Knowing the “players” in SCGOP politics is key … and with a lot of new participants in the Republican Party organization statewide, it is important to know “who” the players were on the stage at the 2023 SCGOP State Convention on Saturday May 20th.
We have already introduced you to Rep. Brandon Newton (R – Lancaster & Kershaw) who functioned as the Convention President, ramrodding the convention through in favor of the “establishment” and to the dismay and horror of many newcomers.
But another one of the parties on the stage was attorney Karl Smith Bowers Jr., aka Butch Bowers, Esq.
Bowers, as many will remember, is the attorney who was paid $60,000 by convicted killer Alex Murdaugh to use his “connections” to get Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, readmitted to the University of South Carolina School of Law. (HERE and HERE.) Buster was kicked out at the end of his second semester in 2019 after being accused of plagiarism, according to a September 2021 report in The Wall Street Journal.
The South Carolina is a good-ol’-boy system at it’s finest.
Trump Impeachment Lawyer: Butch Bowers is also the attorney that Senator Lindsey Graham reportedly recommended President TRUMP hire for the second impeachment trial (HERE – January 21, 2021) … and who TRUMP parted ways with, a few days later (HERE – January 30, 2021).
The parting was allegedly due to a failure to disclose Bowers’ close relationship with former S.C. governor Nikki Haley. Considering they are now both vying for the 2024 Republican Presidential Nominee slot, parting ways was probably a smart move on President TRUMP’s part.
2022 SCGOP Election Protests Hearings: Bowers was also the attorney the SCGOP brought in for the summer of 2022 Republican Primary election protest hearings before the SCGOP State Executive Committee.
Bowers specifically opined that the appeal hearing in the Joe Dill v. Joey Russo Greenville County Council primary race was timely. A plain language reading of the law clearly demonstrated that the SCGOP had missed the deadline, but when challenged during the protest hearing by then Greenville County Republican Party Chairman Jeff Davis, Mr. Bowers simply stated that attorneys can have differing opinions.
Russo won his appeal even though the the hearing was held untimely under SC State Law. Unfortunately no appeal was lodged by Mr. Dill with the SC Supreme Court as to the timeliness of the hearing, so we don’t have a legal ruling on the dispute.
Linked to Hit Pieces on SC Freedom Caucus Members?: Mr. Bowers has a long history of SCGOP “establishment” service, but most recently, Mr. Bowers was linked by FITSNEWS to hit piece mailers against a SC Freedom Caucus member.
There have been a lot of hit piece mailers and texts over the past few months … but ask yourself “who” would be behind it? The SCGOP leadership perhaps? Monied special interest? Some have even opined that the hit pieces are by Freedom Caucus allies to garner sympathy? A longshot for sure, but you never know … it is politics, and politics is all about the mental and information manipulation of constituents and voters. Trust no one!!!
FITSNEWS, May 25, 2023: “The lawyer behind this mudslinging? It is none other than Columbia, S.C.-based shyster Butch Bowers – who as I noted recently has a “reputation for dirty pool” and a history of repping politicos who find themselves under ethical clouds. …” [CONTINUE READING]
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The mailer in question came out just a few days after the SCGOP State Convention, specifically against Rep. Josiah Magnuson (R – Spartanburg), and was “Paid for by South Carolinians for Common Sense”.
And “who” exactly is “South Carolinians for Common Sense”? We don’t know yet … and may never know … but we do know it is a newly formed (March 17th, 2023) South Carolina non-profit and the Registered Agent is none other than attorney Butch Bowers.
Yes, he may just be doing the legal work … and maybe he had no idea what “South Carolinians for Common Sense” were planning on doing … but seriously, do we really think he had no idea?
Again, it is the South Carolina good-ol’-boy system.
Remember, nothing is as it seems in SC politics … or politics in general … but it is important to know the players and the backstories if you do not want to be manipulated into supporting the “wrong” person.
It is also important to know that these people are “paid” to do a job. They may be nice people, but they are not your friends … and they are not here necessarily to promote the conservative cause … or even the Republican Platform. Many say that is especially true if they work for the current SCGOP leadership.
