STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 20.38 | SEPT. 17, 2021
BIG STORY: Redistricting criticized as lawmakers move ahead
NEWS BRIEFS: State sets pandemic milestones on vaccinations, deaths
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: So that’s what an earmark looks like
COMMENTARY, Brack: Murdaugh case’s twists, turns in national spotlight
SPOTLIGHT: Charleston Animal Society
FEEDBACK: Fire the S.C. shyster legislator gang
MYSTERY PHOTO: Where was this taken from?
Redistricting criticized as lawmakers move ahead
By Al Dozier, Statehouse correspondent | South Carolina lawmakers are now working on a statewide redistricting plan to redraw congressional and legislative districts based on new 2020 census data.
But some say the process is seriously flawed.
There’s a strong contention from the South Carolina Progressive Network and the League of Women Voters of South Carolina that redistricting should be overseen by voters, not politicians.
The Progressive Network, a coalition of organizations and individual activists from across the state who have joined forces to promote social and economic justice, recently sent out a press release saying South Carolina is the only state in the nation with no laws or constitutional provisions that set redistricting criteria.
“That’s true, and it’s awful,” said Lynn Teague, vice president for issues and action for the state’s League of Women Voters.
She says the current House, Senate and congressional maps protect incumbents, the majority of whom win their seats in primaries and have no opposition in the general election.
Redistricting is done every 10 years to take into account population changes that could alter the maps for 46 state Senate districts, 124 state House districts and seven U. S. House districts.
According to the Associated Press, the latest census showed South Carolina added nearly 500,000 residents from 2010 to 2020 to become the 23rd largest state in the U.S. with 5.1 million people. Much of that growth was along the coast and the suburbs of Charlotte, N.C. Twenty-four of South Carolina’s 46 counties lost population, mostly in rural areas.
House, Senate committees now at work
A special House committee working on drawing new district maps is now crisscrossing South Carolina.
According to the chairman of the committee, Florence Republican Rep. Jay Jordan, new maps should be completed before the end of the year so they will be in place for the 2022 elections.
Jordan said no one raised issues of partisanship or gerrymandering at hearings this week in Greenville or Rock Hill. He said some citizens have expressed concerns that lawmakers should be aware of the makeup of districts to reflect common bonds, such as farm communities. The committee, comprised of five Republicans and three Democrats, has four more hearings scheduled.
Though he has heard the criticisms about the process, Jordan said he does not believe the system is flawed.
“There’s plenty of case law and precedent,” he told Statehouse Report. “We have a process that we’ve done every 10 years.”
Jordan said the complaint that the committee has no rule book is incorrect. He said the legislature has a set of guidelines that are carefully followed.
“Public input is indispensable to ensuring our districts best represent the people of South Carolina,” Jordan said in public comments at the redistricting meeting in Florence. “We truly are the house of the people. We want your input on specific issues or concerns in your communities, in your neighborhoods.”
A Senate committee has already held 10 hearings across the state.
Jordan said the House and Senate will vote on the final maps, which have to be adopted by the end of the year so they will be in place for the 2020 elections. He said the governor will have to sign the bill.
Pushing for more fairness in the process
There is a current proposal in the House (H. 4202) and Senate (S. 750) for new redistricting guidelines that is strongly supported by the S.C. Progressive Network. Supporters say the measure, known as the FAIR act, promotes fairness and accountability in redistricting and ensures public input in the process
Sponsors are Sen. Mike Fanning. D-Fairfield, and Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg.
Fanning and Cobb-Hunter recently held a press conference on their proposal, which can be viewed on the website FairmapsSC.com.
“What we are proposing is that people pick the politician, rather than the politician picking the people,” Cobb-Hunter said during the press conference.
Fanning said the redistricting system that has been in place for decades “is a game with no rules.”
The legislation will not allow for interference by legislators, the executive branch or anyone who is related to a legislator, Cobb-Hunter said.
The state’sLeague of Women Voters has also outlined a proposal for redistricting, which would impose a series of changes league officials say are needed to make the system more reflective for voters.
“Gerrymandering” is the common description of how politicians make districts protective toward incumbents, according to the league’s web site.
Critics of the current system often point howt more than 70 percent of elections in the current districts are decided in primaries, not during general elections.
The league cited two disturbing issues that surface when districts are closely examined: “packing” and “cracking”.
