Dear Friends,

Since our founding in 2004, the SC Club for Growth has worked hard to find, help elect and then hold accountable fiscally conservative lawmakers.  With your help, our endorsed candidates have won 77% of their races and are making real progress in reforming our state government.

But much work remains to be done.

Every sitting legislator is up for re-election this year, so with the June primaries rapidly approaching, we offer you our first two endorsements of this cycle.

Senator Lee Bright (Senate District 12 – Spartanburg County)

Spartanburg Senator Lee Bright is one of South Carolina’s most fiscally conservative senators. Since we supported him in his 2008 election he has scored 100% on every SC Club for Growth Scorecard.

This bears repeating – of the 29 Senate votes that we have scored over the past three and a half years, Senator Bright has voted for the pro-growth reform position every single time!

He has faithfully fought against higher taxes and out of control spending, while working for government restructuring, tort reform and increased transparency.

After four years of fighting for us in Columbia, it is not surprising that Senator Bright has some enemies, especially amongst the personal injury lawyers.  As a result, they have recruited one of their own – former Senator John Hawkins – to run against Senator Bright in the Republican primary.

Hawkins is a personal injury lawyer (link to website here) who defeated then-challenger Bright by only 30 votes in 2004 and “retired” in 2008 rather than face Bright again.  Hawkins’ record during his eight years as a State Senator was terrible.

He consistently opposed Governor Sanford’s reform efforts, and even repeatedly voted for the Competitive Grants  program that editorial writers called a “legislative slush fund.”  This wasteful program used your taxes for non-core government functions like the “Piggie on the Rock Festival,” “The Hilarity Festival,” “Squealin’ on the Square” and “The Chitlin’ Strut.”

In 2010, this supposed “Republican” pubicly endorsed Democrat Senator Vincent Sheheen in the gubernatorial general election. Now, less than two-years later, he has the gall to run as a Republican.

Choices cannot get much clearer than this one.

Do we want a businessman and proven conservative overseeing spending, making laws and electing judges or, a good ole boy trial lawyer with a history of wasteful spending, killing reform and supporting Democrats for Governor?

The winner of this primary will win the general election and serve in the Senate through 2016, so the personal injury lawyers will spend heavily to try and win back this seat.

We have seen how that worked out before – so please join us in supporting Senator Bright with your generous contribution today.

Riley Harvell (Senate District 4 – Abbeville and Anderson Counties)

Riley Harvell is a Marine reservist who served in Iraq and returned to his hometown of Belton, SC where he and his wife are raising their two young children. He is a small business owner who has experienced first-hand the roadblocks government throws at individuals trying to start and grow a business.

Harvell also understands the importance of public service and the need for fiscal conservatives in office. We endorsed his father, Dan Harvell, six years ago in his run for the SC House of Representatives. Dan narrowly lost that race but he remained engaged in politics and now serves in an influential position as the Chairman of the Anderson County Republican Party.

Even though this is a very conservative district, it has been represented by a Democrat for the past 23 years. BillyO’Dell objects to being called a Democrat – but he was elected as one in 1989. He just changed his party affiliation in 2003, at the age of 65, to keep power after the Republicans became the Senate’s majority party. Unfortunately for his constituents, he only changed the letter behind his name – not how he votes.

Over the past 5 years, O’Dell has continued to earn an “F” with the SC Club for Growth Scorecard with an average score of 26.7. There is hardly a spending vote that O’Dell has been on the right side of, including supporting tens of millions for the aforementioned legislative slush fund, nearly a million dollars for a green bean museum, and even $3 million budget increase for the Senate in a year when teachers and police officers were being laid off because of budget cuts.

After over 20 years of being represented by a Democrat, it is time for this district to be represented by a real Republican. Harvell has already knocked on hundreds of doors, and can win this race if we help him raise the funds to get his message out to voters.

Please join us in generously supporting Riley Harvell in his run for Senate District 4, so that the fiscal conservative bloc of the Republican Party can pick up this crucial vote.

South Carolina Club for Growth PAC

This primary season we will likely only ask for you to contribute to five to eight campaigns, so that we can better target our collective resources to the place where they can have the maximum impact.

Your support of our PAC allows us to have a crucial impact in key races that will change our state government – and ultimately our state – for the better.  For example, four years ago, a sitting Senator (that we helped defeat) announced to his colleagues on the Senate floor that the work of the SC Club for Growth PAC was directly responsible for his loss.

However, we do not want to rest on our laurels. There are some great candidates in very tight races this spring. 

All investments in candidates and our PAC – no matter the size – help both the candidates themselves and the entire reform movement by showing the broadening base of support for taking back our state government.

Thanks in advance for any amount you can contribute.

Final Thoughts

At the end of last year’s legislative session, one of the state’s leading editorial boards wrote the following:

“For the state Senate, wait til next year’ appears to be a revolving promise of reform, full of hope and devoid of meaning.  Maybe it’s time to break up the team.”

We could not agree more.  While there are some reform-minded Senators like Lee Bright who we need to help return to office, it is time to break up much of the Senate team.  With your help, it can be done.

Cordially,

David Ellison, Chairman

P.S. – I know times are tough but we would not be successful without the generosity of friends like you who continue to selflessly invest with us to help some great candidates around the state. With all of the contributions, large and small, added together we really are making a significant difference. For that, I thank you. 

Please write your checks to the individual campaign or SC Club for Growth PAC and mail them to: