Editor cites need for campaign reforms

On the date that the Republican Party candidates forum article ran in the Herald-Journal, editor Cindi Ross Scoppe wrote about campaign finance reform in the capital city's newspaper, The State. Her theme was missed opportunities in previous reform proposals.

THE LAST time the Legislature "reformed" our campaign finance law, a lot of good changes were supposed to have been passed, to make it easier for voters to figure out to whom their elected officials might be indebting themselves. As the years went by, though, it became clear that the changes that got talked about the most didn't quite get made. And some of the not-so-good changes didn't get talked about very much. And of course, a whole slew of changes that needed to be made weren't -- but we've known that all along.

In this year's session, she wrote, another few proposals had been offered, and she liked one of them, a ban on "leadership PACs."

But another proposal was a bad idea, she wrote.

The Senate also addressed another "oops" event from the 2003 law -- a provision that was supposed to require candidates to tell us the occupations of their donors, just as candidates already have to do in federal elections. This was one of legislators' big bragging points after the 2003 reform. But this turned out to be an even bigger farce than the special-interest reporting law: While the law requires candidates to collect the information, they aren't required to report it to the public.

That would seem a simple enough problem, whose solution was painfully obvious: Change the law, to require candidates to report the information they collected. Somehow, though, that solution hasn't occurred to anyone at the State House.

Legislators' idea of a solution -- first proposed a few years back by a special House panel tasked with closing loopholes in the law -- is to remove the requirement that the information even be collected. Really.

Requiring candidates to tell us the occupations of their donors makes it easier for voters to see whether their senator is receiving an inordinate amount of support from, say, individuals who are employed by the payday lending industry. Every candidate for federal office manages to do it with no difficulty. And, assuming they've been obeying the law, S.C. candidates have been collecting the information for five years.

The other reform that hasn't seen the light of day is the bill to make it impossible for the likes of Howie Rich to use paper corporations to get around our donation limits. But we take what we can get in South Carolina, and if the House would join the Senate and ban leadership PACs, that would be a significant step forward.

"A chance to break out of one step forward, one step back mode"
State, The (Columbia, SC) - May 13, 2008

Newspaper explains challenger's agenda

By the filing deadline at noon on March 30, Joey Millwood had confirmed his intentions to run for the State House against his incumbent representative, Bob Walker. (Keith Kelly of Woodruff had a challenger too, named Roger Nutt.) Another candidate filed to run for House District 38, one who "considered himself a Republican since 1983" and who ran as a Republican, unsuccessfully, for a county seat in 2006. This year, he told the Herald-Journal, the county's Republican Party chairman "wouldn't let him" run against Bob as a Republican. So he filed to run as a Democrat.

Chambers, a Union native who has lived in Spartanburg County since the early 1970s, initially tried to run for Walker's seat as a Republican, but said Spartanburg County GOP boss Rick Beltram wouldn't let him.

"I called Beltram, and he said, 'That seat is not open. That seat is already taken by Bob Walker. Bob is working hard to keep that seat, and we don't need nobody to run against him. That seat is not open. ... You can't run for Bob Walker's seat.' So, I registered under the Democratic Party. They said they'd let me run for that seat," Chambers said.

Beltram called Chamber's story "a total lie."

But even Chambers holds no animosity toward Bob, he told the paper.

"I know Bob Walker - he is a good guy. He does got a lot of ideas. And I support what he has done, but I can do a better job, I believe," Chambers said. "I just need to get the people's trust to get me in there."

And on one controversial issue, Chambers took a firm stand.

When asked, Chambers said he would support tax credits for school choice. Controversial issues, from school district consolidation to cigarette taxes, should be put on the ballot and decided by referendum, he said.

"Longtime Republican running as Democrat - Mark Chambers: To go up against Walker"
Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC) - April 10, 2008

Bob responded to the primary challenge by scheduling a series of town hall meetings across his district, first in the small, old mill town of Chesnee to the east, then back in Landrum in early May.

On April 28, the Herald-Journal ran its first article identifying Joey Millwood for its readership. It called Millwood's challenge to Bob "a campaign battle of David-and-Goliath-like proportions," the political novice with a $500 budget challenging the veteran lawmaker with a $70,000 war chest. Millwood, it wrote, was knocking on doors and talking to voters on their front porches.

Millwood grew up in Whitney. He and his wife have lived in Landrum for about five years. He has one daughter, who is about 12 weeks old. He graduated from the University of South Carolina Upstate, where he wrote conservative columns for the school newspaper.

Though a first-time candidate, Millwood's campaign placard contains several messages that have been part of the South Carolina political dialogue for years.

It asserts the South Carolina state government has grown by 41 percent over the past three years, an almost verbatim reference to the way Gov. Mark Sanford introduced his version of the state budget this year. It also argues that a spending cap, tied to population growth and inflation, could eliminate the state income tax in the next 15 years - an issue Sanford campaigned on when he first won the race for governor in 2002.

While not attacking Bob directly, Millwood told the Herald-Journal he was "against big government" and said, "All I'll say is that I consider myself a strict conservative, who believes in less government, true tax reform and appointing conservative judges to the state bench."

That's a mantra that many conservative organizations could get behind - organizations such as the S.C. Club for Growth. The club took issue with several Spartanburg lawmakers last year when they named Judge Don Beatty to the S.C. Supreme Court. The club and other organizations classified Beatty as a liberal.

In a recent interview, the reporter in Millwood was clear, as he asked nearly as many questions as he answered. Often, he steered answers back to spending. On immigration reform, for instance, he would not discuss the pending legislation in Columbia, saying only that "any bill that helps with illegal immigration is a step in the right direction"

On school choice, Millwood said he would not support vouchers for parents who send their children to private school, but he would consider tax credits. It's competition, the free market at work, which would help create better schools, he said.

Millwood told the paper that he didn't "feel like I grew up in the best of schools, and I would have appreciated an option."

When the paper asked Bob about vouchers and tax credits, he opposed them. It seemed to be the brightest division between the two candidates.

Walker, 65, said he does not favor vouchers, and he hasn't supported any of the tax-credit proposals he's seen so far.

"I'm for choice as for what the parents feel like they need to do best," Walker said. "But I'm not for taking the taxpayers' money that's allocated to go to the public school system and give it to someone else."

Walker also highlighted work he's done to support private schools, charter schools, home-schooling and virtual schools.

"Walker's war chest not fazing Millwood - Challenger: Promises to rein in state spending"
Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC) - April 28, 2008

Two weeks later, both men appeared at a Republican candidates forum at Ron's Hog Pen BBQ. Even the Herald-Journal reporter who covered the meeting had difficulty finding much conflict between the various candidates for their offices on issues.

For some of the topics, many of the answers were predictable - no one opposed putting a cap on state spending, for instance, and no one outright opposed requiring private employers to use a federal database to verify that their employees are legal residents of the United States - though some talked around it.

Because of so many similar positions, the night was best served by being able to judge which candidates could think on their feet, who seemed the most passionate about different issues, who was the most informed about the issues affecting this state, and who could best handle themselves in front of a crowd. That's not to say there were no differences - just that, in some cases, those differences were just as much about poise as they were about positions.

House incumbent Bob Walker played up a stipulation he added to the immigration reform bill in Columbia that would prevent children here illegally from getting state scholarships.

Walker's challenger, Joey Millwood , got a burst of cheers when, after agreeing with Walker that the state government needs to be less involved in higher education, he suggested that part of the problem with rising tuition costs was overpaid "liberal professors."

For incumbents, the night was a chance to highlight their records. For challengers, it was a chance to try to prove their opponents disingenuous or, a favorite of the night, in the pocket of special interest groups.

"Light barbs on cue at GOP debate"
Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC) - May 13, 2008

Mystery sponsors use push-polling in Woodruff

At the opposite end of Spartanburg County from Landrum is the community of Woodruff, whose high school was named one of the best in the nation this year by U.S. News and World Report. Woodruff has been represented in the South Carolina House for almost two years by Keith Kelly, an attorney, a past president of the Woodruff Rotary Club and past chairman of the board of trustees at Woodruff's Emma Gray Memorial United Methodist Church. His fellow Army Reservists call him Captain Kelly, but Woodruff's voters call him Keith.

Keith is married to Cindy Kelly, who suffered a brief health scare sixteen months ago when it was thought she might have breast cancer. Thankfully, a biopsy on April 26 turned out fine. Keith was by her side for the procedure that day, which happened to be a legislative workday. In fact, it was the only day of Keith's first term as a state representative that he has missed work, according to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.

But that single missed day of work became an issue in March of this year, when someone (or some organization) sponsored a "push-poll" that delivered messages by telephone to voters in Keith's district. The message was that Keith "was not attending sessions and was not voting."

No one has claimed responsibility for the calls targeting Kelly, but he has a short list of suspects: S.C. Club for Growth, South Carolinians for Responsible Government, ReformSC and Conservatives in Action - four groups that want to take the state on a hard right turn. They are eating their own in an effort to create a Legislature in their image, Kelly said.

The calls are just one example of the forces at work across the state trying to affect legislative races in Spartanburg County. Most voters will never meet the would-be puppet masters, but they'll likely get a phone call or two because of them, or a piece of mail. The collective agenda of the above-named advocacy groups includes school choice - specifically vouchers - strengthening the powers of the governor, shrinking government and capping state spending.

Sound familiar? It is a mantra Gov. Mark Sanford has repeated for years.

One of the groups Keith suspected of sponsoring the push-poll told the Herald-Journal that it was looking for candidates to run against incumbents, even Republicans, in their primaries. S.C. Club for Growth's executive director Matt Moore named "restructuring and good-government kinds of issues" as their agenda. He said that South Carolina's conservative two-term governor, Mark Sanford, had outlined such an agenda but complained that legislators "aren't listening to their voters and are destroying the reforms that he's pushing."

