Monday, Jan. 17, just before 3 p.m., a phalanx of local Republican political troops marched en masse into the Election Commission, plunked down $208 and re-upped for state representative. All Republican incumbents from Districts 32-38 decided to give it another go. I laud them for their continued involvement in the civic process.
No Democrats filed in opposition. All of the incumbents are fine people, but their votes are not fine for local constituents. A recent example was the overwhelming state Senate rejection of H-3101, essentially a nullification of “Obamacare.” Five of the seven local representatives were among the sponsors of a bill that would have had no chance to be upheld in the courts. The predominantly Republican Senate voted down the House-passed bill 33-9.
District 32 is the home of a 92-page class action suit filed in January on behalf of Cannon’s Campground residents, a great number of them with potentially deadly health effects that the suit maintains were caused by a succession of District 32 manufacturers releasing chemicals on the ground and into the nearby waters of the Pacolet River and Cherokee Creek.
The Koch Brothers once owned one of the defendant companies, Invista. Find the Jan. 13, 2014, Internet edition of right-leaning Fitsnews. It pretty well sums up the horror. Some of this pollution happened on the representative’s watch.
Democrats have no say in Columbia, while the corporate-owned American Legislative Exchange Council, claiming a membership of 65 South Carolina legislators, exercises undue influence with their model legislation. Democrats must step forward. The filing period ends at noon Sunday, March 30. Commission offices will be open that day from 8-noon.
