Democratic Candidates Hire South Carolina Lawmakers to Help Build Support

Sanders was honored to have been endorsed for the Democratic nomination by seven black members of the South Carolina Legislature, he announced in a tweet.

One of the lawmakers, records show, owned a company that was already being paid by the Sanders campaign. Another would soon be added to the payroll as a vendor.

By the end of 2019, consulting companies operated by the two lawmakers, Rep. Wendell Gilliard of Charleston and Rep. Terry Alexander of Florence, had collected a combined total of almost $150,000 from Sanders’ presidential effort, according to federal campaign records.

Campaigns regularly enter into financial dealings with companies and business owners as they build out operations in primary states; they also seek the endorsements of popular lawmakers of all races, some of whom also work in public relations, consulting or similar fields where payments can be routed.

This practice takes place in both political parties and, while many leaders find it unseemly, it continues unabated.

Even legal and fully disclosed payments, however, can raise questions about whether endorsements are heartfelt or driven by financial considerations.

That dynamic is evident in South Carolina, where presidential candidates will compete in the primary Feb. 29, the first test in a Southern state. Black voters may make up more than 60% of the Democratic electorate there.

Payments to endorsers in the state became an issue last week when a supporter of former Vice President Joe Biden made thinly veiled suggestions that a rival candidate, Tom Steyer, had traded cash for endorsements by making payments to state Rep. Jerry Govan, head of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus.

Federal Election Commission records showed that the Steyer campaign had paid Govan more than $40,000 since September, when Govan endorsed Steyer. The payments to a company associated with Govan, Govan Agency LLC, were for “community building services.”

The disclosures about Steyer’s payments also prompted a disdainful tweet from Bakari Sellers, a former state legislator and one of the state’s most sought-after surrogates. “Confused, so we’re OK with Steyer paying $10K a month for endorsements?” Sellers wrote Friday, adding, “Presidential candidates shouldn’t be paying legislators for their endorsements.”

Steyer, however, was hardly chastened: On Wednesday his campaign said he had hired Gilda Cobb-Hunter, the longest-serving member of South Carolina’s House and an influential African American leader who rarely endorses in presidential races. Cobb-Hunter will be a senior adviser to the campaign, a move that was first reported by The Associated Press.

A longtime ethics advocate in South Carolina, John Crangle, questioned whether such arrangements posed a real problem, noting that such work does not influence bills pending before the legislature and is not prohibited by state law. Crangle is a lobbyist for the South Carolina Progressive Caucus, which does not endorse candidates.

“If legislators were banned from taking consulting fees or legal retainers, I would guess that 75% would resign,” Crangle said.

Cobb-Hunter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The arrangements by Sanders’ campaign — as well as recent history — reveal that such consulting deals are fairly commonplace in South Carolina.

In 2007, Hillary Clinton defended her South Carolina presidential campaign against allegations of endorsement-buying after her campaign entered a $10,000-a-month consulting contract with state Sen. Darrell Jackson, a Columbia lawmaker and pastor who also operated a consulting company.

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“Sen. Jackson was someone who was involved in my husband’s campaigns,” Clinton said at the time. “He was someone we turned to for political advice and counsel, and I’m proud to have him on my team.”

At times the practice can cross legal boundaries: A former Iowa state senator was sent to prison in 2017 after a federal investigation revealed he had taken more than $70,000 from Ron Paul’s presidential campaign and that the money had been paid to an audio-visual production company to hide the payment from public view. Three former aides to Paul were also convicted of public corruption charges.

Sanders’ campaign said it was pleased with its connection to the two South Carolina lawmakers. “We’re proud that two leaders who endorsed in 2016 are not only supporting the senator again in 2020 but also working hard to help us win,” said a statement issued on behalf of the campaign by Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and a campaign co-chair.

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Several current and former black elected officials expressed concern, though, that payments to officials who also endorse candidates, however legal, could create the impression that their support can be bought.

“I’m 75 years of age, and all my life you’ve had candidates come into the predominantly black community and dropping out a few dollars or a lot of dollars to a few people,” said Bernice Scott, a former member of the Richland County, South Carolina, council who supports Biden. “Call it consulting or whatever they want to call it, I wouldn’t do it. It puts a bad taste in everybody’s mouth.”

Steyer, a billionaire who is largely self-funding his campaign, has spent lavishly in South Carolina on advertising and staff and has also retained Harold Mitchell, an environmental activist and former state senator from Spartanburg who starred in an ad for Steyer, endorsing the former hedge fund manager.

The payments by Steyer to Govan prompted a series of charges and countercharges in South Carolina last week. State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a longtime Biden supporter, called Steyer “Mr. Moneybags” in a tweet last week, hinting that the arrangement with Govan was a cash-for-endorsement trade-off and alleging that Govan had previously intended to support Biden.

Govan, of Orangeburg, accused Harpootlian of “throwing mud,” and so did members of the black caucus, who organized an impromptu news conference at the South Carolina State House to demand that the Biden campaign disavow Harpootlian’s statement.

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Extending the controversy, Steyer raised the issue during the Democratic primary debate Friday night. “Joe, I’m asking you to come with me and the legislative black caucus and disavow Dick Harpootlian and what he had to say,” Steyer said. “It was wrong. And I’m asking you to join us. Be on the right side.”

Biden retorted: “I’m asking you to join me and join in the support I have from the overwhelming number of the members of the black caucus. I have more support in South Carolina in the black caucus and the black community than anyone else, double what you have or what anyone else has.”

Sanders interjected: “I don’t think that’s quite right.”

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In its statement, the Sanders campaign emphasized its efforts to reach out to black voters in South Carolina by hiring black staff members, holding events in black-owned venues and paying black vendors, such as caterers.

Payments by the Sanders campaign to the two lawmakers were contained in 2019 campaign records filed with the Federal Election Commission. They show that Sanders’ campaign began paying TA Network, Alexander’s company, for political consulting in the second quarter of last year, with total payments of $90,000 for the year.

“I’ve been an elected official 28 years, and I’ve worked on state, local and federal campaigns for those 28 years,” said Alexander, whose primary job is as pastor of Wayside Chapel Baptist Church in Florence. He added that elected officials in South Carolina, white and black, had been performing such consulting work for a long time.

“It becomes an issue now, questionable, when black folks are part of the game,” he said.

The records show that Sanders’ campaign also hired WGG Consulting early last year for “event planning” and “consulting/political strategy,” with disbursements to WGG reaching $56,500 by year’s end.

WGG is operated by Gilliard, a former union activist who said he had been a passionate supporter of Sanders since Sanders endorsed Jesse Jackson for president.

“As a young black man back in the 1980s, I read that a white man from a predominantly white state like Vermont had actually endorsed a black man for president,” Gilliard said, adding that his consulting agreement with Sanders was above board.

“No more pat on the back and given a bale of cotton and saying thanks for your services. Those days are gone,” Gilliard said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .