Howie Rich is "operating in eight states" plus some

Following the release of Howie Rich's interview by Republican Party chairman Katon Dawson on YouTube, the editors of the Greenville News gave the interview a close look and published a review on August 10. The interview "wasn't with a professional journalist" but with a beneficiary of Rich's generosity, they note. And they say he's "operating in eight states that he identifies, plus others he doesn't."

"The interview provided some interesting moments," they write.

Among them:

- Rich is in South Carolina for the long haul.

- He sees the state as a "model" for what he hopes will start the dominoes tumbling in other states.

- There is a Southeastern Strategy built around South Carolina, Florida and Georgia.

- Rich speaks of South Carolina as "we," sort of like a Clemson fan would when talking about the Tigers.

- He's currently operating in eight states that he identifies, plus others he doesn't.

Oh, he admires the state's leading school vouchers-tax credits cheerleader, Gov. Mark Sanford. He even dressed in the Sanford uniform for the interview: navy blazer, light blue shirt open at the neck, khaki trousers and casual brown shoes.

Why South Carolina? Dawson asks. Rich says it's because the state is 49th and 50th in SAT scores and dropout rates, despite $11,000 per pupil spending, that he believes "parents should have the opportunity to decide how their children get educated and they just don't have it in South Carolina." State Education Department officials say Rich was cherry-picking statistics and coming to a "misleading" conclusion.

He makes it plain that choices should run the gamut: public, private, religious, whatever.

"I believe in something very strongly and I want to make it happen," Rich says. "Government programs," of which education is one, "don't work and need competition," he adds.

He's been operating, that is, dropping gobs of money, in South Carolina for five years and isn't going away any time soon. That Sanford leaves office in January 2010 with nary a voucher ally in sight to replace him, is no barrier for Rich.

"We're going to stay until parents are empowered," he told Dawson.

What does Rich actually get out of it, assuming the change he seeks actually comes about?

"Great satisfaction."

And not one nickel.

"I don't own any businesses down here."

What motivates a man of Howie Rich's wealth, who lives in New York, to push his agenda on people in states so far away, and literally across the country? It's a curiosity to me, but Katon Dawson didn't ask that question.

I thought this part was Clintonian, if you want to call it that, and not in a good way:

When Dawson asks if he's "manipulating" the state's campaign finance reporting laws, as some critics contend, Rich says he's using "money I earned honestly. I can do with it as I choose. Everything I've done is 100 percent legal."

State law, enacted in 1991 after the Lost Trust scandal, limits donations to legislative candidates to $1,000 from an individual or business for primary, runoff and general election campaigns, essentially a $3,000 maximum. Campaign reports show that business entities linked to Rich have combined for $15,000 to $30,000 to some 2008 candidates.

So long as he contributes his money through a lot of different filters and never exceeds the legal limit from any single filter, then he's not breaking the law.

Is that right?

The News quoted the head of Common Cause in South Carolina saying, "I don't know that it's legal. He's using these corporate conduits to avoid the legal limits." And Attorney General Henry McMaster said he would launch a preliminary review. At least one Republican Senator, Larry Martin, said that Rich is "basically circumventing" the law's intent. But that sounds like saying that Rich broke the law.

"The problem is, you don't know who controls the businesses," he said, but expressed doubt that anyone creates business entities merely as vehicles for political donations. Martin and others say there is little legislative sentiment for banning corporate donations as North Carolina and other states have done.

The head of Common Cause said that he asked for a ban on corporate contributions when the law was changed in 1990, "but Republicans opposed it 'because it was such a large proportion of their funds'."
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House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said, "Yes, obviously," he has concerns about the totality of Rich's donations, "but it's the kind of thing that's incredibly hard to fix because someone like Howie Rich could probably come up with a dozen, 25 different addresses for different company names fairly easily.

"It's something we ought to look at and try to figure out if there's a way to deal with it, but there is no easy fix. There are a lot of Republicans concerned about what Howard Rich is doing," those on the other side of the donations, Harrell said.

Rich says he's in S.C. for long haul
Greenville News, The (SC) - August 10, 2008

"GOP hypocritical about money"

Mike Cubelo of Greenville sent an interesting and self-explanatory letter to the editor of the Greenville News in early August.

Funny how Republican politicians don't want any of that gay tourist money in South Carolina but they line up with their hands out for that hetero money from New York. Guess the S.C. GOP screens its funds for sexual orientation.

Republicans cite biblical principles to criticize gays but certainly don't care when a rich Yankee undermines ethical principles for political contributions. According to The Greenville News, there are 24 ways (via family and affiliated firms) that Howie Rich can get around the $3,000 individual contribution limit. Howie violated the spirit of that ethical principle to the tune of a million dollars. Guess if it ain't in the Bible, Christian conservative politicians grab what they can get.

