According to information available on the South Carolina State Ethics Commission website, on October 2nd Thomas Belenchia’s City Council campaign paid $1,000 to B Square Enterprises, Rick Beltram’s consulting and sales business. The expenditures report states that the fee was paid for a “Campaign Consultant”.
The long, winding quest to clarify the relationship between the Belenchia and the former county GOP Chairman is officially over. Rick Beltram is working for Thomas Belenchia’s City Council campaign. Now we have to ask: what does this all mean exactly?
Well for starters, it means that when nobody besides Belenchia running for City Council showed up to Beltram’s Piedmont Republican Club candidate forum this past weekend, there was ample reason for them not to. As we reported before the event, Beltram’s ties to the Belenchia campaign presented significant concerns about a possible conflict of interest, and though neither Belenchia nor Beltram would clarify the relationship, we now see that there was plenty of reason to be suspect.
This whole ordeal also begs the question: why be so ambiguous about all this in the first place?
It’s understandable from a certain point of view to want to bury any connection to a controversial figure like Rick Beltram. He had his fair share of scandals while serving as Spartanburg County GOP Chairman–try this, this, and this if you need examples.
The problem though, is that by not being clear about the connection between his campaign and Mr. Beltram, Belenchia actually managed to turn what would’ve been merely an interesting bit of trivia about his campaign into an actual story–several of them in fact.
Giving Belenchia the benefit of the doubt for a moment, the payment wasn’t made until October 2nd according to the information. Prior to that, Beltram wasn’t technically a paid consultant. Still, it’s hard not to look at all the other connecting dots and the obvious help Mr. Belenchia was receiving from Mr. Beltram throughout his campaign and not wonder why all the secrecy. Either way, the issue is now officially resolved.
Christopher George
Shady.
If they’d just admitted the relationship outright, this would have been little more than trivia and and they could have gotten the same things done without all the questions having to be raised.
If Belenchia needed campaign advice, it’s not unreasonable to get it from someone who was once chair of the Spartanburg GOP — there’s nothing controversial in that — and while Beltram isn’t exactly at the apex of his popularity, I doubt many people would think it strange. But when I initially contacted Beltram — just to see if he was the right guy to go to for campaign info for Belenchia — this whole obfuscation game began, making both of them look like they were hiding something and making the relationship into a liability rather than a curiosity.
Even the Piedmont Republican Club forum could have happened differently. All Beltram would have had to do is say “Yes, I’m working with the Belenchia campaign, which is why I’ve completely separated myself from the organization of this forum, which is being run by other members of the club.” Instead, he put himself right in the middle; sending the press releases, acting as organizer of the event and refusing to even address the very valid concerns about candidate bias at all. As such, it’s almost impossible to see an argument for that forum being unbiased.
But it was all completely avoidable. And even if Belenchia does well in the election itself, I have a hard time believing that all this hasn’t lost him votes.
And just in case someone wants to make the argument that this is all really about using controversy to generate news as part of some strategy by Beltram, I’d like to note that this is absolutely not the case with the Spark’s coverage. We heard about the connection from non-Beltram sources, we initiated the contact with Beltram and Belenchia as part of our campaign coverage, and all of the subsequent coverage has been done without any input from the Belenchia/Beltram team. At no point did either Beltram or Belenchia do anything on this point other than refuse to respond to direct questions about the relationship.
Having worked with people who know how to use controversy and the media to generate attention — both positive and negative — I can assure you that there was clearly no such strategy here.
I don’t know enough about the lines of that district to know whether any perceived association with Rick Beltram would be a big liability or not. But it does make you wonder why they were not more forthcoming about this association.
I think even a cursory look at these two candidates makes it pretty clear on which side of the ideological/partisan divide each *probably* falls. I guess a lot of that might be moot and the outcome might depend more on which candidate is better known in the community, who has more friends and contacts in those neighborhoods, etc.
Well at least we know for sure, even if few of us were surprised by this news. I think that this will probably hurt Mr. Belenchia’s campaign more then help it. If he couldn’t be forthcoming on a simple question such as. “hey, we heard that you have asked so and so to help with your election and they accepted. Is this true?” then is he going to be forthcoming with more serious matters.
Of course such a thing may not actually be even a part of the picture, but if I am thinking that, then I don’t doubt others are as well
I simply do not understand the subterfuge on the matter.
I think the whole thing is silly. I mean, really: hiring a consultant for a city council position? for a small district? for an off-year election?
What advice could Rick offer? ‘Get out there, and identify and meet as many of the off-year voters as you can, in your small district. Look back at the state’s voter files. Now that’ll be a $1,000, please. Oh, and I’ll throw in a pseudo event for ya.’
I think we just need to stop talking about this guy. He’s no more relevant than any of the rest of us.