As we teach, “Watch what they DO, not what they SAY.”
Butch Bowers, Esq. is a political player … you should know who he is.
Greenville County Republican Party Chair sends another piece full of wisdom, interesting analogies and perspectives. Read, Learn & Enjoy …
September 20th, 2023
Dear Greenville County Republican Party Executive Committeemen, Body & Associates,
If someone told you that the two lines below were not the same length, would they be a liar?
If that same person told you they had a PhD from MIT in line measurement, would you bother to measure the lines for yourself? If someone you dislike intensely tells you the lines are the same length, what is your response?
If you haven’t bothered to measure the lines for yourself, which of the two people mentioned above are you more likely to believe?
If you are in a group with all your best friends and people you go to for advice and they all tell you the lines are different lengths, what is your response.
If you do measure the lines and find something different from what you have been taught to believe, what is your response?
Likely most if not all of you have seen this optical illusion before and know that the lines are actually of equal length. But isn’t it fascinating that even after you know this, you still see them as different.
This is an analogy to the power of lies. You can’t “unhear” or “unsee” them once they have been put into your mind. So even after you know the truth, a lie you heard still has some power. People who purposefully and routinely use the various forms of lying know this.
The questions I asked are simplistic, but they raise the important issues of the kinds of lies people tell, why they work on us and what we can do about it.
I thought you might get a kick out of a Newsmax summary of Biden lies below.
These lies of commission are so blatant and easily disproven one has to ask why tell them? But Biden is relying on his expert/authority power. Some of you may recall from a previous newsletter the statistic that up to 25% of the time, a co-pilot in a simulator flight will not challenge the pilot on a decision and the plane crashes. Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals encourages people to pretend they have expert power by teaching “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have”.
How many of us will question our doctor, a lawyer, or academics. How many of us will look up a candidate’s actual donation record in the FEC and find out about PAC donations. Not nearly enough-which is why lies can work. We are doing better as a delightful Riley Gaines video shows. She is speaking about the differences between male and female skeletons, some guy who calls himself the “expert in the room” disagrees and the room break into laughter. What are YOUR solutions to experts or authority figures who lie? Be courageous and willing to respectfully challenge anyone trying to influence or control you, get second opinions, don’t be rushed into decision making and do your own research.
Lies of omission are those that mislead you by intentionally leaving out relevant information or making suggestions. The person that tells you the lines above are different lengths because they look that way but doesn’t tell you he or she hasn’t measured them is leaving out relevant facts. We can expect these kinds of lies from people who need to convince themselves that their moral compass is intact or have convinced themselves their cause is so good, that the ends justify the means.
“They engage in something we call justified dishonesty,” said Shaul Shalvi, who runs the Behavioral Ethics Lab at the University of Amsterdam. It happens when people’s desire to be ethical clash with the desire to profit or get something. In that case people are willing to lie just a bit “as long as it seems legit,” Shalvi said (New York Post, April 2016). We protect ourselves against this kind of behavior by listening carefully and “peeling the onion”. Keep asking who, what, where when why questions until the truth is revealed. “Is Yvonne Julian one of those Krystle Matthews sleepers” as a Facebook post said recently, is this kind of lie.
Likeability, the human tendency of reciprocity and “we think” can make us believe liars, and sometimes with tragic consequences. The serial killer Ted Bundy was well known for his ability to convince women he needed help because of his looks and immediate likeability. It is unwise to assume that someone we dislike intensely can never tell the truth or have some knowledge we can put to good use.
A woman survived the Jonestown Massacre because she purposefully never took any of the special favors Jim Jones offered her, so didn’t feel obligated to reciprocate and comply when he asked her to drink the poisoned beverage that killed 900 people. “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”, “there is no such thing as a free lunch” and other bits of wisdom remind us that gifts can be used to make us accept lies out of obligation to the gift giver.
