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Friday, December 13, 2024 - 07:53 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Regarding the Examiner’s story about an Intervention for the Greenville GOP, why would the state Republican Party be the right choice to conduct such an intervention?  Removing SCGOP leaders from their seats, for cause, is one of the biggest reasons we are involved in the GCGOP.

I want to start with some of the Times Examiner’s complaints about the local party: 1) With our county chairman barred from state GOP meetings, has the Examiner asked what charge was leveled against the Greenville Chairman? Jeff Davis was accused of falsely accusing Chad Connelly of being under investigation by the state, which investigation was then confirmed by the state, before the state dropped it without explanation. There might be a story there (story idea #1). 2) Democrat as a guest speaker, Mr. Pascoe – he reminded us that Governor McMaster questioned the ethics of Alan Wilson on awarding $75M to two law firms ( https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article246001375.html ).

Is there a state-level Republican, other than McMaster, in South Carolina who would have publicly questioned the ethics of Alan Wilson in an open meeting? We found someone who would. 3) 2nd Vice-Chair stepping down: some may have missed Dakota Fitzgerald resigning because she had to, according to the party rules, while running in the District 18 State House special primary election. Has the Examiner looked into why Tommy Stringer resigned the District 18 seat at this point in his term? There’s story idea #3: ask us about a state contractor named ClassWallet and the federal funds pipeline into South Carolina private schools. Are there strings attached to the federal money? The people want to know! Alan Morgan is running for the same seat. You could ask his parents.

My name is Brett Brocato, precinct Executive Committeeman for Dove Tree, Greenville County. I was selected, by a majority of the Greenville GOP executive board (not the executive committee), to offer the initial reply to Stephen Brown’s motion on March 7, 2022. In your article’s concluding paragraphs, the Examiner asks: “when will the State GOP consider itself the arbitrator and mediator of this divide? Or will it let its largest most conservative executive body crash and burn till there is nothing left? Do we have time or energy for that?” The State GOP chairman is Drew McKissick, who famously said “Biden won.” One of the State GOP’s favored guest speakers, recently addressing the party in Myrtle Beach, is Chad Connelly, former state chairman. Chad Connelly was chairman of the SCGOP when it dropped out of a lawsuit intended to close state primaries, just before Connelly resigned SCGOP chair. McKissick and Connelly are part of an establishment group that seems, on the face, to be largely responsible for CPAC / ACUF ranking South Carolina as the most liberal red state and as the 16th most liberal state government ( http://ratings.conservative.org/states ). No matter how messy Greenville County gets, why would the Examiner appeal to McKissick, who thinks Biden won 2020 fairly, to corral grassroots Greenville County friends and neighbors? Should we expect it to be simple to change a formerly-RINO county, in a RINO state, into something vital and capable of protecting the South Carolina and US constitutions? Should we expect that might happen without significant, orchestrated opposition? Story idea #4: the state GOP paid operative(s) and recruited public office holders to interfere in the April 2021 Greenville County convention. The former Greenville chairman, who is currently chairman of a 4th District “GOP club,” corrupted the spirit of reorganization rules by not notifying precinct leaders of newly-signed-up, mystery members of their precincts. Story idea #5: the 4th District GOP Facebook page appears to have been “liberated” from the Greenville County Republican Party.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” This applies to the state of South Carolina and to its legacy GOP leadership. The SCGOP insists on keeping primaries open, ensuring that a large portion of its primary nominees will be chosen by democrat crossover votes. We find these voters when we’re using lists of “hard Republican” voters who have voted in two of the last several Republican primary elections. Some of the crossover (liberal) voters in Republican primaries will gleefully acknowledge their strategy (Story idea number … 6). It’s unfortunate that the controversy within the Greenville County GOP has been so public, but there is no way to fix a broken system without getting dirty.

Stephen Brown’s, and the Examiner’s, concerns about defending the Republican brand are hard to understand. The Republican brand got sick when the government swallowed the economy. It was on life support when Congress investigated the IRS for stomping out the Tea Party and did – zip. The Republican brand died to its own voters when it let the free world go right over the edge in the wee hours of November 4, 2020, and did not investigate what happened fast enough to fix it, even through today. The Republican brand is a rusting piece of infrastructure that may still be reacquired and rehabilitated by patriots through efforts like myscgop.com/register and the Dan Schultz Precinct Project. Hold on, we’re coming.