COLUMBIA -- Top state Republicans are irked that the state GOP is bucking plans to pick up most of the tab for the first-in-the-South presidential primary and setting the stage for a taxpayer bailout.
Beaufort Republican state Sen. Tom Davis said the GOP has “a moral as well as legal obligation … I think they have an obligation to follow through and pay the cost of conducting their own primary,” Davis said.
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell said the party said it would cover primary expenses. “Regardless of the outcome of that lawsuit, they ought to stick by that representation,” the Charleston Republican said.
Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, caught off guard by the decision, said she’s calling the GOP to sort out what happened because the primary’s cost shouldn’t fall on taxpayers.
Matt Moore, the state GOP’s executive director, said the state Supreme Court’s decision on Nov. 22 changed everything.
Four counties sued the state and political parties and said they were going to be left with the tab for costs of running what amounted to a private political event that the state had no clear authority to conduct the contest. The court decided the state has the authority to run the presidential primary.
The state Election Commission and GOP had been negotiating a contract for months when the lawsuit was filed. And commission had expected a final deal last week.
“There never was a signed contract,” Moore said.
Instead, the GOP said it would only give the Election Commission candidate filing fees and none of the money it has spent months raising through events that included pricey receptions and moderately priced lunches and breakfasts with presidential candidates.
In 2008, South Carolina’s taxpayers for the first time covered most of the costs for a wide open race for the White House. Before then parties picked up the tab.
The Jan. 21 contest is expected to cost at least $1.2 million. But the GOP-dominated Legislature only authorized the state Election Commission to use $680,000. It said the Republican Party would pick up the rest of the tab. Along the way, the GOP promised to cover legitimate expenses counties submitted.
“We were ready and willing to pay the half-million difference before the lawsuit,” Moore said. Now, “the court said the state and county are solely responsible for the primary.”
Moore backs up the GOP’s position by saying the court “directed” that the state and county election officials conduct the primary. That, Moore said, “includes a responsibility for the cost of the primary.”
The 3-2 court decision does say the state and counties must conduct the primary. It also noted Haley had vetoed plans spend taxpayer money on the primary and the Legislature’s veto override.
“The governor clearly understood the intent of the General Assembly to adhere to the 2008 public funding approach in fiscal year 2011-2012 and sought to oppose it,” Chief Justice Jean Toal wrote for the majority. In a footnote, the court said whether primary’s expenses “should be borne by the political parties or the taxpayers is a policy decision, one that lies exclusively in the General Assembly.”
As a result of the decision, Moore said the GOP would send the Election Commission $180,000, or $20,000 from each candidate’s filing fee because that’s all the law requires.
The candidates paid far more.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and pizza magnate Herman Cain all paid $25,000. That was an early-filing discount required for a place on the stage in the GOP’s first debate in May.
It cost $35,000 each for the rest of the field: Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Perry’s top South Carolina adviser, Katon Dawson, was the state’s GOP’s chairman during the 2008 primary and said he didn’t keep any of the filing fees that year for the party. “I forwarded the entire amount,” Dawson said. “I know that was what I had agreed to do.”
There’s an issue, McConnell said, with the party telling people it needed money to put on the primary and then using it for something else. “If the money was raised for a purpose, it ought to be spent for that purpose. That’s how you build trust,” he said.
State Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian said the episode opens the GOP to bashing: After all, it’s the party that says courts shouldn’t write laws and pushes accountability. “They used the court to insulate them legally and then lacked the moral fiber to meet their moral commitment to help the counties and state pay for the primary,” Harpootlian said.
Republican state Sen. Kevin Bryant agrees with his party’s decision even though he opposes using taxpayer money for the primary. “If it’s the state’s responsibility, the state’s got to pay for it. I’m not supportive of that, but that’s the final say,” the Anderson pharmacist said.
The state Election Commission has now begun asking the state’s financial oversight board for permission to spend more money than the Legislature gave it. Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said without that approval, the agency may not have enough money to run state primaries in June or the general election in November.
“The money has to come from somewhere,” Whitmire said.
But it’s unclear the budget board will help out, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, a Florence Republican. All five of the board’s members are Republicans. “I don’t see too much appetite for authorizing deficits,” Leatherman said.
Meanwhile, McConnell and Davis are backing legislation that would prevent agencies from spending more money than the Legislature gives them.
Leatherman said lawmakers could decide in January to provide money for the primary and cover the shortfall. Or they could pass a law making it clear the GOP picks up the tab.
“Anytime a promise is made, I think you keep your promise,” Leatherman said.
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