Senator Martin wants it both ways - Again!
Mr. Brit Adams sent this letter for the benefit of all Pickens County residents. He gave me permission to publish it here:
On Saturday, July 7th, John Schafer, me, and about 50 or 60 other people, were at a petition signing to help petition candidates collect signatures over in Easley. The question was asked to Rex Rice, who is collecting signatures to run for the SC Senate seat district 2 currently held by Larry Martin,
"Hey has Larry Martin signed your petition yet?"
Rex's wife who is doing the verifying said She hasn't seen it yet. So Harry Kibler, (founder RINO HUNT, and started Operation Lost Vote) gave Sen. Martin a call. After the exchange of niceties Harry asked if Larry would come down and sign Rex Rice's petition. He said he was very busy and now was not a good time. So Harry asked if a volunteer could come by, and He said "No No No" he was doing yard work and "not presentable at all". So then Harry asked if Larry had any intentions of signing the petition at all, and Sen. Martin said He had "no intention of signing Rex Rice's petition". This just goes to show what a crock it is when He says he has compassion for those who have to collect signatures. For the record it is because of Larry Martin and a few other Senators we don't have any challengers on the Ballot, The competition was to tuff so they took the easy way out Shame Shame Shame. Most of the people who were present heard this conversation on speaker phone. Some of those people were:
Brit Adams
Judy Adams
Debbie Spaugh
Donn Flick
Dianne Bray
Harry Kibler and many others.
His position that day was in direct contrast to less than a month earlier when he very publicly talked about his "support" for ALL petition candidates.
I personally challenged Senator Martin to attend this event, and back up what he had said earlier by signing these petitions. He obviously ignored that challenge.
Of course, choosing to not sign a petition is Sen. Martin's right, but it would have been much better if he had at least acted consistent with what he said before. The fact is, his one solitary signature would not have made a difference in the outcome of the petition drives conducted in Pickens County, but it did show once again how he tends to say what he thinks people want to hear at the time, but does not mind doing the opposite later on.
Terry L Brown
7:48 am on Monday, July 23, 2012
My question is Why are you surprised? The Republicans will do or say anything to stop us from voting for our choices.
Leon McCoig
8:39 am on Monday, July 23, 2012
Please explain how one republican not signing a petition for another republican can stop you from voting your choices.
Judy
1:45 pm on Monday, July 23, 2012
Actually, that is not the point Leon. He has publically said he has done all that he could possibly do to fix this situation. When asked (he was on speaker phone) would he sign petitions he said he would not. That is his right. A person at this event then emailed him and said she was disappointed to hear this. He emailed right back saying he never said that. Well, since there were about 20 of us that heard him say the opposite - in my world that is called a lie. If you are fine with that, vote for him. If you are tired of the lies, corruptness and the out of control spending we have in SC vote for a change. So glad this made the papers. We need to get more of this out in the public's view and hold our legislators accountable to what they say in public as opposed to private (not to the media). By the way there was media there and they both said they yes they did hear him say that as well but they did not print it. You figure out why they did not.
Jerry Carman
7:11 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
So you just now figured out that Larry Martin is a liar. Well, here's another of his statements over the years, particularly every 2 years up until 1992, then every 4 years therafter, except when he was unopposed: I'm doing everything I can to help bring jobs into Pickens County. This, while collecting fat paychecks from a company that has a vested interest in controling the amount of new companies, such as BMW suppliers, from coming near its mills, 4 of which have closed. Are we supposed to believe what he says, or what we see with our own 2 eyes? This, combined with what shouldn't be all that hard to figure, makes me wonder why it would take the voters so long to figure Larry Martin out. Hopefully, 2012 will finally be the year we hold him accountable for this.
Kathy Hamby
10:03 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
I had a screenprinting business when Martin was running for Mayor. He had shirts printed for his campaign and never paid for them. When I finally went to see him this lady at the desk told me he said it was a campaign contrabution. I'm a Democrate I would never contribute to a republican. Still waiting for my money.
Ann
4:45 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
In response to Ms. Hamby's comments, I recently had the opportunity to speak with Sen. Martin and asked him about her accusations. He said in all of his political career, he had never run for mayor, only for the state House and Senate. He also had never had a quantity of t-shirts printed for any of his campaigns. Ms. Hamby may be confusing Sen. Martin with another Martin who ran a campaign to become a mayor of a town in Pickens County.
Jerry Carman
8:16 pm on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Well, for my part. I'm kind of glad Rex Rice is an Independent. Thanks to the last 2 Presidents, I've had enough of these 2 parties that only have each other to get in the way to keep from wrecking the country. It just might be what wee need, somebody that is neither a DINO, RINO, or Larry Martin, who's been one and is now the other. Either way, it's now China money that's backing Larry Martin, and we don't need 4 more years of that.
Leon McCoig
9:41 pm on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
My comment was in reply to Terry L. Brown who stated that he would not be able to vote his choices because Larry Martin refused to sign a petition for Rex Rice. Do you believe that Martin not signing will keep any person from voting his or her choice? Mr. Rice has always ran and been elected as a Republican except when he ran against Jeff Duncan for The US House. He was serving in Columbia as a Republican when the law was passed and he voted for that law. It would seem to me that if he voted for the law he would understand the law well enough to submit the papers as needed. Please don't read this as a vote for Larry Martin or for any one else. I too am ashamed of some of those serving in Columbia such as Jake Knotts, Robert Ford, Brad Hutto and others but someone not signing a petition will not keep me from voting for the person I feel will do the best job.
Jerry Carman
6:46 pm on Thursday, July 26, 2012
This comment ain't no reply to nobody. I'm voting for Rex Rice. So what if Larry Martin didn't sign any petition. I had enough of Larry Martin's BullS*** over over 25 years ago. For the past 30 years, he's done nothing but collect fat paychecks from Alice Mfg Co while companies such as BMW suppliers and high tech industries with good paying jobs have been kept at significant distance from Alice's mills. If you're ashamed of anybody, you should be disgusted with this, and the fact that Pickens County has become the biggest bedroom to Greenville because of it. There's a hell of alot more to it than whether or not he signed a petition, but it should certainly come as no surprise that he didn't, much less the runaround and excuses he was putting up when repetedly asked to sign. It certainly sounds like some things we've heard before, doesn't it? If you like having somebody like that In Columbia, and are pleased with the amount of good paying jobs that have come in to replace the lost textile and apparel jobs in the Pickens area, then you absolutely should vote for Larry Martin. If you're like me, and you think Pickens County has been screwed enough, then you should vote for Rex Rice. To me, that's the main issiue.
Jerry Carman
6:50 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Hey Kathy, when you say Martin, do you mean Larry or Mac Martin? Mac Martin is the Mayor of Central. As long as you don't give the full name, you're giving Ann a chance for a rebuttal, which she took advantage of. Also, I know of bumper stickers, roadside signs, as well as media ads, but I don't remember seeing anybody wearing a Larry Martin for whatever T-shirt, not even Larry Martin himself. My guess is, probably the only way you could get anybody to wear one is if he were in a casket, even if he voted for him.