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MIKE GREEN SAYS STARBOARD FIRM ‘PAID HIM TO CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR OPPOSING SIDE’
A 38-year-old advisor to Congressman Gresham Barrett’s gubernatorial campaign has been arrested in Myrtle Beach for engaging in dirty campaign tricks.
Mike Green, who works for the Columbia-based political consulting firm Starboard Communications, was arrested for trespassing at a Myrtle Beach bar Monday night.
Green told police the firm “pays him to cause problems for the opposing side, which is Mark McBride’s campaign.” McBride is running for mayor of Myrtle Beach.
According to WMBF, a police report showed Green was jailed at 8 p.m. after officers were called to the BATB Security Office at 1320 Celebrity Circle. The Palmetto Scoop is working to obtain a copy of the report.
Green was reportedly arrested after trying to enter the Crocodile Rocks bar, where McBride was holding a private campaign party. The bar owner told Green to leave and an altercation ensued, according to the report.
A security officer said he told Green to leave several times, and Green refused. The officer allegedly told Green he was trespassing and the consultant still refused to leave.
The incident came less than 48 hours after police were called to another Myrtle Beach establishment
The Myrtle Beach Sun News reported Saturday that Green showed up at The Fish House where McBride was meeting with restaurant owner Bill Howard. Green walked in with a video camera and began saying some “pretty brutal stuff,” according to Howard.
Green was asked to leave, and that time he did.
Green’s troubles come less than a week after another Barrett consultant, Jim Dyke, made headlines for his own controversy.
On Nov. 11, a staffer for Dyke published an allegedly doctored photo that was used to attack one of Barrett’s gubernatorial rivals.
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UPDATE: Here’s a copy of the full police report. And here’s Green’s mugshot:
Is it just me, or does he look pretty proud of himself in that photo?
I would double check Green’s reported weight. Looks suspiciously low for me.
Barrett is slime and is in cahoots with Rhodes, Clemmons and all the rest of the slime in Myrtle Beach.
What a shame to have thugs now coming in to Myrtle Beach to cause havoc for a candidate. What is Rhodes and the rest afraid of? Haven’t they seen by now Mark McBride is on the side of the people.
Rhodes wins!! Maybe –just maybe perennial candidate (loser)McBride and his idiot followers will finally leave us alone.
Adam, its a real stretch to connect Mike Green’s incident with Congressman Barrett—-if so I guess we can blame then SCGOP Chair McMaster for Beasley’s loss to Hodges in ‘98.
Briscoe — How is it a stretch? He is on Barrett’s payroll.
Briscoe–I hate to tell you this but supportes of a candidate wheather the candidate wins or loses are not idiots. Further as far as your comment “will finally leave us alone”. Perhaps you should take a class in American Goverment and Civics, it is the duty of voters, tax payers and every citizen to question their leaders and not follow blindly. Unless you want to make Myrtle Beach into a exclusive municipality that caters only to a select special few.
There are some serious divides in Myrtle Beach that run along socio-economic lines. These divides are further complicated by the influx of people who have moved to the area not just from outside the area but outside of the state who have brought with them a different perspective and vision of what they want to see in Myrtle Beach versus the locals who have been in Myrtle Beach for generations.
At the end of this election cycle there are some deep wounds that will have to be addressed. Only time will tell if there is the potential for reconcilation, but if large blocks of voters continue to feel that changes they have issue with are being shoved down their throats without regard to thier concerns, then this election is only another round in that fight.
But understand this Briscoe Darling, former Mayor McBride and his followers are in no way idiots just because they were on the losing side. No one wins every election or is on the winning side of every issue, not even Obama wins every time…
Green did more than just come here to disrupt a rally.
He was involved in a barrage of attack ads, on all media locally, an attack web site (therealmarkmcbride.com), a bogus “Mark McBride” Facebook page, impersonating McBride in FB Chats with political activists opposed to John Rhodes (to gather info and disperse disinformation) and some rather serious stalking behavior where McBride and his family are concerned.
He was hired to do this by Good Government For Myrtle Beach PAC, an arm of “The Committee”, a group of hoteliers and bankers who reportedly rule the city with an iron hand and use the MBPD (through City Manger Tom Leath) as their “enforcers”.
Harassment, intimidation, nuisance arrests and various types of shakedowns are common when you go against them. In addition to this type of thing happening to several ‘opposition” political activists, or the six individuals who vied for the post of Mayor, only two (McBride and McCarty) were not ticketed and/or arrested during this campaign cycle.
I ask you: What are the odds of this being mere coincidence?
Green stepped into some mess here. I sincerely hope that, when the pending federal investigation into what is known locally as “Chambergate” all comes down, it will severely impact his career for it to be known how zealously he has labored for the perps.
If nothing else, he should be shown for the clueless fool that he is. He was in MB long enough to know that the security guards at Broadway at the Beach don’t play. And he actually shoved one of them, in sight of several of them, only 20 years from their office.
It was a pure delight to see him sitting handcuffed in a chair in front of that office for an hour and 15 minutes, and then to see him finally hauled off by the cops.
What a total putz!
William Bozworth Martin,
Myrtle Beach native
[...] SCHotline Founder Arrested… WTF??? [...]
