Rod Shealy
Encyclopedia
Rod Shealy, Sr. was a Republican
political consultant and publisher from Lexington County, South Carolina. He worked on numerous campaigns as a political strategist, including those of André Bauer
, Jim DeMint
, Jake Knotts, Lindsey Graham
, and George W. Bush
. Shealy worked with Lee Atwater
in the early 1970s and gained notoriety for negative campaigning
.
Shealy owned a small chain of South Carolina newspapers including The Beaufort County News, The Lake Murray News, The Cayce-West Columbia News, The Northeast News, North Charleston News, Goose Creek, The Hanahan, and The New Irmo News. He also owned Gatsbees World Fair, an old fashioned soda shop
.
, and Ryan Shealy
, a South Carolina politician who served in the state's House
and Senate
. He was the second of five children. Shealy attended Lexington High School and graduated in 1972. One of his sisters, Sherry Shealy Martschink
, (1949-)http://www.blondesherry.blogspot.com served in both the SC House and Senate and ran for lieutenant governor.
candidates to victory.
to elect his sister Sherry Martschink to Lieutenant Governor in 1990, Shealy, with the help of Robert Kohn, recruited unemployed black fisherman Benjamin Hunt, Jr. to run for Congress
against Republican Arthur Ravenel, Jr.
Shealy sought to increase the turnout of white voters by playing to the racial fears
of the South Carolina electorate. He promised Hunt, who had a prior drug arrest, $900 to run for Congress and paid for his $2414 filing fee. Shealy paid for the fees with an unreported $5000 campaign contribution to his sister from Laidlaw Environmental Services.
Hunt's campaign was investigated by the solicitor's office, the FBI
and the State Law Enforcement Division. Once the masquerade was uncovered, the story gained widespread media attention. At Shealy's trial, former state Representative Robert Kohn testified that he was asked by Shealy to find a black man
to run against Ravenel. Shealy was convicted for violating campaign laws and fined $500. Hunt said that he never received the money he was promised in exchange for running. Shealy later referred to the fine as a "political parking ticket" and claimed it had a positive effect on his consulting business. The incident prompted a rewrite of South Carolina’s ethics laws
.
After the scandal, Shealy temporarily stopped working as a political consultant and developed a chain of newspapers. After a rival newspaper owner announced that he was running for state treasurer in 1994, Shealy stepped back into consulting to find a candidate to run against him.
, the mascot of the University of South Carolina
and Buckwheat, the character from Our Gang
. The CockWheat character was referred to as "U.S.C.'s Token Black Mascot" in an issue of Gamecock Fever that was distributed before a USC football
game. Student leaders at the University deemed the character derogatory and called for Shealy to stop publishing the newsletter, which contains slurs against Asian, black and Hispanic students.
, spoofed
Shealy's email in 2002, when Larry Richter, Shealy's candidate for Attorney General was running against Walker's candidate, Henry McMaster
. Walker sent an email that looked as if it came from one of Shealy's publications and contained allegations of a land deal between a drug dealer and Richter.
In 2006, Shealy ran the Republican primary campaign of André Bauer
for lieutenant governor.
In 2007, Shealy represented SC Rep. Henry Brown, Jr. in his 1st District Race and SC State Senator Dick Elliot in his Senate Campaign for the 2008 elections.
Shealy hired Will Folks in 2006 to work on the campaign of former State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel
.
In 2008, Shealy worked on the campaign of State Senator Catherine Ceips
. Tom Davis, the former chief of staff to Mark Sanford
was expected to announce that he would be running against Ceips. Davis' house was being painted at the time. Ceips' chief of staff, Randy Bates, arrived at the house and spoke with Josias Mirales Ayala, who claimed to be an illegal immigrant hired to paint Davis' house. Shealy subsequently submitted a photograph of Ayala to Associated Press
reporter Jim Davenport and explained that he was an illegal alien. Davis condemned the action, saying "I call on Ms. Ceips to fire Rod Shealy and Randy Bates, the two operatives who carried out this dirty trick at her direction."
