Phil Noble’s New Democrats have released a list of those receiving money from Howard Rich and allies (I’m not sure how the allies are defined), in the continuing quest to purchase privatization of education in South Carolina. First, an excerpt from the commentary:
After the Civil War, South Carolina was invaded by Northern carpetbaggers and their local scalawag allies who abused our state and exploited our people.
Howard Rich
They are back – this time Howard Rich is the carpetbagger and there are 25 legislators and candidates, as well as party and legislative organizations, who have joined him to exploit our children with their so-called school voucher social experiment scheme.
We are here today to name these 25 candidates and party organizations that have taken over $333,000 in funds from Rich and his out of state cronies to make our state’s children lab rats in his radical school voucher experiment.
In 2011-12, Rich and his cronies have contributed $325,640 to Republicans and $8,000 to Democrats. They should all be ashamed of what they have done and they should give the money back…
And now the list:
Contributions by Howard Rich and CroniesBelow is a list of the total contributions to South Carolina candidates made by Howard Rich and his cronies in 2011-12. Source: FollowTheMoney.org and the SC Ethics Commission. See itemized list of contributions here.
TOTAL: $333,640
Republicans: $325,640
Democrats: $8000SC HOUSE
Total: $37,500
Barfield, Liston D (R, 58) $3000
Bowen, Don C (R, 08) $3000
Chumley, Bill (R, 35) $15,000
Crawford, Kris (R, 63) $500
Erickson, Shannon (R, 124) $500
Gambrell, Michael W (R, 07) $500
Hardwick, Nelson (R, 106) $2000
Herbkersman, Bill (R, 118) $1000
Putnam, Joshua (R, 10) $11,000
Smith, Garry R (R, 27) $1000SC SENATE
Total: $109,000
Bright, Lee (R, 12) $17,000
Bryant, Kevin L (R, 03) $8000
Campsen, Chip (R, 43) $1000
Corbin, Tom (R, 05) $8000
Davis, Tom (R, 46) $1000
Fair, Mike (R, 06) $18,000
Ford, Robert (D, 42) $6000
Grooms, Larry (R, 37) $5000
Massey, Shane (R, 25) $3000
Peeler, Harvey (R, 14) $3000
Rose, Mike (R, 38) $18,000
Thomas, David (R, 08) $18,000
Thurmond, Paul(R, 41) $3000LEGISLATIVE CAUCUSES
Total: $105,000
House Democratic Caucus Committee $2000
House Republican Caucus Committee $3000
Senate Republican Caucus Committee $100,000STATEWIDE
Total: $38,500
Loftis, Curtis (R, Treasurer) $31,500
Wilson, Alan (R, AG) $7000PARTIES
Total: $43,640
South Carolina Republican Party $43,640
The SC Dems site notes that Logan Smith has more over at his blog.
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The amounts intrigue me. I can see why the one Democrat on the list, Robert Ford, may be worth six times as much as Tom Davis, but is Mike Fair worth 18 times as much? There’s more there than meets the eye, I suppose. Must have something to do with something going on in those districts. Assuming Rich et al. even pay attention to that.
Thanks for the list. I’m not sure who I’m voting for some state races, but that will help me know whom to vote against.
Jack O’Toole of the SC New Democrats responds thusly to my wondering about who these “cronies” are:
“The LLC’s in PA and NY are Mr. Rich’s. South Carolinians for Responsible Government is a ‘school choice’ group that has been identified as a Rich group in numerous press reports. And the two out-of-state individuals whose name appear in some of the data are named directors of Mr. Rich’s ‘Americans For Limited Government.'”
It’s a misuse of the terms “carpetbagger” and “scalawag”. What’s wrong with being a northern capitalist, or supporting racial integration, or having other progressive views? I think Mr. Noble might want to rethink his terminolgy…
Yawn… appropriate on Halloween to post a story about the boogeyman who wants to kill our schools. He’s so scary!!
Meanwhile, our schools continue to fail and Howie Rich can be held up as the reason.
” children lab rats in his radical school voucher experiment.”
The same experiment that has been happening all over the country with more and more frequency.
Meanwhile, we see Richland 1 spending several thousand dollars more per student than other districts with worse results.
Fear change! Fear progress! Fear accountability!
Go into the status quo light, Carol Ann!
Mike Fair initially had two primary opponents this year – he typically draws a primary opponent, as there is no active Dem. party in his district (of which I live in).
The first primary opponent candidate was a political consultant connected at one point to Larry Grooms and some neo – Confederate deal. I never figured him out, but he had a ground game and some money.
The other is a local school board member. She got thrown off the ballot a week before the primary. She is now a petition candidate vs. Fair next week. I don’t think she is a hard core conservative, I think.
Fair has signs all over the place saying “Vote Republican, Vote Romney & Fair”. I suspect he feels really threatened and is depending on straight ticket votes next Tuesday.
So maybe there were promises or understandings between him and Rich for the cash? I dunno. But Fair has felt threatened all year.
And that would be a logical explanation…
Howie Rich WOULD be a pretty scary Halloween costume. But I just got my hair cut this morning, after having cut off my chops, and that’s far enough.
You know, it was a lot colder outside AFTER my haircut than before…
To echo Silence’s comment, Mr. Noble’s comments about Howie Rich are completely undermined by his very first sentence. Maybe he’s trying to appeal to a certain (all too common) slice of prejudiced ignoramuses among the SC electorate, but “scalawag” is a particularly offensive term, because while there were plenty of Southern whites post-war who hopped on the Reconstruction bandwagon for personal financial gain, the many who merely supported Reconstruction and the Republican platform in the postwar era out of a sense of moral rectitude (and turning the page on the past) were also labeled “scalawags.”
To even use the term today is roughly equivalent to creating an epithet for the majority of Germans post-WWII, who did not remain unrepentant Nazis.
You should see this, about post Citizens United groups running campaigns in local races, from out of state, it aired last night:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/big-sky-big-money/
What surprises me more than anything is the amount of time and effort local politicians put into elections. Where I grew up in the midwest, campaigning consisted of putting an ad in the local newspaper and maybe sitting in a car for a local parade. In SC we have people spending tens of thousands of dollars in hope of getting elected to a position that pays $10,000.
More surprising, is if you are in Lexington County, there’s a Clerk of Courts candidate that states she’s a Republican on her signs. Does it really matter what party the Clerk of Courts belongs to? Is she going to put Republican cases in front of Democratic or Independent cases?
Governot Nikki Haley acolyte, Katrina Shealey, probably has taken shovelfuls of money from Rich and the school choice mafia.
There’s probably more petition candidates that have taken money.
The Democrats only list those affliated with a political party.
The answer to the question of why local politicians put so much effort into elections is “because they can.” With the amount of money flooding into local electoral politics, it’s hardly surprising that every low-level contest becomes a life-or-death struggle.