Even a group of people we like would be wrong if they told us the lines in our optical illusion are different lengths, but we would be less likely to dispute them. According to one research study, “people were willing to follow the norms of a group, even when they knew the norms to be unconnected to reality, provided they felt a strong shared identity within the group”. (Pryor, Perfors, & Howe, 2019).
Yes, it is just as easy to be a GOP Sweep bobblehead as a Jeff Davis bobblehead.
I hope you find this brief overview of how and why lies work and how we can fight their influence helpful. Lies are common currency in the political arena, so learning how to combat them is very important-especially for grassroots activists like many of us who do not want to develop lying skills as a tool to gain power, influence or money.
I know our HQ Republicats agree! I hope you do, too!
Are you sick of the fundraising emails and text messages we are all getting from XYZ second & third tier presidential candidates?
We got one from Tim Scott the other day saying send me a “critical $15 gift” to help him travel to New Hampshire. Like Tim really needs our $15 added to the $21 MILLION he already has in his campaign account. But worse, they also encouraged the donation because Tim was allegedly taking off in the polls. So … we thought we would fact check it and see if it was true.
Well per the Real Clear Politics average of national GOP polls (HERE), Tim Scott was 3.4% on June 14th … and 2.4% on September 13th. That sounds like common core math to me if Tim’s people think that is “taking off” … but that is another article for another day.
But it did remind us that one of the best polls to to consider are the RCP Betting Averages. Specifically tracking where people in Vegas and elsewhere are putting they real money.
NO, relax, we are not promoting “gambling” because whatever all of our personal reasons might be to oppose gambling, we are “numbers people” and we know gambling is a BAD BET as the house always wins!!!
But we do know a lot of you do not trust the polls or pollsters. They sometimes seem to tell us things we don’t see out there on main street … sometimes to influence us one way or another … and who knows what the personal bias may be of a pollster … or “who” is actually paying for the poll in the first place. There is just too much opportunity for manipulation.
But, although the betting numbers can be manipulated as well … it is much more expensive to do so … and over time it gets back to actual public sentiment as to the state of the races.
There are 3 main betting odds tacking numbers, (#1) who will be elected President on 11/05/2024, (#2) who will win the GOP Nomination, & (#3) who will win the Democrat nomination.
The data is very interesting to track. Hope you find this useful …
1: To Win President
BIDEN: 33.3% odds (falling) TRUMP: 29.0% (rising) Newsome (not even in the race): 7.0% DeSantis: 6.0% Ramaswamy: 5.1% Obama (not even in the race): 4.9% Kennedy: 4.9% Haley: 3.4% Harris (not even in the race): 3.1%
TRUMP: 62.8% odds DeSantis: 11.9% Ramaswamy: 8.6% Haley: 6.3% Youngkin (not even in the race): 3.3% Christie: (2.1%) Scott: 1.9% Pence: 1.4% Kemp (not even in the race): 1.0%
BIDEN: 60.8% odds Newsome (not even in the race): 12.5% Obama (not even in the race): 8.0% Harris (not even in the race): 6.0% Kennedy: 4.9% Clinton (not even in the race): 2.4%
Precinct lines, county lines, SC House, SC Senate, County Council, School Board, City Wards, Fire District, other election district lines, etc., etc., etc … NONE OF THESE LINES MATCH UP!
It is extremely frustrating (maybe by design) to “organize” a county of 151 precincts and hundreds of elected and appointed officials … much less the entire state of 2,261 precincts and thousands of elected officials … but we have found a way!!!
Big County Example:
Let’s use Greenville County since that is our home base.
ZONES:
Greenville, as the biggest county with a population of 547,950 people, has 151 precincts (a few counties have more precincts). It is like herding cats! 151 times 2 (EC & President) = 302 people!!! After two years as Chairman of the Greenville County Republican Party (GCRP) … I did not even know all our ECs & Presidents. Well, that is a problem!!!
So … we split the county up into 12 “Zones”. We wanted to do it by our 12 county council districts, but with the two Democrat districts totally gerrymandered … that was not going to work. So, we just divided the 151 precincts down into 12 rough GEOGRAPHIC ZONES.
