Crazyworld

It’s hard letting go.

Apparently, that’s a lesson former Spartanburg County Republican Party Chairman Rick Beltram hasn’t learned. And from the looks of it, he doesn’t plan to.

Beltram, who lost his bid to retain his seat to new Chairwoman LaDonna Ryggs by a 291-87 vote earlier this month, today said he plans to form a political action committee. The Piedmont Political Forum PAC will encompass all of the Upstate and stretch a bit into North Carolina, he said.

The way it sounds, this is Beltram and those loyal to him setting up an alternate funding stream for candidates who, like him, are not affiliated with the latest incarnation of the county Republican Party.

The PAC will include “a mixed bag of Republicans, going from hard-core Republicans all the way up to those who are just right of center,” he said.

He continued: “The people who will be there will be Republican. And the people who are there will be more concerned with winning elections than spewing out rhetoric. This group will be conservative, but it will not be one that will want to send Lindsey Graham under the bus. It will not be a group that will boo Gresham Barrett.”

Beltram said he is still getting legal advice as to how to set everything up. I’m guessing part of that advice will include how he handles selling services — if he’s even allowed to — to political candidates. I say that because since losing the county party chairmanship, he has referred to state Rep. Steve Parker, R-Spartanburg, as his “client.”

Another detail still being worked out: What donation level will entitle someone to call themselves a “member” of the PAC. Members, Beltram said, will collectively determine which candidates the group supports financially.

The Piedmont Political Forum will hold its organizational meeting at 9 a.m. on May 9 at The Junction Restaurant in Spartanburg. After that, the group will meet monthly for breakfast. The first scheduled meeting is at 9 a.m. on June 13 at the Country Hearth Inn.

Oh, and the PAC’s headquarters will be on South Pine Street, which doubled as the Spartanburg County Republican Party’s headquarters until Beltram lost control of it and kicked everyone out. (His name is on the building’s lease. The party is currently looking for a new HQ, Ryggs has said.)

“People who want a more broad involvement will find this very attractive,” Beltram said.

“I’ve read some of the reviews of what’s going on and would say the more typical Republican voter has gotten scared. I’ve always had an axiom: If you could agree with someone 80 percent of the time, you’re good to go. Now, if you don’t agree with someone 100 percent of the time, you’re a RINO.”

A RINO, of course, is a Republican In Name Only. Local political consultant Kerry Wood has made no bones lately about being in the business of RINO hunting.

Sounds like someone just painted a target on his back...

Last night’s shift in Spartanburg County Republican Party leadership to me seems indicative of a larger movement within the overall party that was first seen last November.

But every time I come up with a theory, I read something or interview someone that makes me question it. I’d like to do a story on this — in fact, some of the quotes here may resurface when I do — but I’m going to put this out there to get some feedback. Feel free to post here or e-mail jason.spencer@shj.com.

The local events over the last few months, which I believe will be reflected on a larger scale: The anti-incumbency surge and the election of officials more in line with Gov. Mark Sanford (i.e. Sen. Lee Bright, Rep. Joey Millwood); the growing activism of Ron Paul supporters in party politics; and the rush to embrace social networking technology like Twitter, where Republicans handily outnumber Democrats. By extension, you could also add the Republican divide on how Sanford is responding to the federal stimulus, the number of “tea party” protests, and the infusion of more young people into all of this.

My first assumption was that the party was undergoing an ideological shift — part of the cyclical, reactionary nature of politics. In other words, with the Democrats in control, the Republicans were shifting further to the right. This didn’t really fly with the handful of people I mentioned it to. After all, one Republican’s definition of “conservative” can be another Republican’s definition of “fringe.”

Clemson University political scientist Dave Woodard, who is advising Andrew Smart — one of up to four challengers planning to run against U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis — offered this:

“It’s a legitimate reaction against John McCain. McCain was a moderate that worked with Democrats. What did that get you? How did that work out for you in 2008? Not very good. So, there’s a wish now to reassert our Reagan roots — and they tend to be free-market… less government, ideals of liberty. That’s what’s happened: The people who have been in office, like an Inglis or others, are sort of painted with the brush of incumbency that are associated with the problems we are having. And so challengers have a built-in advantage because they look different.”

Inglis, by the way, has a new campaign piece: A card designed to look like a road sign that states, “Keep Right.”

