Health & Fitness
For One Lawmaker, Line Blurs between Consultants, Lobbyists
Consider this ethical sticky wicket: A state politician hires registered lobbyists as election campaign "consultants." Some of the lobbyists' clients donate money to the politician's campaign during the period when the lobbyists acted as the politic
Illegal? Not necessarily – at least in the Palmetto State.
In a review of state lobbying and campaign expenditure records for the 2010 and 2012 elections, The Nerve found that S.C. Rep. Bill Sandifer, R-Oconee and chairman of the House Labor, Commerce and Industry (LCI) Committee, hired two in-state lobbyists – Jason Puhlasky and Christopher Lindsay – as campaign consultants, paying them a total of $17,453 during the period.
The Nerve’s review also found that several lobbying clients of Puhlasky and Lindsay, as well as political action committees affiliated with their clients, collectively contributed $8,000 to Sandifer’s 2010 and 2012 re-election campaigns.
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Sandifer, who has been in the House since 1995, declined comment Friday when contacted by The Nerve about his use of lobbyists as campaign consultants.
“I’m not going to talk to you,” he said. “I do not speak with anyone from your organization.”