I am looking for reader commentaries and endorsements of either candidate in the Knotts vs. Shealy run off! Please submit your endorsement or commentary by Wednesday. Most importantly please provide your City and State along with your name or well known handle. These items will run in Thursday's ezine. I will also accept statements from the candidates if submitted.
This weekend I rode over 500 miles and still found enough time to paddle a couple of rivers in NC and TN.
This week's video and photos -> http://fastfreds.com/trips/PigeonRiver/
Sunday morning was not the same without Tim on "Meet The Press."
As always your feedback and questions are welcomed,
~FF
1) Human cost of unlicensed drivers
2) Knotts, Shealy plot strategies
3) Clyburn earmarks may benefit friends and family
4) Exclusive: Critics rip Harrell for lobbying
5) Hollings takes on Sam Donaldson
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1) Human cost of unlicensed drivers
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http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/jun/16/human_cost_unlicensed_drivers44654/
Human cost of unlicensed drivers
Growing list of South Carolinians killed by unlicensed drivers, some illegal immigrants, fuels debate for tougher laws
By Noah Haglund , Yvonne Wenger
The human cost
In addition to the recent death of Smokey Bones bartender Steven Rand Rouvet, here are examples of the lives lost on South Carolina roadways to wrecks involving unlicensed, immigrant drivers:
Bluffton, May 18, 2008:
Federal authorities were investigating the immigration status of a man accused of driving drunk in a crash that killed high school senior Josh George, 17, as he headed home from the prom, The Island Packet newspaper reported. Juan Rodriquez, 20, was charged with felony DUI involving a death. Immigration officials did not say if Rodriquez was in the U.S. legally. There were conflicting reports about his name and whether he was from Honduras or Mexico.
Moncks Corner, July 13, 2006:
Moncks Corner Town Planner Michael Mitchum was killed when an unlicensed driver ran into him as he was getting out of his car to inspect a job site. Authorities said Jonise Kelvin, then 18, was at the wheel of the work van that hit Mitchum. Kelvin was charged with driving without a S.C. license and involuntary manslaughter. Kelvin told authorities through an interpreter that he is from Honduras. The Highway Patrol said Kelvin had no driver's license and limited driving experience. The State Department of Corrections said Kelvin served one year in prison for involuntary manslaughter and was turned over to immigration officials.
Myrtle Beach, Oct. 13, 2005:
Joyce Dargan, 57, was hit and killed when she walked to her mailbox in Restaurant Row, The Myrtle Beach Sun News reported. Authorities said two teen boys were racing their cars when one swerved off the road and struck Dargan. The boys, 14 and 15 at the time, were sentenced to up to six years in juvenile prison. Both were illegal immigrants who later could be deported. The boy whose car struck Dargan had been stopped for traffic violations twice in the six weeks before her death.
COLUMBIA—Recent accidents, some involving illegal immigrants, have captured the attention of the community and have lawmakers talking about what to do about unlicensed drivers.
From 2001 to 2005, 807 fatal accidents in South Carolina are believed to have involved unlicensed drivers, according to AAA Carolinas. It's unclear how many of those accidents were caused by illegal immigrants.
Regardless of the reasons they don't have licenses, unlicensed drivers are among the greatest safety threats on the highways, said Carol Gifford, public relations manager for AAA Carolinas, which released the "Unlicensed to Kill" study in March.
"The state needs to prevent unlicensed drivers from driving, but that is very difficult to do," she said.
Earlier this month, Smokey Bones bartender Steven Rand Rouvet, 21, was killed in an early-morning hit-and-run crash near North Charleston. Four days later, Highway Patrol troopers charged Jesus Magana, an illegal immigrant with no driver's license, with leaving the scene of an accident involving a death.
Many fatal hit-and-run and drunk-driving crashes don't involve illegal immigrants, though the ones that do have attracted a lot of attention. The state averages more than 1,000 traffic fatalities each year.
And the growing list of South Carolinians killed by unlicensed, illegal immigrant drivers has helped drive the debate as the Legislature passed a new broad reform law that went into effect earlier this month.
But more work is left to be done.
"I would love to throw the book at illegal immigrants who are here driving on our highways," said Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Larry Grooms, a Bonneau Republican.
The problem: The issue of unlicensed drivers, illegal immigrants and state law is a tangled mess. It is muddied by such situations as how to handle licensed drivers who leave home without their photo ID, or foreign tourists who visit Charleston. The federal government is so overwhelmed with immigration issues that it isn't much help, either.
Rep. Chip Limehouse, a Charleston Republican, thinks the solution comes in part by the Legislature strengthening penalties for drivers who are not licensed.
"We need to put those people behind bars," Limehouse said.
The minimum fine for unlicensed drivers is $232.50 for a first offense. It's $647.50 for those who get caught driving with a suspended license.
Limehouse added that the state's new immigration law is a start. It allows judges to consider immigration status when setting bail and attempts to stop illegal workers from finding jobs. Without work, the illegal immigrants won't be able to stay here.
The new law also seeks an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to let the state enforce the federal laws.
Sen. Robert Ford, a Charleston Democrat, said the penalties won't serve as an effective deterrent.
"We have capital punishment in South Carolina, and that doesn't stop people in South Carolina from committing murder," Ford said.
He said the state should consider giving illegal immigrants driver's licenses. At least then, he said, they would be required to know the rules of the road.
"I think what's happening now, people want to make it so hard on illegal immigrants, they don't understand the consequences of their actions," Ford said. "People will be driving without knowing anything about the traffic laws. We don't know anything about true blue-blooded Americans driving without a license."
Many agree that the biggest part of the problem is not knowing how many people are driving unlicensed, and who they are. It's obviously more than illegal immigrants, and it includes drunken drivers who have lost their licenses and who continue to hit the roads.
"If your license is suspended and you're taking a chance, there aren't any laws to solve that. You're going to roll the dice," Ford said.
One effective approach is to immobilize or impound vehicles if drivers have had their licenses taken away, AAA's Gifford said. State officials need to have more control over licensing, license status and some vehicle-based sanctions, she said.
Grooms said the Transportation Committee has begun work on sorting through state law when it comes to driver's licensing and penalties.
"It is a problem and it is something the Transportation Committee will spend a great deal of time on," Grooms said. "We're going to go through this law and find out where loopholes are. But we want to make sure there are no unintended consequences of strengthening our laws.
"We'll make sure the penalties are appropriate for the lawbreakers."
The changes can't come soon enough, Hanahan police Lt. Mike Fowler said. Unlicensed drivers, specifically Hispanics who are believed to be illegal immigrants, are an issue the police in Hanahan face every day, Fowler said.
In the last week, Hanahan police arrested 14 unlicensed drivers, 13 of whom were Hispanic without proper identification, Fowler said. He noted that lack of federal cooperation leaves local police with no real way of knowing who is here legally.
Unlicensed drivers exist in every demographic, Fowler said, but the problem is compounded by those police believe to be illegal immigrants who sometimes flee the country before they can be prosecuted or never show up for court and slip back into the community.
"We had one Hispanic woman run a red light, weaving all over traffic, the officer thought she was drunk," Fowler said. "She wasn't drunk. She just didn't know how to drive."
Reach Yvonne Wenger at 803-799-9051 or ywenger@postandcourier.com. Reach Noah Haglund at 937-5550 or nhaglund@postandcourier.com.
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2) Knotts, Shealy plot strategies
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http://www.thestate.com/154/story/435160.html
Knotts, Shealy plot strategies
By CLIF LeBLANC
cleblanc@thestate.com
The runoff bout for a Lexington County Senate seat likely will be marked by even bigger money and perhaps a few sharp jabs.
Challenger Katrina Shealy plans to sink more money into expensive television ads, triple the number of campaign volunteers and keep pounding the pavement with her walking campaign for the June 24 runoff.
Incumbent Sen. Jake Knotts’ team predicts wads of out-of-state money will pour into Shealy’s camp but will backfire because voters resent anyone “buying a Senate seat.”
