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Home grown, William Bailey of North Myrtle Beach campaigned well over the past week and his message is clearly resonating. Bailey is challenging to represent the North Myrtle Beach Area District 104 S.C. State House seat. The primary will be held on June 12th.
Bailey’s honest and candid approach on who he is and what he stands for has hit home across the area, and in the neighborhoods of Barefoot Resort and North Myrtle Beach’s Tidewater. Bailey has a track record for planning, creating, and managing solutions-minded legislation.
North Myrtle Beach voters are aware that the State of S.C. is currently bloated with cumber-sum issues that plague the state including the Scanna/Santee Cooper debacle, as well as, the current State-Wide corruption probe being investigated by Solictor David Pascoe. Many of these issues are a result of current incumbent/lobbyist collusion.
Bailey’s opponent is the current incumbent, Greg Duckworth. Duckworth hails from West Virginia. Duckworth moved into the area and into office when long-time North Myrtle Beach leader Tracy Edge stepped down.
An undercurrent on social media, however, has shown that Duckworth has high negatives in certain regions of the district which runs from the city of North Myrtle Beach west to almost Loris and north to Little River, S.C.
A DUMP DUCKWORTH MOVEMENT ON SOCIAL
What started out as an activist only movement has now taken root in the public at large. We counted over 32 Dump Duckworth posts on social today.
Why? Many North Myrtle Beach residents view Incumbent Duckworth as merely an operative for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. Former local lobbyist Mark Kelly has long lobbied Horry County elected officials on behalf of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. Duckworth supported the ten year extension of the $27 million annual tax increase paid to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. A large and growing number of North Myrtle Beach residents do not want their candidate picked and paid for by the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber.
The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce’s Political Action Committee, the Grand Strand Business Alliance, is expected to drop thousands of dollars of campaign literature in North Myrtle Beach mail boxes in the coming weeks. Fictitious sounding groups like, Citizens for Better Government, or Keep North Myrtle Beach Conservative, or perhaps their statewide associate The South Carolina Industry Project are names that the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber PAC might employ.
Direct mail postcards will either support Duckworth or attack Bailey. North Myrtle Beach voters are among the brightest in our area, however. Most voters read the fictitious sounding PAC name and know who is behind such campaigns. In past elections, most of those mailings were Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commere PAC funded. Representative Duckworth has more than paid back the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber with his ongoing votes for their preferred legislation.
Meanwhile, as we reported late last February, Representative Duckworth is rated D- by the S.C. Club for Growth. https://myrtlebeachsc.com/horry-county-legislators-rated-ds-fs-club-growth/ Representative Duckworth consistently votes the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber agenda.
Unfortunately, what is best for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce is not always best for North Myrtle Beach residents.
MyrtleBeachSC news promises to continue following the District 104 race. We are working to keep North Myrtle Beach area residents informed.