint Helena Island, prompting the local plantation owners to flee. The military administration of the island partitioned the old plantations, giving the land to the former slaves who lived there. The Penn School was established in 1862 by Laura Matilda Towne, an abolitionist missionary from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a school for the freed slaves, which was named for William Penn, Quaker champion for human liberty and founder of Pennsylvania.”
Send us a mystery: 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.
New history of Charleston is now in stores
Copies of a new book of historical facts about Charleston, aptly titled 350 Facts About Charleston, are in Lowcountry-area bookstores now, but if you can’t swing by, you can order a copy online today.
The staff at our sister publication, the Charleston City Paper, pulled together fun and arcane information about the Holy City to illuminate its deep, rich history from its founding in 1670 until this year. (That’s, umm, 350 years!)
Charleston historian and tour guide Damon Fordham this week got a copy of the book and remarked, “very informative and worth the read.” Charleston disc jockey Richard Todd (105.5 The Bridge) told listeners he thought the book was great and will be popular.
Included in the 224-page book are details on early settlers, the wars (Revolutionary and Civil) and the struggle for civil rights by descendants of enslaved Africans. You’ll learn about food (Charlestonians have loved to drink wine for centuries), books, people, music, culture and much more.
Bonus: Talented South Carolina cartoonist Robert Ariail offers 12 illustrations that should make a great calendar someday.
- Preview and order the book by visiting CharlestonFacts.com.
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