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the Upstate Republican Women

Feb. 16 meeting: Constituents thank Sen. Jim DeMint for fighting

When Sen. Jim DeMint dropped by to address the Upstate Republican Women’s luncheon meeting Jan. 16 at the Poinsett Club, he was met with a standing ovation. The visibly moved senator said the standing ovation was like “getting an infusion of energy,” as “Washington is sucking the life out of me.”

The senator went on to say that “a few years ago people would say, why didn’t you do this or why didn’t you do that, now they just grab my arm and say, ‘Thanks for fighting.’ ”

The senator said that the nation’s only hope is that people and groups be informed and activated and start calling their government to account. He goes to talk radio and Fox News to make his case directly to the American people.

During last year’s debate over immigration reform, GOP congressional leaders gave copies of the legislation to talk show hosts and bloggers, which they read, posted on the web and told their listeners what was contained in the bill. In response, millions of angry Americans called or e-mailed their representatives and defeated that bill.

GOP leaders did the same with legislation about earmarks and the offshore drilling moratorium. Sen. DeMint said that this has even helped put a spine in some Republican legislators who were sitting on the sidelines waiting to see which way the wind would blow.

“We can decide which way the wind blows if we let Americans know what is really going on,” he said.

Sen. DeMint said that a lot of people in Washington do not understand that people make the economy work, and that free markets, not the government, create jobs. The President and his advisers have not participated in the private markets, started their own businesses and signed the front of a paycheck.

“I think most Americans understand intuitively that something is wrong, Sen. DeMint said, and “as long as we have people out here who believe, we can turn things around no matter what Washington does.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House Majority Whip, has promised to make Sen. DeMint a project for defeat when he runs for reelection in 2010. “Many think that South Carolina moved to the left in the last election,” Sen. DeMint said. “We need to show them that South Carolina hasn’t.”

Sen. DeMint said that in Mark Sanford, “we have a governor who understands that you cannot spend your way out of problems. You have to set priorities and cut spending and create a good business environment. I think he is pulling a lot of the legislature along with him, some kicking and screaming, but he is out there fighting for what I think is the right cause for Republicans.”

Sen. DeMint asked URW members to go onto his web site at JimDeMint.com and subscribe to his e-mail updates. He wants to counter negative campaign ads in the coming campaign, which he said will accuse him of voting against children, veterans and farmers. With several hundred thousand e-mails, he can have a readership larger than all the newspapers in the state.

Rep. Bob Inglis, who was at the Poinsett Club for another meeting, greeted the Upstate Republican Women, before the senator arrived.

After Sen. DeMint spoke, Samuel Harms, Greenville County GOP chairman, spoke to the group about the Republican county and state conventions and about a lawsuit he is filing on behalf of the party to end South Carolina’s open party primary system that allows members of either party to vote in the other party’s primary elections.

Betty Poe, the Greenville County GOP first vice chair, spoke about precinct reorganization meetings to take place March 2 at 7 p.m. at polling locations.

Kevin Hall, candidate for state GOP chairman, visited the meeting and talked with URW members and guests.

Suzette Jordan, URW president, chaired the meeting.

Deb Sofield speaks at Jan. 20 meeting

Deb Sofield, a member of the Commission of Public Works, discussed the Greenville Water System at our Jan. 20 meeting.

The commission had its beginnings in the early part of the 20th century with a group of citizens who were concerned about the need of water in the area. That group later became the Commission of Public Works, of which Deb was the first female member. She was appointed to the commission by Mayor Knox White and was elected to the board in a citywide election in 2007.

The water system owns and protects three water sources made up of 30,000 acres of watershed: the Table Rock and Poinsett reservoirs and Lake Keowee. They provide water to Greenville as well as many of the towns in the surrounding area. They use a process of treating the water, the Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) treatment system, that instead of allowing impurities to settle on the bottom of the water source uses air bubbles to float impurities to the surface where they are skimmed off.

The commission is dedicated to protecting our resources and keeps trespassers out of the watersheds. Deb reminded us that the signs that warn people to stay out of the area mean what they say.

The 2009 budget was also presented and approved.

Upstate Women hear from Susan Reynolds, Amy Ryberg-Doyle,
install 2009 officers at Dec. 16 meeting

Kathy Sheppard signed her new book
I Lost My Husband, Not My Mind

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer speaks
to Upstate Republican Women Oct. 21

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said that the state’s current budget shortfall that prompted Gov. Mark Sanford to call the state legislature back into session “makes Republicans remember why we are Republicans.”

