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by WILL FOLKS
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Last week, our media outlet provided expansive coverage of ongoing efforts by “Republican” leaders in the South Carolina Senate to escalate their chronic meddling in the already anemic, constitutionally neutered executive branch of government.
For those of you unfamiliar with how the Palmetto State is run, it’s a legislative tyranny.
Lawmakers not only directly control the judicial branch of government via their corrupt and incestuous method of screening and electing judges and justices, they also wield expansive control over the executive branch via a byzantine maze of legislatively controlled boards and commissions – as well as a budget process that effectively directs administrative functions.
The initial objective of all this – part and parcel to the Constitution of 1895 – was to ensure that if a black person were ever elected governor of South Carolina (which hasn’t happened yet), they would hold no real power. The current objective, however, is the maintenance of a splintered system that provides limitless opportunities for patronage while preventing anything resembling accountability at the ballot box.
Si omnes culpandi sunt, nemo culpandus est… if everyone is responsible, no one is responsible.
That might as well be the Palmetto State’s motto, people.
Anyway, when governor Henry McMaster attempted to push back ever so gingerly against this legislative tyranny via the use of recess appointments (or temporary executive appointments made while lawmakers are not in session) certain members of the Senate lost their minds.
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Led by Senate majority leader Shane Massey, they are now hoping to pass legislation (S. 922) cracking down on future governors’ ability to make recess appointments – while simultaneously expanding senatorial authority over appointments to the ostensibly independent S.C. Election Commission (SCVotes).
For good measure, Massey reportedly told SCVotes’ commissioners that their recent choice to lead the agency – who has drawn rave reviews during her brief tenure as interim director – would not be confirmed by the Senate.
This is no doubt why mainstream media outlets reported just yesterday on the withdrawal of interim director Jenny Wooten‘s nomination to lead SCVotes – announced following the conclusion of a hastily called, closed door commission meeting earlier this week.
While the broader effort to strip McMaster of what little authority he possesses to run his own branch of government was pretty easy to diagnose, the primum mobile behind Massey’s ongoing coup at SCVotes has been more difficult to ascertain.
We described this component of Massey’s vendetta against the executive branch as “shocking” given what happened the last time senators engineered the ouster of this agency’s longtime director (and subsequently orchestrated the confirmation of her replacement).
This senatorial meddling ended in unmitigated disaster last fall as Howie Knapp and his second-in-command, Paige Salonich, were terminated from their positions and later criminally indicted in connection with an ongoing investigation into a wide range of misconduct allegations. Not only that, Knapp and Salonich also allegedly engaged in a torrid, taxpayer-subsidized workplace affair as they were running the agency into the ground.
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Wooten, by the way, was one of several SCVotes’ employees instrumental in exposing Knapp and Salonich’s misconduct – resulting in them being held accountable by the commission. She has been similarly instrumental in rebuilding public trust in the aftermath of this ongoing scandal – which remains under investigation by the S.C. Office of Inspector General (SCOIG) and the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
Why, then, would Massey – with support from state senator Chip Campsen – want to orchestrate the scuttling of Wooten’s nomination? And why is Massey now puppeteering the new chairman of SCVotes, career apparatchik Robert Bolchoz, in an apparent effort to scapegoat Wooten and install a new director over the agency?
For that matter, why is Bolchoz said to be taking his marching orders from Massey and Campsen as opposed to McMaster – the man who appointed him to his job? What future sinecure might he be seeking from these lawmakers, who incidentally refused to hear his nomination for a seat on the infinitely more influential Santee Cooper board last year?
Is carrying Massey’s water Bolchoz’s way of securing for himself the appointment he truly covets?
FITSNews has spoken with multiple sources close to SCVotes’ governing commission in recent days – sources with direct knowledge of the situation currently unfolding there. According to these sources, Bolchoz is firmly in Massey’s pocket – and is said to be sharing more information with the Senate and the media than he is with his fellow commissioners (or with the governor’s office).
“Bolchoz is taking his orders directly from Shane Massey,” a source close to the commission told us.
Another source stated bluntly “the governor is getting cuckolded.”
But why? What is Massey’s ultimate goal?
