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Katrina Shealy, a candidate for SC Senate District 23, spoke at the Dec. 1 luncheon. New officers were installed as outgoing President Kathy Davis handed the gavel to new President Debbie Spaugh. View gallery of photos shot by Pete Bellinger.

Katrina Shealy	Kathy Davis (left) and Debbie Spaugh

State Rep. Tommy Stringer speaks at Oct. 27 luncheon. He was introduced by Jamie Bach. View gallery of photos taken by Pete Bellinger.

LaDonna Ryggs, chairman of the Spartanburg County Republican Party, and past GCRWC presidents speak at Sept. 22 meeting.

LaDonna Ryggs

Gale Crawford, 1994-1995 GCRWC President

Patricia Haskell-Robinson 1976-1977

Anne Danciu, 2000-2002

View photo gallery.

 U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and Rep. Trey Gowdy speak to combined meeting
with the Greenville County Republican Women Aug. 31.

Sen. DeMint's address with introduction by South Carolina Rep. Dan Hamilton

 

Rep. Gowdy's address with introduction by Solicitor Walt Wilkins

DeMint-Gowdy photo gallery.

DeMint: South Carolina delegation best and the brightest in the country

Sen. Jim DeMint told the combined Greenville County and Upstate Republican women’s clubs Wednesday, Aug. 31, that in the debt limit debate we saw character and spine from our South Carolina congressmen that we did not see from Tea Party Republicans all over the country.
“This time last year I was fighting people in Washington about the need to cut spending when even my own Republican colleagues were fighting about how much bacon to take home to their states,” DeMint said. “They were talking about how much more to spend.”
DeMint said Republican office holders had not been true to Republican principles when the party held the presidency and both houses of Congress, and that conservatives thought it would be 10 or 20 years before Americans listened to them again. DeMint said his biggest frustration was not that the Republicans lost in 2006 and 2008, but that the party had not been true to what it had told Americans it would do if it had a majority.
DeMint said that during the 2008 election, he heard all over the country that Americans did not really like Democrats, but that they were frustrated with Republicans. DeMint said he was pummeled for his positions inside Washington, but outside of Washington people thanked him for fighting, told him they were praying for him and asked what they could do.
Republican Party leaders told DeMint he did not understand what was going on in Washington, and that “it is not about principles. It is about the numbers.” DeMint countered that “we got in the minority by believing we could rule by numbers and not by principles,” and that “we get the numbers when we stand for principles.”
DeMint said that the numbers came in in the 2010 elections. “They came into the House. They came into the Senate. We haven’t won the battle yet, and we can’t correct in one election what it took many elections to break,” adding that the South Carolina delegation elected in 2010 is probably “the best and the brightest in the country.”
DeMint was introduced by state Rep. Dan Hamilton, who said DeMint had Tea Party principles before there was a Tea Party, and that according to the Heritage Action Legislative Scorecard, DeMint is the most conservative senator in the U.S. Senate.

Gowdy: Compromise is a one-way street in Washington

Rep. Trey Gowdy told the combined Greenville County and Upstate Republican women’s clubs Wednesday, Aug. 31, that “compromise is only one-way street in Washington.
“They want us to compromise when we are in power, and they can do what they want when they are in power. With civility we must be unyielding in our convictions.”
Gowdy referred to Sen. Jim DeMint, the luncheon’s first speaker, as the father of the modern-day constitutional conservative movement. Gowdy asked that DeMint give prayerful consideration to running for president. He said his dream ticket is either DeMint and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin or DeMint and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
“Do not underestimate what the NLRB is trying to do to Boeing,” Gowdy said. The NLRB is an unelected, Executive branch entity that is trying to mothball Boeing’s $1 billion plant and send 1,000 jobs from a right-to-work state back to a union state.
“It is gutter-raw politics,” Gowdy said. “It has nothing to do with respect to the rule of law. The next time Boeing is considering whether to expand, it won’t be between Washington state and South Carolina. It will be between Washington state and Brazil or India or China, because they do not have an NLRB. As long as the South Carolina delegation has breath, we will fight the NLRB.”
Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, allowed the field hearing about Boeing to take place in Charleston, “which created a huge home court advantage for us.”
Gowdy said that Operation Fast and Furious, in which the U.S. Government allowed thousands of weapons to cross into Mexico, which were used to commit heinous, violent crimes, was an “ill-conceived, botched” operation from its inception.
“We are not going to let it go until we find out who in the Department of Justice knew about it, who sanctioned it and who turned a blind eye to it.”
Gowdy said the fact that Rep. Paul Ryan is not on the so-called Super Committee on the budget should tell you to have “very low expectations for what is getting ready to happen.”
While on scores of plant tours, Gowdy is told that Washington must stop creating uncertainty, whether it’s Obamacare, Cap and Trade or Card Check. Don’t make us fearful to expand our businesses, he is told.
Gowdy concluded by saying: “This is still the greatest country on the face of the earth. There is something about the American spirit that has gone from a ragtag band of mercenaries who took on the most powerful army on the face of the earth at the time, which led to the forming of our country, and then cobbling together, as some would say by fate, and I would say the Lord did it, in Philadelphia to get those minds in that room at that time to create our Constitution.
“We have survived presidential assassinations, we have survived Civil War, we have survived the Civil Rights conflict, we have lost scores of our young men on the beaches of other countries so they could enjoy freedom.
“My fear is this, what unites us anymore? We say we are the United States of America, and then all I hear about is diversity. What unites us? I think what unites us is individual liberty. What unites us is a belief in personal responsibility, what unites us is accountability to others, a belief that education and hard work is the pathway to prosperity, not a government handout, a belief in the sanctity of life, an acknowledgement that we must have the Lord direct our steps, or we are not going to make it as a country.”
Gowdy was introduced by Solicitor Walt Wilkins.

Bruce Bannister, SC House District 24, and Dan Hamilton, SC House District 20,
talked about redistricting and gave an end of the session report at the July 28 meeting.

  

 

View still photo gallery from July 28 meeting.

Nancee Lee Yearick directed the annual Americanism program at the June 23 meeting

Americanism program participants (from left): Keith Leonard, Dana Schwartz, Dustan Chevalier, President Kathy Davis, Jonathan Kilpatrick and Nancee Lee Yearick. View photo gallery.

Dr. Mick Zais, South Carolina Superintendent of Education, and Greenville Water Commission candidates Phillip Kilgore (incumbent) and Rex O'Steen speak at May 26 meeting

Still photo gallery

 

Zais calls for flexibility in education

“I believe that no child should be forced to attend a failing school,” Dr. Mick Zais, South Carolina Superintendent of Education, told the Greenville County Republican Women Thursday. “Low income families deserve the same rights that high income families have always had, which is to choose the best school, which is the right fit for their child.”

Zais, who took office in January as the first Republican superintendent of education in 12 years, focuses on outcome—student learning, not inputs—spending, curricula and programs.

On his first day in office, Zais testified before the state House Ways and Means Committee and recommended $103 million in cost savings and a 15 percent reduction in the State Department of Education budget and staffing levels while preserving the money going to the classroom, where it has its greatest effect.

Zais stressed three imperatives—competition, accountability and incentives—to transform education. Funding must follow the child, Zais said.

While every child is special, every child is different, Zais said. They differ in ability and motivation, rates of maturity, their interests, skill sets and personality, and their home environment, “yet we have a traditional school model that puts every child in the same classroom, and expects them to learn the same material on the same schedule.”

This one size fits all, assembly line model, is the opposite of personalization and customization. “We have the ability today to personalize and customize education.”

Zais said we need to offer different kinds of educational environments—public schools, public charter schools, online or virtual schools, single gender programs, year-round schools, Montessori schools, home schools, public magnet schools, alternative schools, career and technology academies and private schools.

Zais said we need more flexibility in course offerings and suggested allowing business writing to substitute for British literature, public speaking to substitute for American literature, consumer math for Algebra I, personal finance and business math to substitute for geometry, or statistics for Algebra II.

Teachers are compensated based on whether they have a bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate degree and the number of years they have been in the class room, but Zais advised compensating effectiveness, rewarding the best teachers and removing the least effective ones from the classroom. To be effective, Zais said, teachers must be allowed to maintain discipline and award grades based on student achievement. School superintendents must have the authority to hire and fire principals, he said, and principals must have the authority to hire and fire teachers and have authority over programs and budgets in their schools.

Zais said that earlier that day, two senators, Jake Knotts (R-Lexington) and Gerald Malloy (D-Darlington), put a hold on a strong charter schools bill, effectively delaying it until January. Zais asked GCRWC members and guests to contact their senators and representatives to do everything they can to get the charter schools bill passed and a teacher protection bill passed. The bill lost 60-59 in the House the previous day with a number of Republican representatives voting against the bill.

Zais said the main responsibilities of principals are to recruit, motivate, train and retain quality teachers, and that principals, other teachers and even students and their parents should be able to evaluate their teachers.

 

 

Water Commission candidates address Greenville GOP women

Phillip Kilgore, vice chair of the Greenville Water Commission, and challenger Rex O’Steen spoke to the Greenville County Republican Women Thursday.

Kilgore spoke about Water Commission governance, financial management and protection of water resources. He said the commission is independent and not susceptible to political pressure. The commission receives no tax revenue.

O’Steen stressed his background in accounting and data analysis in the private sector, saying that water and sewerage rates are too high. Capital assets are purchased with 60 percent cash and 40 percent debt, which he said cannot be sustained.

The Republican primary will take place June 14, and residents within the city limits of Greenville can vote.

Stephen Brown, Chad Connelly and Bill Connor, candidates for chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, spoke to the Greenville County Republican Women Thursday. The election will take place at the GOP convention in Columbia Saturday.

Stephen Brown, Chad Connelly and Bill Connor, candidates for SC GOP chairman, speak to the GCRWC April 28.

Stephen Brown	Chad Connelly	Bill Connor

Stephen Brown audio
Chad Connelly audio
Bill Connor audio

SCGOP chairman candidates speak to Greenville County Republican Women

Stephen Brown, Chad Connelly and Bill Connor, candidates for chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, spoke to the Greenville County Republican Women Thursday. The election will take place at the GOP convention in Columbia Saturday.

Brown, former chairman of the Greenville County Republican Party and one of the attorneys arguing the county’s registration by party lawsuit, said he is disappointed in “where we have gone with the Republican Party.”

Brown said he wanted to make the Republican Party the vehicle for the conservative movement. Brown said we are seeing the biggest battle of political ideas since the War Between the States. “We are talking about the very survival of our system of government, whether or not we are going to remain free and independent as individuals or whether we are going to allow the state to run our lives.”

Connelly, Newberry County GOP chairman, said he would work with the legislature to get registration by party passed and seek to replace legislators who do not support the Republican Party in their voting records.

Connor, a former candidate for lieutenant governor, and U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who served in Afghanistan, said that defending the Constitution in the military, gave him a love for our Constitution.

“I don’t care what our president says, we are a Judeo-Christian nation founded upon Christian, biblical beliefs,” Connor said. Connor spoke at the first Tea Party event in Greenville in February 2009.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at March 24 luncheon.
Photo gallery.

 

Click here for photo gallery by Andrea Piscarcik

Gingrich says 2012 election will end 80 years of left wing dominance

By Thomas C. Hanson

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told the Greenville County Republican Women’s Club Thursday that 2012 will be a historic election that will end the left wing majority that has dominated the country on behalf of liberal elites since 1932 and will re-center the country as a center-right country that believes in American exceptionalism, American patriotism and the American economy.
Gingrich, who served as the nation’s 58th Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, said that President Obama’s “performance failures combined with his radical ideology are creating one of the most teachable moments in American history.”
 He went on to say that “there could not be a wider gap between President Obama’s radicalism and the beliefs of most Americans.”
 “Does the Declaration of Independence say, ‘We are endowed by our Creator’ or not?” Gingrich asked. “We are the only country in history that says God endows each of you personally. You are sovereign. You loan power to the government. The government never lends power to you. In Europe the governments are the center of power, and people are told what rights they have. In America, the people are the center of power, and they tell the government what power they will loan it.”
President Obama “represents the European, secular, socialist , intellectual belief system, and that’s fine, he just shouldn’t be president.”
Gingrich called for a balanced budget. “Politicians should not be allowed to get away with spending your children’s and grandchildren’s money. If your family and your business have to balance their budgets, so should Washington, D.C. We did it before when I was Speaker, we can do it again.”
Gingrich said the current tax rates should be made permanent, and called for the elimination of capital gains and death taxes. He called for an American energy policy that starts with the right to explore for oil and natural gas and the right to develop clean coal plants.
Gingrich called President Obama a spectator in chief, not the commander in chief, criticizing him for saying that his authority to intervene in Libya came from the United Nations and the Arab League. Gingrich countered that under our Constitution, the U.S. president can claim no authority from these bodies.

Mayor Knox White and Liz Seman, director of Meals on Wheels Greenville, speak to GCRWC Feb. 24. View photo gallery. 

 

 

Howell Clyborne Jr. of the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisers speaks at Jan. 27 Luncheon. View photo gallery.

 

GCRWC Dec. 6 Luncheon Features
Frankie Powell of Miracle Hill Ministries and Goodwin String Quartet

View photo gallery

Greenville County Republican Women's Club Dec. 2 from Thomas Hanson on Vimeo.

 

GCRWC Luncheon Fundraiser Thursday, Oct. 28
Guest Speaker Former Sen. Rick Santorum

 

View photo gallery by Tom Hanson

View photo gallery by Andrea Pisarcik

Rick Santorum Part One from Thomas Hanson on Vimeo.

 

 

Rick Santorum Part 2 from Thomas Hanson on Vimeo.

 

RickSantorum Part 3 from Thomas Hanson on Vimeo.

 

Zais: I’ve been a teacher and run a college,
my opponent has not

Mick Zais' plan for South Carolina schools from Thomas Hanson on Vimeo.

Photo gallery

Mick Zais, GOP candidate for state superintendent of education, outlined his plan for South Carolina schools to the Greenville County Republican Women meeting at the Poinsett Club Sept. 23.
Taylor Hall, director of field operations for Victory 2010, said that South Carolina can for the first time elect Republicans to all state constitutional offices. Hall called on GCRWC members to make phone calls and door visits.
Dr. Zais, a Vietnam veteran, spoke of his 31-year career in the Army in which he rose to the rank of brigadier general and taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The day after he retired from the military, he became president of Newberry College. Dr. Zais took that Christian institution from being on probation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accrediting agency to one of the top schools in its category three years in a row according to rankings by U.S. News & World Report.
Zais said he has been a teacher and run a college, two things his Democrat opponent has not done.
South Carolina is 49th in on-time high school graduation, and Dr. Zais said, “our children are not less talented than children in other states. . . . Our school system is failing them.”
“Our schools get enough money,” Zais said. South Carolina spends $13,880 per year for each student or an average of $347,000 per classroom. The problem, Dr. Zais said, is that only 44 percent of the money gets to the classroom. The rest goes to bureaucracy, administration, programs, overhead and facilities. The average teacher makes between $45,000 and $47,000 a year.
Dr. Zais said that federal grants come with “enormous strings attached.” After the grant money runs out, the state is left with unfunded mandates.
Zais argued for three high school curricula: pre-college, career-technical and basic. South Carolina high schools currently only offer a pre-college curriculum.
Zais said that grammar and spelling are no longer taught in the schools.

