Bruce Bannister, the House Ways and Means Leader of the South Carolina House, is a Republican lawmaker in the state. Bruce Bannister also serves as a South Carolina attorney, representing various clients, including the American Industry Project. Bruce Bannister represents District 24 in Greenville County. The House Ways and Means controls the entire state budget.
Robert Cahaly is a political consultant with known connections to the American Industry Project, the South Carolina Industry Project, and Our American Century.
S.C. has three prominent political consultants, including the Trafalgar Group led by Cahaly, Starboard Communications managed by Walter Whetsell, and the firm previously owned by Richard Quinn, who was criminally indicted and has since passed away. Quinn’s firm still operates and is run by his daughter.
Cahaly is a political consultant with extensive experience working on successful campaigns and issues in 22 states. His companies have represented notable clients such as Chris Christie’s Presidential Campaign, the SC House GOP Caucus, New England US Sen. Ben Sasse, SC Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster, MI Speaker Jase Bolger, SC Govornor Nikki Haley, SCGOP Chair Karen Floyd, SC Congressman Henry Brown, MI Majority Floor Leader Mike Kowall, Geaux PAC SuperPAC, SC House Majority Leader Bruce Bannister, Americans For Prosperity, SCGOP Chair Katon Dawson, and The Missouri House Republican Campaign Committee.
Walter Whetsell, the political consultant for the South Carolina Republican House of Representatives, this year played a pivotal role in overseeing the presidential campaign of Nikki Haley, the former Governor of South Carolina.
These three prominent political consultants are widely regarded as competitors by many. However, in a state where the business of politics rubs shoulders with the politics of big business, competitive lines are not exactly black and white.
When we last discussed Our American Century, we delved into the $5 million paid to Old Town Digital in the suburbs of Virginia. Supposedly, Our American Century paid Old Town Digital for the creation and distribution of digital advertising. The problem is, a legal complaint now argues that there is no proof this ever happened.
Expert digitial ad agency with no Facebook likes? and answers the phone this way…
A complaint was filed with the Federal Election commission that alleged only a fraction of the $5 million paid by Our American Century to Old Town Digital Agency can be found in the public domain.
The Complaint alleges that the rest of the $5 million paid to Old Town Digital Agency either does not exist or was purposefully misdirected to re-run advertisements created by the Trump campaign.
As a refresher, if that money was spent to republish campaign ads created by the Trump Campaign, those re-publications were in violation of campaign finance laws. The Complaint states “Of the $5.5 million that Our American Century spent on digital independent expenditures in 2020, only $259,800 appeared in the Google archive, and a smaller amount was spent on Facebook; the super PAC’s digital advertisements run on other platforms are not publicly available.”
So if these millions were not spent on digital advertisements, why did Our American Century pay Old Town Digital Agency $5 million?
More importantly, where did that money go?
Frank Eshelman appears to be someone who would be interested in knowing the answer to that question. Eshelman is the mega donor who gave $7 million to Our American Century in 2020. That $5 million paid to Old Town Digital Agency was Eshelman’s money.
Fred Eshelman, a North Carolina native aged 68, holds residences in both Wilmington and High Point. He is widely recognized as the founder of Eshelman Ventures. Since 2003, Eshelman has generously donated approximately $140 million to the School of Pharmacy at the University of Carolina. Notably, in 2014, he made a momentous contribution of $100 million, marking the largest donation in the university’s history and the largest ever received by a pharmacy school.
After founding and selling Pharmaceutical Product Development and Furiex Pharmaceuticals, Eschelman has become one of the state’s wealthiest residents. Presently, Eshelman directs his investments towards private healthcare enterprises. Eshelman graduated from UNC in ’72. Eshelman furthered his education at the University of Cincinnati, where he obtained a doctorate.
Eshelman is an interesting individual. To learn more, google “corner-cross” in Wyoming and read all about Mr. Eshelman.
Eshelman has filed a lawsuit against True the Vote for the improper use or unauthorized handling of $2.5 million in donations he contributed to the organization. However, he has taken no action regarding his donations given to Old Town Digital Agency, even though there is scarce evidence that the money was used to produce any tangible media by Old Town Digital.
Please review any available media associated with or pertaining to Old Town Digital Agency.
It is a joke. Old Town Digital, a skeleton frame “expert digital media?” organization attempting to appear legitimate, operates its own Facebook page with zero likes.
Why would Eshelman be okay with losing $5 million when he made such a ruckus about the $2.5 million he lost when he donated to uncover voter fraud?
Something sure stinks about all this. More importantly, it seems like the same people, using the same addresses, keep popping up in this mess.
Take Bruce Bannister, the current Chairman of the constitutional subcommittee of the powerful South Carolina House of Representatives Ways and Means committee. Representative Bruce Bannister is still listed as a director in the most recent 990 Return filed by the political action committee (PAC) called the Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG).
During the 2020 senate race between Luke Rankin and John Gallman, FLAG provided 99% of the funding for the PAC known as the American Industry Project, which was utilized to launch attacks against South Carolina Senate 33 candidate John Gallman.
Yes, you read that right. $247,000.00 of the $249,500.00 budget for the American Industry Project in 2020 was received from FLAG, where, Bruce Bannister, a powerful South Carolina state legislator is a director. The American Industry Project is still in litigation with John Gallman over the campaign it waged to destroy his reputation by painting him as a domestic abuser.
Guess who represents the American Industry Project in that litigation?
Bruce Bannister.
Here is a link to an article written about Bruce Bannister by Will Folks at FITSNews in 2013. Mr. Folks seemed to be skeptical of Bruce Bannister’s promise to abandon his own “leadership” PAC upon being appointed to the Ways and Means Committee. It appears all Representative Bruce Bannister did was change the name of the PAC. Folks was quick to call Bannister’s leadership PAC a dud in the article. FLAG is far from a dud and actually funds other PACs to do its dirty work. It will be interesting to see what Slick Willie has to say about FLAG.
Are there any other familiar names associated with FLAG that may be of interest? From first glance, it may not be apparent. But once you uncover the players and their various corporate entities they hide behind, the connections become clearer.
The other two officers of FLAG are Hannah Pickle and Edward Cousar. Edward Cousar was the director of the Black Republican PAC in the mid 2000’s. The Treasurer for the Black Republican PAC was Scott Mackenzie, who plead guilty to forming scam PACs in 2020. Mr. Cousar previously worked for Robert Cahaly at Bonnie Blue Enterprises, LLC in Atlanta, GA. Ms. Pickle is from Louisiana with connections to Jamie Huval (the President of American Industry Project) and a very sketchy campaign to stop public funding of a local library.
Another interesting bit of information. The address for FLAG and Edward Cousar is 228 S. Washington Street, Suite 115, Alexandria, Virginia. The address for Jamie Huval ( a resident of Louisiana and the President of the American Industry Project) and the American Industry Project is 228 S. Washington Street, Suite 115, Alexandria, Virginia.
Finally, guess who FLAG turned over all managerial obligations to in 2022? A company called Gadsden & Greene Strategies in Atlanta Georgia. Guess who is listed as the organizer for Gadsden & Greene Strategies? – Robert Cahaly.
All the same players, just changing the names of the corporations, PACs and LLC’s they hide behind.
Next time, which politicians in SC have benefitted the most from FLAG and Our American Century over the last 4 years? We will soon link all the connections.
MyrtleBeachSC News reached out to House Ways Leader of the South Carolina House, Bruce Bannister, yesterday for comment. As of this publication, he has not responded.