Chad Walldorf, the organization's chairman, is a longtime Sanford ally.

The Herald-Journal reported on March 23 that Keith wasn't the only target of push-polls this year, though he was the subject of at least two of them. By that date, Rep. Bob Walker of Landrum, and Senators Scott Talley and Jim Ritchie had been targeted by one each. "No one is taking credit for them, but fingers are pointing in all directions," the Herald wrote.

The county's Republican Party chairman said that all four of the groups Keith named were "recruiting to fill holes, and, if they're not comfortable with an incumbent, looking for an alternate who fits their version of the Republican mold. That's exactly what's happening, whether they want to tell you that or not."

And, the Herald-Journal wrote, "When it comes to who is funding these groups, the waters are murky - and the groups want to keep it that way."

Keith agreed. He told the paper, "They're trying to get a bloc of legislators that they control, period," Kelly said. "Then it won't matter what the issue is, it won't matter whether it's good for the district or the state. It will truly be money talks at that point. They don't care one flip about this state."

In addition to the four groups that Keith named, though, the Herald-Journal found four more who said they were "interviewing" potential candidates to challenge incumbents: "the Palmetto Family Council, the state Chamber of Commerce, the state Realtors Association and the S.C. Business & Industry Political Education Committee."

Among those potential candidates was one who didn't want to confirm his intentions to the Herald-Journal.

Thomas DeLoach, president of the Business & Industry Political Education Committee, said Joey Millwood , sports editor of the Tryon (N.C.) Daily Bulletin, was among the potential candidates he met with. Millwood, who might be considering a run against Walker, declined to comment.

"Groups seek to shape Legislature - Targeting politicians: Some say tactics used are 'inherently unfair'"
Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC) - March 23, 2008

A re-election year in Landrum, South Carolina

Landrum, South Carolina, is a pretty little town in Spartanburg County, with a few antique stores and a "hayrack" that caters to old-time farmers, peach-growers and the growing community of horsemen and horsewomen -- or equestrians, as they prefer -- who are retiring from elsewhere to Landrum and to Tryon, North Carolina, just four or five miles to the north. The best place to get a homemade-chicken-salad sandwich is at the Hare and Hound, a pub and grill in Landrum's "historic" district, the stretch of three or four blocks that is the heart of the town. That chicken salad is made with almonds and a honey sauce, served on a croissant, and is called the "Honey Child."

Landrum is that sort of town -- happy with its niche in the rolling foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, proud of its traditions and its pace of life, and hospitable to tourists and new residents alike.

For most of his life, Landrum has been home to Bob Walker, who was born there in 1942 and came back to live and work there after earning a degree at USC and serving in the U.S. Air Force through the 1960s. Bob and his wife raised their son there, and he ran a small insurance and real estate business there. He thrived there. He sat on the board of directors of the local bank, became a lifetime member of the local PTA, joined the local Lions Club and was made a deacon at Landrum First Baptist Church. Bob was such a fixture in the life of Landrum that he was named its Citizen of the Year in 1979.

In 1983, Landrum's citizens elected Bob again, this time to serve on the local school board, and re-elected him to that seat again and again until 1992, when they elected him to represent them in the South Carolina House of Representatives.

And seven more times, the voters of Landrum and its surrounding communities returned Bob Walker to the State House. For a total of sixteen years, he thrived there too, earning a seat on its Education and Public Works Committee, then becoming its vice chairman, and finally its chairman. When new school accountability measures were enacted in the 1990s and a new commission was established to oversee their implementation, Bob was appointed to that commission, too. One of the most successful and effective lawmakers ever to come from tiny Landrum held a position of authority over every matter that affected all of South Carolina's schools and public works.

Earlier this year, when Bob filed to run for re-election to a ninth term of office, most people assumed he would sail into it without a problem. More to the point, most people assumed that Bob would represent District 38 in the State House until he chose to retire on his own. But it didn't happen that way.

In January, the 28-year-old Republican chairman of Bob's home precinct hosted a public forum on illegal immigration. Though the issue can hardly be resolved by a state legislature, both Bob and Senator Jim Ritchie attended to assure voters that they were concerned, attentive and supportive of their national party's positions. Fewer than 30 people attended the forum, but a visit by Iowa Congressman Steve King ensured it might be covered by local media.

And it was covered, but not by the large regional papers, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal or the Greenville News. It was covered by Tryon (North Carolina) Daily Bulletin, which celebrates its miniature editions -- a newsletter of 8 1/2 by 11 inches -- and its small circulation of 5,200 by calling itself the world's smallest newspaper. But no one had to guess why the Bulletin would cross the border to cover the event. Its sports editor is also Landrum's 28-year-old Republican precinct chairman, Joey Millwood.

"Overall, the meeting was very informative," Landrum Republican Precinct President Joey Millwood said. "I think those who attended got a good feel for what needs to be done at the state and federal level to deal with the problem of illegal immigration."

"Landrum Republicans host forum on illegal immigration"
Tryon Daily Bulletin, The (NC) - January 18, 2008