Wednesday, Jul. 30, 2008

The Who’s Who list of Howie Rich friends and foes

I PROMISE you I’m more tired of writing about Howie Rich’s campaign to buy our Legislature than you are of reading about it. But I figure if somebody’s willing to put down more than half a million bucks in a single round of primary elections, just to make sure a Legislature in a state he has no ties to spends other people’s tax dollars the way he sees fit, we owe him some ink.

Today we’ll look at the candidates who took money from Mr. Rich, his 21 LLCs, other companies that share his Manhattan address and a handful of related people and organizations that tend to donate the same day he does.

My list is drawn from the research of blogger Ross Shealy (scbarbecue.blogspot.com), whose totals match the ones produced by The Associated Press. It shows how much each candidate received and how much of that came in during the 20-day blackout period before the primaries, when donations don’t have to be reported until after the election. It doesn’t include expenditures by third-party groups that receive their funding from Mr. Rich.

Some candidates face opposition in November, but here’s the score so far: Three of the 11 incumbents Mr. Rich backed lost; two of his 14 challengers unseated incumbents; candidates he backed in open seats won seven of 12 races; and one of his candidates dropped out.

• Rich incumbents re-elected

• Sen. Mike Fair, Senate District 6, $6,000, all of it during the blackout period.

• Sen. Greg Ryberg, S.24, $7,000, all of it during the blackout period.

• Sen. Robert Ford, S.42, $8,000, half of it before the blackout period but none reported until July.

• Rep. Thad Viers, House District 68, $13,000, none of it reported until after the election.

• Rep. Kit Spires, H.96, $3,000 — $2,000 of it during the blackout period.

• Rep. Curtis Brantley, H.122, $28,000 — 65 percent of his donations — all during the blackout period.

• Rep. Richard Chalk, H.123, $3,000, all during the blackout period.

• Rich incumbents defeated

• Rep. Bob Leach, H.21, $5,000.

• Rep. Ralph Davenport, H.37, $7,000. His disclosure report shows all his donations were made before the blackout period, but he did not report them as required by law until July.

• Rep. Heyward Hutson, H.94, $7,000 — $3,000 of it during the blackout period.

• Incumbent slayers

• Wendy Nanney, H.22, $18,000 — 45 percent of her donations —all but $3,000 during the blackout period. She beat fellow voucher supporter Gloria Haskins.

• Joey Millwood, H.38, $32,000 — 65 percent of his donations. All but $3,000 was given on May 24 — three days into the blackout period. He defeated House Education Chairman Bob Walker.

• Rich open-seat winners

• Dee Compton, S.10, $33,000, all during the blackout period.

• Lee Bright, S.12, $50,000, all during the blackout period.

• Deborah Long, H.45, $12,000 — 40 percent of her donations. All but $3,000 of that came during the blackout period.

• Tim Scott, H.117, $16,000, all but $2,000 during the blackout period.

• Tommy Stringer, H.18, $10,000, all but $3,000 during the blackout period.

• Daniel Hamilton, H.20, $5,000. He was unopposed.

• Rich challengers defeated

• Katrina Shealy, S.23, $74,000 — 51 percent of her donations — all but $5,000 during the blackout period.

• Levone Graves, S.30, $5,000, all but $1,000 during the blackout period, which covered the runoff.

• Raymond Russell, H.31, $21,000 — 76 percent of his donations — all on a single day, during the blackout period.

• Ken Roach, H.34, $16,000 — 69 percent of his donations. All of it was given on a single day, during the blackout period.

• Roger Nutt, H.35, $20,000, all but $2,000 during the blackout period.

• Annie McDaniel, H.41, $21,000 — 85 percent of her donations — all during the blackout period, on the day of the primary.

• Ed Rumsey, H.2, $17,000 — 65 percent of his donations — $14,000 during the blackout period.

• Trey Whitehurst, H.3, $18,000, all but $2,000 during the blackout period.

• Kyle Boyd, H.48, $2,000.

• Ennis Bryant, H.50, $4,000 — 74 percent of his donations — all during the blackout period.

• Naim Salahudeen, H.54, $5,000 — 61 percent of his donations — none reported before the election.

• Zina Manning, H.55, $8,000 — 96 percent of her donations — all during the blackout period. (If she had defeated Rep. Jackie Hayes, this would have made a great trivia question: What candidate was swept into office by the video poker barons because the incumbent opposed them and then out by the voucher barons because he opposed them?)

• Priscilla Robinson, H.66, $14,000, all but $2,000 on the first day of the blackout period. She received another $4,000 from donors with a New York address that Mr. Shealy considered suspicious but whose affiliations he has not confirmed.

• Sheri Few, H.79, $26,000 — 51 percent of her donations. Half of it came in during the blackout period.

• Scott Singer, H.81, $21,000, all during the blackout period. (The Aiken Standard reports that he returned all but $3,000 after the election.)

• James Whitehead, H.83, $11,000 — 98 percent of his donations — all on a single day, during the blackout period.

• Wendell Gilliard, H.111, $5,000, all of it during the blackout period, on the day after the primary.

• Joseph Bustos, H.112, $27,000 — 55 percent of his donations — all but $3,000 during the blackout period.

Finally, Rep. Joe Mahaffey, H.36, received $4,000 on Feb. 29 and dropped his re-election bid that same day, making way for voucher backer and former Rep. Rita Allison to take back her seat.

Ms. Scoppe can be reached at cscoppe@thestate.com or at (803) 771-8571.