GCRWC host for Women in Politics

From left: Lisa Van Riper, Ashley Landess, Wendy Nanney photo gallery

Wendy Nanney video

Ashley Landess video

Lisa Van Riper video

The Greenville County Republican Women’s Club had a luncheon meeting with a theme Women in Politics Aug. 26 and heard from state Rep. Wendy Nanney, Ashley Landess, president of the South Carolina Policy Council, and Lisa Van Riper, an instructor in political science at North Greenville University.
Pam Sowell, GCRWC program director, introduced the speakers. Lisa Seman, executive director of Meals on Wheels in Greenville, who represents the 24th district on County Council, led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Wendy Nanney
Wendy Nanney, who is in her first term representing the 22nd district, spoke on balancing family life with career. Her husband, Tim, is Greenville County register of deeds, and they have five children.
When Nanney considered running for the State House in 2008, the family prayed about it and discussed it for many months. She talked to her parents and her husband’s parents, both of whom live within a mile of the Nanneys, knowing that she would need to call on them for assistance if she was elected.
Nanney made a commitment to her husband and children that she would drive home from Columbia every night if possible, and the only night she did not do so was when the Assembly was in session until 4 a.m. and returned into session at 10. Nanney said she sought office to make the state a better place for families.
The General Assembly is in session Tuesday through Thursday, and Nanney works on Mondays and Fridays as a credit manager for company in Powdersville. When in session, she gets up, gets her children off to school, drives to Columbia, comes home every night, tries to cook supper and get things done. She said the men she serves with often laugh because about the time school gets out her cell phone starts ringing: “Mom, I forgot my gym clothes or my cleats for soccer,” and she replies: “Kids I’m in Columbia. I really can’t bring your soccer cleats to school.”
Nanney calls each child during the 90 minute commute from Columbia so when she arrives home, they can have dinner and do homework, and she is not confronted with challenges the children faced at school that day.
Nanney was pleased that the General Assembly passed and the governor signed a bill requiring a 24 hour waiting period for women seeking abortions. She encourages constituents not to sign on to lengthy e-mail blasts because after the first five or 10 they are not read. She advised writing one or two sentences and to make it personal. “Those are the e-mails that get read,” she said.
Ashley Landess
Ashley Landess told the GCRWC members and guests: “You shouldn’t have to be as engaged, as involved, in politics as you are,” explaining that the power to defend freedom and to communicate values ought to lie more with you individually than with politicians.
Landess noted that the South Carolina legislature meets more than five months each year, which is one of the longest legislative sessions in the country. The legislature controls more than 400 appointments to the executive branch, and about 140 of those appointments are controlled by four legislators, none of whom are voted for in Greenville. They are Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell of Charleston; Sen. Hugh Leatherman, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, from Florence; House Speaker Bobby Harrell of Charleston; and Dan Cooper, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, from Piedmont.
“Why are we not seeing the tax cuts we have asked for? Why isn’t transparency a reality?” she asked, noting that in the current session, 75 percent of votes were off the record in the 2010 session.
For more information on the South Carolina Policy Council and its research on the South Carolina government, visit these web sites: www.scpolicycouncil.com and www.thenerve.org.
Lisa Van Riper
Jamie Bach, GCRWC first vice president, introduced her mother, Lisa Van Riper, an instructor at North Greenville University, president of South Carolina Citizens for Life, and frequent guest on Tony Beam’s “Christian Worldview Today” radio program on Christian Talk 660.
“I believe our country is crying out today for leadership based on principle, for leadership that is focused and does a few things well,” Van Riper said.
Women traditionally get involved in politics because of issues, not power, she said. “Women get involved in politics because they are passionate about doing something about a problem they see.”
Van Riper referred to Thomas Jefferson, who said we cannot be both ignorant and free, and Proverbs 1:32: The waywardness of the complacent shall lead to your destruction, and the ignorance of the fool will kill him.
Ignorance, complacency and apathy are not good words, she said. They are not good words in our personal lives, and they are not good words in our republic.
“Our government is in trouble because our culture is in trouble. Our government is growing because the social fabric of this country is coming unglued. You cannot take out the rule of law, the respect for life and the institution of marriage and expect society to sustain itself – even Aristotle knew that.”

Dr. David Woodard comments on South Carolina GOP candidates from Thomas Hanson on Vimeo.

