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Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 11:54 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Stephen-Brown-with-Harry-Kibler

Anyone paying the slightest attention to Republican Party politics knows that there are sharp divisions within the Republican Party regarding how to best fight and defeat the big government agenda of the Democrat Party.  That liberal agenda is proudly championed by Democrats and often quietly enabled by their allies found within the ranks of the GOP.  At the federal level, we see divisions within the Republican Party over such issues as border security, immigration, NSA surveillance of U.S. citizens without a warrant and the defunding of Obamacare.  Many times we find the actions of conservative leaders within the Republican Party thwarted by those establishment Republicans, such as Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who undercut the efforts of our conservative movement and its leadership.  Unfortunately, such divisions within the GOP are not only found in Washington.  Those divisions are very much alive and in play right here at home in South Carolina.

We see leadership in the SCGOP and in the Republican dominated General Assembly pay lip service to Republican Party Platform planks or other stated objectives of the GOP, only to stand on the sidelines, or in some instances actively oppose our efforts to achieve those objectives, when the battle is joined.  One recent example of such duplicity by SCGOP leadership is illustrated in the battle to close SCGOP primaries so that only Republican Party members would be permitted to vote in Republican Party primaries to select Republican Party nominees for elected office.  As the law stands now in South Carolina, any registered voter can vote in any political party’s primary.  That means that Democrats, Independents, and others not affiliated with the Republican Party are permitted to cast a vote in the Republican Party Primary, of equal weight with that of a conservative activist in the Republican Party, to influence the selection of a Republican Party nominee for public office.  South Carolina is one of a minority of states to permit such raiding of political party primaries by registered voters with differing political philosophies.

On June 1, 2010, the South Carolina Republican Party (SCGOP), along with the Greenville County Republican Party, commenced a legal action in federal court seeking to strike down several state election statutes that together create a state mandated and state run open primary system in South Carolina, alleging that those statutes infringe upon the constitutional guarantees of free association, in violation of the United States Constitution, as amended.  The SCGOP was willing to be a named Plaintiff in that legal action, from its inception, because that action was consistent with the SCGOP Platform seeking to ensure the integrity of the election process.  In particular, the SCGOP Platform calls for registration by party and for political party primaries that are open ONLY to registered voters of that political party.

On May 3, 2013, the Court issued notice that the case would come before the Court for a trial to determine the merits of the claims on August 21, 2013.  On June 7, 2013, after the case had been pending in Court for over three years, and approximately two months before the matter was to be determined on the merits at trial, the SCGOP, through its attorney, voluntarily removed itself as a party from the lawsuit.  Apparently, the authorization to remove the SCGOP as a party to the legal action came from the then Chairman of the SCGOP, Chad Connelly.  There is no record of the SCGOP Executive Committee ever having considered authorizing the removal of the SCGOP from the lawsuit, much less any record of that body giving approval to such an action.  This is despite the fact that the author of this article had provided updates on the status of the case to the SCGOP Executive Committee, at various times over the years, while under both the chairmanship of Karen Floyd and Chad Connelly.  Clearly, throughout the three years that the SCGOP was a party to the case pending in federal court, the SCGOP Executive Committee ratified the actions that made it a party to the case in 2010 and never, at any time, indicated any desire to be removed as a party Plaintiff from the lawsuit.

What is particularly troublesome is that after Chairman Connelly authorized the dismissal of the SCGOP from the case on June 7, 2013, he resigned his post as SCGOP Chairman the following day, June 8, 2013.  To add insult to injury, before filing the Stipulation of Dismissal, legal counsel for the SCGOP consulted with the attorneys for the Progressive Network Education Fund, Inc., the South Carolina Independence Party, the South Carolina Constitution Party and all other Defendants in the case, but specifically failed to make any efforts to consult with attorneys for the co-plaintiff, the Greenville County Republican Party.  Because such a Stipulation requires no Court order, the SCGOP was removed as a party to this legal action upon the filing of the Stipulation of Dismissal on June 7, 2013.

Shortly after the SCGOP removed itself as a party from the case, the Defendants filed motions to have the case dismissed, without ever reaching a trial on the merits, on the theory that the remaining Plaintiffs, including the Greenville County Republican Party, lacked standing to proceed with the case.  On Wednesday, August 21st, the date the case was scheduled for trial, the Court took up the issue of standing.  After hearing arguments from the parties to the case, the Court specifically ruled that as a result of the SCGOP dropping out of the case, the remaining Plaintiffs lacked standing to pursue the claims.  Accordingly, the case was summarily dismissed, for lack of standing, without the merits of the case being considered by the Court.

Despite the clear language of the SCGOP Platform, many establishment Republicans welcome Democrats and other non-republicans voting in Republican Party primaries.  They want no part of closed primaries where only registered Republicans, dominated by the conservative wing of the party, would control the decisions made as to the nominees to represent the Republican Party in general elections.  Clearly, the SCGOP was voluntarily dismissed from the lawsuit with the express intention that the entire case would be dismissed without ever reaching the merits of the case.  Those forces directing Chairman Connelly to authorize the dismissal of the SCGOP from the case, the day before he resigned his position as Chairman of the SCGOP, fully expected and anticipated that this was the most direct way to thwart the efforts of the conservative elements within the Republican Party to obtain the closed primaries called for in the Republican Party Platform.

Further evidence of this design by the SCGOP leadership to have the case dismissed without reaching the merits is evidenced by the false claim made after the decision to dismiss the SCGOP from the case became known.  The SCGOP issued a written statement on June 14, 2013, indicating that it fully supported the legal action, but that it removed itself from the case so as to save tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.  Such a claim, while it may sound good to anyone who does not know the truth, is demonstrably false.  The Greenville County Republican Party has been represented on a pro bono basis such that to date, it has not paid one penny in legal fees.  Similarly, the SCGOP was represented by Spartanburg attorney Doug Smith from the inception of the case through July 17, 2012, over two years, without incurring any legal fees.  Just as Samuel Harms and the undersigned were representing the Greenville County Republican Party without cost to the Greenville County GOP, Mr. Smith was doing the same for the SCGOP.  On July 17, 2012, a Notice of Appearance was filed by Karl S. (“Butch”) Bowers, Jr., informing the Court that he would, from that point forward, be representing the SCGOP in the case.  The Court then dismissed Doug Smith as the attorney of record for the SCGOP.

Mr. Bowers and his law firm were paid several hundreds of thousands of dollars by the SCGOP to defend it in the lawsuits that arose after dozens of candidates filing for political office with the Republican Party in 2012 were thrown off of the ballot.  The undersigned has no idea how much money, if any, was paid to Mr. Bowers or his law firm to represent the SCGOP in the federal court case seeking to close the primaries in South Carolina.  However, it seems impossible that it could be the thousands of dollars used by the SCGOP as justification to get out of the lawsuit.  Neither Mr. Bowers nor any other attorney for the SCGOP ever attended any hearing in this case.  Furthermore, the only filing with the Court made by Mr. Bowers, other than his Notice of Appearance, was the June 7, 2013, Stipulation of Dismissal.  The Court records in this case are public and can be accessed online.  The simple point is that from July 17, 2012 forward, no attorneys for the SCGOP filed any motions, made any arguments, or even attended any hearings in this case.

If it were true that the SCGOP attorneys were going to charge tens of thousands of dollars to attend the trial of the case, why would party leadership switch from a competent attorney handling the case for free, and hire another attorney that would charge it tens of thousands of dollars for the same service?  No competent manager would do any such thing.  The point is that the false claim of large legal fees to be incurred in this case, particularly after the SCGOP did, in fact, incur large legal fees in other non-related legal battles, was used to justify the underhanded dismissal of the SCGOP from this case to Republican Party members and others who simply did not know the truth of the matter.