Here we have a millionaire Southern governor taking money from a millionaire Yankee so that both can take money away from public school children. We probably have three or four school buses totaling a million miles on them but not one penny of Howie Rich 's million is going to replace them. However, the gay tourist money to increase our state revenue to replace these buses is just too sinful of a proposition for these God-fearing but greedy politicians.

As a parent of three children who have gone through our public school system, it was always a struggle to get our teachers what they needed for our kids. Some of these dedicated teachers and principals are gay and it must disgust them (certainly me) to see a million dollars used to demean them and make their jobs harder.

Mike Cubelo, Greenville
Letters
Greenville News, The (SC) - August 6, 2008

That tells the story, doesn't it?

S. Carolina, S. Dakota groups funded similarly

At the same time that campaign finance reports across South Carolina were revealing the heavy hand of New York millionaire Howie Rich, reports were filed in South Dakota with similar features: One organization, the South Dakota Conservative Action Council, contributed more than $195,000 to a committee called South Dakotans for Open and Clean Government, which uses the money to support a ballot measure "restricting individuals' right to contribute to campaign and to lobby." Neither group, SDCAC or SDOCG, reveals who supplies its funding.

The two big fights are over Initiated Measure 11, which would ban most abortions in South Dakota; and Initiated Measure 10, which would place a multitude of additional restrictions on individuals' rights to contribute to campaigns and to lobby, and on government involvement in campaigns and lobbying.

The reports cover the period from late May through early July and must be filed with the state elections office.
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Open and clean government : The group officially supporting Measure 10, South Dakotans for Open and Clean Government , reported receiving 13 contributions between late May and early July totaling $195,699, with 11 from individuals ranging from $10 (six) to $100 (three) and two from its main financial supporter, the South Dakota Conservative Action Council, in the amounts of $15,000 and $180,000.

The Open and Clean committee reported spending $198,551 during the same period. The major expense was $182,892 for advertising.

* No on 10, the Pierre-based group opposing the measure, reported receiving $1,345 in donations less than $100 from unnamed individuals and spent $45 on supplies. The anti-10 committee started the period with just $2,180 in the bank and ended with $3,479 cash on hand.
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Neither the South Dakota Conservative Action Council nor American Entrepreneurs for Securities Reform has revealed the sources of funding being passed along to the ballot committees.

CAMPAIGN CASH FLOWING - ABORTION BAN, 'OPEN AND CLEAN' INITIATIVES ATTRACTING LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY
Aberdeen American News (SD) - July 26, 2008

But the media in South Carolina continues to publish what it learns about the New York millionaire.

A wealthy New York developer pushing a school vouchers agenda used an assortment of companies to pump tens of thousands of dollars into a handful of primary campaigns for legislative seats in Greenville and Spartanburg counties, South Carolina and New York State records show.

Howard S. Rich, through at least nine firms and several associates, contributed at least $40,000 to eight Upstate Republican primary candidates, five of whom won nominations and face no general election opposition. Statewide, the same individuals and businesses donated $179,000 to Republican primary candidates and a scattering of Democrats.

The nine firms are listed on New York State Secretary of State's database of corporations and computerized records of business entities, and their donations appear on South Carolina candidates' filings with the state Ethics Commission. The New York records contain Rich's name, that of his wife, Andrea, or his business address of 73 Spring St.

Rich couldn't be reached for comment.

Fifteen other firms that have no named affiliation with Rich but share the same 73 Spring St., Suites 408 and 507 addresses, donated to South Carolina candidates and didn't show up on the New York database. Those donations totaled $70,000 to the six Greenville-Spartanburg candidates and totaled $166,000 statewide.

New Yorker bankrolled Upstate races
Greenville News, The (SC) - July 27, 2008

The Greenville News article goes on to estimate that Rich contributed up to $1 million in the South Carolina primaries of 2006 and 2008, including $10,000 to Joey Millwood, the 28-year-old sports writer who defeated the eight-term chairman of the House Education Committee.

State law limits donations to General Assembly candidates to $1,000 for each primary, runoff and general election, a maximum of $3,000 per individual or business entity.

Rich discussed his goals and extensive use of his personal wealth to achieve them in a videotaped interview conducted by Dawson, the state Republican Party chairman, and recently posted on Youtube.com. The interview took place three weeks ago in the den of Dawson's Columbia home. It had been arranged during a 2007 meeting between the two in New York, Dawson told The Greenville News.

A disclaimer on the video says it was paid for by South Carolina Citizens for Responsible Government, a pro-voucher organization whose critics say is partially funded by Rich, although the group isn't required to make public its donors.
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Turning to candidates and issues he has bankrolled in a number of states, Rich describes himself as "a political person" with two main interests: term limits for politicians and "individual freedom, the rights of parents versus big government."
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Most of the Rich donations were made after the pre-primary campaign finance reports were filed. They weren't made public until after the primary election