Wednesday, May 21, 2008

New website exposes Howard Rich’s agenda for SC’s primaries

New York millionaire Howard Rich is pretty crafty. This primary season, if you haven’t noticed, Rich seems to be running several campaigns almost entirely from the accounts of his SC front group, South Carolinians for Responsible Government.

It’s a pretty good plan: most if not all of any given voucher candidate's mail pieces and phone calls actually come from Howard Rich's SCRG.

That way, bloggers like myself can’t point out that Candidate X received 99% of her funds from the out-of-state voucher lobby, or that Candidate Y received 99% of his campaign funds from the out-of-state voucher lobby, or that there is an actual sitting legislator who got 84% of his funds from the out-of-state voucher lobby.

Instead, these voucher candidates have access to the millions of dollars in SCRG’s operating account (SCRG received $3 million in 2006 alone) yet don’t have to disclose one red cent of it to SC voters. SCRG has a lawyer ready to sue if we pesky SC voters even dare to ask.

It’s pretty ingenuous, but Howard Rich didn’t count on actual Sandlappers being even ingenious-er. Fortunately for those of us who don't want SC’s political process hijacked by out-of-state anti-school ideologues, the good folks at TakeSCBack.com are all over Howie like hash on rice.

Something tells me this new site is going to get a lot of visitors between now and June 10th.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The good folks at TakeBackSC? What a bunch of hogwash. Anyone with a half a brain would realize Warren Tompkins and Rod Shealy, etc. are behind the site. Great way to give your probably-losing candidates some cover, huh?

They could have at least made it a little different than "thankyoucatherine.com" or whatever other baloney they are selling to the Senate Caucus this week. I thought Wesley Donawho could do better work.

We in the business call that "turfgrassing."

And speaking of which, is their little group registered to take donations as a C4 or PAC? If not, they're breaking the law.

Anonymous said...

Rich is but one of the paymasters that owns Sanford and company. There are several more, but as long as the Republican party leaders embrace the non-disclosure laws that accompanies with the "501c3 non-profits" the party will remain loyal to the paymasters, not the voters. The easy cash is the crack cocaine of our political system.

This fall we republicans will face losses unimaginable just a few years ago...and Sanford and his buddies are to blame.

The people realize they are being ignored. They spoke loudly in 2006 and they will speak loudly again.

Anonymous said...

Anon 1 – Hey, Willie Will. Nice to see you out and about. Unfortunately, your friends at Starboard and Sandlapper are going to get their clocks cleaned this cycle, and I'll be laughing my ass off with a frosty beverage when it happens.