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Speakers announced for March 25 meeting

Rep. Nikki Haley, candidate for governor; Dr. Brent Nelsen, candidate for superintendent of education; and Gen. Bob Livingston, candidate for adjutant general; are the speakers for the March 25 luncheon at the Poinsett Club.

Reservations need to be made by e-mailing Mary Bellinger at
gcrwreply@yahoo.com or by calling her at 268-3942.
Reservations must be made no later than Monday,
March 22 at 8 p.m. To avoid paying $15, cancellation
must be made by 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 23.

Members of the Greenville County Republican Women's Club
at the March 6 Board Meeting in Columbia

Posted Tuesday, March 2

Gresham Barrett, Robert Bolchoz speak to Greenville Republican Women

Gresham Barrett video
Robert Bolchoz video
Photo gallery 1
Photo gallery 2

Gresham Barrett	Robert Bolchoz

Rep. Gresham Barrett, candidate for governor, and Robert Bolchoz, candidate for attorney general, spoke to the Greenville County Republican Women’s Club Feb. 25 at their monthly Poinsett Club luncheon.
Gresham Barrett
Barrett said he believes in God, the sanctity of life and that elected leaders must do everything in their power to protect that life, that innovation, not taxation is the way to solve energy problems, and that South Carolina should be the nation’s leader when it comes to energy independence. Barrett said he believes in the Second Amendment, the U.S. Constitution and the South Carolina Constitution.
Barrett pledged to not raise taxes to pay for government in South Carolina and said that medical decisions are best left to patients and their doctors, not to bureaucrats in Washington.
Barrett said his political mentor is the late Gov. Carroll Campbell (1987-1995). Barrett called for comprehensive tax reform that encourages business growth and business and industries to come to South Carolina. H said he would restructure the Department of Commerce and hire on a performance basis a director of business recruitment and development from a nationwide search. Barrett would update incentive packages to bring business and industry to the state.
He said that no child should leave the third grade who is not reading at or above third grade reading level, and he intends to make sure a greater percentage of education money makes it into the classroom. All options must be on the table: homeschooling, Christian schools and public schools.
Barrett defended his second TARP vote near the end of President George Bush’s term, saying that the President, secretary of the treasury, financier Warren Buffet and others told him that the banking system was on the verge of collapse.
“I believe with all my heart that we averted a major catastrophe,” Barrett said, adding though that the TARP plan has not been implemented like it should have been. “Nobody has done more as a United States Congressman to ensure that those funds are returned to the taxpayer and paid in full” than he has.
Barrett as voted the fourth most conservative member of the House. He is100 percent pro-life, 100 percent National Rifle Association (NRA), a Friend of the Taxpayers, and was given a 98 percent rating by American Conservative Union.
For more information, visit his campaign website at www.GreshamBarrett.com
Robert Bolchoz
Robert Bolchoz was chief of staff under Attorney Gen. Charlie Condon for three years and served as deputy solicitor in Charleston and has worked in the private sector.
The attorney general’s No. 1 job is to be the state’s chief prosecutor. Bolchoz has prosecuted almost 1,000 criminal cases in his career – murderers, rapists, armed robbers, drug traffickers, “but more importantly,” he said, a Congressman’s son, lawyers, doctors, and four Catholic priests (and Bolchoz grew up Catholic).
“The attorney general must not only know how to prosecute a criminal case, but has to have the nerve to prosecute a criminal case,” Bolchoz said, adding that “I have the nerve to do the right thing” on behalf of citizens of South Carolina.
Bolchoz said that to combat South Carolina’s gang problem he would concentrate on mandatory jail terms for felony possession of firearms, comprehensive reform of the criminal code so all citizens know what the crimes and what the sentences are, and to combat the growing illegal alien problem.
Bolchoz said the attorney general is the state’s chief securities commissioner and that he has managed brokers and financial advisers and worked in and understands the financial markets.
Kathy Davis is president of the Greenville County Republican Women, and Pamela Sowell, program director, introduced the speakers.

