And they POLICE THEMSELVES... Lawmakers Spend Campaign Funds on Their Businesses Rep. David “Davey” Hiott, R-Pickens and chairman of the House Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee, reported spending a total of $6,500 in 2012 and last year on his business – the Hiott Printing Company – for what he labeled as “printing materials” and “printing for campaign.” He faced opposition in both the 2012 and 2014 Republican primaries, though he had no formal opponents in the general elections in those years. And other lawmakers have spent campaign funds on Hiott’s business, The Nerve’s review found. Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens and the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, for example, reported spending a total of $6,905 from November 2008 through December last year, mainly for what he listed as “Christmas cards.” Rep. Bill Whitmire, R-Oconee, reported spending a collective $4,135 in 2012 for what he labeled as “campaign cards” and a “mailer.” State ethics law (Section 8-13-1348 of the S.C. Code of Laws) bans campaign funds from being “converted to personal use,” or used to “defray personal expenses which are unrelated to the campaign or the office if the candidate is an officeholder.” Another law (Section 8-13-700) prohibits a public official from using his office to “obtain an economic interest for himself, a family member, an individual with whom he is associated, or a business with which he is associated.” Alexanders campaign reports dont specify whether the amounts spent from his campaign account on his business were for his campaign or legislative office. Neither Alexander nor the Senate’s leader – Senate President Pro Tempore Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence – responded last week to phone or written messages from The Nerve seeking comment on Alexander’s spending of campaign funds on his office supply business. The Nerve in February last year reported that over the prior six years, Leatherman, who also is the Senate Finance Committee chairman, spent a total of more than $600,000 from his campaign account, though he faced no opposition in either the 2008 and 2012 elections, including more than $90,000 for ornaments and gifts for unnamed constituents. Ethics Committee ‘Pre-Approval’ Contacted last week by The Nerve, Hiott, who was first elected to the House in 2004, confirmed that he has spent campaign funds on his business, and that other lawmakers have used their campaign accounts to pay his company. Besides Martin and Whitmire, other lawmakers who have made purchases from his business include Reps. Carl Anderson, D-Georgetown, and Samuel Rivers, R-Berkeley; and former Rep. Don Bowen, R-Anderson, he said. “I did some printing for myself, and I paid the company what it would cost,” Hiott said, adding that for other lawmakers, “It’s the same price I would give them what I would give to anyone else.” Hiott said a House Ethics Committee staffer verbally told him other lawmakers could spend their campaign funds on his business for allowable purposes under the law so long as he wasn’t giving them any special deals. Asked by The Nerve if he made a profit by spending campaign funds on his business, Hiott said he was advised by the Ethics Committee staffer that “you charge yourself the same thing you would charge anyone else.” Hiott couldn’t identify the Ethics Committee staffer when asked by The Nerve, adding that he “didn’t have anything in writing” from the committee. Rep. Kenny Bingham, R-Lexington and the House Ethics Committee chairman, told The Nerve for a story last month on Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Horry, who spent $29,297 from January 2008 through January 2014 on ties and scarves for House members, staffs and others, that informal opinions generally are secret, citing “attorney-client privilege.” The 124-member House and 46-member Senate police themselves for ethical violations through their respective ethics committees. Critics, including the South Carolina Policy Council – The Nerve’s parent organization – have called for an end to the Legislature’s self-policing powers, citing, among other things, repeated abuses of campaign spending laws. The Policy Council in February 2013 filed a public corruption complaint against then-House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, who resigned in October after pleading guilty to six counts of misspending campaign funds in connection to the use of his private airplane. The charges included one count of reimbursing himself a total of $93,958 from his campaign account from Jan. 1, 2009, through Jan. 10, 2013, for expenses related to the use of his plane, which, according to an indictment, were “neither related to his campaign nor his office in the House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina.” -excerpt from The Nerve, January 12, 2015
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 23:58:33 +0000
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