According to our sources, Massey is desperate to keep South Carolina from cooperating with Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding the release of the Palmetto State’s voter database – and is hoping to install his people in key positions at the agency as negotiations with DOJ continue.
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RELATED | S.C. SUPREME COURT RULES ON VOTER FILE
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Our audience will recall this battle exploded last summer when another state senator – minority leader Brad Hutto – filed a lawsuit blocking the state from releasing the voter file. According to our sources, Massey and Hutto worked collaboratively in support of that lawsuit – which was initially upheld by a liberal Palmetto State judge.
Knapp was in on the effort, too – allegedly working from inside the agency on Massey and Hutto’s behalf.
“Shane Massey doesn’t want that list shared,” a source familiar with the lawsuit told us. “That’s what this is all about.”
Massey and Hutto prevailed, too – at least temporarily. Days after the initial court ruling, though, the S.C. supreme court intervened and struck down the ban – paving the way for the state to release the file. Negotiations between the state and the feds have dragged on ever since, however.
According to our sources, Massey wants to dictate the course of these discussions moving forward – even though SCVotes is the exclusive purview of the executive branch (and specifically an executive who is unswervingly loyal to Trump).
Massey and Campsen, on the other hand, both supported U.S. senator Tim Scott‘s 2024 presidential campaign. After Scott suspended his White House bid in November 2023, both senators proceeded to endorse the candidacy of former governor Nikki Haley – who was subsequently crushed by Trump in the Palmetto State.
More recently, Massey was blasted by Trump’s allies during last year’s debate over tort reform, and according to sources in the Senate views this latest battle over the voter list as an opportunity to exact revenge on the administration.
Count on FITSNews to keep our audience apprised of the latest developments at this agency, which has once again been plunged into political turmoil thanks to the meddling of these two ‘Never Trump’ senators…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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7 comments
Good. That list shouldn’t be shared.
You are an idiot. It been ruled numerous times NON EXEMPT from disclosure pursuant to unalienable right.
You are just as oblivious as the other trolling bullies, who can not hide like they think they can. Your inmate number was at one time, 666131313.
Anyone who is trying to keep our voter rolls out of the hands of the corrupt to the core Trump Administration is good with me. The only reason they want that information is so they can target people who support Democrats in a state they think belongs to them. It’s all about power, and Trump’s absurd argument that he has never lost an election. He is not a loser.
For over 200 years, our system of voting has worked, assured democracy, and protected the identity of the voter. But Trump loses one election, and suddenly the system is broken beyond repair, and needs to be fixed in a way that just coincidentally makes it harder for women, minorities, senior citizens, and young people to vote. All to soothe the embarrassment of a petulant bully who is insecure and embarrassed that he lost to Joe Biden.
SC is still full of Fools, idiots, and dumbA$$es. As of 1865, and the burning of Columbia to the ground by the Federal Government’s forces. SC has zero authority to block any DOJ or Federal access to anything they wish to look at, or use. These characters are just grand standing for the old Fascists, Bush, GOP crooks. Just shut up and hand over the lists. Or, is this just another way to get lawyer kickbacks for defending an already lost case? Which a lot of GOP fakes have done in the past. They have to get over it. Like him or not, Trump is still President of the USA and YOU ARE NOT!
For what legitimate reason does the President need access to SC voter rolls? He already lost control of all of our Social Security information, which is now being sold by former DOGE employees to private companies and probably anyone else willing to pay enough. And the IRS illegally released private information on 72 million US citizens. This Administration is a toxic combination of incompetents and corruption. Give them nothing voluntarily.
And “like” has nothing to do with it. I don’t trust him or anyone who works for him. They are all busy lining Trump’s pockets, his kids’ pockets, his company’s pockets, and the pockets of billionaires out to steal everything they can get their hands on. They don’t believe there is voter fraud. Certainly not in SC unless it’s Republican voter fraud, and they would cover that up just like the Epstein files. They don’t care about this country, and we should resist as long as possible, in the hopes that something will end this torrent of greed, corruption, and malevolence, and save what is left of our Country.
Why so angry?
You are a Trump supporter. I forgot you guys are the poorly educated that Trump loves so much. But I don’t know how to interact with someone who can’t read.