Posted 2:15 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 30

Leighton Lord, Christina Jeffrey speak to GCRWC Jan. 28

Leighton Lord (right) former state Rep. Glenn Hamilton	Christina Jeffrey (right) Pamela Sowell

More photos by Andrea Pisarcik

By Thomas C. Hanson
Christina Jeffrey, a candidate for the fourth district U.S. congressional seat, and Leighton Lord, a candidate for South Carolina attorney general, spoke to the Greenville County Republican Women (GCRW) meeting at the Poinsett Club Jan. 28.
Dr. Jeffrey, a lecturer at Wofford College, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the seat held by incumbent Rep. Bob Inglis, said, “I am first and foremost a Christian,” and “I believe that a great country is an important asset” for Christians.
Dr. Jeffrey said she hates tyranny in all its forms and that it is the natural condition of human beings. Tyranny flourishes, she said, when people are ignorant and complacent, when you don’t have the kind of freedoms we have. Our founders gave us incredible tools to keep our freedoms, and if we lose some of them, to get them back.
Leighton Lord said he is an Army brat born in Hawaii and joked that “unlike someone we know, I have a birth certificate.”
Lord referred to an essay written by evangelist Billy Graham, “The Moral Weight of Leadership,” in which Graham wrote, “We must not be tempted . . . to divorce character from leadership.”
Lord worked the Ronald Reagan campaigns in the 1980s. After graduating from the Vanderbilt Law School in 1989, he went to Washington to work for four years as the Republican staff council for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in Washington. In this position, Leighton investigated organized crime, gang violence, child pornography and immigration fraud.
Lord spent two weeks on the Mexican border with border patrol agents, and visited the San Diego district attorney’s office to watch the prosecution of criminal aliens. To learn about organized crime, Lord spent days with mobsters and traveled the country with FBI agents. He learned about gang violence by driving the streets of Los Angeles with law enforcement officers.
He took the knowledge back to Washington to contribute to hearings and help draft legislation to make our country safer.
In 1994, Leighton went to work for Nexsen Pruet, the second largest law firm in South Carolina. Four years ago, Leighton was elected managing partner, which has given him executive experience.
Lord said the attorney general should be the chief legal officer in the state and as such should coordinate solicitors, sheriffs and law enforcement officers and help them do their jobs better. He called for a comprehensive crime bill in South Carolina because the state is No. 1 in violent crime and is in the top five in domestic violence deaths and in the top five in DUI deaths, yet South Carolina imprisons more people per capita than any other state.
The meeting was the first conducted by Kathy Davis, new president of the GCRW.

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Photo galleries

2009 Galleries

Ken Ard speaks.
Karen Floyd inducts officers.

Registration by party Oct. 22



Sen. Jim DeMint
Sept. 21

Rep. Bob Inglis
Challenger Trey Gowdy Aug. 27

Dr. David Woodard
Clemson Political Science Professor
It Kids



Americanism Program June 25

Jeff Schilz of Governor's Office and
Greenville Planning Department May 28

Ambassador David Wilkins
April 23

Karen Floyd & Rick Beltram March 26

Feb. 26
Greg Shorey
Kevin Hall


Jan. 22
Rep. Nikki Haley
Ashley Landess

2008 Galleries

Dec. 11
Dr. Brent Nelsen
Dr. Raymond Sauer

Oct. 23 auction

Sept. 25
Glenn McCall, Cindy Costa, Warren Mowry, Allen Klump

Aug. 28
Tony Beam, Rebecca Steen, Rick Freeman, Julie Hershey

July 24
Dick Jensen, Taylor Hall,
Eric Bedingfield, Liz Seman, Alan Kay

June 26
Americanism Program

Incumbents and challengers May 22 meeting

Incumbents and challengers April 24 meeting

Bob McLain, WORD Radio,
Feb. 28 meeting

Photo galleries 2007

Installation of new officers: Dec. 6, 2007 meeting.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE): Aug. 23, 2007 meeting

Glenn McCall, second vice chair, South Carolina GOP, July 26 meeting

June 28 meeting on Americanism

Bob McAlister, political communicator, May 24 meeting

Rep. Duncan Hunter, April 13 meeting

Jason Miller from Gov. Mark Sanford's office, and Councilman Butch Kirven, March 22 meeting

Mitt Romney, Feb. 22 meeting

Katon Dawson, state GOP chairman, Jan. 25 meeting