Photo gallery by Andrea Piscarcik

Woodard: Nikki Haley is a libertarian, not a conservative

Dr. David Woodard, a professor of political science at Clemson, told the Greenville County Republican Women July 22 that Nikki Haley is a libertarian, not a conservative.
“The well springs are different for those movements,” Woodard said. “Libertarians believe in individual autonomy, and conservatives believe in the care of the culture for traditional values. Mark Sanford was also very much influenced by libertarian policies.”
“I haven’t heard a lot of rhetoric from Nikki Haley that is truly conservative,” he said. “I have heard a lot that is libertarian.”
Woodard said the allegations about Haley’s personal life need to be addressed. One of her accusers has released 600 to 700 e-mails, while Nikki Haley has refused to respond because, as a state representative, her e-mails are protected under state law. Her computer is embargoed because it was used as a state computer.
“I think she needs to release her e-mails,” Woodard said.
Woodard also said Haley needs to address an unsigned consulting contract in which she made more than $40,000.
Democrat candidate Vincent Sheheen released his tax returns going back 10 years, but Haley has yet to do so.
“These things will inhibit this candidate running for this top office,” he said.
Sheehen was a student of Woodard’s, and Woodard called him a “very bright, articulate candidate.” He comes from one of the most powerful political families in the state, and his uncle Robert Sheheen was speaker of the South Carolina House.
On social issues Sheheen is a conservative. Sheheen is Catholic, and if he takes his church’s view on abortion, stem cell research, gay marriage and euthanasia, “he will be a very formidable candidate,” Woodard said.
Woodard talked about three major trends that have changed politics in the past few years: the emergence of talk radio, 24 hour cable news and web logs.
“We used to have these things called newspapers, but they are rapidly disappearing,” he said. “In their place is television, and television is the most trusted source of news Americans have about politics.”
The 24 hour news cycle forces television commentators to talk about politics constantly. Woodard used the example of Nikki Haley, who was relatively unknown by the national media, but “almost overnight she became a talking point on the national news shows.”
As newspapers have declined dramatically, Woodard said, so has accountability. Web logs can put anything on the web with no accountability, and rumors can get wide circulation.
Woodard predicted that Sen. Jim DeMint will enter the GOP leadership after the November election and “will become an important force nationally.” He noted that first term senators are generally not listened to, but when they win reelection they become what political scientists call “national senators,” which means their influence extends beyond their state to the nation as a whole.
First-term Sen. Jim DeMint is already a national senator, Woodard said, campaigning for conservative candidates in other states.
Woodard noted the four new GOP House candidates in the six districts in South Carolina.
Tim Scott is the GOP candidate in the first district. Woodard hopes that Scott, an African-American, can preach the conservative message in Africa-American communities.
“I teach many African-American students, and they are really searching for answers,” Woodard said. The younger generation does not remember the Civil Rights movement, and many are upset about government intrusion into their lives.
Mick Mulvaney is riding the anti-incumbent mood in the fifth district against John Spratt.
Jeff Duncan, a former student of Woodard, is the GOP candidate in the third district to replace Rep. Gresham Barrett, who ran for governor, and Trey Gowdy, candidate in the fourth district, is a proven commodity in politics, he said.
Woodard said that South Carolina should pick up a seventh seat after the 2010 census.

Pastor Willie Thompson:
‘I thank the Lord that I have been born in America.’

Pastor Willie Thompson: I Thank the Lord That I Have Been Born in America from Thomas Hanson on Vimeo.

View complete video here

View photo gallery here

The Greenville County Republican Women’s Club conducted its annual Americanism meeting June 24 with a luncheon at the Poinsett Club. The theme was “Let Freedom Ring.”

The guest of honor and main speaker was Willie Thompson, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Marines.

The musical program was presented by Greenville in Harmony, a women’s chorus affiliated with Sweet Adelines International. Club members brought items for residents of the Richard Campbell Veterans Nursing Home in Anderson. Nancee Lee Yearick organized the program.

Thompson, who pastors Paramount Park Baptist Church, said that he became involved in the Republican Party in 1976 when he served on the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission when Jim Edwards was governor and was reappointed in 2003 under Gov. Mark Sanford.

Thompson said that when you put on the Marine uniform “you are a weapon and you do not make any apologies for doing what you have been trained to do,” adding that “we give our lives to protect our freedom.”

Thompson said that when he joined the Marine Corps in 1969 after he graduated from high school it was his desire to be willing to give his life for his country because he did not see many opportunities for a young black man at that time.

Thompson became a Christian a few months before he left the Marines through a group called the Navigators. His troops noticed that after he became a Christian he began to treat them better and did not use profanity.

Thompson mentioned the loss of freedoms Christians have experienced in our country. He remembered reciting psalms in public grade schools and high schools.

“The Lord gives us liberty. He gives us life,” Thompson said, and with those liberties comes responsibilities that we cannot neglect without punishment coming upon us. Thompson referred to the Roman practice of abandoning female babies to die, and how the Roman empire no longer exists, and wondered how long America would last as it practices abortion.

Thompson concluded by saying, “We are here in America by the grace of God to do what God intends for us to do. With that freedom has come a great responsibility, and I thank the Lord that I have been born in America.”

GCRWC hears four candidates in last meeting before primary

Greenville County Republican Women hear from Jim Lee, Mick Zais, Converse Chellis and Walt Wilkins May 27. Candidates in attendance Trey Gowdy, Alan Wilson, Tom Corbin, Mike Meilinger. View photo gallery.

