Voucher Week, pt. IV: 10% Inspiration, 99% Out of State Fund-ation

I know what you’re thinking: “It can’t get any worse.”

First, an SCRG-backed candidate in House District 7 gets 87% of his funding from out-of-state. Then, an SCRG-backed candidate in House District 79 gets 56% of her funding from the same handful of folks. Then, just a couple months later, an SCRG-backed candidate in the same House District gets 96% of his funds from out-of-state…

I mean, even the most bogus of grass roots groups has to say “enough is enough” eventually, right?

I’ll give everyone a head’s up: if you want to suppose that it can’t get any worse than 96%, read no further. If you still want to imagine that these SC outfits are a homespun effort, not controlled from out-of-state, scroll no more. Hit “Ctrl-Alt-Del,” pour your Frappucino into your hard drive, throw your new iPhone in the nearest creek – whatever it takes not to read another word.

But for those of you who choose to remain waist deep in Voucher Week, let’s take a trip back in time… to just over a year ago, in "SC's Golden Corner": Oconee County. There, in the House District 1 GOP primary, SCRG-backed candidate Brad Cain is losing his race against a retired educator, Rep. Bill Whitmire, by about 600 votes. A sound margin, considering Cain was able to solicit $22,250 in this bid for the State House.

Of that $22,250, how much was from Sandlappers?

Not even enough to replace that iPhone. According to the National Institute for Money in State Politics, an unbelievable 99.2% ($22,000) was from out-of-state.

From whose wallets did these legislative campaign funds originate?

Howard Rich of NY
Ashborough Investors: $1,000
Spinksville LLC: $1,000
West 14 & 18 LLC: $1,000

Alex Cranberg of CO
Walnut Software, LLC: $1,000
Azimuth Energy, LLC: $1,000
Aspect Energy, LLC: $1,000

Other Voucher Enthusiasts
Eric Brooks (PA): $1,000
Donna Brooks (PA): $1,000
Jeff Yass (PA): $1,000
Joe Stilwell (NY): $1,000
Arthur Dantchik (PA): $1,000
Joseph Rich (NY): $1,000

And a few others. Just imagine if someone found this financial disclosure lying on the ground in, say, Omaha, Nebraska. Do you think they’d know what state it came from?

But as disconcerting as 99.2% is, it gets even worse.

Across the state, in House District 117 (Chas. and Berkeley Cos.) SCRG backed a legislative candidate named Rosalie “Roz” Mir. Ms. Mir raised a total of $13,021 in her bid for the seat of Republican Tom Dantzler in the same June GOP primary.

Who funded this campaign, in the lowcountry of South Carolina?

Howard Rich of NY
Ashborough Investors: $1,000
Spinksville LLC: $1,000
West 14 & 18 LLC: $1,000
538-14 Realty LLC: $1000

Other Voucher Enthusiasts
Eric Brooks (PA): $1,000
Jeff Yass (PA): $1,000
Joe Stilwell (NY): $1,000
Arthur Dantchik (PA): $1,000
Joseph Rich (NY): $1,000

And four other $1,000 checks from outside SC. It's getting kinda repetitive, isn't it? $13,000 of Mir’s $13,021 was from out-of-state, while $21 came from her own pocketbook.

That’s – let’s see, carry the two – 99.8% out-of-state funding. (Rep. Dantzler won the race, although several confused Russian cosmonauts turned out to vote for Mir.)

Now, if you grew up in the age of chicken-bog, pancake-breakfast, people-driven politics, this sort of thing might make you want to take a shower. I enthusiastically endorse this impulse. But when you do, please note that the Ivory Soap you’re using isn’t as pure (only 99.44%) as Ms. Mir’s out-of-state school voucher funding.

Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to me that all the candidates we’ve looked at this week, and the others we’ve passed over, are being bankrolled by the same guy: one-man voucher lobby Howard Rich -- and a dozen or so of his libertarian comrades around the country.

But then again, “one man voucher lobby” sounds like more hyperbole, the kind Gervais is known to use so recklessly. Perhaps I exaggerate the extent of Mr. Rich’s involvement in SC politics. Surely his financial contributions to candidates don’t rival that of actual, big-time lobbyists like Blue Cross Blue Shield or BellSouth, companies that have a considerable business interests in the Palmetto State.

Right?

Don’t bet your “Alliance for the Separation of School and State” membership card on it, my friend. Come back tomorrow, when Voucher Week concludes at the same place the South Carolina voucher campaign began… 73 Spring Street, NY, NY. (Go to Part Five)