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Today’s Paper
Politics |Tom Steyer and Bernie Sanders Got Endorsements From Lawmakers on Their Campaigns’ Payrolls https://nyti.ms/2HeCiw7*
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Continue reading the main storySupported by
Continue reading the main story TOM STEYER AND BERNIE SANDERS GOT ENDORSEMENTS FROM LAWMAKERS ON THEIR CAMPAIGNS’ PAYROLLSTOM STEYER AND BERNIE SANDERS GOT ENDORSEMENTS FROM LAWMAKERS ON THEIR CAMPAIGNS’ PAYROLLS As the 2020 candidates vie for support in South Carolina, Mr. Steyer has been criticized for hiring black lawmakers or their companies. Records show the Sanders campaign has done the same. Senator Bernie Sanders at an event on Martin Luther King’s Birthday in Columbia, S.C., last month.Credit...Mike Belleme for The New York Times By Stephanie Saul andJonathan Martin
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Feb. 12, 2020
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COLUMBIA, S.C. — Last April, just as the 2020 presidential campaign was getting underway, Senator Bernie Sanders trumpeted a breakthrough in his campaign’s quest for black voters’ support in SouthCarolina.
Mr. Sanders was honored to have been endorsed for the Democratic nomination by seven black members of the South Carolina legislature, he announced in a tweet.
One of the lawmakers, records show, owned a company that was already being paid by the Sanders campaign. Another would soon be added to the payroll as a vendor. By the end of 2019, consulting companies operated by the two lawmakers, Representative Wendell Gilliard of Charleston and Representative Terry Alexander of Florence, had collected a combined total of almost $150,000 from Mr. Sanders’s presidential effort, according to federal campaign records.Advertisement
Continue reading the main story Campaigns regularly enter into financial dealings with companies and business owners as they build out operations in primary states; they also seek the endorsements of popular lawmakers of all races, some of whom also work in public relations, consulting or similar fields where payments can be routed. This practice takes place in both political parties and, while many leaders find it unseemly, it continues unabated. * Unlock more free articles. Create an account or log in Even legal and fully disclosed payments, however, can raise questions about whether endorsements are heartfelt or driven by financialconsiderations.
That dynamic is evident in South Carolina, where presidential candidates will compete in the primary Feb. 29, the first test in a Southern state. Black voters may make up more than 60 percent of the Democratic electorate there. Payments to endorsers in the state became an issue last week when a supporter of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. made thinly veiled suggestions that a rival candidate, Tom Steyer, had traded cash for endorsements by making payments to State Representative Jerry Govan, the head of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus.Advertisement
Continue reading the main story Federal Election Commission records showed that the Steyer campaign had paid Mr. Govan more than $40,000 since September, when Mr. Govan endorsed Mr. Steyer. The payments to a company associated with Mr. Govan, Govan Agency L.L.C., were for “community buildingservices.”
The disclosures about Mr. Steyer’s payments also prompted a disdainful tweet from Bakari Sellers, a former state legislator and one of the state’s most sought-after surrogates. “Confused, so we’re OK with Steyer paying $10K a month for endorsements?” Mr.Sellers wrote
on
Friday, adding, “Presidential candidates shouldn’t be paying legislators for their endorsements.” Mr. Steyer, however, was hardly chastened: On Wednesday his campaign said he had hired Gilda Cobb-Hunter, the longest-serving member of South Carolina’s House and an influential African-American leader who rarely endorses in presidential races. Ms. Cobb-Hunter will be a senior adviser to the campaign, a move that was first reportedby The
Associated Press.
A longtime ethics advocate in South Carolina, John Crangle, questioned whether such arrangements posed a real problem, noting that such work does not influence bills pending before the legislature and is not prohibited by state law. Mr. Crangle is a lobbyist for the South Carolina Progressive Caucus, which does not endorse candidates. “If legislators were banned from taking consulting fees or legal retainers, I would guess that 75 percent would resign,” Mr. Cranglesaid.
Ms. Cobb-Hunter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The arrangements by Mr. Sanders’s campaign — as well as recent history — reveal that such consulting deals are fairly commonplacein South Carolina.
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Continue reading the main story In 2007, Hillary Clinton defended her South Carolina presidential campaign against allegations of endorsement-buying after her campaign entered a $10,000-a-month consulting contract with state Senator Darrell Jackson, a Columbia lawmaker and pastor who also operated aconsulting company.
