No Surfside Beach election has seen more drama than the run-off between Tim Courtney and Debbie Scoles which will be held tomorrow. While candidate Scoles went on air on local radio WRNN this morning to distance herself from an unknown Political Action Group, called SURFSIDE STRONG, more big mysterious money poured into her campaign today from a PAC called Surfside Beach Deserves Clean Campaigns.
Voters are unaware that mailers such as these have unwritten strings connected to those campaign dollars. While Ms. Scoles clearly says she does not support Surfside Strong, Surfside Strong certainly supports her and wants her elected. Not even Mrs. Scoles can deny that.
On air this morning Ms. Scoles said she entered the race because of the public way the Surfside Beach City Administrator was fired. Said Surfside Beach resident, Mary Beth Mabry, “I think it is unfortunate when the residents are mislead by someone running for council. Ms. Scoles has said she is running due to the public firing of the City Administrator. The majority of city council followed the law that requires every vote to be taken in public. I am amazed that anyone running for council would try and skirt the law.”
While every single Surfside Strong candidate, including Dietrich, Pelligrino, and Scoles are now distancing themselves from Surfside Strong,
it is clear that the thousands of dollars in mailers sent out in this election were paid for by Surfside Strong.
Surfside Strong’s intentions are to have the height restrictions removed from the E District.
As of this publish date, MyrtleBeachSC.com is unclear whose money is behind Surfside Beach Deserves Clean Campaigns. Are they the same folks behind Surfside Strong?
A federal campaign law called Citizens United is not helping the residents of Surfside Beach in any way. The law is allowing Mrs. Scoles to continue a cycle of mailings to the community, paid for by unknown sources, however.