Your SC politics briefing

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

As a reminder, the South Carolina House is back in town for what we hear could be a multi-day fight on the floor over whether to tighten abortion restrictions in the state. The Senate returns to Columbia after Labor Day on Sept. 6.

Here’s your recap of the week.

CHRISTIAN ORG GOT $1.5M EARMARK FOR SCHOOL

In a move that legal scholars say raises serious constitutional questions, South Carolina earmarked $1.5 million in this year’s state budget for an Upstate Christian organization that has announced plans to build a residential school with the money.

Christian Learning Centers of Greenville County, which provides free Bible instruction to public school students, pitched the governor earlier this year on its plan to purchase 10 acres of land and build a “first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art residential school” for disadvantaged middle and high school students in Greenville County, according to a proposal obtained by The State.

Two private Christian colleges in Greenville County — Bob Jones University and North Greenville University — also wrote Gov. Henry McMaster in support of the earmark, which the General Assembly tucked into its nearly $14 billion spending plan and McMaster signed it into law.

State Reps. Mike Burns, R-Greenville, and John McCravy, R-Greenwood, cosponsored the earmark.

According to the project proposal, which contains architectural renderings of a 32,000-square-foot complex that includes a school building, male and female dorms, and administration offices, “The CLC residential school will be an adequate, fully-equipped environment useful for the academic, social, emotional, physical, and spiritual development of young people who, though disadvantaged and potentially at-risk, show promise given the needed support.”

University of South Carolina law professor Derek Black said the generous allocation of taxpayer dollars to Christian Learning Centers, which comes at a time when education advocates argue the state has failed to adequately fund South Carolina’s public school system, appears to violate the state and federal Constitutions.

Supporters of the school project deny it runs afoul of the law and claim it has been misrepresented.

Christian Learning Centers’ CEO Janice Butler says the organization never planned to build a school, and Burns and McCravy say they weren’t aware of any plans for a school when they agreed to sponsor the earmark.

The lawmakers said the organization had used the word “school” loosely in its proposal, but simply plan to build a new facility where disadvantaged and at-risk public school students can seek after-school support.

Even that, however, is constitutionally dubious, Black contends, and a national nonprofit that promotes the constitutional separation of church and state is considering filing suit over the earmark.

CLYBURN DISHES ON 2022, HIS POLITICAL FUTURE

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn told The State in an exclusive interview last week that the Biden administration and rank-and-file Democratic party members need to more aggressively promote President Joe Biden’s accomplishments ahead of midterm elections in November.

“There’s some amazing stuff that we’ve done and I’m not seeing anybody talking about it,” South Carolina’s top Democrat and the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House told The State.

Among those political victories, according to Clyburn, are passage of the American Rescue Plan Act, a bipartisan infrastructure bill; the CHIPS and Science Act; the Inflation Reduction Act; a bipartisan gun safety bill; and the PACT Act to help veterans exposed to burn pits.

“Just the president getting out there is not going to carry that message,” he said. “It’s got to be all hands on deck. The president needs to stay at the 30,000-foot-level and the rest of us need to be out here.”

Clyburn said there’s still much work to be done in Washington.

He’d like to see insulin costs capped for all people, not just senior citizens, and is looking forward to more minorities being confirmed to judgeships.

Clyburn, who turned 82 in July, is remaining active ahead of the midterms by campaigning for fellow Democrats around the country, but was mum about his own plans beyond 2022.

“I don’t know about that,” he responded when asked about running for reelection in 2024. “We’ll see what happens after 2022.”

BUZZ BITES

▪ A federal appeals court has agreed to temporarily pause a lower court’s order requiring that Sen. Lindsey Graham testify before a special grand jury investigating possible illegal efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia, the Associated Press reports.

▪ Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joe Cunningham stumped in Columbia Thursday with running mate Tally Casey, sharing his message of legalizing marijuana and sports betting, and his promise to veto any legislation that bans abortion in South Carolina, if elected.

▪ The director of South Carolina’s Department of Mental Health is resigning, a spokesman for the agency confirmed. Dr. Kenneth Rogers, a psychiatrist who has served as the agency’s director since April 2020 and is one of the state’s few Black agency heads, announced he would be leaving the department, effective Nov. 1.

▪ SC House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford and state Sen. Darrell Jackson, both Black Richland County Democrats who represent parts of the USC campus, are upset a Black University of South Carolina trustee was bypassed for board vice chair last week while someone with less seniority was elected.

▪ Gov. Henry McMaster slammed Biden’s plan to address college debt, calling it a “scheme,” and said the American Dream is being “threatened by the liberal left’s ‘something-for-nothing’ entitlement culture of handouts, bailouts, and cop outs.” Meanwhile, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn commended the president’s plan, saying it will “help alleviate the crushing burden of student loan debt” and “result in real relief for many borrowers.”

▪ Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and 16 GOP senators, including South Carolina’s Tim Scott, are hosting a reception Sept. 8 for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

▪ The odor problem that has affected many people outside of York County could have been avoided if New-Indy paper mill — with the approval of state regulators — had not shut off a key piece of pollution control equipment, according to a consulting report and emails from the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control.

▪ South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and his Democratic challenger Joe Cunningham will face off in a televised debate Oct. 26.

▪ Two Richland County lawmakers — state Sen. Darrell Jackson and state Rep. Beth Bernstein — say they want the state’s new six-week paid family leave policy extended to 12 weeks and will push for a new law when they return in January.

▪ Upstate Democratic state Sen. Karl Allen has been sued by a charity in his district after he withheld its earmark money, the Charleston Post and Courier reports.

▪ By a vote of 11-1, the Horry County School Board passed a resolution Monday night banning critical race theory— a catch-all phrase that among Republicans has come to mean any classroom instruction, generally dealing with race, class, gender or sexuality, that one might find inappropriate — in Horry County classrooms.

▪ Affluent property owners at Debordieu Beach in Georgetown County have scored a court victory that allows them to keep a wall of sandbags they were accused of installing illegally to protect their homes from rising seas.

▪ Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would not commit to staying out of the 2024 presidential race if former President Donald Trump, his former boss, seeks reelection.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Aug. 30

SC House returns for session to debate abortion legislation

Sept. 6

SC Senate returns for session to debate abortion legislation

Oct. 24

Early voting for SC’s general election starts

Oct. 26

SC gubernatorial televised debate, 7 p.m.

Nov. 8

SC general election

BEFORE WE ADJOURN

All hail Cock Commander.

The menacing moniker became a trending topic on Twitter Thursday after The State included it in an online poll of some very unofficial proposed names for the University of South Carolina’s live rooster mascot.

As of Friday morning, Cock Commander had racked up nearly 80% of the more than 14,000 votes cast, easily besting suggestions like Cluck Norris, Marco Pollo and Kickin’ Chicken.

The name, which a source familiar with USC’s branding process said won’t be chosen for the rooster, has an interesting origin story that dates back to a 2004 issue of the USC student newspaper and involves one of The State’s former State House reporters.

You can read about it here.

Who pulled together this week’s newsletter?

This week it was reporter Zak Koeske, a member of The State’s government and politics team. Keep up with him on Twitter @ZakKoeske or send him story tips at zkoeske@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.