With the S.C. Senate Republican Caucus almost evenly-divided between reformers and RINOcrats, there’s a vigorous battle being waged for the heart and soul of the so-called “majority” party.
With hundreds of millions of state tax dollars at stake – which way will the GOP go?
Will Republicans continue to follow the Marxist march of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman and pour more money (and more power) into the same failed institutions?
Or will they rally around conservative reformers like Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) and Phil Shoopman (R-Greenville) who are fighting to put taxpayers first for a change?
A recent vote on an alternative budget provided a snapshot of the battle lines, although within the 27-member GOP caucus are five “mushy middle” Senators who can break either way.
In this touch-and-go battle to determine the party’s destiny, a key player continues to be RINO lobbyist J. Warren Tompkins – a former consulting “guru” who spends most of his time these days advancing the legislative agenda of dozens of left-leaning special interests.
Recently, though, Tompkins pulled off a political coup by placing a former employee of his political consulting firm in a key GOP Caucus position.
This employee – who uses a S.C. Senate e-mail address – is also reportedly receiving rent-free office space in a government building as well as other taxpayer-funded amenities.
But is he working on behalf of the Caucus? Or on behalf of Tompkins?
FITS has filed a FOIA with the State Senate attempting to determine precisely what the relationship is – and to determine what sort of influence Tompkins is weilding through his former charge.
Stay tuned …
By Dan May 12, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Wesley Donehue calls himself a political consultant, but isn’t he just the water-boy for Tomkins and Terry Sullivan?
His “client” list on his website lists a lot of candidates whose races were clearly managed by others. Has he ever even run a campaign? Just because you do somebody’s website doesn’t mean you can list them as a client.
Anyway, Donehue should realize that grown-up consultants don’t have to write about their “clients” on their website.
And why is Tompkins and Sullivan’s aide working for the Republican Caucus anyway?
By Incestuous relationships May 12, 2009 at 3:15 pm
1. So that the newly regrouped TTS could get him off their payroll for a while, who gave up that favor
2. To entrap as many senators as possible into the Tompkins, Sullivan, Donahue triad of so-called new media/blog websites that cost nothing to build, a retarded monkey could do it blindfolded
okay we stole the retarded monkey comment from FITS
By Shocked May 12, 2009 at 4:17 pm
just out on the RSS feed..
http://scsenategop.com/chat-with-senator-larry-martin-at-930-am-tomorrow.htm
looks like SOMEONE changed his email address!
By superintendentgumboy May 12, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Whoa there crazy man!! You made a freaking FOIA request?
How manly, how ballsy. Perhaps the next thing you could
do is actually ask some questions of the principle players.
By Incestuous relationships May 12, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Shockingly this is not on that other wannabe SCHotline.com news aggregator reportedly run by TTS and a handful of the RINO SC Senator’s under it’s thumb… Suggestion for tunage of day for tomorrow, Rolling Stones – Under my thumb…
By annoyed May 13, 2009 at 8:42 am
how do I get him to stop sending me all those annoying emails? shouldn’t one “take me off this email list” message be sufficient?
By Toyota Kawaski May 13, 2009 at 9:28 am
Oh Oh Fits is crying oh oh fits is crying.
By the grammarian May 13, 2009 at 10:48 am
superintendentgumboy — you should have wrote “principal,” not “principle.” are you a graduate of public schools and/or a government employee? you stupid tool.
By Ron May 13, 2009 at 11:17 am
Will,
Thanks for reporting on this and for filing the FOI regarding the lobbyist former employee who is getting rent free Senate office space. It’s this kind of rampant corruption in the halls of the SC General Assembly that must be exposed and made to cease and desist. Please force them to respond to this foi and “sound the charge”, friend. Your readers will follow!
By Terrence May 14, 2009 at 9:19 am
Shoopman?
By Bombthrower May 14, 2009 at 1:02 pm
This will amount to the same thing as the “Senator Knotts has a black child” therory – not true and nothin became of it. Once again, Will is working off bad intell (dude, you really need some new intell) and throwing baseless information around. Trust me, as usual, it will pan out to be nothing and this blog will never mention it again. A little bit of noise about nothing. Must be a slow news day.
By fitsnews May 14, 2009 at 1:05 pm
“Bombthrower,”
We’ll see about that …
-FITS