Knotts, who calls himself a champion of working people, is vulnerable because his two opponents received 55 percent of the vote in the GOP primary for the District 23 seat. Yet he has a well-funded campaign.
Knotts, known for his bare-knuckle style, told backers during the primary he had remained “nice.”
Katrina Shealy said the tenor of that race had been more civil than she expected.
“I hope we can stay above the fray and not get nasty,” she said Friday.
THE POLITICAL BACKDROP
Knotts is a 15-year veteran of the Legislature and seeking his second full Senate term. He won 45 percent of the vote last week.
That outcome signals he is vulnerable because opponents in his own party — Shealy and businessman Mike Sturkie — together garnered more votes. Sturkie has endorsed Knotts in the runoff.
“The political truism is incumbents lose (runoffs) because they couldn’t close the deal to begin with,” said Joshua Gross, a political consultant with Starboard Communications, which is managing Katrina Shealy’s race.
Gross cited the 2004 runoff victory of newcomer Nikki Haley in Lexington County over the then-most senior member of the House, Larry Koon.
But Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer was able to beat challenger Mike Campbell in a GOP runoff two years ago.
Knotts has one of the Senate’s largest campaign coffers. In January, he had $207,329, according to his disclosure report.
Knotts said he raised that much because he had been targeted by Gov. Mark Sanford and organizations linked to New York millionaire Howard Rich.
Rich backs a conservative agenda centered on tax credits to allow children to attend private school.
According to a widely circulated strategy memo written to Sanford, Knotts is on a list of about 20 RINOs _— Republican in name only — who stand between the governor and a friendly Legislature.
The incumbent said he expects out-of-state money to amount to “a wad.”
“Good, God,” Knotts said. “She’s their candidate. She’s the voucher candidate.”
Katrina Shealy denies the allegation. She said she supports public education and has not decided how she would vote on school vouchers.
“I haven’t signed any papers or promised anybody anything,” she said, adding she would welcome the money from voucher advocates.
Almost half of the $42,000 she reported before the primary came from people or groups tied to the school voucher issue.
STRATEGIES
Knotts has put aside $50,000 for the runoff, his campaign manager Rod Shealy said. Katrina Shealy has about the same amount, she said.
During the primary, she focused on fliers, newspaper ads and door-to-door campaigning across the central swath of the county’s largest Senate district. It stretches from Springdale to the Leesville portion of Batesburg-Leesville.
That effort won her 41 percent of the vote in a low-turnout primary.
She said donations and volunteers already have picked up. “Local people, not what I’m accused of, want to help.”
Shealy said her volunteers will concentrate on the precincts where she is strongest, generally around the town of Lexington.
But the campaign also will ask volunteers to work the phones in rural precincts so voters will show up for Katrina Shealy.
“I plan to have a lot of people out helping, doing the sweat equity,” she said.
PHONE CAMPAIGNS
Rod Shealy said that a well-funded phone effort was the deciding factor in forcing a runoff.
He said his polling showed Knotts was up 2-to-1 on election eve among historic Republican voters.
Rod Shealy contends Katrina Shealy’s backers examined voting data and had the money to keep calling what he said are “nontraditional” voters.
That expensive process yielded about 1,000 “of the church crowd” who were persuaded to vote for her, Rod Shealy said.
“A lot of money was spent on phone banks ... which are untraceable,” he said. “They can come from anywhere.”
Katrina Shealy disputes that her campaign created such a list.
“We got the same list they got,” she said, referring to public voting records. “We didn’t target any specific group.”
THE SANFORD FACTOR
Katrina Shealy said Knotts might be miscalculating to focus so much on Sanford.
“I think he’s strong,” she said of the governor. “A lot of people have said, ‘If Sanford supports her for the job, then I’ll vote for her.’”
Sanford won 61 percent of the vote in the Senate district in the 2006 general election over Democrat Tommy Moore, whom Knotts backed.
Still, Sanford lost the Republican primary in Lexington County where the governor remains weakened by his veto of a heart center for Lexington Medical Center.
Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664.
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3) Clyburn earmarks may benefit friends and family
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http://www.thestate.com/312/story/434844.html
Clyburn earmarks may benefit friends and family
The Associated Press
South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn has earmarked millions of taxpayer dollars this decade for projects that could directly benefit his friends and family members, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The Sun News of Myrtle Beach found that Clyburn has set aside at least $6.2 million for such projects. That includes money for two projects his nephew was to help design, a community center that runs a program employing his sister-in-law and a Columbia wellness center that employs his daughter.
Clyburn is the House majority whip. He was the sole sponsor for 32 earmarks totaling $38.8 million in the current budget. In contrast, all of South Carolina's other lawmakers combined to sole-sponsor $45.5 million in earmarks in the same budget.
Clyburn's office did not return calls seeking comment, although he has repeatedly defended the earmark process, telling reporters last year that the special provisions help provide for community needs.
"I don't see that as wasteful government spending," he told reporters in February 2007. "I see that as responding to the needs these people said they had."
Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonprofit group that watches taxpayer money, calls Clyburn "hostile" toward taxpayers because of what is termed an extravagant use of public money.
"Mr. Clyburn is notorious for questionable earmarks," said Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for the group.
The group once named Clyburn as its Porker of the Month because he set aside $3 million in a military spending bill for the First Tee nonprofit agency. First Tee operates a program at a Columbia golf course named after the congressman. Clyburn defended the money on the House floor, saying the money would benefit military families.
This year's budget includes at least four earmarks that could benefit people close to Clyburn.
The veteran lawmaker helped secure $784,000 for the planning and design of the International African American Museum in Charleston. Clyburn's nephew, Derrick Ballard, is one of the lead architects on that project.
Similarly, in 2005, Clyburn earmarked $145,500 for a community center to be designed by Ballard.
He also set aside $229,000 in this year's budget to the Charles R. Drew Wellness Center in Columbia - a facility he helped construct with a 2003 earmark of $990,000. His daughter, Angela, is the marketing and membership director there.
He got $282,000 appropriated for The South Sumter Resource Center in Sumter, where his sister-in-law, Gwendolyn Clyburn, is housing coordinator for the center's community development division. He's secured $670,000 for the resource center in past budgets.
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4) Exclusive: Critics rip Harrell for lobbying
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/434433.html
Exclusive: Critics rip Harrell for lobbying
House speaker denies intervention with state agency for Medicaid insurer was improper; his company later profited
By JOHN O’CONNOR
joconnor@thestate.com
House Speaker Bobby Harrell asked a state agency last year to quickly approve allowing a Medicaid insurer a new option to purchase drugs.
Since the request by the insurer, Charleston-based Select Health of South Carolina, was allowed, Select Health has spent thousands of dollars with a drug company Harrell owns.
According to e-mails obtained under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act, Harrell asked the state Department of Health and Human Services to quickly review a request to allow Medicaid managed-care company Select Health to use “pharmaceutical repackaging.”
Pharmaceutical repackagers are an emerging industry. The repackaging companies buy generic drugs wholesale, repackage them into smaller amounts and sell the smaller amounts to doctors for sale in their offices.
Harrell owns Palmetto State Pharmaceuticals, a Charleston-based repackager that sells PrimaryRX-labeled generics, according to his statement of economic interest filed with the State Ethics Commission.
Any resulting sales, Harrell said, are a tiny fraction of his company’s business.
Critics of the deal have questioned Harrell using his position as speaker of the House to intervene in a matter from which he would profit. Others believe his business ties to Medicaid are hypocritical following a floor speech this year during debate to raise the cigarette tax. In that speech, Harrell criticized expanding the Medicaid program, saying it would create a generation of children who felt entitled to state-funded health care.
The issue of pharmaceutical repackaging is at the center of a growing debate in the medical community. Pharmacists say they are worried that doctors selling drugs directly to patients could open the door to more medical errors. Harrell said he is being criticized because the burgeoning repackaging industry will cut into the bottom line of traditional pharmacists.
“There’s nothing that my company is doing that is inappropriate in any way,” Harrell said, adding that he was upfront with the agency about his interest in the matter. “I find myself from time to time, like any other business owner, I need to talk to state government about what we’re doing.”