It is not perfect … but that is OK as nothing is perfect and knowing that adjoining precincts and Zones are expected to work together anyhow helped. We had to start somewhere that included ALL of your county precincts, and this was it.
PRECINCT ELECTION-ZONES:
NEXT … and this is “THE FUN STUFF” as we call it … we set-up precinct Election-Zones based on election districts.
We obviously started with the most important target election districts … you know, the biggest RINOs and SC Republican Party Platform “covenant breakers” as our good friend & GCRP Legislative Chair Harrison Musselwhite likes to call them.
Below are just two examples for the Greenville County Council members that recently “broke covenant” and unnecessarily raised our property taxes (HERE & HERE).
CO-LEADERS / TEAMS:
FINALLY … we appointed Co-Leaders for each of these Election-Zones … a “TEAM” of motivated & SC Republican Platform believing individuals who can work together cooperatively (ie, no egos, etc.) and are looking to focus (or cross-focus) on their specific ZONE or ELECTION-ZONE (or both).
GROW, GROW, GROW!!!
The most refreshing thing in all of this is WE have motivated SC PATRIOTS all over Greenville & South Carolina that are making it happen … and more are coming in the door every day!!!
In Greenville County alone, our target is 10,000 ACTIVE members … and as crazy as that number seemed in the beginning … I think our people are going to make it happen!!!
God Bless America!!!
[NOTE: Greenville County Council Election-Zone 25 below is a Democrat district as indicated from the gerrymandered lines. Before it has been nearly impossible to organize these geographically dispersed precincts … but now we have a process that works. So, even though the Precinct Election-Zones are needed for RINOs … they are ideal for left leaning Democrats as well.]
Small County Example:
Now, small counties are a tiny bit different … so let’s look at Allendale County.
ZONE – singular:
Allendale, as South Carolina’s smallest county with a population of 7,579 people, only has 8 precincts. That is pretty manageable for a County Chair… so really the entire Allendale County Republican Party is “the Zone”.
PRECINCT ELECTION-ZONES:
But small counties are very different when it comes to the fun part … the Election-Zones.
Allendale for example has 5 County Council Districts, so presumable they will have 5 small Election-Zones for each district (unless elected countywide like some city wards, we do not know specifically for Allendale but are checking).
But, Allendale also has a single SC House member … and that Allendale SC House Rep. also represents Barnwell & Orangeburg Counties. So, guess what, our Allendale friends get to work cooperatively with precincts from two other counties as this Precinct Election-Zone crosses county lines!!! Fun!!!
Likewise, Allendale has TWO SC State Senators. One representing Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton & Orangeburg Counties … and the other representing Allendale, Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton, Hampton & Jasper Counties. That is a total of NINE COUNTIES. It seems intimidating … but it is actually exciting as you get to work with a larger geographic area (which you will soon see, becomes important … stay tuned!).
Yes … the big counties do have some Election-Zones that cross our county line as well … so here in Greenville we get to have fun working with our friends in Pickens, Anderson, Laurens, Union & Spartanburg as well … but this is much more important in the small counties, so we wanted to introduce you to this concept.
Exciting Times!
So my friends, all of this is a lot of work to put together. We have some fantastic people working on this here in Greenville and I know others around South Carolina that are doing fantastic things locally themselves. We can ALL contribute to the cause … and we can ALL learn from each other.
This is what America is all about!!!
This is “real” GRASSROOTS!!!
So, even though it is hard work … once it is done, it is DONE (at least until the 2030 census & redistricting).
SO … GET BUSY ORGANIZING MY FRIENDS!!!
SaveAmerica #SaveSouthCarolina #SaveTheChildren
Dum spiro spero
Best,
Jeff Davis, JD, MBA, CPA(GA) Chairman & Co-Founder, mySCGOP.com State EC & former Chairman, Greenville County Republican Party #SchoolChoice jeff@apogeetax.com 843-901-8036 (cell)