Shealy was diagnosed with melanoma
in 1983 and given a 30% chance of survival. Twenty-five years later, in August 2008, he announced that the cancer had recurred. The brain tumor
affected the portion of Shealy's brain that influences the ability to communicate, read and write. Oscar Lovelace, Shealy's physician said that Shealy was "having language difficulties and periods where he couldn’t remember what he needed to say. He was mixing up numbers and letters." Shealy died due to possible complications from the cancer on August 18, 2010.
Shealy was known to wear Hawaiian shirts
.
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
political consultant and publisher from Lexington County, South Carolina. He worked on numerous campaigns as a political strategist, including those of André Bauer
André Bauer
Rudolph Andreas "André" Bauer was the 87th Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina from 2003 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party...
, Jim DeMint
Jim DeMint
James Warren "Jim" DeMint is the junior U.S. Senator from South Carolina, serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party and a leader in the Tea Party movement. He previously served as the U.S. Representative for from 1999 to 2005.-Early life and education:DeMint was born in...
, Jake Knotts, Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin Graham is the senior U.S. Senator from South Carolina and a member of the Republican Party. Previously he served as the U.S. Representative for .-Early life, education and career:...
, and George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. Shealy worked with Lee Atwater
Lee Atwater
Harvey LeRoy "Lee" Atwater was an American political consultant and strategist to the Republican Party. He was an advisor of U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and Chairman of the Republican National Committee.-Childhood and early life:...
in the early 1970s and gained notoriety for negative campaigning
Negative campaigning
Negative campaigning, also known more colloquially as "mudslinging", is trying to win an advantage by referring to negative aspects of an opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing one's own positive attributes or preferred policies...
.
Shealy owned a small chain of South Carolina newspapers including The Beaufort County News, The Lake Murray News, The Cayce-West Columbia News, The Northeast News, North Charleston News, Goose Creek, The Hanahan, and The New Irmo News. He also owned Gatsbees World Fair, an old fashioned soda shop
Soda shop
A Soda shop, also often known as a Malt shop, is a business akin to an ice cream parlor and a drugstore soda fountain. Interiors were often furnished with a large mirror behind a marble counter with gooseneck spouts, plus spinning stools, round marble-topped tables and wireframe sweetheart...
.
Early life
Rod Shealy was born on December 22, 1953 to Elsie (née Porth), who worked as an executive for World Book EncyclopediaWorld Book Encyclopedia
The World Book Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia published in the United States. It is self-described as "the number-one selling print encyclopedia in the world." The encyclopedia is designed to cover major areas of knowledge uniformly, but it shows particular strength in scientific, technical, and...
, and Ryan Shealy
Ryan Shealy (South Carolina politician)
Ryan C. Shealy was an American politician from South Carolina.Born in Leesville, South Carolina, Shealy served in the United States Navy during World War II. Shealy served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1954 – 1970 and the South Carolina Senate from 1980 –...
, a South Carolina politician who served in the state's House
South Carolina House of Representatives
The South Carolina House of Representatives is the lower house of the South Carolina General Assembly, the upper house being the South Carolina Senate. It consists of 124 Representatives elected to two year terms at the same time as US Congressional elections...
and Senate
South Carolina Senate
The South Carolina Senate is the upper house of the South Carolina General Assembly, the lower house being the South Carolina House of Representatives...
. He was the second of five children. Shealy attended Lexington High School and graduated in 1972. One of his sisters, Sherry Shealy Martschink
Sherry Shealy Martschink
Sherry Shealy Martschink is an American politician from South Carolina.Martschink served in the South Carolina House of Representatives 1971-1975. In 1986, she was elected to the South Carolina Senate in a special election and in 1988 was elected to a full term.-Notes:...
, (1949-)http://www.blondesherry.blogspot.com served in both the SC House and Senate and ran for lieutenant governor.
