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
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