“Senator Jackson was someone who was involved in my husband’s campaigns,” Mrs. Clinton said at the time. “He was someone we turned to for political advice and counsel and I’m proud to have himon my team.”
At times the practice can cross legal boundaries: A former Iowa state senator was sent to prison in 2017 after a federal investigation revealed he had taken more than $70,000 from Ron Paul’s presidential campaign and that the money had been paid to an audio-visual production company to hide the payment from public view. Three former aides to Mr. Paul were also convicted of public corruption charges. Mr. Sanders’s campaign said it was pleased with its connection to the two South Carolina lawmakers. “We’re proud that two leaders who endorsed in 2016 are not only supporting the senator again in 2020 but also working hard to help us win,” said a statement issued on behalf of the campaign by Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and a campaign co-chair. Several current and former black elected officials expressed concern, though, that payments to officials who also endorse candidates, however legal, could create the impression that their support can bebought.
“I’m 75 years of age, and all my life you’ve had candidates come into the predominantly black community and dropping out a few dollars or a lot of dollars to a few people,” said Bernice Scott, a former member of the Richland County, S.C., council who supports Mr. Biden. “Call it consulting or whatever they want to call it, I wouldn’t do it. It puts a bad taste in everybody’s mouth.” Mr. Steyer, a billionaire who is largely self-funding his campaign,has spent lavishly
in South Carolina on advertising and staff and has also retained Harold Mitchell, an environmental activist and former state senator from Spartanburg who starred in an adfor Mr. Steyer,
endorsing the former hedge fund manager.Advertisement
Continue reading the main story The payments by Mr. Steyer to Mr. Govan prompted a series of charges and countercharges in South Carolina last week. State Senator Dick Harpootlian, a longtime Biden supporter, called Mr. Steyer “Mr. Moneybags” in a tweet last week, hinting that the arrangement with Mr. Govan was a cash-for-endorsement trade-off and alleging that Mr. Govan had previously intended to support Mr. Biden. Mr. Govan, of Orangeburg, accused Mr. Harpootlian of “throwing mud,” and so did members of the black caucus, who organized an impromptu news conference at the South Carolina State House to demand that the Biden campaign disavow Mr. Harpootlian’s statement. Extending the controversy, Mr. Steyer raised the issue during the Democratic primary debate on Friday night. “Joe, I’m asking you to come with me and the legislative black caucus and disavow Dick Harpootlian and what he had to say,” Mr. Steyer said. “It was wrong. And I’m asking you to join us. Be on the right side.” Mr. Biden retorted: “I’m asking you to join me and join in the support I have from the overwhelming number of the members of the black caucus. I have more support in South Carolina in the black caucus and the black community than anyone else, double what you have or what anyone else has.” Mr. Sanders interjected: “I don’t think that’s quite right.” In its statement, the Sanders campaign emphasized its efforts to reach out to black voters in South Carolina by hiring black staff members, holding events in black-owned venues and paying black vendors, such ascaterers.
Payments by the Sanders campaign to the two lawmakers were contained in 2019 campaign records filed with the Federal Election Commission. They show that Mr. Sanders’s campaign began paying TA Network, Mr. Alexander’s company, for political consulting in the second quarter of last year, with total payments of $90,000 for the year.Advertisement
Continue reading the main story “I’ve been an elected official 28 years and I’ve worked on state, local and federal campaigns for those 28 years,” said Mr. Alexander, whose primary job is as pastor of Wayside Chapel Baptist Church in Florence. He added that elected officials in South Carolina, white and black, had been performing such consulting work for a longtime.
“It becomes an issue now, questionable, when black folks are part of the game,” he said. The records show that Mr. Sanders’s campaign also hired WGG Consulting early last year for “event planning” and “consulting/political strategy,” with disbursements to WGG reaching $56,500 by year’s end. WGG is operated by Mr. Gilliard, a former union activist who said he had been a passionate supporter of Mr. Sanders since Mr. Sanders endorsed Jesse Jackson for president. “As a young black man back in the 1980s, I read that a white man from a predominantly white state like Vermont had actually endorsed a black man for president,” Mr. Gilliard said, adding that his consulting agreement with Mr. Sanders was above board. “No more pat on the back and given a bale of cotton and saying thanks for your services. Those days are gone,” Mr. Gilliard said. Stephanie Saul reported from Columbia, and Jonathan Martin fromManchester, N.H.
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