GREENVILLE, SC - The Felkel Group posted a report today showing fourth quarter campaign contributions and expenditures of SC candidates running for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and current State Senate and House Chairmen.  The information listed is cumulative totals through December 31, 2009.  This data was gathered from the State Ethics Commission's reporting site at SCGOV.org. The next quarterly report is due April 10, 2010.

The so-called “super conglomerate” swooped into town Monday to provide a big helping hand for local families in need.

Jim Torgerson, regional market manager for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., presented a check for $40,000 to Room at the Inn of the Lowcountry. The grant will support the organization’s efforts to provide shelter and quality maternity service to the community’s homeless pregnant women and their children.

“Wal-Mart is focused on supporting organizations that are making a direct impact on the lives of individuals in our communities,” Torgerson said.

Room at the Inn of the Lowcountry is clearly changing the lives of these young women and theirchildrenbyprovidinghope for better lives and answering their basic needs.” Room at the Inn of the Lowcountry is licensed by the S.C. Department of Social Services to serve 13 adolescents (males, birth to 6 years of age; and females, birth to 21 years of age). At any given time, it cares for up to six mothers and their children at the McGivney Maternity Home in Bluffton. Annually this equates to between 35 and 40 clients served by RATI.

The Felkel Group posted a report today showing third quarter campaign contributions and expenditures of SC candidates running for Governor and current State Senate and House Chairmen. The information listed is cumulative totals through September 30, 2009.  This data was gathered from the State Ethics Commission's reporting site at SCGOV.org. The next quarterly report is due January 10, 2010.

For a while it appeared Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint would waltz to a second term, with millions of dollars in his war chest and his only opponent an unknown retiree who has been in the state four years.

Now, however, a second Democrat is entering the race, and this one has won elections in South Carolina.

Victor Rawl, a member of Charleston County Council, told The Greenville News that he will seek the Democratic nomination for the seat DeMint won in 2004.

The former circuit judge and state legislator plans a formal campaign announcement on Monday with stops in North Charleston, Columbia, Spartanburg and Greenville.

Rawl may have more political experience than his opponent for the Democratic nomination, Mike Ruckes of Summerville, but pundits said he nevertheless faces a monumental task in trying to unseat DeMint, a Greenville businessman who has become a national conservative figure and had more than $3.2 million available for his re-election campaign at the end of the year.

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- The South Carolina GOP is ditching the idea of forming a Tea Party Republican group while leaders say they are finding ways to make the party appeal more to the activists.

Last month, there were rumblings that the Greenville Republican Party's leadership wanted to create a formal group rattled Tea Party activists. But a couple of weekends of meetings ended with the GOP backing down and state Republican Party Chairwoman Karen Floyd holding a news conferences announcing an accord of sorts.

In the Upstate, 22 Tea Party groups will work with the GOP on common goals, including "working closely to make the Republican Party more conservative," Greenville County GOP Chairman Patrick Haddon said. Others include getting more involved at the precinct level and improving communications.

Disgraced South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was feet from the stage, but cast a large shadow over the four Republicans debating Thursday how they'd fill the shoes of the man who wrecked his political and personal life with an affair that made him a national joke.

And the questions this time were coming from MSNBC "Morning Joe" show hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

Brzezinski asked state Rep. Nikki Haley, a Lexington legislator most closely aligned with Sanford's political agenda, whether the two-term governor was a liability. "No, I don't worry about liabilities," Haley said. Instead, she and other candidates pointed out that Sanford had done plenty of good for the state by pushing cuts in spending and restructuring government.

But, Haley noted, "through all of this, we should never have put the reform movement on one person."

U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett called him a stalwart in accountability, restructuring and for taxpayers.

Scarborough said "sorry Mark" to his old buddy from the U.S. House as he asked if the past year's events had hurt the state and pressed Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer to explain why he asked for Sanford's resignation last year.

Sanford didn't quit. "He's weathered the storm very well. I don't know quite frankly how he's done it," Bauer said. "At the time, I just thought it was best that the state move forward."
 

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- South Carolina's lieutenant governor made some controversial remarks during a town hall meeting on Thursday in Fountain Inn -- and now the Greenville NAACP is among those criticizing the comments.The controversy started after Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer likened government assistance to "feeding stray animals."

He said, "My grandmother was not a highly-educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem. If you give an animal or a person ample food supply, they will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that, and so what you gotta do is you gotta curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

Retirements, well-funded challengers and one high-profile outburst mean S.C. voters will have an unusually high number of competitive congressional races next year.

U.S. Rep. Henry Brown's retirement announcement Monday means voters along the coast and in U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett's Upstate district - which stretches from Aiken to Oconee County - will choose a new representative. Barrett is not seeking re-election in order to run for governor.

In addition, U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis is facing at least four challengers in his GOP primary, while U.S. Rep. John Spratt, a Democrat, faces up-and-coming Republican challenger state Sen. Mick Mulvaney for the Rock Hill-area district. Among those seeking to unseat Inglis in his Greenville and Spartanburg-area district are 7th Judicial Circuit solicitor Trey Gowdy, Wofford College instructor Christina Jeffrey, Mauldin businessman Jim Lee, and state Sen. David Thomas.