Another red herring being used to justify the withdrawal of the SCGOP from the case is that efforts have not been made to modify these unconstitutional state statutes through the General Assembly.  Such a claim is simply false.  Various efforts have been made over the years, while the GOP has controlled both houses of the General Assembly and the Governor’s Mansion, to modify these election laws and close the primaries.  In each instance, those efforts have been stymied by GOP leadership who oppose having that Republican Party Platform plank implemented into law.

The most recent attempt occurred just last year, during the 2012 session of the General Assembly.  With the assistance of Representatives Wendy Nanney of Greenville and Garry Smith of Simpsonville, a registration by party bill requiring closed political party primaries was favorably passed out of subcommittee and forwarded to the full House Judiciary Committee for consideration.  That House committee, comprised of 25 members at that time, 15 of whom were Republican, voted down the bill on a voice vote.  A motion was made for a recorded vote to be taken, which required the approval of five members of the committee.  Even though there were 15 Republican members on the House Judiciary Committee, including Greenville’s Bruce Bannister, one of the Republican leaders in the House, only four votes were obtained to request a recorded vote on the bill.  Mr. Bannister was not among those four.  As a result, the Republican dominated House Judiciary Committee was able to kill the bill, on a voice vote, unwilling even to stand up and be counted for its vote, killing a bill that was intended to implement a key plank in the SCGOP Platform.  This was just another example of Republican leadership in South Carolina paying lip service to the Party Platform while simultaneously doing all it could to thwart real reform in South Carolina.

Another falsehood spread about the lawsuit was that even prior to August 21, 2013, the case had already been struck down, had no merit, and was on appeal.  Again, such statements are demonstrably false.  The trial in the case was scheduled for August 21st.  Courts don’t hold trials on appeals.  Those claiming that the case was then on appeal either did so as a deliberate lie to undermine the significance of the case or because they didn’t know any better and repeated inaccurate statements made by other Republican Party leaders and simply did not bother to find out the truth of the matter.

Everyone must be made aware that the merits of the lawsuit seeking to strike down the South Carolina election laws at issue were never addressed by the Court.  Don’t be mislead by those misinformed persons or others who would intentionally misrepresent the truth to tell you otherwise.  The case was dismissed by the Judge, in Court, specifically because the SCGOP was no longer a party to the action and she determined that as a result, there was no standing on the part of the remaining Plaintiffs to proceed with the case to trial.

I believe that closed primaries are an essential step required for conservatives to take control of the Republican Party in South Carolina and undercut the Republicans in Name Only (RINO’s) who pay lip service to our Party’s platform and then work against us when the time to stand up and be counted finally comes.  Clearly, most Republicans across South Carolina agree with me or the SCGOP Platform would not contain the plank calling for registration by party and closed primaries.  It takes a lot of effort and more than majority support to get such a plank into the platform.  However, even for those Republicans that want Democrats and other non-Republicans to help choose Republican Party nominees, don’t you agree that we should have this debate, like any other, based on the facts?  Are you willing to tolerate intentional false statements from so-called Republican leaders simply to justify their actions that are inconsistent with the Republican Party Platform?  We can no longer assume that all Republicans are on our side simply by virtue of the fact that they call themselves Republicans.

This author does not advocate departing the Republican Party for any third party.  I believe such a course of action only leaves the “Good Ole Boy” system, now dominated by RINO’s, more firmly in control of our state government.  Conservative activists must band together to ensure that conservative candidates win Republican primaries.  We have to work to make that a reality in light of the current open primary laws and despite the misinformation deliberately disseminated by the SCGOP leadership.  We must fight even harder to wrest control of the government away from politicians, regardless of their party affiliation, who would further erode our God given liberties.  We will not be successful in that effort unless we make our fellow citizens aware of the truth.  I ask you to join with me in proclaiming the truth.  Don’t be shouted down by so-called “leaders” who tell half-truths or outright lies.  Get the facts.  Act on them!  Encourage your friends and neighbors to act in concert with you!  Our State and Nation are at a critical crossroads.  This battle for the preservation and the restoration of our liberties is worth the fight.

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Stephen Brown is a Greenville Attorney and former Chairperson of the Greenville County Republican Party.

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