I meant to add John Rhodes to the short list of those vying for the post of Mayor who have not been ticketed and/or arrested, but that goes without saying. The fact is that HALF of the candidates for Mayor had this happen to them. Again, the odds are slim that this was mere coincidence.
As far as Rhodes himself breaking the law is concerned, he does so with impunity. He has been known to park in “No Parking” spaces for hours at the time without even getting a ticket. If this is supposed to be one of the perks of being Mayor, then it should be written as law. It is not.
- William Bozworth Martin
In his various sock-puppet identities on the Sun News Comment threads (and possibly on Craig’s list and Topix forums as well, I don’t go on those) Green posted messages suggesting that all of the people opposed to Rhodes and his authoritarian policies were bikers, losers, outsiders, strip club owners, etc.
That is far from being the case. In attendance at the rally where he trespassed and shoved the security guard were dozens of people who are lifelong residents and are highly respected in the community.
I’m fairly certain that I know the poster “Just a good ol boy” — and he is one of those individuals.
One other thing — this is, by know means a left-right or Democrat-Republican divide. Rhodes and the incumbents were mainly Republicans, but they have considerable support among Democrats as well. Likewise, those supporting McBride (a Republican) were a coalition of Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and independents.
The vast majority of the Tea Party people on the Grand Stran are opposed to Rhodes on the issue of taxes. Though not all of them are Republican, a good many are. As you can well imagine, this has torn the party apart in the City of Myrtle Beach
It’s a matter of taxation without representation.
Sound famiar?
- Boz
“a.k.a. BuzzyB” on the Sun News forums and Comment threads.
Green actually founded SCHotline?
Wow!
I’m assuming it is now in more competent hands?
[...] According to the Palmetto Scoop, "Green was reportedly arrested after trying to enter the Crocodile Rocks bar, where McBride was holding a private campaign party. The bar owner told Green to leave and an altercation ensued." [...]
Good Ole Boy, with all due respect and as a former Myrtle Beach resident I was suggesting that Mr. McBride should perhaps pursue another line of work–political office does not seem to be in his future. I do not personally know either man but do attempt to stay informed about issues surrounding our state’s number one tourist destination. The City has changed tremendously in the last 20 years and as you indicated there are multiple complex issues facing the local leadership. It’s time for closure and progress for the sake of ALL of MB.
Briscoe, if McBride had lost by a huge margin this time I’d say you are correct. But he didn’t.
Also, he was outspent six to one, just by the Rhodes campaign. When you ad to that the enormous amount of money spent on Starboard Communication’s dishonest attack ads, etc., etc., by Pete Pierce’s Good Government For Myrtle Beach PAC, it may be that he was actually outspent more like twelve to one.
All that outlay of possibly dirty money, and Rhodes still only manage a rather meager victory. If McBride had been able to amass a comparable war chest, he would likely have soundly trounced Rhodes.
It doesn’t seem to me that McBride is washed up politically at all.
One of Rhodes’ deceptive ads stated “Myrtle Beach is on the rebound.” Sadly this is not the case with our once-great resort city. It may very well be that the genuine rebound is in the political career of Mark McBride.
“Posted by William Boz Martin on 11/18/09 at 3:11 pm
I meant to add John Rhodes to the short list of those vying for the post of Mayor who have not been ticketed and/or arrested, but that goes without saying. The fact is that HALF of the candidates for Mayor had this happen to them. Again, the odds are slim that this was mere coincidence.”
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Is honesty that difficult for you? Half the candidates for MB Mayor were NOT arrested. Of the 5 candidates, one was stopped for blowing a stop sign in front of a cop and the only reason he ended up arrested was because of some pesky outstanding bench warrants that pop up while the officer was processing his ticket. The other candidate was arrested for driving on the wrong side of the road – not an easy thing to do on a parkway! Her behavior was so bizarre the officer thought she was under the influence… she stated she was taking diet pills that may have contributed to her problem and she refused a drug test. THOSE ARE THE FACTS. Not everything is a conspiracy, mr martin.
It’s true that not everything is a conspiracy, but the fact is that The Sun News of Myrtle Beach has conspired, at least tacitly, to cover up the subject of this article.
There is no other explaination for their ignoring the arrest when it happened, and having continued to ignore it since that time — especially when they reported an incident involving Green the night before, where they could easilly twist the facts in a way that could reflect somewhat negatively on McBride and Howard.
The question is: What are they hiding about Green and Starboard Communications?
Given the fact that their rhetoric in their endorsement editorial repeated the bogus “fistfights” charge (there was only one phisical altercation, it was not a fistfight, and Wayne Gray was the attacker, not McBride), shows at least tacit agreement with, or willingness to let stand regardless of veracity, the untrue statment in the attack ads.
Just as not everything is a conspiracy, not every conspiracy is an overt one … most are tacit in nature, as is this conspiracy of convenience by like-minded entities to smear McBride and hide the truth about Rhodes and those who own him.
The “facts” as you present them in the case of Bea Catalano, are selective at best. There was no indication she was taking illegal drugs, and that was not what she was charged with.
There are also two other incidents I know about involving candidates for Mayor, that for various reasons have not been reported anywhere.
The odds of all this being a mere coincidence are slim to none.
I stand by my statement.