PALMETTO LIBERTY PAC RELEASES 2012 SCORECARDS
Members of South Carolina’s “Republican-controlled” S.C. General Assembly like to talk a big game when it comes to being “conservative,” but are they?
If you’ve followed the ballooning expansion of the Palmetto State’s budget in recent years then you know the answer to that question is a definitive “no.” And you also know that despite her campaign promises, S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley has done absolutely nothing to stop the gravy train – which is set to spend a whopping $23.3 billion (and counting) this year on the most corrupt, dysfunctional state government in America.
Accordingly, it should come as no surprise that yet another scorecard tracking lawmakers’ votes on key fiscal issues has turned up some incredibly depressing numbers. This particular scorecard is from the Palmetto Liberty PAC, a group run by Tea Party activist Talbert Black.
Black’s scorecard tracks fifteen votes in the S.C. House and seventeen in the State Senate – including tallies on a record-setting state budget, several government restructuring proposals and a taxpayer rebate fund aimed at sending surpluses and “savings” back to the people.
How did lawmakers do on these scorecards? Terribly.
In the State Senate, ten “Republicans” scored below 25 out of 100 on the scorecard – Larry Martin (RINO-Pickens), Ray Cleary (RINO-Georgetown), Thomas Alexander (RINO-Oconee), Wes Hayes (RINO-York), Billy O’Dell (RINO-Abbeville), Greg Ryberg (RINO-Aiken), Jake Knotts (RINO-Lexington), Luke Rankin (RINO-Myrtle Beach), Hugh Leatherman (RINO-Florence) and Paul Campbell (RINO-Berkeley).
In the S.C. House, it was even worse as only two Republicans – Bill Chumley and Joshua Putnam – scored above a fifty on the survey. Most Republicans – including House Speaker Bobby Harrell – scored at or below 20 percent.
To view the scorecards for yourself, click on the links below …
2012 S.C. HOUSE SCORECARD (.pdf)
2012 S.C. SENATE SCORECARD (.pdf)
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24 comments
I’d love to see Talbert rank FITS…
They’re only RINOs if they’re in the minority.
I would consider a low score from a Tea Bagger Group to be a positive!
TEA Party, isn’t that connected to SARAH PALIN? ’nuff said.
YOU BETCHA!
YOU BETCHA!
Please don’t insult the Tea Party by implyng that Talbert Black and his Palmetto Liberty Pac are somehow associated with them. The Palmetto Liberty is nothing more that an off shoot of the Campaign for Liberty. These are nothing more than another name for Ron Paul and his libertarians. The Tea Party ran him off long ago.
Frankly the only politician who want’s to be associated with those loons is Tom Davis. The rest could care less what Talbert and his little band of misfits think.
According to the list, no one in the House got more than 54%. Even by South Carolina standards, that’s everyone with a failing grade according to the study’s grading system. Shouldn’t the tea party, if it really means what it says, try to get every single person in the House replaced?
I think Talbert needs to curve.
What does it say about a score card when the highest score is an 82 (Lee Bright), only one other legislator cracked 70 (Tom Davis, 71!!), and the highest score in the House was 54 (brand new legislator Joshua Putnam)?
I know some of you would like to say that our Legislature is too liberal, and it is. But from my perspective, the Tea Party is too conservative. In politics, like in life, you never get what you need if you are not willing to compromise. The Tea Party will never get what it needs.
These scorecards are stupid and totally useless in shedding light on how well a representative serves his/her constituents. Where are the scores for
Constituency service: how well they help in problems where an elderly person cannot get legitimate help from a state agency
or how well a mother cannot get legitimate help from a state agency for her disabled child
Compassion and Good Sense: how well the representative cares for the citizens of the state by providing sufficient funding for necessary services
Availability: Is the representative there when you need to talk to him/her
Responsiveness: Does the representative answer your calls and your letters in a timely manner in a polite and helpful manner, even if they have to say no (which they should explain WHY they must say no)
There are many other areas of importance in “grading” a respresentative that have nothing to do with whether or not he or she is “conservative” enough for this or that group of people. Frankly,I don’t give a damn what the Tea Party people think. They don’t think for me.
