Part 3: $15 For Air Travel?

This is my third post about a letter South Carolina State Senator Wes Hayes, Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, sent to his colleagues  early last month imploring them to stop breaking the law.

The information about state senators using campaign monies for “stimulus spending” is gleaned from publicly available documents submitted by the senators themselves.

The purpose of these posts is to point out the blatant hypocrisy of Palmetto State politicians who, on the one hand, eviscerate Governor Mark Sanford for spending too much on airline tickets while they allow their fellows to slide on what may well be far more egregious malfeasance.

I wrote last time about Senators Kent Williams and Darrell Jackson using campaign funds to buy University of South Carolina football tickets.  Senator Williams also paid – from campaign funds – for unidentified expenses to the university ticket office and Darlington Raceway. Remember, according to the Chairman of the South Carolina Senate Ethics Committee, “converting campaign funds to personal use…is a violation of S.C. Code Ann. 8-13-1348(A)(Supp. 2008).”

Clearly, these are unwarranted expenditures whether from campaign monies or per diem stipends.  Senator Hayes and the Senate Ethics Committee know this and damn well should know about these specific purchases.  The records are much more easily available to legislative authorities than they are to me.

I have Senator Williams’ records only for the first two quarters of 2009, so what follows is an incomplete picture of his expenses.

• In five months, Senator Williams spent – from campaign funds – over $1100 for gasoline, often every two or three days.  He must be doing laps between Latta and Marion – towns that are only 12 miles apart [map].
  
  • On 22 February, Senator Williams spent almost $19 for gas in Marion.
  • Same day, $36 for gas in Latta
  • The next day, $27 for gas in Marion
  • On March 6, he twice got gas in Marion, once at a Shell station and again at a Sunoco for a total of just over $67.

  We’ll assume Senator Williams made all these gas purchases and not someone else.

• In June, $300 for “Sponsorship for trip” to the St. James AME Church.  THIS is a “campaign” expense?  Oh, Williams is a member and steward of St. James AME Church.
  
• Monthly payments of about $200 for “phone services.”  Are these cell phone fees?  If so, how much was spent on campaign calls?
• He paid $470 for memberships:
  • $250 to the Legislative Black Caucus
  • Two payments totaling $160 for the Greater Mullins Chamber of Commerce
  • $60 to the Marion Chamber of Commerce
    
• Just about every two weeks, Senator Williams spent between $65 and $185 at the Clarion Hotel in Columbia with the total coming to over $1343.  The first date was January 15, two days after the Senate’s 2009 session convened.  All 12 dates listed for the Clarion were during the Senate’s session.  For these dates, senator’s are provided with per diem funds to pay for lodging and meals.  Why was Senator Williams booking nights at the Clarion and using campaign monies to do so?
• There are entries for 7 meals in Columbia during the session and one in Philadelphia.  The latter was only for $10, so maybe it was just a bar tab.
• It cost him $28 for a taxi that day in Philadelphia, but, nothing listed for lodging or meals…

So… if these were legitimate campaign expenditures (in Philadelphia?), then why just $38?  Why not lodging or more than one meal?

And then, and this is my favorite.  With all the hoo-hah about Mark Sanford “overspending” for international airline tickets, State Senator Kent Williams showed the ultimate frugality by paying – from campaign funds – $15 for “air travel” with U.S.Airways out of Myrtle Beach, on the same day (5 February) as his Philadelphia expenditures.

$15.  The taxi cost more!

NEXT: Pot Meet Kettle