Your SC politics briefing

Welcome to your weekly South Carolina politics briefing, a newsletter curated by The State’s politics and government team.

It was not only college football players in the transfer portal this week.

The SC House did its own version of the team swap with committee assignments. Here’s our highlight breakdown:

▪ First, leadership stayed pretty much the same. House Speaker Murrell Smith was reelected to the top role in the lower chamber, and Rep. Tommy Pope will stay speaker pro tempore. House Majority Leader Davey Hiott will continue to lead Republicans in the next session, and House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford will stay the Democratic leader. The only noticeable leadership change is Rep. Roger Kirby, who replaces Rep. Russell Ott as assistant minority leader.

▪ State Rep. Bruce Bannister, a former House majority leader from Greenville, is the new chairman of the powerful budget-writing Ways and Means Committee, giving him the lead role in the writing of the state budget.

▪ State Rep. Weston Newton, a Beaufort Republican, now chairs the House Judiciary Committee, succeeding Rep. Chris Murphy, whose brief tenure ended with the disclosure that he was seeking treatment for alcohol. Murphy now sits on Ways and Means.

▪ State Rep. Shannon Erickson, another Beaufort Republican, chairs the House Education and Public Works Committee, a must-watch panel moving forward given voters also elected a new superintendent.

▪ Richland Democrat Rep. Leon Howard no longer chairs what’s known as the 3M committee, what once was the only committee chaired by a Democrat and made up of a majority of Democrats. Republican Rep. Sylleste Davis of Berkeley succeeds Howard who moved over to Ways and Means. Howard also was the only Black chairman.

Oversight of BJU after Weaver gets master’s

A college accrediting body has asked Bob Jones University to submit an additional report regarding the accelerated master’s degree program that Republican Superintendent-elect Ellen Weaver completed this year.

The board of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges on Tuesday asked the Greenville-based private evangelical Christian university to submit a “monitoring report,” within the next six months, spokeswoman Janea Johnson said.

The monitoring report is a form of oversight, she said, but does not constitute a sanction and does not imply any violation or deficiency by the university.

Johnson said she could not disclose what additional information SACSCOC seeks from the university or why it asked for it. The agency’s board will review Bob Jones’ monitoring report at its June 2023 meeting.

SC lands big battery maker in Pee Dee

Another battery maker is opening up shop in the Southeast.

Florence County is slated to get an $810 million investment from Envision Automotive Energy Supply Co., which will build a battery cell plant that is expected to bring 1,170 jobs to the Pee Dee region.

The battery cells will be supplied to BMW’s Upstate facility, part of a a $1.7 billion investment to build all electric.

The deal includes $200 million-plus in state help, but the ground work for such a project was started years ago — a credit to the late Sen. Hugh Leatherman, who as chairman of the powerful budget-writing committee in the Senate steered millions toward his home county in workforce programs and infrastructure.

Buzz Bites

▪ Columbia native Vince Ford, who from 1992 to 2016 was an influential member of the Richland 1 board, and had stints as the chairman of the body, died Tuesday after a brief illness.

▪ Gov. Henry McMaster gave a “no comment” when asked this week for his reaction to former President Donald Trump’s comments about terminating articles in the US Constitution, posted on Truth Social. McMaster is supporting the former president’s 2024 run.

“I don’t want to comment. I didn’t see what he said. A lot of times what he said is taken out of context and twisted around by folks,” McMaster told reporters. “I know the man and I think very highly of him.”

▪ Virtually every river, creek and lake tested recently by South Carolina regulators was found to contain “forever chemicals,’’ materials once used by industry that today are being linked to a variety of toxic effects on people.

▪ Terrence Culbreath, the former mayor of Johnston and a top staffer on Sen. Cory Booker’s 2020 presidential campaign in South Carolina, died Sunday at age 39. Tributes poured in from across the state, including from DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison and Booker himself, who called Culbreath a “heroic leader with this magnanimous heart.”