Jim Lee	Mick Zais	Converse Chellis	Walt Wilkins (right)
Video	Video	Video	Video

The Greenville County Women heard from Jim Lee, candidate for U.S. Congress; Mick Zais, candidate for superintendent of education; Converse Chellis, incumbent, running for treasurer; and Walt Wilkins, running unopposed to be 13th Circuit solicitor, and the May 27 meeting.
In the audience mingling with voters were Alan Wilson, running for attorney general; Trey Gowdy, running for U.S. Congress; Tom Corbin, candidate for State House District 17; Mike Meilinger, running for comptroller general; and Elizabeth Moffly, candidate for superintendent of education.
Jim Lee, candidate for Congress, said our country is at an intersection with reality and insanity. To the left is the road to big government, straight ahead is the status quo, and to the right is an uphill road to conservative values because we have deviated so far from the core, constitutional principles and Judeo-Christian values our country was founded on.
Mick Zais spoke of his career in the military, attaining the rank of brigadier general, serving on the faculty of West Point and his 10 years as president of Newberry College, a college on probation when he arrived that was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top colleges in America two years in a row.
Converse Chellis, the incumbent treasurer, spoke of cutting $100,000 out of the state budget, stabilizing the retirement system, refinancing bonds, demanding that local governments receiving state funds submit audit reports, and encouraging South Carolinians to invest in the state’s 529 education savings plans.
Walt Wilkins, candidate for solicitor, spoke of putting drug dealers in jail, deporting illegal immigrants to give jobs to citizens and calling for state grand juries to deal with crime.

Greenville GOP women hear from four candidates at April meeting

Curtis Loftis	Nathan Earle	Elizabeth Moffly	David Thomas
Video	Video	Video	Video

Photos by Andrea Pisarcik

More photos

The Greenville County Republican Women heard from the following candidates at their April 22 meeting: Curtis Loftis, candidate for South Carolina treasurer; Nathan Earle, candidate for SC House Seat 17; state Sen. David Thomas, candidate for the fourth U.S. Congressional seat; and Elizabeth Moffly, candidate for state superintendent of education.

Curtis Loftis
Curtis Loftis, a business man and later founder and director of the Saluda Charitable Foundation, a Christian missionary foundation that builds churches, buys prayer houses, remodels hospitals and sponsors surgeries.

Loftis took 18 months off to run the Department on Aging for Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and in the first year cut 23 percent from the budget so the department could use that money for senior services. For his work, Loftis received the Palmetto Patriot Award, the highest award the state can bestow.

A couple of months later, Richard Eckstrom, the state’s comptroller general, asked Loftis to do project work on transparency issues. Through this, Loftis realized that no one in the state government has a job description to stop fraud, waste and abuse.

Loftis noted that incumbent treasurer Converse Chellis was chosen by the South Carolina Legislature after the resignation of Thomas Ravenel and that Chellis’ allegiance is to the Legislature, not the people of South Carolina.
Loftis pledged to name and shame those who misuse taxpayer money.

Nathan Earle
Nathan Earle, candidate for the SC House District 17 seat now held by Harry Cato, said that in every race throughout the state and nation, it needs to be said: “As Republicans, we’ve got a lot of reform to do in our party before we start worrying about the junk coming out of Washington. We have some cleaning to do in our own house.”

Earle said he felt Cato was not doing enough to advance conservative principles.

Earle said that Republicans are not acting like Republicans and that often you cannot tell the difference between Republicans and Democrats.
“Until we start acting like Republicans, we have no business pointing a finger at Washington,” he said.

David Thomas
State Sen. David Thomas, a candidate for the fourth district U.S. House seat, spoke about mounting federal debt that will lead to hyperinflation, a devaluation of the dollar, downgrading of the U.S. credit rating and eventually a depression.

In a few years, we will not even be able to pay the interest on the debt, he said.
The No. 1 priority facing the United States today is to control spending, and that is one reason Thomas said he is running for Congress. He called for a takeover this November by “firebrand conservatives.”

The upward trajectory of the national debt, Thomas said, began during the presidency of George Bush and a Republican controlled Congress. “The budget got out of control during our watch,” Thomas said, “and it has gone into the stratosphere since the Democrats took over.”

Thomas called for across-the-board budget cuts including the elimination of some agencies.

Elizabeth Moffly
Elizabeth Moffly is a candidate for state superintendent of education.
Moffly has four points she would like to implement: 1) offer a vocational diploma in addition to a college prep diploma, 2) align the state high school diploma with recommendations from the Commission on Higher Education (you can go to college with 19 high school credits, but you need 24 credits to graduate from high school; 3) align the South Carolina Uniform Grading Scale with other states to eliminate their advantage in being accepted to South Carolina colleges; and 4) set the appropriate levels for teaching the basics of reading, writing and math in kindergarten through third grade.

Greenville County Republican Women hear from state Rep. Nikki Haley, candidate for South Carolina governor; Major Gen. Bob Livingston, candidate for adjutant general; and Dr. Brent Nelsen, candidate for superintendent of education. View photo gallery.

