Kevin Bryant

I just want to wish you all a happy Friday and relate to you what a HUGE SUCCESS our golf tournament was yesterday!!  We could not have ordered a more beautiful day for our first attempt at this type of event.  Craig Wooten did a wonderful job of pulling this whole event together.  We had over 50 golfers and more than 18 paid teams for yesterdays event.  Not bad for our first try!!  In fact, we were told that this was an excellent turn out.  Thank you to all who participated!!  I want to give special recognition to those who were our sponsors and made donations.  Please tell these people how much you appreciate what they have done and frequent their businesses.

Title Sponsor:  Chick-fil-A of Anderson
Gold Sponsor:  County Councilman Bob Waldrep
Lowry Oil Company – Eddie Adams
Silver Sponsor:  Golf USA
FASTSIGNS of Anderson
Bronze Sponsor:  New York Life – Ralph Gruendling

Hole Sponsors:
1.  Dr. Mike Vasovski
2.  Gadsden & Greene Strategies
3.  Gresham Barrett for Governor
4.  Craig Wooten Properties LLC
5.  Tim Scott for Lt. Governor
6.  Senator Billy O’Dell
7.  Representative Dan Cooper
8.  Shane Massey for Congress
9.  Neal Collins for Congress
10. Rex Rice for Congress
11. Jeff Duncan for Congress
12. Senator Kevin Bryant
13. The Campaign to Send Richard Cash to Congress
14. Solicitor Chrissy Adams
15. Ken Ard for Lt. Governor
16. Bill Connor for Lt. Governor
17. The Chiropractic Thayerapy Center and Anne Thayer for House
18. James Galyean for Congress

Gifts and Drawing Prizes:

Longhorn Steakhouse, Chili’s, O’Charley’s, Bruster’s, A Basket of Blessings, Dillard’s Sporting Goods, Grady’s Great Outdoors, Allstate – Rick Bridwell, State Farm – Maggie Waldrep, Gary Henderson

Thanks to the generosity of these folks, our tournament was successful and fun!!  Many of the golfers came back to tell us that they had a wonderful time and would gladly participate in our tournament again.  We will make this an election year event for the party (every 2 years) and our next one is being planned as we speak.

I also want to say a BIG thank you to our volunteers!  They were so generous with their time and talents…

Ralph and Becky Gruendling, Nancy Waldrep, Debbie Gerwe, Chuck Weber, Anne Thayer

I hope that many of you will be involved in our next tournament.

Have a great weekend,

Liz Holmes, Chairman, ACRP, www.andersongop.org

The beginning of the week was focused on our Unemployment Roundtable Discussion, where I think we had a productive back-and-forth conversation with well over 100 folks – everyone from state legislators, business leaders and agency directors – on the topics of workforce development, the numbers behind the numbers with regard to unemployment, and how we can better connect those seeking employment with the job opportunities that do indeed exist across the state.

We set up Tuesday’s discussion for three reasons: one, unemployment and the related goal of job creation is the greatest challenge facing our state today.

Two, there continues to be a glaring lack of accountability at the Employment Security Commission (ESC) – and the consequences of this are neither pretty nor easily remedied. Right now our state’s unemployment trust fund deficit is nearing a billion dollars, and despite urgings over the past year by us and House leaders, true reform to the ESC came just a few votes short last session. Now another consequence of this lack of accountability has come to bear, in that nearly 7,000 South Carolinians’ unemployment benefits were cut short by a wholly preventable oversight, and because of that, state lawmakers are returning next week to fix the error.

Three, some have argued that the only way to fill this trust fund deficit is to raise taxes on South Carolina businesses – up to $567 per employee! We strongly disagree, and like many others in Tuesday’s standing room only crowd, we’d argue that real reform and accountability at the Employment Security Commission is a better place to start the process of getting back to even ground than simply raising taxes.

On the issue of unemployment and government’s limited role in connecting folks out of work with high-quality jobs, I believe your voice can and must be heard. A billion dollar deficit and burdensome taxes on all state’s businesses will affect each and every one of us, and for that reason, I’d encourage you to contact your local legislators and urge them to support substantive ESC reform when they return to Columbia in January.

By Karen Floyd, SC GOP Chairman

The South Carolina Republican Party recently commissioned a scientific survey of 1,000 likely South Carolina voters to determine how the Republican Party, its philosophy and candidates are perceived by the electorate. This confidential briefing is being sent to you and other key leaders around the State to keep you well-informed on issues and voter trends that have an impact on elections.

As you know, some observers have raised the concern that the recent controversy surrounding Governor Mark Sanford may have damaged the image of the Republican Party and our candidates. I am very pleased to report those concerns are completely unfounded.

Also, when asked which major party, Republican or Democrat, best reflects their views and values, 55% of South Carolina’s voters chose the Republican Party. Only 35% said the Democratic Party best reflected their views and values. Party preference numbers at that level are in fact higher for Republicans than they have been in past polling.
Therefore, South Carolina remains a strong Republican State. In fact, our Party is stronger today than ever, as other questions in the survey confirmed.

For example, we also learned that Barck Obama’s job approval rating in South Carolina is only 36%, which is a full 10% lower than the national average. And when our State’s voters were asked whether they favored or opposed President Obama’s plan for universal health care, 61% said they were opposed. Only 30% were in favor of the Democrats’ national health care reform schemes.
Looking ahead to the 2010 Governor’s race, 54% said they were most likely to vote for the Republican candidate. Only 34% said they were most likely to vote for the Democrat. This gives our Party a 20% advantage even before the nominees are selected.

Finally, when South Carolina voters were asked whether they consider themselves to be conservative or liberal, 60% said conservative. Only 23% said they were liberal.
This is all good news indeed for the South Carolina Republican Party as we enter the 2010 election cycle. A strong majority of our State’s voters are conservative Republicans who overwhelmingly reject President Obama’s radical agenda. Our task now is to build on this early enthusiasm and organize a major historic victory for all of our candidates in 2010.

The survey was conducted the last week of September 2009 by the polling group First Impression, Inc. With a sample of 1,000 voters, the margin of error is plus (or minus) 3.2%

watch this. he’s right. we are an impatient ungrateful generation that should be in awe of the wonderful advantages we have.

I guess we can thank our friends across the river to report on a huge problem with unemployment benefits: that employees can draw benefits when they are fired. This just doesn’t compute with me.

The Augusta Chronicle – COLUMBIA — Nearly one-quarter of unemployed South Carolinians who file for jobless benefits are out of work because of their own misconduct.

Of that group, 56 percent succeeded in getting unemployment benefits, said Rebecca Gunnlaugsson, the economist for the South Carolina Department of Commerce.

Data she presented during a forum Tuesday showed 22.8 percent of the unemployed were out of a job because of misbehavior, 10.1 percent had quit and 34.2 percent had been laid off.