The top 5 misleading ads of the 2018 S.C. governor's race

If you're reading this, it might be because you've seen one of the myriad of attack ads in the S.C. governor's race and questioned whether it was accurate.

Spoiler alert: Don't count on it.

S.C. voters this year have been inundated with misinformation and outright lies from the candidates and the dark-money groups supporting them.

With just a few days before Tuesday's primaries for governor, here are five of the worst offending ads:

1. 'Choice' – Palmetto PAC

With “Choice,” the Washington, D.C.,-based Palmetto PAC tries to paint Mount Pleasant attorney Catherine Templeton and Greenville businessman John Warren — Gov. Henry McMaster’s top primary challengers — as de facto supporters of Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The strategy makes sense. S.C. Republicans have shown they despise the former secretary of state. But take a look at the logic here:

“Catherine Templeton and John Warren failed to stand with Donald Trump when it mattered most," the narrator reads. "If you didn’t, you were with crooked Hillary Clinton.”

Do what, now?

Sure, Templeton and Warren initially "failed to stand with Donald Trump" during the 17-candidate 2016 GOP presidential primary.

Templeton was a co-chair of Jeb Bush's S.C. presidential campaign, while Warren has said he originally supported U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. But both say they supported Trump in the general election, once their preferred candidates had dropped out.

If initially supporting a Trump opponent in the 2016 primary makes you a Clinton fan, then so is Gov. Henry McMaster — the candidate who stands to most benefit from the Palmetto PAC ad.

McMaster initially pledged to support U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-Seneca, in the presidential race before becoming the first statewide official in the country to endorse Trump for president.

2. 'Desperate Politicians' – Templeton campaign

Templeton describes McMaster here as a career politician with no accomplishments. But she slips up in trying to tie the governor to "$2 billion in utility rate hikes for nothing," a notion repeated in at least one other attack ad from a group supporting Templeton.

McMaster wasn’t governor in 2007, when lawmakers passed a utility-friendly law that enabled the doomed V.C. Summer nuclear project. Nor was McMaster governor when SCE&G levied nine electric rate hikes to pay for the Summer project. Templeton will have to take those up with former Republican Govs. Mark Sanford and Nikki Haley.

Templeton’s campaign has argued McMaster could have fought to strike down the 2007 law since he was attorney general then.

But, at the time, practically no one had raised red flags about the project, and attorneys general, typically, do not offer opinions on the constitutionality of state laws unless someone asks them to weigh in.

3. 'Welcome to the South Carolina Establishment' — Willis campaign

S.C. Democrats — some of them strapped for cash — haven't beaten up on each other on the airwaves as much.

But Florence attorney Marguerite Willis this week published a "quiz" that stretches a few truths to attack the Democratic primary's front-runner, state Rep. James Smith, D-Richland.

Among them are claims that:

▪ Smith's company, the Congaree Group, had its “business license suspended by a federal agency because of nefarious business practices.”

▪ Smith has refused “to criticize Trump, despite the president’s constant racist and sexist comment or his policy proposals that would negatively impact South Carolina and its citizens.”

In reality:

▪ Smith's company briefly lost its special status with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that allowed it to obtain contracts reserved for veterans. Smith said Thursday his company missed a deadline to provide the VA with several key documents during a review. The company’s status was restored after he appealed and provided those documents, and the VA has affirmed its special status twice since then.

▪ Smith has criticized Trump. Most recently, at the final Democratic debate Monday, Smith criticized Trump's willingness to enter a trade war and drill off the S.C. coast.

4. 'Not Who He Says He Is' — Templeton campaign

Templeton and Warren have turned on each other in recent weeks, trying to land crucial blows in a heated fight for a spot in any June 26 runoff against McMaster.

On Tuesday, Templeton released an ad claiming that Warren:

▪ Is not 100 percent pro-life because he "bragged about supporting abortion exceptions." Warren has said he supports an exception only when a pregnancy endangers the mother's life. Warren got a 100-percent rating from the anti-abortion S.C. Citizens Right to Life.

▪ "Is open to more gun control" because he told a Greenville news station on April 4 that he would have to give "some thought" to the idea of allowing the "open carry" of firearms. By the time Templeton's ad ran, Warren had adopted open carry as his position. The National Rifle Association has given Warren an “AQ” grade, the highest possible for a candidate without a voting record. Templeton received the same grade.

▪ Is "bankrolled by a liberal super PAC boss." That is a reference to Warren’s campaign receiving a donation from Frank Shuler, president of a conservation group that works to encourage the private sector to participate in land conservation across the United States. The group has given to both Democrats and Republicans.

▪ Has bragged about his ability to raise “unlimited funds from New York.” That quote was pulled from a September 2014 Miami Herald story about Warren’s business. It has nothing to do with who is bankrolling Warren's campaign, which is largely self-financed.

5. '#NeverTrumpers' – S.C. Industry Project

In one of the strangest campaign ads you'll ever see, the Virginia-based S.C. Industry Project is suggesting Colin Kaepernick — a quarterback who can't find an NFL job because of his national anthem protest — would support Templeton's run for S.C. governor because an anti-Trump PAC supports her.

“I figured that the Never Trumpers are putting that much cash into getting her into elected, she can’t be bad,” the Kaepernick impersonator says in a video that has garnered more than 22,000 views online by Thursday.

There's a lot to unpack here, from the terrible acting to the ending that mocks Templeton's "buzzsaw" catchphrase.

Nevermind that Kaepernick doesn't live in South Carolina. Does anyone believe the former San Francisco 49er — whose protest began as a way to highlight racial inequality and police brutality — would support Templeton's "Treat Criminals Like Criminals" justice platform?

Does anyone think Kaepernick supports the candidate who has most tried to emulate Trump on the campaign trail?

Or is this video just another attempt to insult the intelligence of S.C. voters?

Bonus: 'FireCat' – Palmetto PAC

One of the most controversial ads of the governor’s race is also one where the facts are hard to nail down. In “FireCat,” the Palmetto PAC alleges Templeton was fired from three government jobs, highlighting each with a clip of Trump repeating his trademark line: “You’re fired.”

Templeton demanded S.C. stations stop airing the ad. Some did, but others put it back up.

Templeton herself said last year she was fired after a five-week stint at the State Ports Authority. She says she was fired for exposing corrupt contracts. At the time, the agency said she left her senior vice president's post because she decided it did not meet her career goals. Ports Authority Director Jim Newsome said last year Templeton was lying about why she left the agency.

Templeton denies reporting from anonymous sources that she was fired as director of the Department of Health and Environmental Control, saying she left voluntarily.

Former Gov. Nikki Haley’s U.N. office backed up Templeton, telling the Post and Courier of Charleston that “Catherine was not fired by Gov. Haley and offered her resignation voluntarily.”

But Haley did not have had the authority to fire Templeton. DHEC is not a cabinet agency, reporting to the governor. Only DHEC’s board – appointed by the governor – could have forced out Templeton. The chairman at the time – a Templeton campaign supporter – has said that Templeton left voluntarily.

Templeton also says she voluntarily ended her nine-month Department of Revenue consulting contract six months early. That secret, no-bid contract was terminated just days after The State reported its existence in 2015.

Asked for written records of Templeton’s consulting work, the agency produced a single email in which Templeton discussed a meeting involving two technology vendors.

The “FireCat” ad is no longer on the Palmetto PAC’s website.

This story was originally published June 8, 2018 at 11:18 AM with the headline "The top 5 misleading ads of the 2018 S.C. governor's race."