“Packing” is defined as concentrating communities into a few districts where they win overwhelmingly. “Cracking” is indicated when neighboring communities are split into several different districts to ensure they don’t constitute a majority .
The league also has put in place a redistricting advisory committee that consists of eight people from around the state, some Republicans, some Democrats, some from nonprofits.
Teague said the league has prepared but not yet submitted new maps for lawmakers to consider. The maps do not favor incumbents or partisan leaders.
In an interview, Brett Bursey, director of the Progressive Network, said the current redistricting process “is so well-rigged it’s almost impossible to fix it.”
But he said the FAIR Act is a start for a reform process that he admitted could take years. He said he expects the citizens of South Carolina will eventually see the true picture as proponents shine lights on the problem.
It can take a long time, Bursey said. But he added he believes redistricting reform will happen.
- Al Dozier is a veteran Statehouse reporter who lives in Columbia. Have a comment? Send to feedback@statehousereport.com
State sets pandemic milestones on vaccinations, deaths
Staff reports | The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced Thursday that the state reached a 50 percent vaccination rate among eligible residents. S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster says the milestone was important, but there was still work to do.
That work may be around another milestone — confirmation by the state that more than 10,000 South Carolinians have been confirmed to have died from COVID-19. An additional 1,491 deaths are listed as “probable” COVID deaths, meaning the statewide death toll as of Thursday was 11,532, according to DHEC.
Also Thursday, state health officials reported 4,306 total cases of COVID-19 with 2,865 confirmed. A total of 49 new deaths, with 41 confirmed, also were reported Thursday. With 33,528 tests reported, 11.4 percent were confirmed positive.
In other recent news:
Murdaugh exits jail after $10M insurance fraud arrest. The Murdaugh family saga took another twist Thursday with the arrest of Alex Murdaugh, who reportedly admitted to setting up his own shooting in an insurance fraud scheme. He returned to rehab after a court hearing. More: AP News | The State | The New York Times | NPR
S.C. Senate plans October special session, masks not on agenda. South Carolina senators plan to return to the Statehouse next month for a special session on spending federal COVID-19 relief money and redistricting. More: AP News | The State
McMaster pushes back against Biden’s Medicaid measures. Gov. Henry McMaster Tuesday denounced a Biden administration move to prevent the state from inputting work requirements for some people on Medicaid. More: The State
Federal labor board rules in favor of Charleston ports agency, Leatherman Terminal. The union that represents dockworkers at the Port of Charleston cannot stop shipping lines from calling on the Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston, a federal judge ruled on Sept. 16. More: The Post and Courier.
2024: Scott, Perry, more to speak at October S.C. GOP event. Cleta Mitchell, a longtime Republican lawyer and former Trump adviser, and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida — current chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee — are among the confirmed participants speaking at October’s First in the South Republican Action Conference, according to the S.C. Republican Party. Other confirmed speakers include Rick Perry and Reince Priebus, Trump’s Energy secretary and chief of staff.The forum will be held in late October in Myrtle Beach. More: AP News
S.C. trucker is first in state convicted in Jan. 6 Capitol assault. Long-haul trucker Andrew Hatley of Newberry this week became the first South Carolinian convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol during a Jan. 6 riot. According to media reports, Hatley pleaded guilty Tuesday to “parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building,” a federal misdemeanor that carries up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. To date, 10 South Carolinians have been charged in connection with the attack. More: The Post and Courier | WCSC
S.C. hospitality industry still feeling worker shortage crunch. Even as unemployment rates decrease in the state and tourism regains strength, the hospitality industry is among those unable to find enough workers. More. Columbia Business Report
- Want more headlines every business day that are like this? Visit our friends at SC Clips.
So that’s what an earmark looks like
Cartoonist Robert Ariail always has an interesting take on what’s going on in South Carolina. His weekly “Lowcountry” strip is originally drawn for our sister publication, the Charleston City Paper. Love the cartoon? Hate it? What do you think: feedback@statehousereport.com. Check out the Best of Charleston 2021.
Murdaugh case’s twists, turns in national spotlight
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Keeping up the spectacle of South Carolina’s Murdaugh murder case is like riding a land rocket without steering.
The rural killings of the wife and a son of a father later accused of plotting his own shooting to reap an insurance payout has more twists and turns than three television shows filmed in the Palmetto State — Southern Charm, Outer Banks and The Righteous Gemstones.
This is an ongoing reality show taking place in Hampton and Colleton counties that already has at least two major podcasts as well as reporters from The New York Times and national television networks scrambling to get the latest. And you know what’s ahead: books and made-for-TV movies.
Along the lower part of coastal South Carolina, the Murdaugh family has been a legal dynasty for 100 years. Three generations of lawyers served as the area’s top prosecutor.
Alex Murdaugh, a prominent Hampton County lawyer who is the son of the third generation prosecutor, surrendered to authorities Thursday on charges related to an alleged plot to orchestrate his death over Labor Day weekend. That came just a few weeks after the killings of his wife and son, who was indicted in April on charges related to a 2019 boating death. Alex Murdaugh was released on a $20,000 personal recognizance bond Thursday on a condition that he return to a rehab facility where he reportedly is trying to kick a 20-year opioid addiction.
Trying to keep up with the number of investigations going on is dizzying. First there’s the state probe into the June deaths of Margaret and Paul Murdaugh at the family’s rural Colleton County retreat. Authorities are also looking into the shooting of Alex Murdaugh in which he first told authorities someone tried to kill him as he was changing a flat tire. Later authorities accused him and another man in a $10 million insurance fraud and shooting scheme. Next, there’s an investigation into missing money at the law firm from which Murdaugh resigned to go into rehab as the state Supreme Court suspended his law license.
This year’s investigations prompted authorities to look into past cases, including the 2019 boating death in which Murdaugh’s son was implicated and a 2015 hit-and-run death of a 19-year-old man in Hampton County. And this week as Murdaugh was making plans to turn himself in, news came that authorities were also looking into the 2018 death of a housekeeper at the Murdaugh home. And now, a lawyer associated with that case believes there may be yet another investigation going on that involves federal authorities.
People have become addicted to the developing story. They feel like they’ve jumped into a rabbit hole from which they can’t (and don’t want to) escape.
“It starts really small,” said Charleston triathlete Kayla Edwards. “The more that you know, the more you want to know? It’s like following a really good Netflix series, but you can’t jump to the next episode,” she said.
Even Will Folks, whose muckraking FITSnews blog has been on the story like white on rice (his news editor’s Murdaugh Murders is the nation’s top podcast now), concurred. He told the Charleston City Paper: “The whole thing was already a huge parlor game before we had the bizarre roadside shooting that sort of set everything off. So, it was already at a pretty high energy level and then we had this Labor Day weekend situation that just shot it into another stratosphere.”
Michael DeWitt, managing editor of the Hampton County Guardian, described the Murdaugh story as a “neverending nightmare” for people who live in the county, which has been mostly known for its annual watermelon festival.
“Now people will know us for the Murdaugh killings,” he said. “It’s very disheartening. It’s embarrassing for some. For some it’s tragic.”
If anything good comes from the drama, he points to crimes that have been exposed and the good-old-boy system that has been ripped apart.
“The media should be proud of its work on staying on top of this story … shedding the light on what’s been going on for quite some time,” he said.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Charleston Animal Society
We’re pleased today to shine our spotlight on the Charleston Animal Society, leader in the effort to make Charleston County a safe place for animals. Now the society is working to expand its Charleston success statewide to energize the state to reshape its 300-plus shelters and animal organizations into a no-kill network that stretches from Walhalla to Little River to Daufuskie Island.
Safe and healthy communities, neighborhoods and families don’t just happen – they’re built. “No Kill – No Harm – No More” shines a spotlight on animal abuse and family violence, which are often perceived and treated as separate issues. However, animal abuse is often the tip of the iceberg to larger issues in the home, such as child abuse, elder abuse or domestic violence.
- South Carolina’s most honored charity four years in a row
- National model for success
- Southeast’s only AAHA-accredited combined clinic and shelter
- Focused on solving problems rather than reacting to them year after year
- Publishes Carolina Tails, the largest pet magazine in S.C.
- No Kill. No Harm. No More. is a “movement” comprised of two major initiatives: No Kill Charleston and No Kill South Carolina.
- Learn more about the Charleston Animal Society and its work to create a network of humane network for the animals that bring joy to our lives.