WORKING HHS
Harrell and Select Health both noted that the company required no approval from Health and Human Services to use pharmaceutical repackagers — it was already allowed under federal rules — and that no one asked the agency to change any of its rules. Harrell said he was trying to help the company, the state’s largest Medicaid managed-care provider, save money and help patients more easily obtain their prescriptions.
Select Health spokeswoman Tracy Pou said the company contracts with physicians, who are free to choose whichever drug supplier they want. Harrell said his company does not deal directly with insurers, such as Select Health, only physicians.
Physicians with Select Health contracts, Harrell said, account for at most $7,000 of business, or a fraction of 1 percent of Palmetto State Pharmaceutical’s sales across the Southeast. About half the company’s sales, Harrell said, are accounted for by patients who pay without insurance. Select Health’s query about pharmaceutical repackaging began in 2006, when the company first inquired about its legality. Health and Human Services told the company Aug. 30, 2006, that Medicaid rules allowed those services.
A year later the company filed a Medicaid contract addendum with Health and Human Services to begin using pharmaceutical repackaging.
One day after Select Health filed its application on Sept. 18, Harrell contacted the agency to ask it to speed the approval of the insurer’s request.
According to the e-mails, Harrell met with new Department of Health and Human Services director Emma Forkner to introduce himself and discuss Select Health’s application.
“Speaker Harrell said he has a company that does pharmacy repackaging,” a Health and Human Services employee wrote in an e-mail sent to Forkner on Sept. 19. “He has a contract with Select Health and says the company has sent us a three-page addendum that will need to be approved for Select to implement this effort with their physicians. ... He was asking for expedited approval, if possible.”
In an e-mail sent the next month, Forkner asked staff about the approval.
“Any update on (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) review of the contract addition for Select Health?” Forkner wrote. “I never know when we will get a call from Bobby Harrell.”
In mid-October, Health and Human Services told the company it did not need state or federal approval to begin using pharmaceutical repackaging firms.
HARRELL AND SELECT HEALTH
Both Harrell and Select Health said there is no contract, and never has been, between Select Health and Harrell’s Palmetto State Pharmaceuticals. Instead, said Select Health spokeswoman Pou, doctors are free to choose from whom they buy drugs.
Pou said Select Health does not recommend drug providers.
Select Health is the state’s largest Medicaid managed-care provider, growing from $61.2 million of Medicaid services in 2003 to an estimated $190 million this year, according to Health and Human Services. In 2007, the company served 67,592 state residents.
Harrell said he inquired on behalf of Select Health because he considers them a constituent. The company is located across the Ashley River from Harrell’s Charleston district.
Since 2005, Select Health has donated at least $11,500 to Harrell’s campaign account or his political action committee. Pou said the company gives annually to lawmakers in both parties, and that the contributions are disclosed.
State Rep. Kris Crawford, a Florence Republican and the Legislature’s only physician, defended Harrell.
“Is it unusual for a business guy to reach out to an agency and ask them to move faster? The answer is ‘no,’” Crawford said. “We reach out for all the other business people. Who is (Harrell’s) legislator to call?”
BUSINESS OF MEDICAID
Prosperity physician Oscar Lovelace, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2006, said the deal is another example of business interests — specifically managed-care companies — using their resources to lobby for a larger share of Medicaid. Lovelace is concerned that low-income and rural patients would be underserved in order to increase profits.
“We have turned Medicaid over to big businesses,” Lovelace said. “I think they like Medicaid managed care because of political contributions and business connections and not because they care about the poor people in this state.”
The real issue, Harrell said, is that his business would cut out pharmacists. The South Carolina Pharmacy Association opposes that, saying that eliminating pharmacists could open the door for more errors.
“It has more potential for patients to get hurt,” said Carmelo Cinqueonce, executive director of the South Carolina Pharmacy Association. Cinqueonce also said doctors would have a conflict of interest, saying they would have a profit motive to prescribe more.
But Crawford said he supported allowing doctors to sell prescriptions. Too often, Crawford said, the medical community tries to limit who can provide certain services. The Pharmacy Association, he said, has no problem with doctors at free clinics giving out drugs.
“I’m all for those boundaries when they’re patient safety-related,” Crawford said. “Anybody who is competent, and it’s safe to do so, should be allowed to render the service.”
Many people never deal with a pharmacist directly, Crawford said. Cinqueonce disagreed, saying that those who take many prescriptions, or live in rural areas, often know their pharmacist.
WHO’S ENTITLED
House Democrats said they felt Harrell’s comments during the cigarette tax debate went beyond criticizing the program and, instead, were a criticism of those who use Medicaid.
Harrell led the way in sustaining Gov. Mark Sanford’s veto of a 50-cents-a-pack increase of South Carolina’s lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax. Harrell opposed spending the proceeds on Medicaid. He said on the House floor he thought expanding the Medicaid program would create a generation that feels “entitled” to state-funded health care.
Those same critics of Harrell’s entitlement speech argue a powerful lawmaker intervening on behalf of a business interest could be labeled entitlement behavior, as well.
“I have always believed that everybody ought to be fed from the same spoon,” said state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg. “Given the speaker’s comments on the tobacco tax, I don’t want to think there is a different standard being applied here.”
Harrell said a vote to expand Medicaid could have meant more sales for his company. The cigarette tax debate, he said, is a separate issue.
“That only makes sense if you’re trying to take a shot at me,” Harrell said.
Reach O’Connor at (803) 771-8358.
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5) Hollings takes on Sam Donaldson
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http://www.thestate.com/154/story/435146.html
Hollings takes on Sam Donaldson
For years, Fritz Hollings was a staple of Sunday morning news-talk shows. Then, as the former U.S. senator recounts in his new book, an on-air clash with ABC’s Sam Donaldson marked Hollings’ final appearance on “This Week with David Brinkley.”
During this period, Texas Senator Phil Gramm and I had agreed to appear on ABC’s “This Week with David Brinkley” on Sept. 16, 1990.
As members of the Budget Committee — and authors of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings legislation — we had been invited to discuss the summit on the budget deficit that had been convened between senior administration officials and congressional leaders at Andrews Air Force Base.
Sam Donaldson was up to his usual tricks when in the middle of the budget discussions, he veered off the subject.
“Senator,” Donaldson asked me, “you’re from the great textile-producing state of South Carolina. Is it true you have a Korean tailor?”
Before I could respond, Donaldson interjected: “Let’s see the label in there. What is the label in there?”
“I bought it,” I replied, “the same place right down the street where, if you want to personalize this thing, where you got that wig, Sam.”
“Well,” said Donaldson, now himself off guard, “I just want to ask you because it’s (the story of my imported suit) out there.”
“Well,” I responded, “I’ve got to give it back to you, if you want to personalize it. That’s the trouble. We play games with this thing. It’s too serious a problem to be playing.”
“I’m not playing a game,” Donaldson said. “I’m asking you a question.”
The recording room burst into an uproar.
David Brinkley, the show’s host, immediately gave a “time-out” signal to Gramm and me to get off the set.
Phil and I ducked off to wait in the side hospitality room for Sam to come. The cameramen crowded in crying, “You got him. You got him. You’ve got to have a drink with him.”
I waited for an hour, but Sam didn’t come off the set. As I left the studio, I knew this encounter would generate hard feelings.
“Take a long look around this studio,” I advised my press secretary, “we won’t be invited back here any time soon.”
I had been on the very first “This Week with David Brinkley” show in 1981 and usually appeared four or five times during the year.
Not any more.
I was never invited back.
That episode shows another reason that Washington doesn’t work these days.
It’s not just a reflection of lawmakers’ constant preoccupation with chasing campaign dollars.
We also are failing people because journalists too often are in the business of pursuing sideshows and not looking at the big picture.
— From Chapter 12: Missed Opportunities, pages 239-240; excerpted with permission of the University of South Carolina Press
Buy Hollings' book -> http://tinyurl.com/4vj6ox
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