Your SC politics briefing

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

Two weeks after teasing his potential running mate selection, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Joe Cunningham announced Monday that he’d chosen Tally Casey, who in the 1990s became South Carolina’s first female fighter pilot as a member of the state’s Air National Guard.

Casey, a Greenville native who served three combat tours in Iraq and left the military as a lieutenant colonel, is an attorney who chairs the executive committee of the Wyche Law Firm

“She is a fierce, independent woman with a backbone made of steel and a heart of gold,” the one-term Lowcountry congressman said of Casey at a rally Monday. “The good old boys at the State House won’t ever know what hit them.”

Casey told The State newspaper she wants to be a champion for women and said protecting access to abortion in South Carolina will be a key part of her stump speech as she campaigns around the state.

“It was one of the significant motivating factors that pushed me to get involved in this campaign, and I feel like it’s a call to duty at this time,” Casey said. “This is a critical time in our state’s history.”

Cunningham hopes Casey’s Greenville roots help him make gains in the Upstate, especially in Greenville County, where the party needs to attract more voters to be competitive.

His choice of an Upstate native who now lives in Columbia mirrors Gov. Henry McMaster’s 2018 selection of Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, of Traveler’s Rest

ARE SC’S EXECUTION METHODS CONSTITUTIONAL?

The argument phase of a bench trial over the constitutionality of South Carolina’s execution methods was held this week.

Lawyers for three death row inmates who are challenging the state’s use of firing squad and electric chair argued those execution methods were cruel and unusual and said state officials had not done enough to procure the drugs necessary to carry out executions by lethal injection, considered a safer and more humane way to kill people.

Daniel Plyler, an attorney for the state, argued there was no question the death penalty was constitutional and that no law guarantees a painless death.

South Carolina lawmakers last year voted to to bring back the electric chair and introduce the firing squad as methods of execution because of difficulties the corrections department has had obtaining lethal injection drugs. The state ran out of lethal injection drugs in 2013 and has not been able to buy or compound them since because pharmaceutical drug companies are hesitant to sell them to states for fear of being connected to executions.

The South Carolina Supreme Court has asked Judge Jocelyn Newman to rule on the case within 30 days.

BUZZ BITES

▪ Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is coming back to South Carolina to headline an Upstate GOP gathering.

▪ Gov. Henry McMaster and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp were among 22 Republican governors who released a statement Thursday criticizing a $740 billion Congressional budget reconciliation bill proposed by US Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Joe Manchin, D-W. Va.

▪ An estimated 60,000 South Carolinians would lose health care coverage if enhanced Obamacare subsidies enacted in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act are allowed to expire at the end of the year, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

▪ Gubernatorial candidate Gary Votour, who left the Democratic Party over a policy disagreement, can appear on the November ballot as the Labor Party’s nominee, the State Election Commission has ruled.

▪ More than $3.3 million in assets is missing from the small Lexington County town of Swansea’s coffers, according to a recent budget audit. The revelation comes as the town’s former mayor, who was indicted last year on charges of embezzlement and misconduct in office, awaits trial.

▪ The publisher of Sen. Tim Scott’s new memoir said they made an error, the Post and Courier reported, when they wrote on the copyright page, “This book is a political memoir that includes his core messages as he prepares to make a presidential bid in 2022.”

▪ Relatives of US Rep. Jim Clyburn and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley got secret stakes in a company set to profit from a new tribal casino as it sought federal approval, according to interviews and documents, the Wall Street Journal reported.

▪ A state judge has denied a request for a gag order in the high-profile Alex Murdaugh murder case, meaning legal filings will not be sealed, nor will people involved in the case be barred from discussion outside the courtroom.

▪ Portions of I-26, I-126 and I-20 will be under construction for the next eight years, as the state’s Department of Transportation begins work on a $2.08 billion project to fix Columbia’s “malfunction junction” – the infamous web of interstates northwest of downtown known for backed-up traffic and numerous accidents.

▪ A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in federal court over the death of Lason Butler, a 27-year-old Orangeburg man who was found dead of dehydration in a Richland County jail cell in February with his body covered in rat bites. Butler’s death has been ruled a homicide.

▪ Tyrell Cato, the new head of Richland County’s jail was fired from his previous job at the Kershaw County Detention Center for “sexual misconduct in the workplace,” but initial reports from Kershaw County stated he voluntarily resigned from his position.

▪ A Columbia area family has sold nearly 650 acres to a conservation group as part of a deal to create a large urban nature preserve just west of the Congaree River in Lexington County.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Aug. 15-19

SC House Judiciary Committee expected to meet to debate anti-abortion bill

Aug. 19

SC Senate Medical Affairs discusses abortion legislation in response to court decision, starting at 9 a.m.

Nov. 8

Election Day

BEFORE WE ADJOURN

South Carolina wants to build its first new state park in two decades. It just needs $45 million.

The new Black River State Park would be part of the larger Black River Water Trail & Park Network, 12 parcels of land starting in Kingstree and ending in Georgetown.

For decades, private purchases and decisions by outsiders have made the Black River more and more closed off to the outside world, including locals who live nearby and have visited for years. Now, the land and the river are closer than ever to being opened up so more people can enjoy their beauty. But it will take tens of millions of dollars and up to a decade before the park comes to fruition.

If completed, the Black River Water Trail & Park Network would mark one of the biggest expansions of South Carolina’s state park system in decades and, organizers hope, encourage conservation by making more of the state’s natural spaces protected by and accessible to the public.

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.