Other than that — and granted, so far I’ve only talked to Republicans about this, so more outside perspectives would help — not much support for my theory.

“I’m not sure the philosophy is a whole lot different,” former county party Chairman Rick Beltram said. “I’d say the focus on how to do things is changing. Last night was more of a Ron Paul meet-up meeting rather than talking about going out and getting some votes. It’s very similar to what goes on in Greenville GOP meetings.”

OK, so maybe it’s generational. I thought about that last night, somewhere in the nigh seven hours I spent at the county convention. Some of the longtime activists and party officers made references to getting involved in the GOP when they saw Barry Goldwater. One referenced the first time she saw a microwave. Running against them was a cadre of young people who grew up in a drastically different time, politically, socially and technologically.

They are part of a generation unafraid to post virtually all aspects of their lives online for all to see. They blog. They tweet. They text. They Digg, Flickr and some even Plurk. (And I’m not even sure what that last one is.) Tech people tend to have a libertarian (small "l" on purpose) streak in them. And I know plenty of tech people.

But then I spoke to Barry Wynn today. He said he saw a little bit of the generational aspect, but on the county level, there was more of a geographical expansion. In other words, House District 32 has traditionally been the seat of Republican power in this area. Now, that power has begun to disperse throughout Spartanburg. (District 32 is former Rep. Doug Smith’s seat, and Smith made the second nominating speech for new Chairwoman LaDonna Ryggs last night.)

“You saw people from Landrum and Boiling Springs and the west side and south side of Spartanburg,” Wynn said. “You saw a lot of new faces come into the party that aren’t just from the Converse Heights/east side of Spartanburg. People may have been driven there for social conservative issues, but also for a variety of other conservative causes. So, that’s what I saw last night — a total changing of the guard.”

I think in the end, what’s happening is a little bit of all of this is true. Various factions have united against common enemies. I believe it was state GOP Chairman Katon Dawson who talked about how hard it was to govern a majority last night.

When you’re in the minority, you tend to be more focused. When you’re in power, various factions can pursue slightly different agendas that provoke passionate responses — and drive wedges within the party. A splintered majority becomes more vulnerable to the minority party, power shifts, rinse, repeat.

As for going forward, one parting thought from Beltram:

“The party is going to fracture big time going into the 2010 election. I just hope it’s not going to take a big thumping in 2010 to get people back on focus. But this isn’t just happening in Spartanburg. It’s happening all over the state,” he said.

“It’s just more noticeable here because of the number of people who showed.”

So, how would you classify the state of the Republican Party — and how do you think that might impact races in 2010? And do you think what’s happening in Spartanburg will repeat on the state or even national levels?

If you’ve seen LaDonna Ryggs’ list of people supporting her bid for Spartanburg County GOP chairman, then you’ve noticed former House Speaker Pro Tem Doug Smith’s name at the top of it.

Ryggs will square off against sitting Chairman Rick Beltram at the county convention Tuesday night.

I asked Smith why he was getting involved.

“It matters to rank-and-file Republicans who are obviously very concerned about our local county party,” Smith said. “If a county party chairman wants to be in politics, they ought to run for office. The job of the party chairman is totally different from elected political office. Their job is to run the county party, to encourage grass root rank-and-file support, support party candidates, put on vibrant primaries, get the best candidates, and support the party platform. It is not to be the chief media hound. And, unfortunately, I think Rick Beltram might be a fine person — I don’t know him all that well — and I commend him for his years of service… But the problem is Rick generally can’t find a way to get along with the elected officials. He and I have had run-in after run-in after run-in.”

Smith added that Beltram had admitted to trying to find opposition to run against him while he held elected office and accused Beltram of making disparaging statements about him when he resigned from office last year.

“I’ve got a long memory when it comes to things like that,” Smith said. “… And I will not forget and I will repay the favor.”

Beltram called this “illusionary thinking” and a “total fabrication.”

The two have long been at odds with one another, with an on-again, off-again feud that goes back about a decade. Beltram said it all started when Smith wouldn’t endorse the GOP state Senate nominee in 2000 — who happened to be Steve Parker, a longtime Beltram ally and current state representative.

Beltram also denied trying to recruit opposition for Smith. He said he gets along with most elected officials just fine, pointing out that many of them have speaking parts at tomorrow night’s convention.