Fire the S.C. shyster legislator gang
To the editor:
55 MPH and “seat belt are required” are government legislative services.
Mandates based on a tradeoff between science (High speed kills more of us the higher the speed.) with time and convenience. Providing safety to S.C. travelers costs more.
The current cabal in the Statehouse does not seek safety for us. The dotard-like majority now advocates getting sick with COVID-19, followed by therapeutic drugs.
The politicization of S.C. COVID-19 policy means of the 79 possible therapeutic drugs; not the 3 COVID-19 vaccine drugs freely available, are the best way out of this pandemic. The get-sick to get -well path is runner up to, “We had to destroy the village to save it.”
This green light to get let’s-get-infected lunatic health policy is offered up as medical freedom. The newest member of the freedom politic set.
Last week, not wearing a mask was plain old freedom. This definition of freedom replaced the earlier one understood by patriots. The brand of freedom that many soldiers died for. Deeded to us with their lives. The shyster leaders are out of gas and ideas. The common-sense tested health practices replaced with iterations of freedom.
Freedom from COVID-19 is what is needed in S.C. Masks, vaccines, distance and rapid tests are the shortcut to get there that avoid convoluted shyster doctrines.
These shyster S.C. leaders were all elected by us. Shame on us. This is correctable. Write them. Call them. Fire them.
— Fred Palm, Edisto Island, S.C.
Send us your thoughts
We receive a few comments a week and look forward to publishing. But often we can’t because we can’t verify the identity of the writer. To be published, you’ve got to provide us with contact information so we can verify your letters. Verified 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 was this taken from?
If you recognize the skyline of this photo, you might be able to tell us where it was taken from. (Hint: The photographer is facing west.) Send your guess to feedback@statehousereport.com — and remember to include your name, home city and contact information.
Last week’s mystery, “Six columns,” showed the Newberry County Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center, current occupants of what was built in 1852 as the Newberry County Courthouse,. In the background, you can see the clock tower of the Newberry Opera House.
Hats off to this week’s solvers of last week’s mystery: George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Penny Forrester of Tallahassee, Fla.; Elizabeth Jones of Columbia; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Karen Ingram of Columbia; Frank Bouknight of Summerville; Harvey Shackelford of Newberry; and Kevin Mertens of Greenville.
Peel provided a little more info: “ A historic marker on the left-lower wall of the building (just behind the second column in the mystery photo) provides a brief history of the building and those who were a part of designing it. It reads:
Designed by Jacob Graves and built by John Damron, Newberry County’s fourth courthouse was erected in 1852. It replaced an earlier building on this site which was probably designed by Robert Mills. The Old Court House is now used as a community hall. The bas-relief, added by Osborne Wells, is said to depict the Prostrate State held by the Federal eagle, the gamecock defiantly representing the Spirit of South Carolina.
“If your readers are interested in reading more about the history of this building, they can check out a write-up provided at the SC Picture Project here.”
- 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.
ORDER NOW: Copies are in Lowcountry-area bookstores now, but if you can’t swing by, you can order a copy online today.
ABOUT STATEHOUSE REPORT
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 to you at no charge every Friday.
- Editor and publisher: Andy Brack, 843.670.3996
Donate today
We’re proud to offer Statehouse Report for free. For more than a dozen years, we’ve been the go-to place for insightful independent policy and political news and views in the Palmetto State. And we love it as much as you do.
But now, we can use your help. If you’ve been thinking of contributing to Statehouse Report over the years, now would be a great time to contribute as we deal with the crisis. In advance, thank you.
Buy the book
Now you can get a copy of editor and publisher Andy Brack’s We Can Do Better, South Carolina! ($14.99) as a paperback or as a Kindle book ($7.99). . The book of essays offers incisive commentaries by editor and publisher Andy Brack on the American South, the common good, vexing problems for the Palmetto State and interesting South Carolina leaders.
More
- Mailing address: Send inquiries by mail to: P.O. Box 21942, Charleston, SC 29413
- Subscriptions are free: Click to subscribe.
- We hope you’ll keep receiving the great news and information from Statehouse Report, but if you need to unsubscribe, go to the bottom of the weekly email issue and follow the instructions.
- Read our sister publications: Charleston City Paper (every Wednesday) | Charleston Currents (every Monday).
- © 2021, Statehouse Report, a publication of City Paper Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!