Kudos to Cahaly, Donehue, and Whetsell for making this article, in which The State newspaper looked at the evolving GOP landscape, often dominated by a collection of loose alliances, which they referred to as "tribes".

For years, if you wanted to run for office in this GOP-dominated state, you had to visit one of the three chiefs — Richard Quinn, Rod Shealy or Warren Tompkins — whose Midlands-based political tribes regularly warred against each other, running competing Republican candidates. But just as the 2010 election saw a host of new faces — four new congressmen plus a new governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and treasurer — it also saw the rise of the next crop of GOP political consultants who are challenging the dominance of the onetime “Big 3.”

The tribal nature of S.C. Republican politics still exists, and it probably always will.

But the tribes are evolving.