Kevin Hall drops bid for SCGOP Chairmanship

The following letter was mailed today to supporters of Kevin Hall:

 KEVIN A. HALL

February 2, 2007

Dear Fellow Republican:
Late last year, I wrote many of you to tell you of my intentions to run for Chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.  Like you, I am committed to working hard to ensure that the conservative values we share are represented in every level of politics throughout South Carolina.  I am proud of South Carolina’s red-state heritage, and I want to do everything in my power to continue electing strong, conservative Republicans.  The big victories we all shared here in November showed just how important it is to have solid leadership, great candidates and a common-sense message.

Since the first of the year, it has come to my attention that Chairman Katon Dawson is considering again running for chairman of our state party.  On Election Night, Governor Mark Sanford said that we have the best State Party Chairman in the nation—and I agree.  And since Katon is willing to serve our party and our state for another two years, I want you to know that I was the first in line to sign on to his re-election campaign. With Katon’s leadership and all of our hard work, we will maintain our first-in-the-South presidential preference primary and expand upon our majorities in the General Assembly.

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A Daily Shot welcomes…

We here at The Shot are honored to be able to announce that the National Journal’s The Hotline has chosen our website to be its exclusive partner for South Carolina news and politics.  As of today, The Shot will be a part of The Hotline’s Political Network.

Everyone involved in politics, from elected officials to political junkies, knows The Hotline and their work as the national leader in providing the best political news coverage on the Internet.  In an effort to to provide the best coverage of the Presidential races, The Hotline has built an elite headquarters for national readers to get the most up-to-date news directly from local sources.  They are selecting the best political news websites from each state to serve in the political network.  We are excited to say that The Shot will be their eyes and ears on the ground in South Carolina.

Obviously this is big news for us and we couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to bring South Carolina politics to the national stage.  Our goal has always been to provide the best political news and analysis  irregardless of politcal party.  It hasn’t always been easy, after all, we have all been neck deep political fights for our Party and candidates.  However, we understand that South Carolina was lacking a web-based news source that was fair to all sides and that provided cutting edge original content.  Furthermore, our political community has lacked in utilizing the new media and all the tools at our fingertips.  That time is over and as we move forward, The Shot will remain on the cutting edge of bringing our readers the best political coverage in real time.

The Shot would like to give props to Laurin Manning, who has been a fixture in e-politics for many years.  She tipped off The Hotline to our little corner of the Internet and for that we are grateful.  We are just happy we have been able to live up to her recommendation and earn the respect of the national players.

Finally, all of this leads us to issue a call to all of you bloggers and operatives, both Democrat and Republican, to come and be a part of our expanding net-roots community.  We welcome your tips, information, and even writing contributions.  If you have something to say; let The Shot be your outlet for saying it.

Grab your shades folks, because the future is bright…

View Press Release here.

More on Jim Ritchie

It looks like Dan Hoover picked up on our post yesterday about Jim Ritchie and went fishing.

Also, there’s a pretty good interview with audio clips over here. http://westforum.sc.edu/MaxcySeminar/050316RitchieJames/050316RitchieJames.htm

Is it 2010 already?

 

A new session of the State Legislature is always fun for political junkies.  All legislatin’ aside, it is just a veritable smorgasbord of rumor, trial balloons, and quality political chatter.   We just love it, like pigs in mud. 

The Shot has been hearing from a handful of sources that State Senator Jim Ritchie has been talking up his colleagues about a potential run for Governor in 2010.  Ritchie represents the 13th District which covers the GOP strongholds of Greenville, Spartanburg, and Union counties.  It is safe to say that the Senator from the upstate will be joining a crowded field of powerful hopefuls for the race to replace Governor Sanford who will be term limited.

Didn’t we just swear him in a few days ago?

Oh Captain, My Captain…

Earlier this week we broke the news that a number of high level staffers were leaving the SCGOP.  The Shot has now confirmed, through numerous sources, that Hogan Gidley will be taking the reins as Executive Director of the South Carolina Republican Party.

Gidley most recently served as Communications Director for Karen Floyd for Superintendent of Education.  The Floyd Campaign, who was heavily favored going into the November elections, suffered a defeat in what was the closest election in state history.  Gildley also served as former Governor Beasley’s spokesperson in his attempt to win the Republican primary for US Senate.  Beasley lost to then Congressman, Jim DeMint.

Hogan has long been known as an ally of Govenor Mike Huckabee, who has previously been sighted on the long list of Presidential hopefuls, but who has yet to begin raising money or building a foundation for such a bid. 

With the ’08 elections in full swing, and a host of internal issues to be resolved in the near future, Hogan will sure have his hands full navigating the choppy waters.

The Crew | BJ Boling to be named McCain SC Communications Director

Earlier this week we reported that BJ Boling left Starboard Communications to serve as Communications Director for SCRG.  It seems as if BJ’s service at SCRG was short lived.  The Shot has received word from numerous sources that BJ will be leaving SCRG to serve as the South Carolina Communications Director for McCain for President.