Career
In 1988, Shealy worked as an organizer for Taxpayers for the Lottery. The group worked to bring the lottery to South Carolina, a cause championed by Shealy's father. Shealy ran campaigns for a plethora of politicians over the years and had an impressive track record in bringing dark horseDark horse
Dark horse is a term used to describe a little-known person or thing that emerges to prominence, especially in a competition of some sort.-Origin:The term began as horse racing parlance...
candidates to victory.
Benjamin Hunt, Jr.
While running a campaignPolitical campaign
A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referendums are decided...
to elect his sister Sherry Martschink to Lieutenant Governor in 1990, Shealy, with the help of Robert Kohn, recruited unemployed black fisherman Benjamin Hunt, Jr. to run for Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
against Republican Arthur Ravenel, Jr.
Arthur Ravenel, Jr.
Arthur Ravenel, Jr. is a businessman and a Republican politician from Charleston, South Carolina.-Early life:The Charleston-born Ravenel served in the United States Marine Corps from 1945 to 1946. He thereafter received a bachelor of science degree from the College of Charleston in 1950. He is a...
Shealy sought to increase the turnout of white voters by playing to the racial fears
Racism in the United States
Racism in the United States has been a major issue since the colonial era and the slave era. Legally sanctioned racism imposed a heavy burden on Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latin Americans...
of the South Carolina electorate. He promised Hunt, who had a prior drug arrest, $900 to run for Congress and paid for his $2414 filing fee. Shealy paid for the fees with an unreported $5000 campaign contribution to his sister from Laidlaw Environmental Services.
Hunt's campaign was investigated by the solicitor's office, the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
and the State Law Enforcement Division. Once the masquerade was uncovered, the story gained widespread media attention. At Shealy's trial, former state Representative Robert Kohn testified that he was asked by Shealy to find a black man
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
to run against Ravenel. Shealy was convicted for violating campaign laws and fined $500. Hunt said that he never received the money he was promised in exchange for running. Shealy later referred to the fine as a "political parking ticket" and claimed it had a positive effect on his consulting business. The incident prompted a rewrite of South Carolina’s ethics laws
Regulatory ethics
Regulatory ethics is a body of law and practical political philosophy that governs the conduct of civil servants and the members of regulatory agencies...
.
After the scandal, Shealy temporarily stopped working as a political consultant and developed a chain of newspapers. After a rival newspaper owner announced that he was running for state treasurer in 1994, Shealy stepped back into consulting to find a candidate to run against him.
CockWheat
Shealy's satirical newsletter, Gamecock Fever, drew criticism in 1991 and 1992 for its depiction of "CockWheat," a cartoon character that combined the features of CockyCocky (mascot)
Cocky is the costumed mascot of the University of South Carolina athletics teams. He represents a cartoon version of a gamecock ....
, the mascot of the University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...
and Buckwheat, the character from Our Gang
Our Gang
Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
. The CockWheat character was referred to as "U.S.C.'s Token Black Mascot" in an issue of Gamecock Fever that was distributed before a USC football
South Carolina Gamecocks football
The South Carolina Gamecocks football team represents the University of South Carolina in NCAA Division I college football. The Gamecocks have been a member of the Southeastern Conference since 1992. Steve Spurrier is the current head coach, and the team plays its home games at Williams-Brice...
game. Student leaders at the University deemed the character derogatory and called for Shealy to stop publishing the newsletter, which contains slurs against Asian, black and Hispanic students.
Family Activism in Black Causes
Shealy worked for numerous African-American political candidates, far more than the other top political consultants in the state. In 1954, his father, Ryan Shealy, then a state representative, became one of the first southern politicians to denounce the Ku Klux Klan. In the early 1970s, his sister, Sherry Shealy Martschink, served in the statehouse and was the only Republican to join with eleven members of the Black Caucus (and one white Democrat) to oppose capital punishment on the grounds that it was racially discriminatory.Recent campaigns
Trey Walker, the field director for John McCain's 2000 presidential campaignJohn McCain presidential campaign, 2000
John McCain, the United States Senator from Arizona, launched his first candidacy for the presidency of the United States in the 2000 presidential election....
