Starting to get numbers in from the FEC today. Keeping an eye on a few races just for kicks, but seeing some interesting numbers from last quarter in the crowded race to unseat @TomRiceSC7.
Here's what we've got so far...
@GarrettBartonSC: $14.5k raised, $63.5k spent, and $131.8k COH. Also has $150k in loans from the candidate himself.
Ken Richardson: $45k raised, $44k spent. $99k COH. $100k in loans.
@GrahamAllen_1 dropped out of the race this wknd, raised $89.4k, spent nearly $200k. $194k COH.
Allen's decline was steep. After outraising Rice in the first quarter of his race with $409k, he raised just $237,000 in the fall, and up until this quarter had a burn rate of 59%.
He spent more than twice what he took in for the third quarter of his campaign.
Rice took in just under $155k, well below the $400k he raised in the fall. However, he has a pretty formidable war chest at his disposal... nearly $1.9m COH.
We'll see @RussellWFry's numbers later today (he's done well), but right now... Rice is in a very good place.
Should also mention... Rice still has very little small donor support, unlike some other incumbent Rs who voted to impeach Trump.
His smallest listed donation this quarter was $75 (and that was an outlier.) The brunt of his money came from PACs. docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/…
Have to update this... Richardson just filed a bunch of amendments in a row that showed his fundraising was more anemic than initially reported and that his COH is only at around $40,000.
Reporting live from the floor of Gressette 209, where a Senate committee is considering two abortion bills. One would effectively treat abortion as a crime in-line with murder.
There's no live stream option available, and it's a tight room. Press is on the floor.
It's a big week in abortion rights here in SC. Tomorrow is a hearing to overturn a pause on its ban on abortions after six weeks.
The state has spent $182K on outside counsel to defend the law, according to invoices we obtained via public records request. postandcourier.com/politics/sc-ha…
Notably, the Senate Medical Affairs Committee -- chaired by Sen. Corbin -- is made up of five men, and one woman: Democrat Margie Bright Matthews.
Up here at the Statehouse Complex for the latest in a long series of hearings on the SC legislature's proposed Congressional maps.
But first, some background...
The House initially went with a proposal that maintained the lasting racial gerrymander in Jim Clyburn's CD-6, but kept CD-1 -- which has been decided by fewer than two points in the last two elections -- winnable for both parties. postandcourier.com/news/sc-house-…
However, Chairman Jay Jordan said some raised concerns that Beaufort County, in the lowcountry, would be combined with CD-2, represented by Joe Wilson.
Waiting for the start of a meeting of the SC House Ways and Means Committee, which is taking up legislation to bar private employers from enforcing vaccine mandates.
The bill was strongly condemned by the state's business community in a statement yesterday.
Hearing has started after a 26 minute delay. Tuesday's subcommittee amendment has been adopted by Ways and Means on party lines.
Under an additional amendment now being discussed, non-employee vendors will also be covered.
Workers fired for not being vaccinated would also have the ability to seek compensation for their court costs, legal fees -- similar to the state's worker's compensation statutes.
A poll released yesterday by Las Vegas pollster SoCo Strategies shows @TomRiceSC7 and @GrahamAllen_1 virtually tied about a half-year out from the Republican primaries.
It's a race seen largely as a referendum on Rice's vote to impeach President Donald Trump.
Details 🧵
The pollster's findings note that Rice's favorables are below 20% for an incumbent. And they drop to 15% after voters are asked if they're aware he voted to impeach.
Interestingly, Allen has lower name recognition than candidates like @RussellWFry (who polled in single digits).
However, VERY early. 40% of voters are undecided. Of those who have decided, Tom Rice holds a 2-point lead over Allen.
Fry, a member of the SC House, also does better here, at 15%. But 70% stated they would refuse to vote for Rice. 30% would change their vote if Trump endorsed.
per @AGAlanWilson's office, a federal judge in Georgia ruled to block vaccine requirement for federal contractors.
The case was brought by Wilson and Governor McMaster, along with AGs in several other states.
@AGAlanWilson This is the third such ruling by a federal judge. For background, the executive branch in South Carolina has pushed back against the feds quite transparently on this.
Mandates have also been a conversation at the statehouse. Activists pushed for lawmakers to take on preemptive action against the feds. postandcourier.com/politics/with-…
And in Ways & Means today, members will discuss outlawing the acceptance of federal funds to enforce federal mandates.