Corruption Probe Will Have Impact On Legislative Process

The indictment this week of prominent Republican Rep. Jim Merrill has cast another pall on a General Assembly so fraught with challenges that some wonder if anything much will get done in 2017.
Real progress, they say, doesn’t need another stumbling block from lawmakers constantly looking over their shoulders, perhaps reluctant to do much as a Statehouse corruption probe is sure to widen. First came the 2014 downfall of former House Speaker Bobby Harrell of Charleston. Now comes Merrill’s indictment on 30 charges.
But others remind there are more than enough good, honest people in the legislature who will treat what’s happening now as a hiccup. Our state, they say, will keep moving forward on tax reform, pension reform and more money for state highways. And now, maybe they’ll take another serious look at more ethics reform.
Regardless, it’s a sure thing that lawmakers would like any other corruption-related developments to be announced before January’s session arrives. If integrity questions hang in the air for weeks – as they did in the early 1990s in the Statehouse sting known as Operation Lost Trust — forward movement could be fleeting.
“The House came to a halt when some of that stuff was going on,” one former legislator recalled this week. “That group sucked a lot of oxygen out of the air waiting for the next shoe to drop.”
In Lost Trust, federal officials indicted 28 legislators and lobbyists on corruption charges stemming from a sting that involved lawmakers taking as little as $300 in return for pledges to support a bill to legalize gambling on horse racing. When all was said and done, 27 of the 28 pleaded guilty or were found guilty.
During the turmoil, state lawmakers overhauled state ethics laws in a big way. They voted to bar lobbyists, who once cozied up to legislators daily with dinners, booze and more, from being able to donate to campaigns or even buy a cup of coffee for a legislator. Other rules tightened to curb the culture of smarminess.
But as years passed, loopholes developed to stretch rules. Coziness returned in new guises. Ethics reform proponents called for revamping the rules, once considered a model for state legislatures, after national trends for transparency and accountability seemed to bypass South Carolina. Bills were introduced, but after much agonized debate, simply died.
The League of Women Voters’ Lynn Teague of Columbia wrote this in Statehouse Report after reform measures failed in 2015: “Without reform, secret ‘consulting fees’ will continue to buy the support of our officials. Without reform, some public officials will continue to adhere to their own private high standards of integrity but those without a strong moral compass (and there are far too many) will continue to work for their own benefit rather than that of South Carolina’s citizens.”
In June, state legislators took two big forward steps in updating ethics laws when they transformed the state Ethic Commission into a truly independent agency that now can investigate state lawmakers for possible improprieties. Previously, that function was left to House or Senate ethics committees. Also, legislators approved measures to require members to disclose sources of private income, a long-sought reform to promote transparency.
But they didn’t deal with so-called “dark money” in which millions of dollars of contributions from donors attempting to influence elections go to “leadership” political action committees and other organizations, but unreported to the public.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.