Political Skullduggery in Pickens County
Every two years political parties in South Carolina go through the process called precinct reorganization during which people from each voting precinct can elect party officers to represent their precinct in the countywide party. Attendees of precinct reorganization may also apply to be delegates to county and state party conventions. On March 19, 2015, the Pickens County Republican Party precinct reorganization meeting took place in Liberty, South Carolina. This reorganization was quite different from those in the past, however. This time roughly half the attendees have worked against the Republican Party Platform.
After the reorganization meeting ended, it was obvious that there was an effort to move the Pickens County GOP to the left. True Republicans had to scramble to convince other like-minded individuals to participate by the make up date of March 21, 2015. Not only were the conservative and moderate members trying to motivate people to join the party by that date, the pro-tax and liberal activists were recruiting as well. By the time of the county convention 202 delegates had been confirmed.
Naturally, conservative groups like the Pickens County Taxpayers Association, Conservatives of the Upstate, and the Pickens County Tea Party would have crossover between their membership and the local Republican Party. Each of these groups have an interest in how government spends tax dollars in accordance with the section of the GOP Platform that says, “The Party calls on every level of government to return to sound fiscal management that provides effective and efficient government with a minimum amount of taxation.”1
An effort to take control of the Pickens County Republican Party was coordinated by a coalition of SC State House Representatives Gary Clary, Davey Hiott, and Neal Collins, along with the pro-tax increase group Concerned Citizens of Pickens County and the group Manufacturers Caring for Pickens County.
In the past, a few County level elected officials have participated in the local GOP, but this was the first time State House Representatives have gotten involved. Three of them have histories of resisting efforts to follow the South Carolina Constitution and failure to support the needs of the County and Cities along with the School District of Pickens County.
Local Republican Party members usually make their intentions to run for leadership positions known in time to have their names placed on the convention ballot. Rather than ask the County Chairman about the process of getting a slate of candidates on the ballot, State Representative Davey Hiott called the Republican Party headquarters in Columbia. No candidates from the coalition of legislators and pro-tax increase activists were offered before the ballots were printed despite notice of the deadline being given.
Those who asked to be on the ballot by the deadline were as follows.
Chairman: Phillip Bowers
1st Vice Chairman: Rick Tate
2nd Vice Chairman: Elliott Kelley
Secretary: Gilda Hendricks
Treasurer: Ensley Feemster
State Executive Committeeman: Sylvia Bass
Phillip Bowers has been the local Chairman for the past 12 years, and he is a current member of the School Board in Pickens County. Rick Tate has been a regular participant in local party meetings and an activist in local and state politics. He was also a 2014 candidate for the SC House of Representatives seat held by Neal Collins. Elliott Kelley has been a volunteer at conservative events and helped Republicans at other events. Gilda Hendricks is another regular participant at monthly party meetings. Ensley Feemster is the longtime treasurer of the local party, a past Clemson City Council member, and current member of Pickens County Council. Sylvia Bass has participated in the local party and is also an active member of Americans For Prosperity.
On April 15th, the day before the county convention, Representative Neal Collins sent out an e-mail to his group urging them to support the following candidates.
Chairman: Neal Collins
1st Vice Chairman: Gary Clary
2nd Vice Chairman: Davey Hiott
Secretary: Heidi Williams
Treasurer: Ensley Feemster
State Executive Committeeman: Harley Staton
Neal Collins, Gary Clary, and Davey Hiott are all State legislators.
The Pickens County Republican Party convention was held Thursday, April 16, 2015, at 6:00 PM in the Liberty High School auditorium. Delegates had to register before being allowed to enter the auditorium. About 5:45 PM a group of people tried to register with their own list of delegates, claiming to have registered for the county convention through the state party office. The timing was odd in that left virtually no time for verification by the County Credentials Committee. It was soon apparent that they were recruited for the convention by the takeover group. This tactic was similar to same-day voter registration, but party rules say these delegates must be acknowledged five days prior to the convention.
Rather than participate in a normal manner, Neal Collins argued with County Chairman Phillip Bowers over the validity of his list of new delegates to the convention. Hope Walker from the state GOP office said the list was real, and claimed to have e-mailed it to Bowers five days before the convention. Bowers said he never received the list. It was during those discussions that Walker told convention parliamentarian Michelle Wiles that she had actually e-mailed the list that morning with excuse of having been really busy. SC GOP Chairman Matt Moore was standing there when she said it. If Walker did send the list on the day of the convention rather than five days prior to the convention as argued, the list was unacceptable by party rules. Calls were made by Bowers, Moore, and Wiles to other County Chairs and people throughout the state to ask if anyone had ever known there to be county delegates registered through the state GOP office. No one they spoke with that evening had ever encountered a move like this.
In order to recruit new delegates, Collins and his friends would have to know which precincts had open positions for delegates. A list of all delegates can be requested by any precinct officer or delegate from the County Secretary. No one asked Secretary Gilda Hendricks for the list. Rules to add delegates to an already organized precinct are not well written. There was no reason for Hope Walker to become involved in the reorganization other than to aid Collins.
The County Chairman is responsible for the convention, and Phillip Bowers refused to seat people on the printed list of new delegates presented to him. Neal Collins returned to the lobby, stood on the chair and shouted to his group that the Republican Party is a “big tent” party and they would all go inside the auditorium. Delegate packets had been printed and assigned for those on the county list. 155 certified delegates who registered through the county were present.
It was a tense night. Beginning with a genuinely sincere sectarian prayer by Margaret Hendricks (the kind of prayer CCPC opposed at SDPC meetings), the Pledge Of Allegiance, reading of the Republican Creed by all the delegates, and singing of the National Anthem by Jacquelyn Trotter, the convention started. Elizabeth Santorum, daughter of Rick Santorum, addressed the attendees with an invitation to become involved with her father’s organization, Patriot Voices (www.patriotvoices.com).