Rep. Nikki Haley (right) and Pamela Sowell	Gen. Bob Livingston and President Kathy Davis	Dr. Brent Nelsen and Pam Arceneaux

GOP primary candidates Rep. Nikki Haley, Major Gen. Robert Livingston and Dr. Brent Nelsen addressed the Greenville County Republican Women March 26.
Nikki Haley
Rep. Haley of Lexington County is a candidate for governor. She began her political career in 2004 by defeating the longest-serving state legislator in the Republican primary.
When Rep. Haley took office, she saw that legislators were passing bills on voice votes that grew government without putting their names with their votes, and citizens had no way of knowing the spending habits of their legislators.
Rep. Haley filed a bill in 2007 requiring votes to be recorded. A report that year showed that of all the bills passed by the South Carolina House, only 8 percent were on the record, and in the Senate, only 1 percent were on the record.
Rep. Haley told the House Republican leadership that passage of her bill would make legislators accountable and “the people will start to trust us again.” The leadership replied: “Put the bill away. We don’t need to have it. We will decide what the public needs to see and what they don’t.”
The leadership then “stripped me” of committee assignments. In Rep. Haley’s first year in the state legislature she was chairman of the freshman class, and the second year she was majority whip. The third year she was put on a powerful business committee, and in her fourth year she was chairman.
Rep. Nathan Ballentine of Lexington and Richland counties was the only legislator who stood with Haley, and they stripped him of everything as well, Rep. Haley said.
Rep. Haley announced that the House passed her bill that morning that would make permanent that every House vote be on the record, and she called on the Senate to do the same.
For more information visit the Haley for Governor web site at http://www.nikkihaley.com/
Major Gen. Robert Livingston
Major Gen. Robert Livingston is a candidate for adjutant general.
Gen. Livingston said the adjutant of general is the head of the National Guard, which is the operational reserve for the U.S. Armed Forces, rotating into harm’s way.
The South Carolina National Guard will continue to deploy 1,000 to 3,500 personnel every year for the foreseeable future, he said, and respond to Homeland Security incidents – natural and manmade disasters. The National Guard is the fifth-largest employer in the state; and will be challenged in the future with budget cuts.
Gen. Livingston led a division of 9,000 people from 18 nations in Afghanistan. He commanded a task force of 8,000 soldiers who were responsible for military installations east of the Mississippi. He has served as a two star general at the National Guard Bureau, and on the staff of Gen. David Petraus at Central Command in Tampa, Florida.
Gen. Livingston has served in the National Guard for 31 years starting as a private. Gen. Livingston has been endorsed by the current adjutant general, Stan Spears.
Gen. Livingston’s campaign web site is www.generallivingston.com.
Dr. Brent Nelsen
Dr. Brent Nelsen, a professor at Furman University, is a candidate for superintendent of education. He called for the development of a world class educational system in South Carolina.
Dr. Nelsen gave three numbers of where South Carolina is now and where it needs to go: 61 – 48 – 12.4.
61 is the percentage of South Carolina students who graduate on time from high school, which ranks the state 50th out of 51 (including the District of Columbia) in the country, and 15th out of 16 in the Southeast. 48 is the ranking of South Carolina students on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and 12.4 is the unemployment rate.
Dr. Nelsen said if we can increase educational attainment we can bring the unemployment figure down and per capita income will rise.
Dr. Nelsen promotes three ways we can improve education in South Carolina: 1) offering more choices, customized and individualized education in the public school system: charter schools, magnet schools, virtual schools, schools within schools, and inter- and intra-district choices; 2) freeing teachers from excessive regulation in the classroom and appropriately evaluating their performance, paying the best ones more and finding new jobs for those who do not measure up; and 3) encouraging families and communities get involved in our schools.
For more information visit the campaign web site at www.BrentNelsen.com.

 

Members of the Greenville County Republican Women's Club
at the March 6 Board Meeting in Columbia

