STATEMENT BY DAVID MCMAHAN REGARDING THE RECENT CENSURE
Jim Mann was elected OCRP Vice Chair on his campaign promise to “help David McMahan finish out his term strong”. As you will see, based on my story below, this statement turned out to be deceptive at a minimum, and at worst, a complete lie. At the time, David Dial had been appointed as my Treasurer, and Mickey Haney as my Secretary. Additionally, I had appointed Mike Tarner as my D2 Director. Teresa Sills was my long-standing D1 Director at the time. Jim Mann was elected in an Executive Committee meeting on 06/02/22.
In June 2022, during the contentious Primary Election Campaign of District 1 County Council race between Kay Keehn Knapp and John Elliott, I circulated a video where I stated that John Elliott was unwilling to debate Kay and that Kay was the confessed Christian of the two choices. I also reiterated a statement by John Elliot made during a town hall where he essentially stated that “only lakefront people paid taxes in this county”. This video did not set well with the Stamp Creek Precinct, which is John Elliott’s home precinct. I felt it necessary to make this video from a personal standpoint, as am a resident of District 1 and also still have the right to speak as an individual outside of my OCRP Chair position. While I understand that some do not like this aspect of my tenure, it is my right as an individual to speak freely. Also my issue at the time was that John Elliott had refused to show up to a scheduled debate-style meet and greet on 4-23-22 at Ebenezer Community Club when it was scheduled and announced. However, unbeknownst to me, I found out later that Teresa Sills, my D1 Director, had worked with Keri Unsworth,Terry Meyerring, Sherry Koban, and Pat Murray to change the format of the Ebenezer Community Club debate to a simple meet and greet for John Elliott. (Keri,Terry, and Pat were involved in the first attempt in January 2021 to covertly hold a CXC Meeting to oust and/or censure me.) At that point, John Elliott changed his position and accepted the invitation. I felt betrayed by my D1 Director because of this event, because had I found out about it ahead of time, I would not have permitted this change in format. This occurrence, in part, ultimately resulted in my future distrust and dismissal of Teresa Sills, as per my right per OCRP County Bylaws.
Another allegation by Jim Mann is that I willfully boycotted the State GOP Convention on 7-30-22, presumably because I was in protest of the Governers decision to remove Matt Durham from office pending the resolution of his charges. This is a false allegation. Otherwise, why would I have, after that, invited the Governor to speak at a free event at the Walhalla Civic Center on 6-9-22? The real reason I did not attend the convention was I own multiple rental units, do all of my own repairs, and had an emergency hot water heater replacement come up that day. I did reach out to Tyler Jordan and David Dial, who both attended the convention. As for the other delegates and alternate delegates not attending, I will own the fact that I did not actively reach out to them to encourage attendance, but, there was NO intentional boycott on my part nor encouragement of a boycott on my part.
Shortly thereafter, on or about July 2021, Jim Mann decided to initiate a Recon Meeting in an attempt to better unite the factions of the OCRP, which at that time, were the OCC, the OCRM, and the OCRW. I agreed to this but decided to “let Jim run with it, as it was his project”. Contrary to Jims allegations, I did not become involved with these meetings or the subsequent negotiations, which were embarrassingly leaked to the press. I was cc’ed on the email exchanges during the bargaining process that ensued after the first meeting on 7-27-22, but I was NEVER involved in any decision making of any faction, including the OCC, regarding this process. This was because I trusted Jim to see this project through and I did not want to micromanage him per his wishes.
Additionally, it was also around this time, June or July timeframe, that I found out about a draft, unsigned Stamp Creek censure letter that was circulating between the Stamp Creek Precinct president (Scott Kreuger), Jim Mann, and Teresa Sills. I also believe that David Dial was aware of this draft censure letter at the time, as “he, Jim Mann, and Mike Tarner had started having friendly meetings at the Beer Station in Bountyland after work”, as stated explicitly by David Dial in an email to David Nix. These three people meeting behind my back was also a concern to me, as this was, or nearly was, considered a quorum of the OCRP Steering Committee. Neither Jim, Teresa, or David Dial considered it “necessary” to inform me of this “behind the scenes” censure activity that could adversely impact my public perception as OCRP Chair. Mickey Haney found out about all of this and informed me of this activity. Jim and Mickey discussed the censure letter and determined that it was not a valid letter since it was not signed. Jims reasoning for not informing me about the draft letter was “it was only a draft and was not official”. Would you trust your Vice Chair if he had done this to you? Additionally, when I asked Teresa Sills why she had not informed me of the draft censure letter, she stated “she was worried that I would be angry over it”. Would you trust your D1 Director after this incident and the previous incident?
Shortly after this, the censure letter was signed by Stamp Creek and a copy was circulated, again, behind my back. The “plan” was to make this motion to censure me in an upcoming Steering Committee Meeting in late June. I did not know this motion was going to happen until about an hour before the meeting was to occur. At that time, Jim Mann and David Dial invited me to meet with them at Ingles to have coffee about an hour before the scheduled Steering Committee Meeting. Their intent was to “sell” me on “just accepting the censure” and moving on, “sort of like a traffic ticket”. I did not agree with the content of the censure letter, and thus I told them that I would not accept the censure as I did not agree with the allegations. Additionally, I was not prepared at the time to mount a case against the censure. At this point, would you trust Jim and David?
After this series of occurrences, taken together as a collective, I resolved to remove any untrustworthy individuals from my Steering Committee. I had every right to do so as it was within the OCRP County Bylaws. With my history up to this point of distrust of individuals not associated with the OCC, I felt I had no choice and was backed into a corner. Therefore, I contacted David Dial to tell him that we needed a “second signer” on the OCRP Bank account, as was customary for charitable organizations. I had been trying to get this done anyway, but now felt it more urgent to do so. The alleged harassment and perceived threats to David Dial are false in that he was defensive and used delay and deflect tactics when Mickey and I approached him via emails, texts and phone calls to work through this matter.
As my relationship to Jim Mann and David Dial deteriorated, they continued to communicate, meet, and plan my demise behind my back. This is well documented.
The activities associated with transfer of Treasury responsibilities between David Dial and Mickey Haney were contentious. David Dial’s claims of contentiousness on my part were in fact a two way street. There was never any real harassment or physical threats. I investigated many cases of threats and harassment in law enforcement for 15+ years and I can tell you that there were no threats or harassment. There were some contentious email and text exchanges, but the contention was both ways rather than one way as portrayed in the 9-16-22 Emergent CXC Meeting.
Teresa Sills was a hard worker and for a long time was a very trustworthy one. I will always be indebted to her for her hard work and dedication to the Party. However, due to the two aforementioned events, I chose also to remove Teresa Sills as D1 Director due to lack of confidence in her. I felt that she had fallen under the influence of some of my detractors and could no longer be trusted to help me affectively lead this organization. Once I removed Teresa, this understandably provoked further contention and outrage.
I chose to remove David Dial as Treasurer, as this was also within my rights per OCRP County bylaws, due to a lack of trust and confidence in his leadership going forward. I replaced David Dial with Mickey Haney. Additionally, I chose to place David Nix into the OCRP Secretary position.
So now, here we are, with a civil war going on between myself, supported with my few Conservative loyalists, and Jim Mann, supported by the Keowee Key old guard, the moderates in collusion with the Democrats, such as Rannie Bond, and the other OCC haters that are now a part of the Keowee Key initiated OCRM organization. I have no trust in Jim, and rightfully so. He has not fulfilled his campaign promise. Actually, it has been quite the opposite with him. Constant bickering, planned conflicts and leaks to the local media, and constant beratement in every CXC and Steering Committee meeting since mid-year. Additionally, the old saying of “if you see or hear something subversive going on and decide to ignore it, then you become a part of it”. The repeated lies, misinformation, and slander against the OCRP leadership (other than Jim Mann) and against the Conservative movement by Rannie Bond, a disgruntled D3 county council candidate who lost, and two Democrats, is such a case. I really was trying to move forward with the party, but I have been opposed at every angle. I know I bear much of the responsibility of the divisiveness in the party, but I have tried to place OCRM and OCRW people into leadership positions and subsequently been betrayed. The detractors have chosen not to help, but rather, to destroy any hopes of unity.
If I thought this mess we call the OCRP was in any way completely my fault, I would resign in good conscience, but, I do not, and I will not. The OCRM was created to siphon away talent from the OCRP to an organization that by SC State Bylaws (See Section 3 b of SC State Bylaws) is illegitimate and redundant to what the OCRP does, which is charity, recruitment, education, and fundraising. I am a flawed leader. However, everyone has their shortcomings. Nevertheless, with an organization as large as the OCRP, and with me being a newly installed leader without history or benefit of experience, my failure was assisted on all fronts by the non-OCC factions. Therefore, notwithstanding the contrived and stacked 9-16-22 CXC Meeting voting of “no confidence”, I will proceed forward with my term using my loyalists in the Steering Committee. The rest of you can start propping me up with your help, flawed as I am as a leader, or you can continue with your destructive tactics. It’s your choice.
David McMahan
OCRP Chairman