Talbert^s problem is that he thinks these scorecards mean something to those who he is grading and/or a significant part of SCs population.
He thinks he can ^reform^ govt…ha-good luck with that.
First he needs to apologize to all South Carolinians for getting Nikki Haley elected.
I think Raj needs to apologize for not using better contraception.
In more Tea Party news
Janis Lane,the leader of the CentralMississippi Tea Party
Says women shouldn’t be allowed to vote!
So there!n
This scorecard and its tacit endorsement by the Founding Editor underscores just how out of touch both Black and Folks are with the electorate.
Both think being an idealogical outlier is the path to victory.
the same phrase: “It will be so nice to get my body back.” It is the siglne most common phrase you will hear from a pregnant woman’s mouth because once a woman becomes pregnant, her body is NOT her own. She is a host; she is helping another person enter the world. Perhaps that is what a lot of women hate about their femininity–that they do lose control of their body for 9 months. Another entity is sucking out the nutrients; another person is making her sick; another individual is making her fat and achy.Instead of focusing on the privilege that they alone have, the power that they have to bring a new life into the world, feminists have deceived themselves into thinking that they are being taken over by something hostile. This is fate that has been FORCED upon them. But if they can “liberate” themselves, find a way to convince people that this baby inside them is still a part of their body and not separate, then they can control it. They can kill it because then they are only killing off a part of themselves and not a separate human life.
This scorecard is a joke! What a bunch of “malarky”
Check out http://www.scchamber.net for the Chamber/BIPEC scorecard.
They track real votes that are conversative and support economic development.
Tea Party = JOKE
I kick your money grubbing scam artist sales people out of my office uncerimoniously every time they stop by.
lol
that his group needed a fiurge to help sell the idea. They had no reliable information and neither did anyone else, so they made one up. I think the number they settled on was 10,000 a year. That fiurge has been widely debunked and one person in that group has since changed his mind and publically admitted that the number was made up. So – yes, there may be deaths from illegal abortion, but nothing like the numbers commonly bandied about. No one is saying a law is a perfect solution. The perfect solution is for people to be responsible for their lives and to respect the lives of others, including the unborn. No law needed for that. Since we routinely fail to meet that lofty threshold, a law will set a floor of acceptable behavior. There are deaths from heroin overdoses today too, does that mean we should have legal heroin? The deaths from heroin and the deaths from illegal abortion would have this in common: they would both be unaticipated results of an action that was freely chosen, despite it’s risks. I think most women are smart enough to do a good risk assessment and as a result, the number of abortions attempted will decline a lot, as will the number of unwanted pregnancies. Majority behavior will adjust to the meet reality once again. Abortion is reality avoidance. There is always a death involved in abortion; your calculus needs to adjust for that. Then you can see the net gain in human life (not to mention dignity) that would result from banning it.
$23.3 billion? that money must be going to support Magic Minutes franchises – it sure isn’t being used to solve our crap-bag infrastucture issues. didn’t the DOT just have to get an advance on fed highway funds to avoid default?
What’s important is the great job the Tea Party has done in steering the policies that have advanced education in the state of South Carolina, and pushed a pro-growth agenda that is adding 10s of thousands of jobs a month in the Palmetto State. Wait – I have a phone call. What? Really? You’re kidding me. Seriously?
OK – I retract everything I just said. Just shoot me.
Yeah,
The TEA party would give Musolinni(sp) a failing grade
Go to one of their Spartanburg meetings:
99% Senior/middle aged caucasian wide-eyed types (male & female) who are looking for a threat under every rock and aren’t satisfied till they find one.
This will be the only Dam Score card “Head” Ballentine won’t be tweeting across the 71st District.
Talbert gets paid by Policy Council. Koch brothers money. Screw them all.
The more scorecards, the better! There can’t be too much info about these guys….glad grassroots groups taking time to grade legislators — refreshing change from the crap churned out by same old tired leadership lapdogs inside the Statehouse. You can decide if you like what the groups stand for, but at least you know.