▪ Jeffrey Benjamin, the last defendant in the five-year federal investigation into the failure of SCANA’s $10 billion nuclear project in Fairfield County, could be headed to trial in South Carolina federal court as early as May 2023.

▪ Dan Ellzey, South Carolina’s workforce and employment director who led the agency through the COVID-19 pandemic and a subsequent spike in unemployment, will retire at the end of February.

▪ POLITICO reports US Sen. Lindsey Graham among Senate Republicans, most of whom voted against Sen. Mitch McConnell as leader, who “are getting more organized in a bid to exert their leverage in the chamber.”

▪ The nomination of South Carolina Judge DeAndrea Benjamin to a prestigious judgeship on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has been advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee after a 13-9 vote.

▪ US Rep.-elect Russell Fry named Matt Orr, vice president of public affairs for First Tuesday Strategies, as chief of staff.

▪ Emma Dean, Senate Judiciary Committee chief counsel, is leaving to join the SC Bar Association.

▪ A South Carolina man who opened a door to Jan. 6 Capitol rioters and has since renounced former President Donald Trump’s false allegations of a stolen 2020 election was sentenced Monday to three years in federal prison.

▪ Former South Carolina banker Russell Laffitte, who was found guilty last month on six counts of federal financial fraud charges, has filed a motion to overturn the jury verdict and is asking for a new trial.

▪ Superintendent-elect Ellen Weaver has announced her transition committee. It is chaired by Ken Wingate, former state treasurer and former chairman of SC First Steps and the SC Commission on Higher Education, and includes former House Education chairwoman Rita Allison.

▪ Republican US Reps. Nancy Mace and Tom Rice joined Democrats to pass legislation aiming to protect same-sex and interracial marriages, the Post and Courier reports.

▪ Richland 1 School District has been placed on fiscal watch after the South Carolina Department of Education conducted an audit earlier this year.

▪ South Carolina colleges and universities have asked lawmakers to spend $78 million to freeze tuition next year.

▪ Jasper Cureton, the first African American judge to sit on the S.C. Court of Appeals, has died. He was 84.

▪ Gov. Henry McMaster wants to ban the social media app TikTok from state-issued government devices.

▪ Former Vice President Mike Pence met with supporters at a Rock Hill church Tuesday as part of his nationwide book tour, further fueling speculation that he’s laying the groundwork for a 2024 presidential run.

▪ US Sen. Lindsey Graham joined the celebrations for the release of top WNBA player Brittney Griner from a Russian prison, but called it “a bitter pill to swallow” knowing that Paul Whelan still remains jailed in Russia for nearly four years.

Mark your calendar

Dec. 12

Full Education Oversight Committee meeting, 1 p.m.

Dec. 15

Another round of SC House pre-file bills will drop

Jan. 5

SC Supreme Court hears arguments over state’s execution methods

Jan. 10

First day of 2023 legislative session

Jan. 11

Inauguration Day

Jan. 25

State of the State

Before we adjourn

We’re close to January, which means inauguration day is upon us.

Here’s the schedule:

Gov. Henry McMaster will be sworn in for his second full term Jan. 11, starting with a prayer service at downtown Columbia’s First Presbyterian Church, where McMaster attends.

McMaster and other statewide officers will then be sworn in on the south steps of the State House at 11 a.m.

After, McMaster and first lady Peggy will return to the Governor’s Mansion for an open house from 2 to 3 p.m. Ticketed guests will be invited later that night to the inauguration ball at the Columbia Convention Center.

Pulling the newsletter together this week was Maayan Schechter (My-yahn Schek-ter), senior editor of the The State’s politics and state government team. You can keep up with her on Twitter and send her tips on Twitter at @MaayanSchechter or by email mschechter@thestate.com.

To stay on top of South Carolina politics and election news, you can chat with us on Facebook, email us tips and follow our stories at scpolitics.com.