Follow the Money

Cindy Scoppe's column on South Carolina's weak campaign disclosure system is right on target. It's nearly impossible for the average voter to find out who actually bought and paid for our elected officials. Scoppe points out that according to the Campaign Disclosure Project, the Palmetto $tate ranks right where we're used to when it comes the things that make our state better - the bottom: 50th in accessibility to information and Internet usability, 37th (or tied for last with 13 others) on electronic filing by candidates.

The State Ethics Commission does provide a link to some Internet information at Follow the Money. While there's very little information about the current election cycle, the 2002 data is fairly comprehensive. Some interesting facts gleaned from that information:

The State Democratic Party gave $207,000 dollars to its candidates - far less than the approximately $384,000 contributed to Republican candidates by three GOP party committees.

One of those GOP committees is the Speaker's Politically Active Citizens Committee, through which (presumably) David Wilkins doled out $84,000 to his party's House candidates - guess that explains how thoroughly he's able to "lock down" the House to beat back the cigarette tax and other stuff he opposes.

Blue Cross Blue Shield was the top giver among South Carolina businesses, handing out $115,150. Forty-four Democrats got $35,900 of that, with the remaining $79,250 going to 96 Republicans.