Matt Moore addressed the audience with a message of building the Republican Party and thanking everyone for their participation. He did not mention the conflict over delegates. If Moore wanted to say something about the dispute or suggest action to be taken he had the opportunity. He left early to attend the Anderson County Republican Party convention being held the same night.
Kristin Maguire continuously interrupted during the evening over parliamentary procedure. She was correct most of the time, yet she ignored a “call the question” motion to suit her side of the argument.
The first critical vote that would establish which side would have a majority for the evening was the election of the Temporary President. Local attorney Jessica Deshon was elected 73 to 59 over former Pickens County GOP Chairman Walt Owens.
Neal Collins approached the stage claiming that his group of approximately 40 delegates was allowable according to GOP Party rules. Smugly standing on stage he cited a section of the rules. A motion was made to vote on whether or not those delegates would be accepted. It was a majority of seated delegates that voted against accepting the new delegates. They were not seated. Collins disliked the vote, stating he would file a protest over not following State Party rules, and walked through crowd addressing his followers rather than the Convention President before working his way to the back of the room. He eventually walked out of the convention early. He had come to the convention to get himself elected Chairman, counting on using those added delegates.
Resolutions were read for the delegates to approve. A resolution addressing how new education standards in SC being nothing more than a relabeling of Common Core passed. A resolution dealing with state funding of education in accordance with the SC Constitution was voted down which was odd because it asked that our state government follow the law, a conservative position. The takeover group that has constantly demanded tax increases for education opposed this resolution. Knowing the pro-tax increase group was infiltrating the party, someone submitted a resolution about fiscal responsibility in government and a demand for no new tax increase ever. The discussion period over that resolution flushed out the tax proponents. CCPC spokeswoman Heidi Williams appeared distraught as she yelled that we would be asking legislators to be beholden to a piece of paper! In the sense that a resolution is a piece of paper, so is the Republican Party platform and the United States Constitution. That resolution passed. The fourth of five resolutions dealt with ending the government practice of confiscating property for unpaid property tax. Again, the discussion was lively from people on both sides of the argument. Kristin Maguire said there has to be a way to force people to pay taxes. That resolution failed. A final resolution was never read, discussed, or voted upon due to a motion to end the approval of resolutions.
During the period of voting on resolutions Kristin Maguire interrupted again to ask if there was a quorum for the votes to be legal. This led to an argument over what constituted a quorum. Many of the Collins/CCPC coalition and their recruits walked out hoping to end the convention. Despite confusion in verifying delegates still present, it was determined that a quorum was still present. Additionally, Tony Qualkinbush came up with an argument about the newspaper advertisement/notice required for the convention. The notices were paid for and to be published in the Pickens County Courier, owned by Representative Davey Hiott, as required.
When it was time to elect county level officers there were no nominations other than to go with those on the printed ballot. Collins original plan was to have himself and the other legislators nominated from the floor using their group of new delegates. It was determined there were enough ballots to meet a quorum requirement based on the 202 delegates certified at the county level.
The convention adjourned between 8:30 PM and 9:00 PM.
The next day Neal Collins and the other two Pickens County State House members along with Senator Larry Martin filed a formal protest with the South Carolina Republican Party. Collins wanted to make an issue of turning away delegates. He was redirecting attention away from the underlying reason for wanting those extra people seated as delegates.
The reason for trying to cram in as many delegates as possible was because Collins, Clary, and Hiott were trying to get themselves elected as Chairman, 1st Vice Chairman, and 2nd Vice Chairman. They also wanted Heidi Williams as Secretary, Ensley Feemster as Treasurer, and Harley Staton as State Executive Committeeman. Collins sent an e-mail to all of his followers prior to the convention telling them to vote for that list of people. For Collins, the biggest issue was to make himself Chairman of the Pickens County Republican Party.
Collins, Clary, and Hiott purposely chose to recruit people whose political views are at odds with the Republican Party Platform. They had to go to Democrats and liberals to swell their ranks in their plan to usurp control of the Pickens County Republican Party. Had the three of them been true to the party platform they would have never needed the help of CCPC or any Democrats.
If Collins and his group had been successful, the takeover of the Pickens County Republican Party would serve the purpose of using the name of the local party as political camouflage for actions that go against the SC Republican Party Platform.
When an official position comes from party leadership the position is taken more seriously by the public. While a single member of a group or organization does not always represent the views of the group as a whole, casual readers will remember a name association. Desiring credibility with the public for unpopular positions is not going to be won with argument. The credibility of the Republican Party could have been stamped on to the same unpopular positions that Republican voters would normally oppose. The weight of the Republican Party name opposed to names of local citizen groups could be used to sway elections against people running with sincere adherence to the GOP platform. Voters who have been disillusioned by the Republican Party would have no idea that the shift in the Pickens County Republican Party was orchestrated by a tight group of people whose intent is to subvert the party toward a pro-tax and pro-government stance.
Quite often people in Pickens County vote Republican because they feel it is the only party that comes close to representing their views. They do not like the alternatives. Elections matter. That includes local precinct organization. Moderates and conservatives alike missed an opportunity to have a stake in the Republican Party. There is never an admission price to attend a regular party meeting. (Dues are voluntary if one chooses to join the party at the biennial reorganization meeting.) Had more people made the effort to attend just a single meeting to get a better understanding of what goes on within the Republican Party at the local level they would have seen an organization that leaned right. Now the local party is being tugged to the left because the other side was better organized.
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(Footnotes)
1 THE PLATFORM of the SOUTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY as adopted by the 2012 South Carolina State Republican Party Convention, Pg. 21.