By the way, I updated this on Twitter, but in case you missed it, Attorney General Henry McMaster, U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett and Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer — all candidates or likely candidates for the 2010 Republican gubernatorial nomination — will be addressing the county convention.

Longtime Republican activist Mike Dixon announced this weekend that he, too, is seeking the position of state committeeman when the Spartanburg County GOP convention is held Tuesday.

The current state committeeman -- that's the person who has the vote for this county at state GOP executive committee meetings -- is LaDonna Ryggs. Ryggs is giving up the spot to run against sitting county GOP Chairman Rick Beltram for his seat.

The committeeman job in Spartanburg, I'm told, has traditionally included handling precinct reorganization. I'm told that by Beltram, who has criticized his opponent for failing in that task. Ryggs, on the other hand, has said she was excluded from reorganization planning.

Anyway, Dixon faces MaryAnn Riley, a county GOP fixture and strong Beltram ally, and Doug Cobb, a Republican activist whose wife, Nicole, helped run several recent primary campaigns -- probably most notably, Rep. Joey Millwood's. Cobb's candidacy was announced along with Ryggs'.

What does this mean? Probably not too much in the chairman's race. But this potentially splits the anti-Beltram vote in the committeeman's race.

Like his peers, Dixon has his own list of activist credentials. But the thing I remember most about him is when, a day before the South Carolina 2008 Republican primary, he called Beltram a "terrorist" at a GOP banquet at the Marriott. He said he was a surrogate, there to speak for then-candidate Duncan Hunter. After his comments, he was allowed to speak.

And, yes, I realize this is way into the realm of inside baseball.

Bits and bites from the Spartanburg County GOP chairman’s race. Current Chairman Rick Beltram is facing current Committeeman LaDonna Ryggs. This is sort of a stream-of-consciousness post, but I think a couple of common themes will be apparent.

Most of this is based on Monday night’s brief forum, supplemented by a few interviews (or public statements) made since.

Let’s start with opening statements. Beltram went first, and drew the following analogy:

“How many times during this last election did you hear the word change? Change. We have to have change. And when we got President Obama, did you like the change you got? Not one hand. Well, folks, change isn’t good. We’ve got to be careful that we’re not changing for the sake of changing, when in fact what we have is working and we want to move forward and not change for the sake of change, because we might get something much worse.”

He continued with an anecdote about the upcoming special election in Cherokee County to fill the seat of the late state Rep. Olin Phillips, a Democrat. Phillips’ son-in-law is the Democratic nominee in the race. Steve Moss is the Republican nominee. Beltram said he donated $500 to the Moss campaign from the party. Tuesday, he repeated this story, and asked for a show of hands if anyone thought that was inappropriate. No one did.

“We have an opportunity to win that race and put another Republican in the Statehouse,” Beltram said. “I went up to Gaffney, and I pledged the full support of the Spartanburg County Republican Party to win that seat. We even took them a little check to get them started.”

He added: “That’s where we can get going with the grass roots today. We don’t have to wait until ‘10. We can get started today.”

Ryggs introduced herself by reading a poem that’s a favorite of her father, a Baptist minister, about being careful to advertise only when you had the goods to deliver.

“We have the goods,” Ryggs said. “We have to be spreading our conservative message everywhere we go, and why our party is the place to be for conservatives who want to make a difference. It’s our party — not the Libertarian Party, not the Constitution Party, but the Republican Party — where conservatives can make a difference.”

She continued: “Our cause is freedom. We must stand united as Republicans around the things that unite us as Republicans. We have a very fractured party here in Spartanburg and across the nation. The county party is the backbone of the national party. Each county party makes a difference.”

An audience member asked the two about the fractures within the party, and how they would heal it. This time, Ryggs went first.

“There are several factions,” she said. “You have people who are more to the moderate side, You have people who are on the far right of conservatism, You have the young. You have those involved in various groups and organizations. My belief is that you pull all of them together and unite them around the causes they believe in. …If you saw my committee to elect me, you might have noticed there are people who probably won’t talk to each other on that list. That’s because they understand we have to come together as a party and fight hard for the things we believe in.”

Beltram began by showing pictures of the county party headquarters. He said rent is $350 per month. He pays half — he runs his business out of one of the offices in the building — and the county party pays half. He then criticized a local blog (not by name, but it’s Kerry Wood’s Upstate Update) for saying the headquarters was in the “ghetto” and that the Country Hearth Inn, where the last few GOP meetings have been held, was in the “slums.”

“It’s that kind of talk within our party that creates fracture,” Beltram said. “And I need to, as chairman of the party…  I need to call out those people, because they don’t do any good. They hurt our party every day they put out blogs. It’s pure trash. And it’s hurting the party.”

So I called Wood this afternoon for a response.

“He’s been trashing me all over the place. You’d think he was running against me they way he’s been attacking me,” Wood said. He said he didn’t think his blog comments were hurting the party.

“Quite honestly, I think everything that Rick has been doing has been hurting the party. He’s been very, in my opinion, exclusive. He wants absolutely everything to run through him. He doesn’t want anybody to help do anything unless he approves it.”

Before Monday night was over (and Beltram did this again Tuesday night, when Ryggs had a prior engagement and wasn’t able to be there to defend herself), Beltram criticized his opponent for failing to do her duties as state committeeman, which he says includes handling the reorganization of precincts and providing content for the monthly newsletter.

Beltram went last, but I had a chance to speak with Ryggs outside to get her response. In the odd case you’ve read this far and aren’t aware of it, I’ll point out that Beltram is also seeking state Republican Party chairmanship.

Anyway. “It is a family squabble,” Ryggs began.

“I was at one meeting. A planning meeting. It was supposed to be planning for the convention and reorganization. I got there, and it was a campaign meeting for Rick — for county, for state. I have not been invited back since I made my neutrality known in the state party race. I have not been invited, I have not even been informed. I’m assuming they’ve had officer’s meetings, that they’ve had other meetings, because things have been planned. But I have not been there.”

She added that she would have been more than willing to help with reorganization because it would have helped her campaign to become county party chairman.

Beltram, today, said that he had received “no e-mails, phone calls, faxes or twitters” — yes, he said twitters — “or anything else suggesting she would like to take a role in these procedures.” He said the Jan. 31 meeting Ryggs referenced was for the “expressed” purpose of being a campaign meeting.

Clearly, the two have different recollections of the day.

And, yes, there's still more to come.

Busy couple of day in local politics. The two candidates for Spartanburg County GOP Chairman — Rick Beltram, who currently holds the seat, and LaDonna Ryggs, currently the county party’s representative on the state level — met for a brief forum Monday night at the west-side public library. (And by brief, I mean opening statements, three two questions from the audience and closing statements.) About 30 people were there. This was a precinct-level meeting.

I’m working on transcribing my notes from that event -- and from last night's lengthy meeting -- but I wanted to go ahead and post this, as I was able to speak with Ryggs about it after the Monday event. Ryggs is the administrative assistant to the director of publishing at Bob Jones University.

When I found out she was entering the county chairman’s race, Bob Jones University didn’t enter my mind. But then there was a meeting of about 300 activists, the makeup day for reorganization of precincts, and I was able to chat with several people. A few mentioned the Bob Jones factor as a concern -- a concern that the school was attempting to expand its political influence past the Greenville County line.

It kind of caught me off guard. I mean, you hear about this in Greenville politics sometimes -- i.e. Bob Jones is trying to control x seats on city council or is trying to control the direction of that county’s Republican Party organization or some such -- but here, not so much. I only follow Greenville politics peripherally, though, so I can’t speak to how much of that is speculation.

Ryggs has a long list of credentials within the party (both candidates do, but this is about Ryggs), and she doesn’t list the fact that she works at Bob Jones University among them.

As she put it, “You don’t hear me get up and say, ‘I’m LaDonna Ryggs and I work at Bob Jones.’ ” And that’s true. She hasn’t been running on the fact, and she hasn’t been hiding from it. She doesn’t believe her place of employment will be a factor in this race, and she says she has always separated what she does for the party with what she does as a private citizen.

“I haven’t even told them that I’m running,” she said. “I will. And it’s no big deal. I am a party officer. But that’s not something that they’ve ever asked me about. They know I’m Republican, and they know I’m very involved. And they’re excited for me. They’re excited I take my politics very seriously.”

I mentioned the gist of the comments I’d heard to Beltram. He called it a “personal situation.”

“That’s the same to me as people who said they couldn’t vote for Mitt Romney because he was Mormon. I find that kind of conversation reprehensible,” he said.

So, that seems to be the end of that.