School board member accuses Ceips' aide of harassment

Beaufort County Board of Education member Jim Bequette says he is the subject of political harassment by Sen. Catherine Ceips' re-election campaign.

Randy Bates, an informal Ceips staffer, hand delivered an open records request written on his personal letterhead to Beaufort County School District offices Tuesday asking for all of Bequette's incoming and outgoing e-mails from his school board account from January through June of this year.

Bequette sent an e-mail April 30 soliciting political donations on behalf of Tom Davis, Ceips' Republican primary opponent, that went across a school e-mail server, Bates said.

"He used a government system for a political purpose ... (an) inappropriate use of taxpayer resources in a campaign," Bates said.

Bates denied the records request had anything to do with Ceips.

"This has nothing to do with her."

The e-mail that piqued Bates' interest was sent from Bequette's personal AOL account. Several school board members and school administration officials were on the list of recipients, but it is unclear from a hard copy of the e-mail if it was sent to their personal accounts or school accounts.

School district spokesman John Williams said Bequette was the only school official Bates made the request of.

"It's too bad when a citizen expresses an opinion about a candidate that Catherine Ceips, Randy Bates and obviously her consultant Rod Shealy decide they should harass the citizens," Bequette said.

Bequette said he only uses the school board e-mail account for school business. He doesn't expect anything objectionable to surface as a result of Bates' request.

"No, it's just harassment," he said, noting that state open records laws don't require compliance until after the Tuesday's primary.