It’s been a while, y’all. Almost two years! I stopped writing when I moved to Washington, DC to work at a software company called Salsa Labs and then at a Democratic organization called American Bridge through the 2012 election. Back in South Carolina figuring out what’s next — hopefully something around these parts. Don’t know how much writing I’ll have time to do on here, so I’m not making any promises, but we’ll see. Hoping Mark will come back and write some more too.

Always good to come back home to God’s Country, and it sure seems like there’s still plenty of craziness to write about in the Palmetto State. Thank goodness!

PS – Looks like some of the social media widgets and whatnot aren’t working correctly and need to be updated. Let me know if you notice any functionalities that are buggy, and I’ll get busy fixing them.

• As promised last week by newly-minted SCDP Chairman Dick Harpootlian, the South Carolina Democratic Party is airing the ad above in multiple media markets on Fox News all day.  (The first Republican presidential debate takes place tonight in Greenville, SC and will be aired of Fox News.)  Click here to donate to keep the ad on the air.

• After several witnesses corroborated that Gov. Nikki Haley used her security detail to fetch her and her entourage drinks at the bar during the Heritage golf tournament, Sen. Jakie Knotts, a critic of Haley, attempted to amend the budget yesterday to provide that security detail couldn’t be used to run personal errands.  In a back-and-forth with Knotts over the measure, Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler offered the following gem: “You catch me with sugar not vinegar, although vinegar goes good with collard greens.” If you aren’t following Sen. Peeler on Twitter, you should be because he’s hilarious.

• For all of those who claimed that the battle against the Amazon tax break was aimed at protecting small businesses, it looks like Gov. Haley and Walmart had a special quid pro quo arrangement the whole time.  (Walmart was among the most vocal opponents of the Amazon tax break.)  More Walmarts = far more harm to small businesses than a sales-tax-free Amazon distribution center would’ve been.

• History buffs should check out my friend Frank Chi’s latest, The Antebellum Project. Trailer is above.

• A study conducted by Hamilton College finds that Sen. Lindsey Graham is the second worst political prognosticator in the country.

The most accurate prognosticator was Paul Krugman of The New York Times and Princeton University, followed by Maureen Dowd, another columnist for the Times, and former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell.  The worst prognosticator was Cal Thomas, a syndicated columnist.  South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham was next worst, and Michigan Senator Carl Levin was third worst.

We discovered that a few factors impacted a prediction’s accuracy.  The first is whether or not the prediction is a conditional; conditional predictions were more likely to not come true.  The second was partisanship; liberals were more likely than conservatives to predict correctly.  The final significant factor in a prediction’s outcome was having a law degree; lawyers predicted incorrectly more often. Partisanship had an impact on predictions even when removing political predictions about the Presidential, Vice Presidential, House, and Senate elections.

• Senators Vincent Sheheen and Jakie Knotts seek to strengthen “whistleblower” laws for government employees.

• Two other companies decided not to come to South Carolina in the wake of the Amazon kerfuffle.

• Charleston City Paper’s relentless Chris Haire pens a scalding column about national conservative pundits’ love for Gov. Nikki Haley.

• The Midlands loses 1250 jobs as the Tea Party drives GOP legislators to renege on a promise Gov. Mark Sanford made to Amazon.com in order to lure the company to the state.  This article in The State describes Haley’s approach to the deal as “hands off.”  Seems to me that she flubbed a big chance to be a leader, rise above the fray, and broker a compromise.  Oh well.  It’s not like our state has a 9.6% unemployment rate or anything.

• This week’s Columbia Free Times features an in-depth piece by Corey Hutchins on the race for chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party.

• Meant to mention this earlier in the week but forgot.  In John O’Connor’s article a few days ago about Haley’s first 100 days in office, there’s an interesting little nugget.  Governor Transparency (TP-Lexington) has declined every interview request by the state’s largest newspaper since she was sworn in.  Her office did not respond to questions posed for this particular article.  So… lemme get this straight.  She’s got time for Army Wives, The New York Times Magazine, ABC’s This Week, and multiple shows on Fox News, but she can’t sit down and talk to the The State? Unbelievable.