At every level of government, Republicans have been elected Republicans who haven’t acted as Republicans. Bauer said he was elected to rule out tax increases and that the South Carolina government already has more money than it needs.

Bauer made these comments to the Upstate Republican Women meeting at the Poinsett Club Oct. 21.

“One thing that always united us as a party since my mother started dragging me to Republican women’s club meetings back when Goldwater was around,” Bauer said, “was that we thought that government could run more efficiently for less dollars.”
It was easy to differentiate between Republicans and Democrats, he said, because Democrats wanted to grow every social program. Republicans argued that there were many things government should not be involved in, that faith-based organizations, family, friends and neighborhoods should help people out when they have problems.

 “We have a lot of people who used to be Democrats who are now Republicans,” Bauer said. “We want to be a big tent party, but when we welcome these folks we must be sure we do not give up our essential values just to get new members.”

Bauer said that Gov. Dick Riley (1979-1987) promised that if he got a one cent tax increase he would solve all the education woes, and President Bill Clinton even made him his secretary of education. “I’m going to clue you in on a little secret,” Bauer said. “We are still in the same place we were 30 years ago. That penny hasn’t fixed it. You can spend all the money in the world, but if you do not have discipline, if you do not have structure, if you do not have an authoritative figure in the teacher, you are not going to change that environment,” adding that “when they took God out of the schools you can look at the test scores and see a dramatic decline in what has happened over the years.”

Bauer said that people who receive goods and services from the government ought to give something back, such as those who receive government help for their children should be mandated to attend parent-teacher conferences.

 “I can’t read Lyndon Johnson’s mind,” Bauer said. “He is still my second least favorite president, but maybe his intentions were good. Maybe he really thought that mothers who were left by men needed help, and that is understandable, but we are finding six generations deep now of aid to independent mothers that took a family and rewarded them only if the male left. So there were families who wanted to stay together but the financial incentive was to get the man to leave and have more children. So we incentivized bad behavior.”  

Bauer said that politicians don’t want to offend anyone, but that we must have backbones to make a change in politics.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told Bauer that when he was lieutenant governor in Arkansas he was basically like the spare tire on your car. It is kept out of the way, in the dark and all pumped up just in case they need you.

Four years ago Gov. Sanford and the legislature helped Bauer with a campaign promise to increase the duties of the lieutenant governor to be more than just a glorified ribbon cutter. Bauer had just lost both his paternal grandparents, and he was offered the Office on Aging, which administers everything from Meals on Wheels to hurricane evacuations and nursing home investigations.

South Carolina is now the fifth largest state for in-migration of seniors. Six states this year modeled South Carolina legislation. Bauer said that people are looking to us and saying, What are they doing in South Carolina?

Bauer has been pushing law enforcement and media to pick up what is called a Silver Alert, like an Amber alert. When a person demonstrates he cannot take care of himself, and if they go missing, we would put out a Silver alert.

Bauer has conducted 13 listening sessions with seniors on how they have been taken advantage of by senior fraud. Bauer said: “We will make the message clear. If you take advantage of seniors in South Carolina we will try to put you in jail.”

Bauer said his 2006 light plane crash was probably the best thing that ever happened to him because it let him experience what it was like to be disabled. “It let me see exactly what it was like to ask others for help,” Bauer said. “A lot of you prayed for me and I appreciate it.”

Bauer was introduced by Vice President Donna Gottshall. Suzette Jordan is president of the club.

 

 

 

Join us for our next luncheon meeting, March 17, at the Poinsett Club in downtown Greenville.

Send an e-mail to Connie Holmes by Friday, March 13, at constanceholmes@holmes-law.com or call Connie at 271-2381

Our speaker will be Henry McMaster, South Carolina attorney general.

Officers

Suzette Jordan, president
Linda Garner, vice president
Sheri Chavers, secretary
Connie Holmes, treasurer
Brenda Schoolfield, president ex officio

Newsletter

Links
Greenville County Republican Party
South Carolina Republican Party
South Carolina Federation of Republican Women
National Federation of Republican Women

State of the State Address, Jan. 14: Rep. Wendy Nanney (standing), Cheryl Cowart (left) and Suzette Jordan.

Katon Dawson Christmas Party, Dec. 11. From left: LaDonna Ryggs, Linda Garner, Katon Dawson, state GOP chairman and Suzette Jordan.

State Attorney Genernal Henry McMaster Christmas Party, Dec. 18. From left: