Leadership Spartanburg 2008 Alumnus of the Year
Spartanburg Herald-Journal
5/13/08
Leadership Spartanburg Alumni Association named Mike Forrester its 2008 Alumnus of the Year.
Forrester has distinguished himself in business and the Spartanburg community as a dedicated leader. Whether serving his country or his community, Mike has always sought opportunities to lead others towards a brighter future.
Mike works with businesses and industries within Spartanburg Community College’s service area to develop and foster relationships that improve efficiency, productivity and competitiveness. He serves as a resource for industrial prospects and new industries to ensure training needs are assessed and met.
Mike provides vision and strategic plans for the College’s service area and assists in reaching long term economic goals. In addition, he represents the College with regards to legislative and governmental relations.
Mike’s current professional affiliations include involvement in the Action Team for Spartanburg/Cherokee Development Corporation, Economic Growth Council – Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, Professional Development Committee for the South Carolina Economic Developers’ Association and as Vice Chair for the Leadership Spartanburg Board of Regents and a Board Member of the Spartanburg Downtown Rotary Club.
Mike’s many honors include the SC Economic Development Association’s 2006 Volunteer of the Year Award, Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2006 Neville Holcombe Distinguished Citizenship Award, Carolina Counseling Inc.’s
Community Impact Award (2003), Spartanburg Development Association’s 2003 Alan R. Willis Award, Uptown Sertoma Club’s 2000 Service to Mankind Award, Carolina West Region’s 2000 Regional Service to Mankind Award, and Spartanburg Chapter of the Association of Administrative Professionals’ 1997 Executive of the Year Award.
Mike is actively involved in the community and has often assumed leadership roles in volunteer and civic activities. Mike served 30 years in the United States Army Reserves and retired as a Command Sergeant Major of the 391st Engineer Battalion, he is the Immediate Past Chair of the South Carolina State Board of Education, and has held the positions of Treasurer for Spartanburg County Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors, Chair of the Spartanburg Development Association Board of Directors, Chair of Upstate Alliance, Chair of the Junior Achievement of Spartanburg 2003 Annual Campaign, Chair and Executive Board Member of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, Chair of the Spartanburg March of Dimes Board of Directors, Chair of the Arts Partnership Campaign, and Chair of the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Spartanburg Board of Directors. In addition to these positions of leadership Mike has lead through service as a member of the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind’s Board of Advisors, the Visions Steering Committee, the Board of Directors for the Workforce Investment Board, Representative Jim DeMint’s Business and Industry Committee, the Board of Directors for the Urban League of the Upstate, the Building Codes Appeals Board for Spartanburg County, the United Way of the Piedmont’s Success by Six Committee, the Board of Directors for Junior Achievement of Spartanburg, the Board of Visitors for Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, and the Steering Committee for Spartanburg County Parks and Recreation.
What’s the real agenda? Group raises questions with fliers
Spartanburg Herald-Journal
By Jason Spencer
5/15/08
Hundreds of fliers are appearing in Spartanburg mailboxes supporting a specific slate of candidates, billing them as tax-cutting conservatives. But some say that the spending issues highlighted on those fliers are a veil to cover the group’s real agenda, school choice.
South Carolinians for Responsible Government has sent mailings in support of Republican candidates Roger Nutt, an engineer facing incumbent Rep. Keith Kelly, and Joey Millwood, a journalist facing incumbent Rep. Bob Walker in June. The group has also sent out a flier supporting Ken Roach, who is running against fellow Republican and retired gas company executive Mike Forrester to challenge Democrat Ronnie Hart in November.
The candidates supported by South Carolinians for Responsible Government say that group issued its support without their knowledge, but they welcome it. The Responsible Government group’s leaders say their organization is being pigeonholed as a single-issue advocate. S.C. law does not require so-called political awareness groups to disclose their donors, so it is unclear who is funding these mailings.
The content of the mail pieces focuses on the growth in state spending in recent years. The mailings contend that the current $7.2 billion budget represents about a 41 percent increase over the $5.1 billion budget from the 2003-04 spending cycle.
The first flier for Nutt and Millwood features a cartoon pig and a “Columbia Politician Pork Sampler” listing various programs funded by state grants. The second one features a masked man on the front, a chubby, cigar-smoking man in a suit and tie on the inside and proclaims, “We used to call them bank robbers. Now we call them Columbia’s Career Politicians.”
“We’ve got to get a handle on our spending. So, we need to look at pork and wasteful spending and cut out as much of that as we can. I’m for a cap on spending,” Nutt said.
“I think that’s great that there’s groups out there that want to support people. It’s hard to say they’re not campaign pieces, but the two I’m looking at, they’re educating the constituents about what’s going on now and about certain candidates.”
Nutt and Millwood said the first time they saw the fliers was after they were mailed out.
Both men have retained the services of consultant Chad Connelly, a board member of South Carolinians for Responsible Government.
Walker and Kelly say their opponents are twisting the numbers, and that looking back to 1994 - the year Republicans took over the state House - the budget has increased an average of 4 percent each year.
“My church budget grows that much,” Kelly said. “I can keep costs down. I can cut it 50 percent. Let him (Nutt) look at it and tell me how many teachers he wants me to fire.”
He added that he didn’t know how he could be considered a “career politician” when he’s only 18 months into his first term.
Nutt said there were plenty of other avenues the state could take to cut costs before firing teachers.
“If Keith really wants to get involved, tell him to call for a recorded vote next time, so we’ll know for a fact he didn’t vote himself a pay raise,” Nutt said.
Walker said 4 percent is an increase tied to population growth and inflation, the standard Republicans have set for spending. He cited the Legislature cutting grocery taxes, property taxes and income taxes in the last several years.
“To say that I’m against cutting taxes, or imply that, that’s not true,” Walker said.
Nutt and Millwood said that focusing on recent years is more indicative of spending trends in South Carolina.
“In recent years, it’s grown more than 40 percent. That’s an odd change. That’s not what conservatism is about. That’s not what being a Republican is about,” Millwood said.
“Since 1994 … you can say a lot of things. My household output has not grown over 40 percent in the last few years. And I don’t think it has for a lot of South Carolina households. So, the government shouldn’t have grown that much. We’re not talking about 1994.”
Dollars and diplomas
Political consultant Wesley Donahue called the fliers a diversion from South Carolinians for Responsible Government’s true agenda - putting legislators in Columbia who support school choice.
Donahue’s client list includes Kelly, Forrester, and state Rep. Scott Talley, who is seeking a Senate seat against Lee Bright and L.B. Watson.
“Look at those mail pieces, and you will know which legislators stand with South Carolina public schools,” Donahue said. “Bob Walker, Keith Kelly, Mike Forrester - these are people that stand with Spartanburg County public schools. It’s these Ken Roaches and Roger Nutts of the world that have sold their soul to the voucher crowd.”
“These guys are being back-funded, and recruited by these out-of-state millionaires who want to experiment on our public schools,” Donahue said. “They should have to disclose. Everybody else does. That’s what’s so dirty about this whole thing.”
On school choice, Roach has said that modernizing classrooms, recruiting higher-quality teachers - also possibly increasing teacher salaries - and getting more parents involved in education could make the issue moot. At a forum this week, Roach emphatically denied that his vote was for sale.
Millwood has said that he would not support vouchers but would consider tax credits for parents who opt to send their children to a nonpublic school.
Nutt takes a similar stance, adding that a tax credit wouldn’t account for the total dollar amount the state gives each school per pupil, and that in the long run, public schools would make money off of some parents having a choice. In other words, the parents would receive a tax credit, and the school would receive the balance of the money it would have gotten for that student, even though that student would be enrolled somewhere else.
“School choice itself is a tenet of the Republican Party. So, the concept that parents are given a choice as to how their children are educated is something I would stand behind. The voucher idea, I’m not for. But I would entertain looking at the tax credits,” Nutt said.
“It shows the government is not working against families, but that it’s trying to help. If nothing else, it’s symbolic.”
Campaigning vs. educating
South Carolinians for Responsible Government has been tied to New York millionaire Howard Rich, who has supported a number of Republican candidates in this state through a variety of organizations and like-minded associates.
In 2006, South Carolinians for Responsible Government sued the State Ethics Commission after its director said it was trying to influence an election and had to disclose financial information. The state Attorney General’s Office refused to provide the ethics commission with attorneys, and the case was eventually dismissed.
A bill this year that would have required political awareness organizations to disclose their financial information went nowhere.
Neil Mellen, spokesman for South Carolinians for Responsible Government, called forcing a private, membership-supported group to disclose its financial information “ridiculous.”
“We had been sort of pegged as a school-choice group,” he said. “While we see expanding educational opportunities and access as part of that limited, responsible government movement, certainly there are fiscal, spending and revenue, transparency, accountability, and streamlining of government issues. We see school choice as kind of fitting into that. In fact, we’re interested in the larger cause of responsible government.”
Mellen said the fliers were meant to “educate voters about who’s running, and where they stand on issues,” and were not campaign literature.
“That’s semantics,” Kelly said. “This right here is campaign literature.”
Kelly was supported by South Carolinians for Responsible Government two years ago.
Walker, in a separate interview, added, “I don’t consider them education pieces. I consider them negative campaigning. I’m running my campaign on what Bob Walker’s done. If they’re sending out mail pieces to my people, they need to send out what Bob Walker’s done. I mean, I’m one of 124 (members of the state House of Representatives).”
South Carolinians for Responsible Government is just one of many groups that have taken an interest in local races.
The Spartanburg Home Builders Association, for instance, has begun issuing endorsements, and the Spartanburg Board of Realtors has, through its associated statewide political action committee, begun contributing to candidates, too.
The South Carolina AARP also has sent postcards out of Columbia thanking Talley for his work on identity theft legislation. It includes a disclaimer that the card does not constitute a political endorsement.
“What’s happening is that South Carolinians for Responsible Government and the S.C. Club for Growth seem to be the two that are pouring money in our local campaigns. If they do fliers, it’s basically the same as giving money,” Spartanburg County Republican Party Chairman Rick Beltram said.
“I welcome everybody’s involvement. And I will not throw stones at any of them as long as none of them throw stones at me” Beltram said.
“I think all of them are accurate to a point, but if you fact check them down to the minutiae, you’ll find disparities in all that stuff. I don’t think there’s a flier that’s gone out by any candidate or group that poses something as a fact that, in reality, is open to debate.”
Light barbs on cue at GOP debate
Spartanburg Herlad-Journal
By Jason Spencer
5/13/08
Like the sauce, the various candidates to take the stage Monday night at Ron’s Hog Pen BBQ were mostly different shades of red - and some of them had a little kick.
Sixteen state and local Republican candidates sat shoulder to shoulder on a tiny stage for nearly three hours in exchange for, at the most, about five minutes of scattered speaking time in a wide-ranging debate sponsored by the local GOP. Another arrived late, and opted to stand on the stage steps rather than shoehorn himself into the group.
For some of the topics, many of the answers were predictable - no one opposed putting a cap on state spending, for instance, and no one outright opposed requiring private employers to use a federal database to verify that their employees are legal residents of the United States - though some talked around it.
Because of so many similar positions, the night was best served by being able to judge which candidates could think on their feet, who seemed the most passionate about different issues, who was the most informed about the issues affecting this state, and who could best handle themselves in front of a crowd.
That’s not to say there were no differences - just that, in some cases, those differences were just as much about poise as they were about positions.
One of the most surprising answers of the night came from county coroner candidate Rick Cherry, who - tired of passing on questions not relevant to that office - jumped in on a question about job growth in Spartanburg County and said tongue-in-cheek that such growth would bring more people, which would mean more deaths, and therefore, underscored the need for a qualified person in that office.
His opponent, Rusty Clevenger, asked over the laughter, “Ladies and gentlemen, what can you say to that?”
Other lines from the night that got a rise from the near-400 people in the crowd:
– House candidate Steve Parker said he would sponsor a bill that requires lawmakers to put their name on every vote they take.
– County Council incumbent Rock Adams often quipped about the 1-minute time limit, which cut him off several times as he was just getting into a list of statistics he brought. (He also brought a chart.)
– House candidate Christina Jeffrey went beyond the current immigration question, saying E-Verify issue would be solved this year, and that next year, she would sponsor a resolution every day to call on the federal government to enforce the laws on the books.
– House incumbent Bob Walker played up a stipulation he added to the immigration reform bill in Columbia that would prevent children here illegally from getting state scholarships.
– Walker’s challenger, Joey Millwood, got a burst of cheers when, after agreeing with Walker that the state government needs to be less involved in higher education, he suggested that part of the problem with rising tuition costs was overpaid “liberal professors.”
– Rep. Scott Talley, who is seeking an open Senate seat, closed the night with a laugh by thanking his opponents for all of the courtesies they extended to him. (Neither of them showed up.)
For incumbents, the night was a chance to highlight their records. For challengers, it was a chance to try to prove their opponents disingenuous or, a favorite of the night, in the pocket of special interest groups.
As the night wore on, House candidate Mike Forrester alluded to his opponent, Ken Roach, being funded by out-of-state special interest groups. Roach said emphatically that his vote was not for sale, and he claimed Forrester was propped up to run for office by the local chamber of commerce.
GOP gathering for debate after BBQ
21 candidates invited to discuss issues important to campaigns
Spartanburg Herald-Journal
By Jason Spencer
5/15/08
A boatload of Republican state and local candidates will sit down to eat pork Monday night before they spend two hours talking about cutting it, among other things.
Twenty-one candidates have been invited to a forum hosted by the Spartanburg County Republican Party. The debate begins at 7 p.m. at Ron’s Family Restaurant. The event will feature questions by Herald-Journal Editorial Page Editor Mike Smith, Hometown News reporter Leon Russ and WORD radio personality Bob McLain.
The panel also can opt to ask questions submitted beforehand by the audience.
“What I’m trying to accomplish is to let the general public come and see all the candidates for all the local contested primary races at one time,” county GOP Chairman Rick Beltram said.
“It helps when you can compare a House race in one area with a House race in a nearby area. I think everybody realizes that nobody can go down to Columbia and say, ‘I’m going to hold down spending.’ You can’t do it by yourself. It has to be a group of people … forming a working majority to get things passed.”
The format is simple. A question is posed, and each candidate has a chance to respond. If they choose to respond, they’ll have one minute. A three-person panel of judges will determine whether someone is allowed a 30-second rebuttal after a response.
For instance, if incumbent Rep. Keith Kelly doesn’t answer a question, there would be less pressure on his challenger, Roger Nutt, to answer that question — and vice versa. But if one candidate from any given race answers, it’s a safe bet the others competing for that seat will interject, too.
About 100 tickets are left (out of an initial 300) for a pre-debate dinner that begins at 5:30 p.m. A short county GOP executive committee meeting will take place between dinner and the 7 p.m. debate.
The two candidates in the 4th Congressional District and the two for U.S. Senate have been invited to speak for up to five minutes each before the debate starts.
Campaigns of incumbent Rep. Bob Inglis and his challenger, Charles Jeter, both confirmed they will be there. Incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham will not be able to attend because of business in Washington, his campaign said, but he is sending state House Speaker Pro Tem Doug Smith to speak in his place. The campaign of Buddy Witherspoon, who is challenging Graham, has confirmed he will be there.
Each candidate has been given a short questionnaire on about a dozen issues, ranging from school consolidation to impact fees to an added tax on cigarettes.
The results from those questionnaires will be compiled and handed out to the audience before the debate begins, Beltram said.
The barbecue restaurant is just north of I-85 on Highway 9.
SHJ - Letter to the Editor
I truly hope the voters of S.C. House District 34 will take advantage of their great opportunity to vote for Mike Forrester in the upcoming election for the House District 34 seat. It is my honor to be counted among Mike’s enthusiastic supporters because I can speak personally of the exemplary qualifications he brings to his candidacy.