Merrill Abruptly Bails On Congressional Bid

After telling numerous financial backers that he was “100 percent in,” former S.C. Majority Leader Jimmy Merrill (RINO – Charleston) abruptly bailed on a presumptive bid for South Carolina’s First Congressional District on Monday.

It’s unclear what prompted Merrill’s surprise decision, particularly when it appeared that another Lowcountry politician – State Sen. Larry Grooms – was on the verge of endorsing his candidacy.

Rumored to be the choice of House Speaker Bobby Harrell to replace U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, who announced his pending retirement earlier this month, Merrill would have been a formidable candidate given his name ID and access to House Caucus fund-raisers.

Of course, his highly-publicized use of a taxpayer-funded airplane to fly several other lawmakers (and a female lobbyist) to a glorified legislative drunk fest in nearby North Carolina last August was expected to be a campaign headache.

Which is good, because Harrell, Merrill, Brown and the vast majority of Palmetto politicos eying this seat are all nothing but big government RINOs.

There are a number of back stories currently making the rounds in Columbia, but we’ll wait to speculate on what may have motivated Merrill to exit the race until we get more definitive intelligence …