, spoofed
Spoofing attack
In the context of network security, a spoofing attack is a situation in which one person or program successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data and thereby gaining an illegitimate advantage.- Spoofing and TCP/IP :...
Shealy's email in 2002, when Larry Richter, Shealy's candidate for Attorney General was running against Walker's candidate, Henry McMaster
Henry McMaster
Henry Dargan McMaster is South Carolina's Republican attorney general, having been first elected on November 5, 2002. He was a unsuccessful candidate for the GOP nomination in the 2010 South Carolina gubernatorial election.- Biography :McMaster received a bachelor's degree in history from the...
. Walker sent an email that looked as if it came from one of Shealy's publications and contained allegations of a land deal between a drug dealer and Richter.
In 2006, Shealy ran the Republican primary campaign of André Bauer
André Bauer
Rudolph Andreas "André" Bauer was the 87th Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina from 2003 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party...
for lieutenant governor.
In 2007, Shealy represented SC Rep. Henry Brown, Jr. in his 1st District Race and SC State Senator Dick Elliot in his Senate Campaign for the 2008 elections.
Shealy hired Will Folks in 2006 to work on the campaign of former State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel
Thomas Ravenel
Thomas Ravenel is a South Carolina politician and former State Treasurer. He is the son of former South Carolina Congressman Arthur Ravenel, Jr..-Background:...
.
In 2008, Shealy worked on the campaign of State Senator Catherine Ceips
Catherine C. Ceips
Catherine C. Ceips is a Republican member of the South Carolina Senate, representing the 46th District since a special election in 2007. Previously she was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 2003 through 2006....
. Tom Davis, the former chief of staff to Mark Sanford
Mark Sanford
Marshall Clement "Mark" Sanford Jr. is an American politician from South Carolina, who was the 115th Governor of South Carolina from 2003 to 2011....
was expected to announce that he would be running against Ceips. Davis' house was being painted at the time. Ceips' chief of staff, Randy Bates, arrived at the house and spoke with Josias Mirales Ayala, who claimed to be an illegal immigrant hired to paint Davis' house. Shealy subsequently submitted a photograph of Ayala to Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reporter Jim Davenport and explained that he was an illegal alien. Davis condemned the action, saying "I call on Ms. Ceips to fire Rod Shealy and Randy Bates, the two operatives who carried out this dirty trick at her direction."
Personal life
Shealy had two sons by his first wife Becky, Rod, Jr. and Ross. He remarried to Pat Shealy and had a stepdaughter named Amy.Shealy was diagnosed with melanoma
Melanoma
Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes. Melanocytes are cells that produce the dark pigment, melanin, which is responsible for the color of skin. They predominantly occur in skin, but are also found in other parts of the body, including the bowel and the eye...
in 1983 and given a 30% chance of survival. Twenty-five years later, in August 2008, he announced that the cancer had recurred. The brain tumor
Brain tumor
A brain tumor is an intracranial solid neoplasm, a tumor within the brain or the central spinal canal.Brain tumors include all tumors inside the cranium or in the central spinal canal...
affected the portion of Shealy's brain that influences the ability to communicate, read and write. Oscar Lovelace, Shealy's physician said that Shealy was "having language difficulties and periods where he couldn’t remember what he needed to say. He was mixing up numbers and letters." Shealy died due to possible complications from the cancer on August 18, 2010.
Shealy was known to wear Hawaiian shirts
Aloha shirt
The Aloha shirt commonly referred to as a Hawaiian shirt is a style of dress shirt originating in Hawaii. It is currently the premier textile export of the Hawaii manufacturing industry. The shirts are printed, mostly short-sleeved, and collared. They usually have buttons, sometimes as a complete...
.
External links
- Doing the First Amendment, Shealy's blog
- Shealy on Blogspot