Saying goodbye is never easy, but the time has come for me to inform you that I will be leaving South Carolina to pursue an exciting new career opportunity with Newt Gingrich’s organization American Solutions. South Carolina is truly a wonderful place, and I’ve been fortunate enough to make hundreds of friends and work with some of the brightest political minds in the country.
The Attorney for the SC Ethics Commission has said that the law governing state employees use of time and equipment for campaign purposes specifically excludes Federal elections.
This comes as quite a suprise, nevertheless, it has effectively cleared Scott Malyerck, one of Thomas Ravenel’s chief advisors, from any wrong doing when he used state computers to communicate with Ravenel about the goings on of the Guiliani Campaign.
My guess is this loophole gets closed pretty quickly. Not that political staffers don’t bend the rules on this anyway, but the wording of the law if puzzling. Why would you exempt any type of campaigning in the first place?
Check out the AP story below.
S.C. Ethics Commission lawyer says state employees can work on federal campaigns on the job
By JIM DAVENPORT Associated Press Writer
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ South Carolina law may allow state workers to use taxpayer computers and time to promote presidential campaigns, a state Ethics Commission lawyer said.
The comments from commission general counsel Cathy Hazelwood came after an Associated Press review of e-mails that showed former state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel exchanged messages promoting Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani during office hours. Ravenel resigned last week following a federal cocaine charge.
”I think an argument can be made that it is an unwise use of time; however, campaign practices specifically excludes federal candidates,” Hazelwood wrote in an e-mail to the AP.
Between February and April, treasurer’s office spokesman Scott Malyerck e-mailed Ravenel at least six times during office hours regarding the former New York Mayor’s campaign. Malyerck has maintained he did nothing wrong by forwarding messages to Ravenel, who served as Giuliani’s South Carolina campaign chairman until the unrelated indictment June 19.
Since the Malyerck-Ravenel e-mails were made public, interim Treasurer Ken Wingate has met with Malyerck and said office computers can’t be used for campaign purposes.
Gov. Mark Sanford’s spokesman Joel Sawyer also said state workers shouldn’t use taxpayer time or computers to promote any candidate.
The Ethics commission has never addressed the issue, Hazelwood said. When asked if the law was flawed, Hazelwood said it could be a potential loophole.
That’s not what the Legislature had in mind in writing the law, said Republican state House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison. He said the Judiciary Committee would talk with Hazelwood and draft any needed legislation.
”I can’t imagine any legislative intent that would treat a federal election any different than a state election,” he said.
Malyerck said Tuesday that he would like to see the law cleared up, too.
”Let’s change it,” Malyerck said. ”I want to lead the charge.”
[Alex Stroman]
In yesterday’s “First Round,” we linked to The State Newspaper’s short piece on the Common Cause organization calling on disgraced former Treasurer Thomas Ravenel to reimburse the state for a special election that must be held since he resigned his office.
It has been said that Thomas Ravenel was on the “top of the world.” He was the son of a popular state senator and US Congressman, and was himself a graduate of The Citadel and self-made millionaire. During his run for US Senate in 2004, he self-financed his campaign, starting out as an unknown candidate and ending with a third place finish behind the former Governor David Beasley, and US Congressman Jim DeMint. When that race was sent into a run-off, Thomas Ravenel threw his support behind Jim DeMint, who finished second in the primary. Senator DeMint went on to win the run-off and the general election. This past term he filed to run for Treasurer just as filing ended and ended up winning the race with money and name recognition he had built up the previous cycle.
At his 2 p.m. press conference Ken Wingate officially requested that his name be pulled from consideration in next week’s State Treasurer’s race.
At the press conference Wingate said, “My first commitment is to my family and to my clients in my law practice. Though I’m honored that my name has been mentioned as a permanent state Treasurer, I would like to remove my name from consideration.”
Wingate has done an excellent job filling in on such short notice. He even got to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. We certainly understand the reason Wingate felt the need to pull his name out the ring, and we think he is a class act for handling this situation the way he did.
With Ballentine and Wingate out of the race, it appears the only remaining serious contenders are Rep. Converse Chellis and Sen. Greg Ryberg. The State Treasurer will be elected by members of the State House and Senate on August 3rd.
More thought’s on this race to come….
Today Thomas Ravenel pleaded not guilty to cocain charges via his attorneys while in the Sierra Tucson treatment facility in Arizona. The judge mandated that Ravenel must appear in court as soon as he’s released from treatment.
SC treasurer pleads not guilty to federal cocaine charge
By MEG KINNARD | Friday, July 06, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Suspended state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel pleaded not guilty to a federal cocaine charge Friday, and a judge ordered the multimillionaire to appear in court when he is released from a rehabilitation program.
According to Meg Kinnard of the AP, Thomas Ravenel was working for Rudy Giuliani’s campaign on the state dime which is a violation of state ethics rules. Not that the $2,000 fine is a big deal when you are facing up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine for distributing coke.
The Shot has received a copy of A following letter sent from Representative Nathan Ballentine to members of the State House and Senate. Representative Ballentine does not rule a run for State Treasurer in the future, but he does say that he will not seek votes at this time because no office has been vacated. He says seeking votes at this time is inappropriate. One has to wonder if this is a small slap at Representative Converse Chellis who is currently seeking votes.
Here’s the letter:
Dear *—–,
Suspended state treasurer entering center in Arizona, authorities say
By JOHN MONK - jmonk@thestate.com
Suspended state treasurer Thomas Ravenel is entering an out-of-state treatment center that specializes in addictive behavior, according to federal authorities.
The treatment center, Sierra Tucson, is in Tucson, Ariz., on a 160-acre campus. The facility treats a wide variety of addiction and behavioral disorders, according to its Web site.
WOW! This took long enough. We figured this would have been the first question asked yesterday when Rudy announced Cousin’ Arthur as a state co-chair. We guess cocaine overshadows those type things, huh?
CNN: Giuliani’s South Carolina adviser has controversial history with NAACP
June 26, 2007
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani reaffirmed his ties with a prominent South Carolina family Monday, a week after the son was indicted on federal cocaine charges.
Giuliani’s presidential campaign released a list of regional chairs in South Carolina, which included Arthur Ravenel Jr., who will serve as the Lowcountry chairman.
‘He’s in pretty bad shape,’ Arthur Ravenel says; ‘we’re all devastated’
By JIM DAVENPORT - The Associated Press
GREENVILLE — The father of indicted South Carolina Treasurer Thomas Ravenel said Monday his son has a drug problem and his family has urged the man to get help.
“He’s in pretty bad shape, you know. He’s got a drug problem,” Arthur Ravenel said in telephone interview with The Associated Press. “We suspected it.”