Senate GOP moderates threatened by active dark money efforts
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Gov. Nikki Haley and political cronies fueled by dark money are working hard and quiet
ly to overthrow the South Carolina Senate.
But Democrats aren’t their targets. Moderate Republicans are. And quite frankly, it’s scary as all get-out.
This is internecine warfare at its basest level. It’s the legacy of gerrymandering that made white legislative districts whiter and black districts blacker. The GOP benefited from the political redrawing of district lines in the mid-1990s because it allowed the party to seize control of the House and Senate for the first time since Reconstruction.
But now Republicans are experiencing the flip side of reapportionment. As the Republican Party factionalized, traditional GOP moderates — country club fiscal conservatives not obsessed about issues like abortion and gay marriage — smacked head-on into fire-breathing, tea-party, limited government acolytes who don’t know the meaning of the word “compromise.”
This second group, hungry for power, has figured out the only way it can take over the Senate and drag it backwards is to wrestle power from moderate Republicans in a Soviet-style putsch. Why? Because all of that gerrymandering in the 1990s made the minority Democratic districts almost bulletproof, drawn in a way that that it’s virtually impossible to elect a Republican there.
“The only chance they’ve got to reshape the Senate is the remake the Republican members,” one Democrat observed.
According to sources, Senate moderates targeted by an under-the-radar, cash-laden campaign include high-profile GOP players such as Senate President Pro Tem and Finance Chair Hugh Leatherman of Florence, Judiciary Chair Larry Martin of Pickens, Banking and Insurance Chair Wes Hayes of Rock Hill, Ethics Chair Luke Rankin of Conway and veteran Paul Campbell of Goose Creek. Each reportedly has serious challengers.
Haley, through her longtime strategist Tim Pearson, recently formed A Great Day SC PAC, a 527 political organization that allows it to raise unrestricted, or dark, money. Another political action committee, The Movement Fund, with pro-Haley ties reportedly raised $1.8 million from 2011 to 2014 to help the governor’s preferred candidates. Other nationally organizations walking in lock step here to reshape the Senate include the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity, both of which have strong ties to out-of-state money pools offered by wealthy activists, such as the billionaire Koch brothers.
“Their primary support comes from the Koch brothers,” one Senate insider noted. “They attack candidates on a collaborative basis on different fronts. It appears they’re different groups, but they’re really one in the same group — same source of funding, same message.”
What’s scary is that these groups, if successful, could seize control of the state Senate for a comparatively cheap price — less than $2 million or so, perhaps. That might sound like a lot of money, but for ideologically-motivated businessmen, it’s not too much in the broad view. They can get their way in South Carolina for what seems to be a good “investment.”
If Haley and company are successful in the June GOP primary, they could reshape the Senate Republican Caucus, ridding it of long-time leaders who take a broad view of public service and consider the needs of the whole state, not just partisan or parochial interests.
And if you think things in Columbia are bad now, having a more partisan Senate with a narrow focus would be a disaster for anyone who wants state government to help solve real problems. A purge of Senate GOP moderates would be a victory for the dream of those who want state government to be so small that it drowns in a bathtub.
“The state works best when you have 46 senators who have a statewide perspective on issues,” a longtime elected official said. “What they’re trying to do is to elect people who are antagonists who don’t want to invest in South Carolina.
“The Republican Party has been hijacked by [Donald] Trump at the national level and by the dark money here in South Carolina.”
Knowledge is power. When you’re listening to what’s being said about candidates in the June primary, look behind the rhetoric and see what’s really going on. Don’t be hoodwinked.
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