Free Times reporter Corey Hutchins really needs to get himself a job at a daily newspaper (before they’re all gone). A weekly publication just doesn’t provide enough outlet for his energy.
Corey calls my attention to another of his freelance pieces, this one for the Center for Public Integrity. It’s about how the rules changed to essentially free up third-party committees to spend whatever they want in SC elections, with no accountability. An excerpt:
In 2010, a little-noticed ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Terry Wooten in Florence, S.C., kicked the regulatory teeth out of a key statute in the state’s campaign finance laws and opened the floodgates for untraceable political spending by many of the groups seeking to influence elections.
The case revolved around a seemingly mundane sliver of minutiae — how the word “committee” is defined under South Carolina law. But the effects of Wooten’s ruling were far-reaching indeed, and that’s likely just how famed conservative lawyer James Bopp — the star of the case — wanted it. In the Palmetto State, suddenly all bets were off when it came to independent expenditures meant to influence elections. And they still are.
“Until we clarify it, it’s the Wild West to a certain extent,” says Wes Hayes, a Republican lawmaker who chairs the S.C. Senate Ethics Committee. “Until we get that clarified we have no law.”
State legislators, ethics regulators and good government groups here haven’t yet been able to put back the pieces — not in last year’s legislative session, and not in the one just finished either.
Unless and until they do, many worry that South Carolina will remain in a state of anarchy in regard to secret money and its effect on campaigns — with a high-stakes election just five months away…
I urge you to go read it. As Corey said in calling attention to it:
Ready to re-live the days of unlimited, untraceable, undisclosed political spending of the video poker barons in the late ’90s?It’s already happening post primary, and is bound to get worse. This story shows why.
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Its implications are apparent in a race out in Sumter right now:
http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=1992209084141467&act=post&pid=11861806121679187
I think Corey is smart to stay where he is–the job security seems better!
Thanks. That helps explain this release I got from the Barwick campaign…
Sumter, SC – June 21, 2012 – Another day has gone by, and Wade Kolb has refused to distance himself from a shadowy, third-party group that is trying to influence the District 35 GOP Senate Primary.
Media outlets, including the Sumter Item and the Columbia Free Times, have detailed the efforts of the so-called “SC Conservative Reform Council” to influence the state Senate race, with the group spending heavily on radio and mail in the district. Records of this group do not exist in any state database, and the only address listed is for a UPS store P.O. Box outside of the district.
On Wednesday, Sumter County businessman Tony Barwick called on Kolb to denounce the group. Unfortunately, thus far, Kolb and his team have chosen to publicly embrace them instead, with Kolb telling The Item that “he appreciates the group’s support.” Earlier in the week, a spokeswoman for Kolb told the Columbia Free Times that the group’s efforts were a “pleasant surprise.”
Barwick has invited Kolb to support his Campaign Transparency Bill, which would force groups spending money to influence an election to file with the Secretary of State and with the State Ethics Committee, to list members of the organization and their boards of directors, and to post all of their spending online with the Ethics Committee.
“I don’t understand how anyone could be against the kind of transparency I’m asking for here,” Barwick said. “Instead of condemning this shadowy group that spends its time skating on the edge of the law, Wade is choosing to make baseless claims about me and my campaign. I again urge Wade to stop playing politics with this issue, and promise that no matter who wins this race, we can work together to clean up our corrupt political system.”
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There’s a new news release from the Barwick campaign saying that he will hold a news conference tomorrow at 11 a.m. in Sumter where GOP Sen. Lee Bright will appear and condemn the group and its shadowy tactics for the way it also operated in Bright’s successful Upstate race.
You’ll recall from the CPI story how Bright was the senator who blocked a proposal to close the loophole caused by the court decision in question that allows such groups to operate the way they are.
How many years has Howie Rich been funding campaigns and libertarian causes in the state by skirting the puny ethics laws we have? I’m just glad that I truly didn’t realize how corrupt our political system is when I was younger.
As for Corey, he’s brilliant, a fantastic writer, and possibly the only investigative reporter left in South Carolina. Please don’t leave, Corey.
If the Free Times could significantly upgrade their website, it might provide a better, more visible outlet for Corey. Meanwhile, FT put out their list of 50 Most Influential people in Columbia a couple of weeks ago, but propriety prevented them from listing any of their own among that group. Certainly Corey would have to be on that list by virtue of the national attention some of his stories have gotten.