Posted Tuesday, March 2

Gresham Barrett, Robert Bolchoz speak to Greenville Republican Women

Gresham Barrett video
Robert Bolchoz video
Photo gallery 1
Photo gallery 2

Gresham Barrett	Robert Bolchoz

Rep. Gresham Barrett, candidate for governor, and Robert Bolchoz, candidate for attorney general, spoke to the Greenville County Republican Women’s Club Feb. 25 at their monthly Poinsett Club luncheon.
Gresham Barrett
Barrett said he believes in God, the sanctity of life and that elected leaders must do everything in their power to protect that life, that innovation, not taxation is the way to solve energy problems, and that South Carolina should be the nation’s leader when it comes to energy independence. Barrett said he believes in the Second Amendment, the U.S. Constitution and the South Carolina Constitution.
Barrett pledged to not raise taxes to pay for government in South Carolina and said that medical decisions are best left to patients and their doctors, not to bureaucrats in Washington.
Barrett said his political mentor is the late Gov. Carroll Campbell (1987-1995). Barrett called for comprehensive tax reform that encourages business growth and business and industries to come to South Carolina. H said he would restructure the Department of Commerce and hire on a performance basis a director of business recruitment and development from a nationwide search. Barrett would update incentive packages to bring business and industry to the state.
He said that no child should leave the third grade who is not reading at or above third grade reading level, and he intends to make sure a greater percentage of education money makes it into the classroom. All options must be on the table: homeschooling, Christian schools and public schools.
Barrett defended his second TARP vote near the end of President George Bush’s term, saying that the President, secretary of the treasury, financier Warren Buffet and others told him that the banking system was on the verge of collapse.
“I believe with all my heart that we averted a major catastrophe,” Barrett said, adding though that the TARP plan has not been implemented like it should have been. “Nobody has done more as a United States Congressman to ensure that those funds are returned to the taxpayer and paid in full” than he has.
Barrett as voted the fourth most conservative member of the House. He is100 percent pro-life, 100 percent National Rifle Association (NRA), a Friend of the Taxpayers, and was given a 98 percent rating by American Conservative Union.
For more information, visit his campaign website at www.GreshamBarrett.com
Robert Bolchoz
Robert Bolchoz was chief of staff under Attorney Gen. Charlie Condon for three years and served as deputy solicitor in Charleston and has worked in the private sector.
The attorney general’s No. 1 job is to be the state’s chief prosecutor. Bolchoz has prosecuted almost 1,000 criminal cases in his career – murderers, rapists, armed robbers, drug traffickers, “but more importantly,” he said, a Congressman’s son, lawyers, doctors, and four Catholic priests (and Bolchoz grew up Catholic).
“The attorney general must not only know how to prosecute a criminal case, but has to have the nerve to prosecute a criminal case,” Bolchoz said, adding that “I have the nerve to do the right thing” on behalf of citizens of South Carolina.
Bolchoz said that to combat South Carolina’s gang problem he would concentrate on mandatory jail terms for felony possession of firearms, comprehensive reform of the criminal code so all citizens know what the crimes and what the sentences are, and to combat the growing illegal alien problem.
Bolchoz said the attorney general is the state’s chief securities commissioner and that he has managed brokers and financial advisers and worked in and understands the financial markets.
Kathy Davis is president of the Greenville County Republican Women, and Pamela Sowell, program director, introduced the speakers.

Posted 2:15 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 30

Leighton Lord, Christina Jeffrey speak to GCRWC Jan. 28

Leighton Lord (right) former state Rep. Glenn Hamilton	Christina Jeffrey (right) Pamela Sowell

More photos by Andrea Pisarcik

By Thomas C. Hanson
Christina Jeffrey, a candidate for the fourth district U.S. congressional seat, and Leighton Lord, a candidate for South Carolina attorney general, spoke to the Greenville County Republican Women (GCRW) meeting at the Poinsett Club Jan. 28.
Dr. Jeffrey, a lecturer at Wofford College, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the seat held by incumbent Rep. Bob Inglis, said, “I am first and foremost a Christian,” and “I believe that a great country is an important asset” for Christians.
Dr. Jeffrey said she hates tyranny in all its forms and that it is the natural condition of human beings. Tyranny flourishes, she said, when people are ignorant and complacent, when you don’t have the kind of freedoms we have. Our founders gave us incredible tools to keep our freedoms, and if we lose some of them, to get them back.
Leighton Lord said he is an Army brat born in Hawaii and joked that “unlike someone we know, I have a birth certificate.”
Lord referred to an essay written by evangelist Billy Graham, “The Moral Weight of Leadership,” in which Graham wrote, “We must not be tempted . . . to divorce character from leadership.”
Lord worked the Ronald Reagan campaigns in the 1980s. After graduating from the Vanderbilt Law School in 1989, he went to Washington to work for four years as the Republican staff council for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in Washington. In this position, Leighton investigated organized crime, gang violence, child pornography and immigration fraud.
Lord spent two weeks on the Mexican border with border patrol agents, and visited the San Diego district attorney’s office to watch the prosecution of criminal aliens. To learn about organized crime, Lord spent days with mobsters and traveled the country with FBI agents. He learned about gang violence by driving the streets of Los Angeles with law enforcement officers.
He took the knowledge back to Washington to contribute to hearings and help draft legislation to make our country safer.
In 1994, Leighton went to work for Nexsen Pruet, the second largest law firm in South Carolina. Four years ago, Leighton was elected managing partner, which has given him executive experience.
Lord said the attorney general should be the chief legal officer in the state and as such should coordinate solicitors, sheriffs and law enforcement officers and help them do their jobs better. He called for a comprehensive crime bill in South Carolina because the state is No. 1 in violent crime and is in the top five in domestic violence deaths and in the top five in DUI deaths, yet South Carolina imprisons more people per capita than any other state.
The meeting was the first conducted by Kathy Davis, new president of the GCRW.

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Reservations must be made by Monday noon before the meeting:
Call Cheryl Cuthrell at 864-335-8094 or send an e-mail to her at gcrwreply@yahoo.com

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Photo galleries

2009 Galleries

Ken Ard speaks.
Karen Floyd inducts officers.

Registration by party Oct. 22



Sen. Jim DeMint
Sept. 21

Rep. Bob Inglis
Challenger Trey Gowdy Aug. 27

Dr. David Woodard
Clemson Political Science Professor
It Kids



Americanism Program June 25

Jeff Schilz of Governor's Office and
Greenville Planning Department May 28

Ambassador David Wilkins
April 23

Karen Floyd & Rick Beltram March 26

Feb. 26
Greg Shorey
Kevin Hall


Jan. 22
Rep. Nikki Haley
Ashley Landess

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