SC

SC Lobbyists Targeted, Leaned On For Candidate Fundraising

ISN’T THAT ILLEGAL? YES … || By FITSNEWS || It’s the biggest joke of a “disclaimer” there is … but it appears on invitation after invitation at the S.C. State House. “If this solicitation is received by a registered lobbyist, please disregard.” What do these words really mean, though?  Well, we…

ISN’T THAT ILLEGAL? YES …

|| By FITSNEWS || It’s the biggest joke of a “disclaimer” there is … but it appears on invitation after invitation at the S.C. State House.

“If this solicitation is received by a registered lobbyist, please disregard.”

What do these words really mean, though?  Well, we typed them into our handy-dandy B.S. translator and it spit out the following:

“You are receiving this solicitation because you are a registered lobbyist – now it’s time to pay up.”

We’re referring, of course, to fundraising invitations sent on behalf of members of the S.C. General Assembly – usually to email lists comprised almost exclusively of the very lobbyists who are supposed to be “disregarding” the appeals.

Not only that, these same lobbyists are routinely contacted directly to make sure they received the solicitation they’re supposed to be “disregarding” – with the expectation that their clients cough up the maximum dollar amount.  Which of course is intended to ensure that the lawmakers in question cast their votes in a manner consistent with the client’s interests.

It’s a shakedown, basically …

One example of this scam in action?  A fundraiser scheduled for “Republican” S.C. Reps. Todd Atwater and Samuel Rivers.

Who are these guys?  Well, Atwater is best known for his proposed “pet tattoo/ piercing ban” (we’re not kidding), while Rivers is best known for plagiarizing stuff (and having a questionable resume).

Ah, South Carolina “Republicans.”  Such classy peeps.

Anyway, here’s the invite for Atwater and Rivers’ upcoming event (with the boilerplate disclaimer language in the fine print at the bottom of the page) …

(Click to enlarge)

fundraiser

(Pic: Provided)

Here’s the interesting thing, though …

FITS has spoken with three separate lobbyists who say they received the Atwater/ Rivers’ invite directly from fundraiser Wendy Homeyer.   In other words they were explicitly sent an email that they were supposed to disregard.

How’s that work, exactly?  Take a look …

(Click to enlarge)

invite

(Pic: Provided)

Yeah …

“She got that email because I’m a registered lobbyist, but promptly tells me to disregard,” one of the lobbyists told FITS.

Not only that, two of the recipients of the emails tell FITS they were contacted directly by Homeyer to make sure they had received her email … again, the email they were supposed to be “disregarding.”  The third lobbyist claims to have been directly solicited by Homeyer for similar events in previous years.

So much for “disregarding,” huh?

And before anybody gets the wrong idea, we’re not trying to dog out Homeyer … we’re told this is pretty much standard operating procedure for all legislative fundraising events (no matter who is organizing them).

Sheesh … and these are the people we’re entrusting to pass so-called “ethics reform?”

No wonder the “reform” they’re proposing isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on … 

Banner pic: Travis Bell Photography

***

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37 comments

GrandTango May 2, 2015 at 1:38 pm

Who gives F*#k….????

RACIAL HATRED against whites and America….is RIPPING the Democrat Party apart….

That’s ALL I want to talk about…FITS wants NO part of it….

Will it EVER be possible for the Democrat Party get elect a White president, EVER again????

Reply
Alias The Buzzman May 2, 2015 at 3:00 pm

White people are a fake majority, anyway. Too many ethnicities and nationalities of ancestors to truly be one race. Definitely not one culture, even though collectivists like you want to lump all “whites” together. Plus, in the South, something like 75% of “white” people have some mixture of Native American and African. The more “blue blood” people think they are, meaning being from old families with a long history in the region, the more likely this is true.

This bullshit started around 1780 or so in Virginia. Spread throughout the states and to the federal government like the plague. It was a convenient way to marginalized and eventually subsume the native population, while at the same time creating what was hoped would be a forever-subjugated underclass, always subservient to the “white” man.

Before you say that all comes from the media and bla bla bla, no hell it doesn’t. They won’t touch the truth about this, and the government schools won’t either. Research on the actual records yield the truth.

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GrandTango May 2, 2015 at 3:32 pm

All of that’s pretty much irrelevant – as a practical matter – and seems to be opinions and claims you’ve collected from others…And it looks to be highly prejudiced and biased, intended to persuade of some oddball theory – instead of inform…

Bottom line is: Blacks in America HATE whites. The Democrat Party has exploited that, with many other special interest groups – using mythology. But the special interests are beginning to fight among themselves…weakening your party….

And: After a Black Democrat is elected as president (see Obama)…it may be all but impossible for the Black Democrats in the party to support anything BUT a Black Democrat….

That’s why if Hillary is nominated…and Obama is against her…it may reveal a party destroyed by race…

Look at Detroit, Baltimore and St. Louis…they are disgusting and corrupt examples of governance based on racial hatred. Columbia is headed the same way… Race Hate and the insistence of Blacks to dominate all Democrat political power is ripping you – and America apart….

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Alias The Buzzman May 2, 2015 at 3:43 pm

Now see, you can actually be somewhere near civil when you want to be. And it’s not even Sunday yet.

I overstated the case somewhat, just for effect. The fact is, the invention of white people was a contrivance to create a dominant majority based on skin color. But since it is viewed as much more than that by most people, perception is reality.

The Democratic party does exploit racial animus to a great degree, and certain figures like Sharpton and Jackson are, indeed, race hustlers and poverty pimps. Obama is not a uniter and a post-racial president, by any means. Where you think I’m in thrall to Obama and the Democratic party in any way is where your delusional thinking comes in. I’m not. Nor am I rabidly supportive of the GOP. That party exploits race in its own way, in an opposite manner to the Dems.

Party labels mean little to me, in practical application. Both parties are deeply flawed. Both are full of liars and corrupt power freaks and greed-heads.

A pox on both their houses.

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GrandTango May 2, 2015 at 3:57 pm

The GOP has a platform. So do the Democrats. The GOP is VERY successful – especially on the economy – when free to govern, in accordance with its platform. That makes ALL Americans better, and better off…

The Democrats are Miserable failures at governing. But the media – along with manipulative Democrat handlers – lie and mislead in order to stuff the pockets of the elites in the party…and cling to undeserved power…

You might need to find a set of core values based on that…

As for a third party…you are nothing but spoilers for Democrats deemed unfit to get elected (see Va. governor) Ross Perot could have changed it all for you…but when it looked like he was going to beat Clinton, he intentionally claimed black helicopters were buzzing his mansion…and that kook-up catapulted Clinton into office…thus accomplishing what Perot wanted in the first place…

You are NEVER to be trusted after that…..

Alias The Buzzman May 2, 2015 at 3:59 pm

If the GOP is so good on the economy, when does that kick in, exactly, in South Carolina?

GrandTango May 2, 2015 at 4:37 pm

You live in Myrtle Beach…so it makes you look especially ignorant to ask that question…Fact is: We’re holding our own, because we have resisted Obama as much as possible…

The national economy is a F*#king mess. If you won’t acknowledge that – and there are a majority of Americans just as F*#king ignorant as you – then we’ll keep suffering…

There is a penalty for being stupid…and because so many of you have NO ability to assess reality on your own…we all suffer because of you….

But I hope you get the S#!t slapped out of you…on election day 2016….I’d love to repay you for the F*#king disaster you are…yet GOP winners NEVER punish you like you deserve…Hopefully this time they will…but I won’t hold my breath…

Alias The Buzzman May 2, 2015 at 7:03 pm

WOAH NELLIE!!!

That comment harshed your mellow right good, there, sport.

Guess you really don’t have an answer to when all that GOP prosperity kicks in in SC.

GrandTango May 3, 2015 at 12:43 pm

Not really interested in “dialoguing” with you w/ civility…that just gives you credibility…before you start promoting your liberal failure as legitimate…

As for a prosperity and GOP example: the most Republican County in South Carolina (w/ size) is Lexington. It consistently has the lowest unemployment rate in the state and home prices are closest to value and home sales volume is steady, in a WORKING (not leisure) economy. The schools are GREAT (nationally renown) and Lexington just overwhelmingly voted down a 1-cent tax. that would have dumped half-a-billion dollars into the hands of government, from earners…

Most of that may be over your head…and “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”…so I feel the truth is wasted on you…

And the fact that none of you acknowledge reality, completely..is why I have NO respect for you….or your opinions…You are corrupt and unfair people. I have no use for that…

John Boy May 3, 2015 at 2:27 pm

Says the laughingstock on Fits.

GrandTango May 3, 2015 at 5:02 pm

The sincerest form of flattery is imitation….

I am the MOST flattered man on earth, if that’s the case. Very few of you ever post anything of substance, unless you simply copy and repeat what I create, in describing you….Do you think no one sees what you do?

You are very flat, mentally.

John Boy May 3, 2015 at 5:34 pm

It was no compliment, Dumbass. You sure run fast, don’t ya? What you create? Hahahaha!!

“All lies and jests, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. ” – Paul Simon

GrandTango May 3, 2015 at 5:38 pm

My observances don’t depend, at all, on the idiot to whom it is directed, GETTING IT…LMAO…

You simply lack the intellect to play…but you try anyway. And it just sinks you more… (;

John Boy May 3, 2015 at 5:55 pm

See, I don’t crawl into the mind of a idiot on the lunatic fringe, nor have I had a lobotomy.

GrandTango May 3, 2015 at 7:45 pm

You didn’t NEED a lobotomy….LMAO….

DamnedTango May 3, 2015 at 2:50 pm

Not really interested in “dialoguing” with you anyone w/ civility…(Well except maybe for your anal butt buddy pogo, fc, guest, Sandi, etc, etc, etc, etc)

There I fixed it for you.

Alias The Buzzman May 3, 2015 at 3:26 pm

Haha! Nailed it!

Alias The Buzzman May 3, 2015 at 3:27 pm

What’s hilarious about that is the assumption that there is any credibility to be had from any level of communication with you, anywhere.

TontoBubbaGoldstein May 2, 2015 at 9:01 pm

“When white man find land, Indians running it, no taxes, no debt, plenty buffalo, plenty beaver, clean water. Women did all the work, Medicine Man free. Indian man spend all day hunting and fishing; all night having sex. Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that.”

Alias The Buzzman May 2, 2015 at 3:55 pm

From what native people did you descend, GT?

Reply
GrandTango May 2, 2015 at 4:38 pm

AMERICAN!!!!!

Bible Thumper May 2, 2015 at 3:38 pm

South Carolina’s whites are the blackest in the nation and our blacks are also the blackest.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/science/23andme-genetic-ethnicity-study.html?referrer=

Dr. Saunt was fascinated in particular by the genetic findings among people in South Carolina. Dr. Mountain and her colleagues estimated that 13.3 percent of European-Americans in South Carolina have genes that are at least 1 percent African in origin.

But the researchers also found that African-Americans in South Carolina have among the lowest percentages of European DNA of any African-American population in the United States.

At one point, Dr. Saunt noted, the percentage of South Carolina residents who were slaves was greater than in any other state. But there was also a large population of freed slaves in Charleston permitted to interact with whites.

“We know lots of planters had mistresses in Charleston, and they obviously had children together,” said Dr. Saunt. “So what happened to those children? Some remained in the African-American community, and some moved into the white community when they were able to.”

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Soft Sigh from Hell May 2, 2015 at 3:47 pm

I have read that in Jim Crow days this caused consternation and not a little risk for hotel keepers when deciding if to bar entry or not bar.

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Alias The Buzzman May 2, 2015 at 3:52 pm

Yeah. The Jim Crow Bar was a toughie.

Terrible pun, I know.

It was tricky times. Make a mistake and let someone the neighbors consider to be too dark stay at your place, it could get burned down. Mysteriously, of course.

Bible Thumper May 2, 2015 at 3:52 pm

Not just Jim Crow days… even today. At a family gathering I mentioned that our ancestry likely had more Africans than Indians. I was surprised by the push back.

Alias The Buzzman May 2, 2015 at 3:54 pm

Listen, even in Indian populations known to have a good bit of African mix, there is great denial.

Bible Thumper May 2, 2015 at 4:01 pm

I believe that a good portion of them have no Indian ancestry. Some were runaway slaves and may have an Indian cultural identity, but no ancestry. Some don’t even have that but their ancestors claimed Indian ancestry in order to pass as non black.

Alias The Buzzman May 2, 2015 at 6:17 pm

That is, in the case of the Lumbee, a claim that has been made forever by the Cherokee. The Eastern Band of Cherokee seek to be the only fully federally recognized tribe in NC. So they have a vested interest in “debunking” all claims to “Indianness” by Lumbee. In studies that were done, there was not really enough of the actual tribal population that were tested to support the conclusions reached. Actual tribe members, for the most part, did not test. This is not unique to the Lumbee, as more and more, even fully federally recognized tribes are realizing that the whole notion of “blood quantum” was invented and imposed on Indian nations as a way to assure that, over time, they would disappear as a distinct people. The same as the “Indian Schools” that were used to destroy Indian culture and religion.

When I say “fully federally recognized”, that has to do with the fact that the Lumbee do have a form of limited federal recognition. That is why they were able to help the Catawba of SC, who were denied a casino on their land in our state by the governor (who didn’t want competition for the lottery) build one on tribal land in NC.

Some Lumbee have Croatan and Tuscarora blood. Same surnames. Much the same situation applies to Melungeons in the Appalachians, and the “Turks” and “Redbones” of the midlands and upcountry of SC, as well as various groups of mixed peoples in GA, AL, MS, FL, and LA.

I have known extremely traditional Lumbee elders and council members, with “Indian” features and an unmistakable Indian spirit to them. So I tend to view them much differently than the “experts” who set out to rob them of any vestige of native culture.

Alias The Buzzman May 2, 2015 at 3:58 pm

My figures were off. That’s still kind of surprising about SC. I believe there are pockets, though, such as parts of the Lowcountry, Horry and surrounding counties, Abbeville and Edgefield counties, all the counties around Lexington County, etc., where the percentage of African blood in whites is much higher, as well as Indian blood in whites and blacks.

I used these terms, because they are more convenient.

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Alias The Buzzman May 2, 2015 at 6:22 pm

I know many blacks who are searching for their roots in our area, and a lot of them have found clear proof of descent from white slave owners. Not saying that article is entirely off base, but it speaks of the state in general. Slavery was much stronger in areas like Georgetown County, of course.

Roberto May 3, 2015 at 6:44 am

No. That’s a BULLSHIT topic.

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Tired and Retired May 2, 2015 at 2:53 pm

As a former registered lobbyist, I once received these notices all the time. I gladly took the directions to “please disregard this notice” literally, and enjoyed disregarding them very much. But then again, I never accomplished much in the General Assembly.

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Alias The Buzzman May 2, 2015 at 3:02 pm

Small wonder, if you didn’t play the game.

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Justin Alexander May 3, 2015 at 11:25 am

Notice where the fundraiser was held – Law Firm of Butch Bowers, who made so much money from the SCGOP and the $300,000 loan.

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NoAgendaBot May 3, 2015 at 2:38 pm

I’m shocked….shocked to find that illegal campaign contributions and bribery are going on at The Statehouse . ITM Slaves.

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Noncents May 3, 2015 at 7:07 pm

Atwater has to raise money in Columbia because he has no friends left in Lexington who will give to him. They all see him for the snobby preppy phony pandering professional politician that he has turned into. He is clearly beholden to certain special interests and turned his back on his constituents. He needs to dump that Columbia advisor Homeyer who doesn’t have a clue about anything and only further alienates Toddy from his Lexington base. Come 2016 I think the voters of Lexington are going to have some good choices other than this phony. Good authority has it Toddy already knows he’s going to have some major and well funded opposition so he’s going after Sen. Massey’s seat. Hopefully voters will turn him out for good in ’16.

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SYNTwist May 3, 2015 at 9:54 pm

I get MULTIPLE solicitations via email, snail, and what used to be phone until I changed my numbers. I shred them. It is a never ending nuisance. Interesting question in my tax package this year, have you contributed to State or local campaigns? No idea why that information is important, but given all the solicitations and now questions from CPA, I have zero intention of contributing again. Once you get on a list, many politicians sell that list and therefore you are forever on it. Even if you move, they find you.

What I find even more interesting, I move it say promotions, they just use another email. It’s nuts.

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