Thomas Will Officially File for Congress on Monday

March 26, 2010

Contact: James Hicks, (864) 304-0682 james@thomas2010.com

FOUNTAIN INN, SC – State Senator and Fourth Congressional District candidate David Thomas will officially file for Congress with the Republican party on Monday. First Vice Chairman of the SCGOP and Greenville County GOP Chairman Patrick Haddon will be present for the filing. David Thomas announced his intention to run for Congress on June 6, 2009 at his home in Fountain Inn.

WHO: State Senator David Thomas

WHAT: David Thomas to officially file for Congress

WHERE: Greenville GOP Headquarters, 850 Wade Hampton Blvd., Greenville, SC 29609

WHEN: Monday, March 29, 2010 at 8:30 a.m.

###

March Madness in SC4

Apparently we have hit a nerve here at The Conservativist concerning the fourth congressional campaigns. Glad to see the comments and hope we can further drive debate in SC’s Fourth Congressional.

Here is a quick run down on the latest in the fourth, in alphabetical order.

Trey Gowdy

Multiple sources in Union say Trey was one of the top performers Saturday night.  We don’t have much more info on Gowdy’s campaign right now but  Trey did respond via email to a comment posted on The Conservativist concerning his support for John McCain.

I met Senator McCain in the 1990s and he asked me to support him in 2008. I believed national security and the war on terror would be the two dominant issues in the 2008 cycle. On a personal note, Senator McCain visited an injured Spartanburg Marine in DC and did so without media or fanfare, just soldier to soldier and I appreciated that he did that and the quiet manner in which he did it.

Bob Inglis

We know Bob missed the debate Saturday due to the looming health care vote on Sunday.  Bob has been on a tear pushing his newly found conservative agenda recently, but we are not buying it.  No earmarks, no government health care, no cap and trade (he claims he never supported it) and hydrogen missing from his campaign platform, I almost don’t recognize the man.

With Obama targeting immigration next, we are bound to hear Bob’s 5 talking points for the next 3 months.  As I said, talking points.  We have heard those talking points for four years, but Bob has not lead in addressing the issue.  Given the new found conservative agenda, we expect Inglis will distance himself from Lindsey Graham on this one.

We found a website called AnyBodyButBob.com a few months ago.  It is rather interesting and the anonymous authors have a no holds bar attitude when calling Bob out.  I only wish I thought of it before they did.  That would have been a fun website to market, sorry Bob.

Christina Jeffrey

We received a statement on March 19th from the Liberty Candidates organization that they have dropped their endorsement of Christina Jeffrey.  The statement did not provide specific reasons, but we can only assume it is the revelations of her support of Rudy Giuliani, lying about who she supported for President, or her rather degrading joke about South Carolinian’s being a bunch of inbreds.

Sources also say when questioned by individuals Saturday night concerning who she supported for president in 2008, her husband would answer the question and not Christina.

Jim Lee

Sources say that Jim was the other top performer from Saturday nights Union County debate.  We have also learned that the iCaucus has endorsed Lee’s campaign for Congress as well.  This is great news for his campaign as he works to build momentum over the next three months.

It is rumored that Col. David Hunt, a 29 year military veteran and analyst for Fox News will be coming to the Upstate to endorse Lee’s candidacy.  Will provide details as they come out.

David Thomas

We have unconfirmed reports that Thomas will be dropping out of the race for Congress.  Sources indicate that there is a serious medical illness in the family and he will be ceasing campaign operations.  Although we have seen a decline in the number of signs around the district over the past week, Thomas did attend the debate this past weekend in Union and was seen campaigning for a few hours on Hwy. 176.  I will be curious to see if he files in the next week.

UPDATE:
Just heard from the Thomas campaign that they were not dropping out and will be filing soon.

4th Congressional Debate – Union SC

The Union County GOP, Union County YR, and USC – Union government class will be hosting a debate on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 starting at 6pm for candidates running for  SC 4th Congressional seat.

The event will be held on March 20th at 6pm in the Auditorium at USC-Union, 401 E. main St., Union, SC, 29379.

Gowdy Leads, Lee Close Behind in Fountain Inn Straw Poll

Last night, the Fountain Inn Chamber of Commerce and Fountain Inn Rotary Club hosted a fourth congressional debate with Myra Ruiz from WYFF moderating.  The results of the straw poll held after the debate are as follows (sections is in order of percent vote).

