STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 21.27 | JULY 8, 2022
COMMENTARY, Brack: S.C. needs a massive write-in campaign in 2022
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Right to choose
NEWS BRIEFS: Hundreds gather for Thursday abortion hearing, rally
SPOTLIGHT: S.C. Farm Bureau
FEEDBACK: Good idea
MYSTERY PHOTO: Another white, wooden building
S.C. needs a massive write-in campaign in 2022
By Andy Brack | There are right ways and wrong ways to do things.
Case in point of the wrong: A kangaroo hearing by a special S.C. House committee on Thursday to vet a strict abortion ban bill, even though there is still no language attached to the bill that people can parse or criticize. What’s more infuriating is anti-abortion religious zealots and their lemmings are pushing a complete ban without even waiting to see the consequences of a near-total ban that just went into place a few days back after the overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The right way to do things: Have fair hearings with alternating points of view (instead of stacking the people who you agree with at the beginning) to discuss a bill that actually has language to consider. Even better: Don’t rush things now but wait for the regular legislative process in January. Because of the “fetal heartbeat” abortion ban that the state is now under, there can be virtually no abortions six weeks after inception anyway.
But since these zealots, led by GOP S.C. Rep. John McCravy III of Greenwood, don’t seem to have a reasonable bone in their bodies, perhaps it’s time for South Carolina’s reasonable people – more than 60 percent of whom support some kind of access to abortion as a vital component of women’s health care – to take to the election battlefield with a massive write-in campaign to get rid of the zealots and lemmings.
House Bill 5399 currently has 51 sponsors – all white and all Republican. Forty-two are male. Nine are female. Few of these sponsors have any real challenges in November in the general election. Why? Because they gerrymandered the hell out of their districts to keep reasonable opponents from running.
So let’s take a lesson from the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond when he was a Democrat in 1954. Lots of people should run for seats as write-in candidates. If enough write-in candidates organized and ran hard on a pro-democracy platform that included government transparency, supporting a woman’s right to choose health care alternatives, economic justice for all and fairness in elections, they could make a real difference. If half of them won these independent write-in battles against the 51 GOP sponsors of the kneejerk abortion ban proposal, they would wreak havoc on the legislative system and could wrestle control of the chamber away from Republicans. Imagine independents and Democrats in South Carolina caucusing to pick the next leadership team.
Thurmond’s example is instructive. Back in 1954, U.S. Sen. Burnet Maybank Sr. of Charleston was running for election unopposed as a Democrat. But he died two months before the election. The Democratic Party, which was the only really viable game in the state then, picked state Sen. Edgar Brown, a member of the “Barnwell Ring” who ran things in the state Senate, as a candidate without a primary.
Thurmond, who had just completed a term as a Democratic governor, balked and mounted a write-in campaign. He won with 63 percent of the vote and became the first person ever to be elected to the U.S. Senate via a write-in campaign.
On a statewide basis today, it would cost millions and be nearly impossible to mount a viable write-in campaign like Thurmond’s. But it could be far different in individual races for the S.C. House of Representatives where each member represents about 42,000 South Carolinians.
Here’s the math: The average number of registered voters per district is about 26,600. In off-year elections, the state is lucky to get a 60% turnout, meaning the actual voting population in any district this year will be about 16,000. In turn, that translates to a simple majority of 8,000. In other words, a write-in candidate could actually win a House seat by getting 8,000 people to write in his or her name at the ballot box.
When you break it down this way, a real series of grassroots campaigns to oust the Nimrods leading the House away from [‘little-d”] democratic discussions seems more doable. Yes, it would be a lot of hard work and organizing, but what else is more important than saving our democracy from authoritarian goons?
So the real question now is how many of you have 8,000 friends?
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Right to choose
Cartoonist Robert Ariail often interprets things a little differently, but always has an interesting take on what’s going on in South Carolina. Love the cartoon? Hate it? What do you think: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Hundreds gather for Thursday abortion hearing, rally
Staff reports | Hundreds of demonstrators and national groups descended Thursday on the S.C. Statehouse grounds to protest, rally and testify before House lawmakers considering new abortion-related measures in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The discussions focused on whether a newly-enacted abortion ban should be expanded to include no exceptions or have some exceptions. A recently enacted “fetal heartbeat” ban, triggered after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, prohibits most abortions when a heartbeat is first detected, which is usually about six weeks into a pregnancy.
Some observers criticized the process of the hearing, which focused on a bill for which there was no language and prioritized the testimony of opponents of abortion.
“The founding fathers understood that separation of church and state is essential to representative democracy,” said Lynn Teague, a vice president with the League of Women Voters of South Carolina. “The Supreme Court of the United States decision overturning Roe v. Wade opened the door to ignoring that fundamental protection.
“Yesterday the House Ad Hoc Committee gave every indication that it intends to walk through that open door,” she said today.
S.C. Rep. Spencer Wetmore, D-Charleston, said she was pleased the House committee took testimony, although many people were frustrated the hearing came before any bill language.
“Because there is no proposed language, all we have to go on for clues as to our comments are national model bills and what’s been introduced in the Senate. The Senate bill doesn’t have an exception for rape and incest, and it makes it a felony to travel or transport someone for an abortion. Further, this bill turns our doctors into criminals, and it creates a private cause of action to sue the doctors and profit from the litigation.”
State senators are expected to have an abortion bill hearing within weeks.
In other recent news:
Graham, six others subpoenaed in 2020 election probe. A special Georgia grand jury looking into former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election on Tuesday subpoenaed U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and six others to testify next week. Among those also subpoenaed were attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, both advisers to Trump. Graham has vowed to fight the subpoena. The grand jury reportedly seeks to discuss at least two telephone calls Graham made in January 2020 with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff about the election results.
James named new leader of S.C. conservation group. South Carolina’s Coastal Conservation League, one of the state’s preeminent advocacy organizations, has a new leader – a Mount Pleasant native and Harvard-trained lawyer who has seen how unbridled growth and development changed the Lowcountry landscape.
Lincolnville, 4 other sites added to national historic Reconstruction network. The Town of Lincolnville, located on the edge of Charleston County outside of Summerville, has been added to the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network, along with four other sites. The network is part of an effort to tell the story of American Reconstruction after the Civil War.
DHEC reports 11,844 new cases in South Carolina. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control this week reported 11,844 new Covid-19 cases in the state, an increase of 1,100 cases from the previous week. Meanwhile, a reported 0.6% of children under the age of 5 have received the Covid-19 vaccine and pharmacists now have the ability to prescribe the Covid-19 treatment drug known as Paxlovid.
Vesey’s legacy endures 200 years later, historians say. Denmark Vesey was a freed former slave who is thought to have led a failed insurrection in 1822 in which 35 people were hanged. Vesey’s efforts, however, inspired other abolitionists and modern-day activists. Vesey’s message of freedom still reverberates today through ongoing conversations of social justice and equality. In an ongoing discussion of his legacy, descendants of Vesey have also shared the family history of the courageous abolitionist. For more commentary, see what City Paper’s Herb Frazier has to say.
Statewide sales tax holiday begins Aug. 5. The 72-hour statewide sales tax holiday is scheduled to begin at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 5 and will run through Aug. 7.
Gas prices continue to decline in S.C. AAA reported a decrease in gasoline prices across the state. State average for regular gas is now $4.28.
Thousands of S.C. immigrants at risk of deportation. Immigration protections for children brought to South Carolina are at risk of being shut down. The Obama-era program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is currently amid a pending Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the program.
South Carolina Farm Bureau
Statehouse Report is provided for free to thousands of subscribers thanks to the generosity of our underwriters. Today we shine a spotlight on our newest underwriter, S.C. Farm Bureau. It is a grassroots, non-profit organization that celebrates and supports family farmers, locally-grown food and rural lands through legislative advocacy, education and community outreach.
S.C. Farm Bureau’s alliance of nearly 100,000 members includes everyone from foodies and fishermen to lawyers, restaurateurs, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and of course, farmers. By connecting farmers to the larger community, the organization cultivates understanding about agriculture’s importance to our local economies. The S.C. Farm Bureau explains its mission: “We deepen our collective knowledge of who, where and how food grows. We empower people to make informed choices. We grow mutually-beneficial relationships. And, we ensure the future of the family farms, locally-grown food and the rural South Carolina lands we love.”
- To learn more about S.C. Farm Bureau’s programs, click here.
- To view media and publications, click here
- For policy and legislation, click here.
Good idea!
To the editor:
I agree with your opinion piece in the Index Journal referring to incentives for voting and the tax credit for participation is brilliant. I believe I could add two-to-four more willing voters with this type of incentive. I hope someone takes up this idea in the legislature!
– Lori Wilkes, Greenwood
Send us your comments
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.
Another white, wooden building
Here’s another white, wooden building to keep the theme going. Where is it? What is it? Send your name and hometown – along with your guess – to feedback@statehousereport.com.
The last mystery, “White, wooden building,” might have been hard for many (us included,) but not so for several veteran photo sleuths who knew it was Back Swamp School on Pocket Road in Florence County. Thanks to Barry Wingard of Florence for the photo.
George Graf of Palmyra, Va. told us that a schoolhouse was first built in 1843 by Blooming Grove Plantation planter Robert Rogers for his children. “The school was known as Ney School in honor of its teacher, Peter Stuart Ney. By 1870, the schoolhouse had been moved to a location on East Pocket Road. Back Swamp School was built in 1921 and had as many as 60 students amongst two teachers. The Ney School served as a detached library for Back Swamp School but has since been moved to a private residence. Back Swamp School closed in 1950 when its students transferred to Florence-area schools.”
Others who correctly identified the old school were: Elizabeth Jones and Jay Altman, both of Columbia; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; and Bill Segars of Hartsville.
>> 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.
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
Democrats have destroyed every State they politically control. When Thurman won his seat he was a well recognized politician and political insider. If Democrats had been doing the job a majority of voters want they would not be having so many problems getting elected. Democrats in SC are pushing the same tired old Socialist rhetoric and plans that the non-elected Biden bunch are nationally. Write-ins won’t change that. It’s not 1954, Thurman is gone and that old dog won’t hunt.
It’s “Thurmond,” not Thurman. And you do realize the Republicans have been in control of the state legislature since 2001, right?