Brown informs of legal battles
“This election cycle is one of the most critical that we’ve faced,” said attorney Stephen Brown as he spoke during the Greenville County Republican Women’s luncheon on July 26th, 2012.
Brown informed of the legal battles that are currently going on in Columbia as the general election approaches. As a representative of petition candidate Ed Harris, Brown has first-hand experience of the actions being taken to keep candidates off of the ballot. After 20 years of experience in politics, Brown sees this as a very critical time, not only in our state history, but our national history. Being a part of the legal battle taking place, Brown doesn’t think that everything will be resolved by November 6th, 2012.
“Although, to be honest, I’m not sure that it will be the culminating date. The way that the political system works now it’ll have to go through the legal system as well. We might be litigating cases subsequent to November before we know who all the elected officials are going to be,” said Brown.
Brown warns that if voters fail to pay attention to the details, errors will be made that they can’t afford to make. The “ballot fiasco,” as he calls it, where approximately 200 candidates, some Democrats and some Republicans, were not allowed to have their names placed on the primary ballot in June because they did not properly file their paperwork based on the way the SC Supreme Court interpreted the law in May after they filed in March, is one of the correction he is trying to make. He feels that the timeline of actions is very important to recognize as voters look back on events.
The statement of economic interest (SEI) is a critical form that a lot of candidates did not present at the time of filing. The reason that many candidates did not present the form was because there is a specific state statute that directed everyone to file their SEI online with the election commission. By filing online candidates did not think they had to bring in the hard copy. If they failed to do so, they cannot be a candidate in the present election cycle.
“The battle we are having is with the forces that seek to maintain the good ol’ boy control of our government in Columbia,” Brown said. “There is a good ol’ boy network in place; some of them call themselves Republicans, some of them call themselves Democrats, but the net result is that this group that maintains this control prohibits us, or is stopping us, from achieving good government in SC consistent with conservative principles.”
All across the state, lawsuits have been filed in an effort to kick additional candidates off the ballot. One lawyer in particular, James Smith, has filed nearly all of the lawsuits. Smith is a Democrat, a member of the State House of Representatives in Richland County, and a practicing attorney. In various efforts to remove candidates from ballots, Smith has filed lawsuits against the Republican Party, local party, state party and Republican candidates.
“It is happening without any basis of fact to support the underlying allegations,” Brown said.
As the attorney for petition candidate Ed Harris, Brown feels that the truth will prevail and when voters hear what the facts are they will understand that Harris will ultimately be certified as the Republican nominee in House District 3. Even after beating Rep. B.R. Skelton in the Republican primary, Harris was disqualified by SC GOP chairman Chad Connelly following a lawsuit filed by Skelton’s attorney, Smith.
Skelton properly challenged by filing with the political party, and the party is required by law to have a hearing on the Thursday following the deadline. Out of the many requirements, one of them is that they cannot adjourn that meeting until the issue is resolved. Then they are to forthwith certify the winner as the nominee in that particular race. There was a vote of the Republican Party executive committee at the state level. They voted unanimously to reject the challenge of Mr. Skelton therefore upholding Mr. Harris as the Republican Party nominee for House District 3. The case was so weak that Mr. Harris didn’t have legal counsel and Skelton did. Harris won the primary, and was certified by the party multiple times.
The lawsuits filed weren’t just about Harris improperly filing, they went further than that. A lawsuit was brought against Harris and Pickens County chairman, Philip Bowers personally impugning their integrity calling them liars and cheaters. The lawsuits say that there never was an SEI in the first place, they manipulated the whole thing, they committed a fraud, they should be held in contempt of court, and they committed civil conspiracy.
“Those are serious allegations. None of us would want to have our integrity impugned in that way, in any form. Certainly not in a court of law,” said Brown. “When you’re faced with that you really only have two choices. You can pick up the telephone and call the other side and say, ‘Gee I’m terribly sorry – how many zeros do you want me to put on this check I’m going to write to you?’ Mr. Harris didn’t choose that alternative.”
Instead of backing down, Harris decided to hire a lawyer to pursue the actions, the first in Richland County courts based on the allegations and the second in the SC Supreme Court where it is being asked that the court overturn what the political party had done.
Brown said, “The Republican Party was scared to death going into the Supreme Court; they did not want to go back in there. They had already lost two cases, the Anderson case, and the Florence County case, and they were of the opinion, and flat out stated, that they would lose if they had to go back into the court again. They felt like the court was just waiting to slap them down a third time.”
Pressure was then put on Harris to voluntarily resign. A telephone conversation was made informing Harris that if he would resign the lawsuits would go away. By resigning no one would have to worry about lawsuits, producing documents, and no one would have to answer in court about what they did or failed to do. Harris refused and Brown pointed out that it wouldn’t have made Mr. Skelton the nominee. The loser of the primary doesn’t automatically become the nominee simply because the winner steps down. The law requires having another special primary election to come up with another nominee to fill the seat of that person who has died or withdrawn whatever the case may be.
Expecting to have his party stand behind him through everything, Harris was not expecting to receive the e-mail from the state party that he did.
“(Harris) receives an e-mail on behalf of the state party from the executive director signed by name of the chairman and the executive committee advising him that they inadvertently left his name on the ballot. What a mistake, oh my goodness, we didn’t realize it we accidently left your name on the ballot, we should not have done that, we’re terribly sorry, but the result is you cannot be our Republican Party nominee.”
Standing by the fact that no one had the legal authority to do that to Harris, Brown began taking the next steps to combat the action. The next step in the process was to have the executive committee meet again and straighten the problem out. Harris was not given the opportunity to speak to the committee and they took no action. Once again Harris was met with two options. He could either walk away agreeing not to be a candidate, in which case the lawsuits against him would go away, or fight. He chose to fight. Harris’ first action was to bring a counter claim in Richland County against Skelton alleging that it was improper allegations. In addition, Harris filed a false claim against the Republican Party, not asking for any money damages, he wants the court to require the party to certify the appropriate person. That hearing will take place on August 10th, 2012.
“This type of matter between friends, between political allies, should be taken care of in private, in your committee meetings the same way that you would take care of your family business…But because the party took the action that it did, attempting to cut off Harris at the knees, we have no choice now but to have this matter aired in public in court,” said Brown.
A lawsuit has been filed against the Greenville County Republican Party’s chairman Betty Poe and various candidates in Greenville County making some of the same allegations that were used against Harris.
“If you set a pattern of giving in to the opposition to be subject to bullying, you just encourage more bullying. That’s exactly what we see is going on. And now Greenville County is going to be tested in that same regard to test their resolve. We as conservatives have to stand up and fight these battles even though we don’t care to, that we didn’t ask for them, but we have no choice, we are in them now. We have to stand up and fight them each time that they arise,” said Brown.
Brown is handling the lawsuit for the local party in an effort to change our election laws.
“They desperately need amending. Right now if you’re a registered voter you can come in and vote in any primary that you want to. That law needs to be changed to where only people who are registered in that political party can get to have any say in who that political party nominates,” Brown said.
To change the law it requires a 75 percent vote first. Brown is challenging the statute as unconstitutional by imposing a super majority. His standpoint is that the government does not have the authority to dictate to private citizens that they have to have a super majority to determine how they are going to nominate their candidate.
“This battle for our state and for our nation is just now being joined. It is going to be more severe in the days to come. Not only in November, but in the aftermath. I look forward to fighting that battle with you,” Brown said.