Trey Gowdy

Trey gathered 31% of the vote after the debate.  This is not all surprising as he has been working hard and building a lot of name recognition.  Of all the candidates, he has not been shy when it comes to attacking Inglis.  Given his fund raising totals and the perceived street cred obtained by those numbers, he may be in the final two.

Jim Lee

As the title says, Lee came in second with 27%.  This looks good for Jim and shows that his ground game and solid performance last week in the WORD radio debate is cashing in.  If Jim can continue to build this momentum, watch out.

David Thomas

I have been hearing rumors that Thomas’ Senate seat may be on the line if he performs poorly in his own district.  Unfortunately, for Thomas, polling in 3rd with 20% in his backyard could be the beginning of the end for him in politics.

Christina Jeffrey

Jeffrey brought in 15% after the Boiling Springs Tea Party issued a “Red Alert” call to action yesterday.  She is polling a little better than I expected.  We are waiting to see if the other Tea Parties will get behind her, but our sources say that is not likely.

Bob Inglis

Bob, Bob, Bob.  What else can we say than he brought in 7% of the vote.  Oh yeah, did we mention the democrats are likely not to vote in this election since they have multiple candidates in the governors race they covet so dearly?

You can read more at the Greenville News.

Common Sense Grandma Alienates Tea Party

There has been much bru ha ha over the past few days concerning the attempted take over of the Tea Party by the SCGOP, the agreement that was reached, and Chairman Floyd’s TV News stops promoting the deal.

According to Americans Have Had Enough and the Upcountry Coalition of Conservative Organizations press release, the agreement reached with the SCGOP was different from what was communicated to the national media outlets.  The terms of the original agreement can be found here.  You’ll have to decipher that one.

In response to the Upcountry Coalition, the Common Sense Grandma¹, Christina Jeffrey came out swinging at Russ Cassell, Roan Garcia-Quintana and others claiming they are republican haters to the same Tea Party leaders that support and rally around these individuals. Not a very smart move considering the voting base you are courting is that audience.

Guys, Roan Quintana, Kerry Wood, Russ Castle and Randy Simpson are GOP haters.

I think the guys above are agitating to beat the band and we should be careful. Not because I’m a candidate but because we will look bad as a movement if we beat people up unnecessarily. Listen to what she says – it’s just what Patrick said at the Greenville Exec Committee, not profound, not the way you or I would have said it, but not evil and not co-opting.

Even worse for Jeffrey, Cassell caught wind of this and aired her dirty laundry all over WORD (106.3) this morning.  We are still waiting for the highlights to be posted on NewsRadioWord.com, we’ll provide  a link when it becomes available.  NewsRadioWord Audio Link.

Sources indicate it was not a pretty morning for Jeffrey.  She was even referred to as “the nutty professor” a few times.  Ouch!

In my opinion, the entire premise and support base she built for this primary was completely obliterated this morning by trying to defend Karen Floyd’s statements.

Although it may have been the right thing to do, this may have killed any hope for a primary victory for Jeffrey in June.

UPDATE:
Reporting in from Greenville, the abusive behavior of a particular candidate consistently running into people as an intimidation tactic as returned.  It wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t do it so often, repeatedly and inconsiderately.  We now have reports of this from the March for Life, Andre Bauer’s Christmas Party, Wade’s, and now Tommy’s Ham House.  You KNOW who you are!

UPDATE 2:
Jeffrey managed to squeeze her way to the front at the Press Conference today to get beside GOP Chairman Karen Floyd and wanted to speak.  As soon as she tried to speak, the crowd shouted her down, told her they didn’t want to hear anything else from her.  Supposedly, she yelled back before Kibler said let her talk.  She issued an apology.  In fairness, Quintana stated that since Jim Lee was in attendance, it was only fair he had an opportunity to speak to.

Bob Inglis

The Inglis campaign came out with a full frontal assault on Trey Gowdy this morning.

The Inglis campaign has filed ethical violations to the FEC and SC Ethics questioning Gowdy’s potential use of state campaign monies in his congressional race.  This story was broke by Jason Spencer at the Herald Journal.

Also, Inglis has begun what has been termed a “blitzkrieg” in Union County over the last week. I’m not sure Union is used to having this much attention for the congressional race.

David Thomas

Thomas campaigns ads have begun to be aired during news broadcast in the upstate this week.

¹ Common Sense Grandma was Jeffrey’s tag line for her 2008 election for SC House District 32

« Previous Page — Next Page »