POWERFUL HOUSE BUDGET WRITER BOWS OUT OF RACE FOR SPEAKER
Brian White – the man initially viewed as the top prospect to replace embattled S.C. Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell – has committed to support the candidacy of current Speaker Pro Tempore Jay Lucas, multiple sources tell FITS.
“White has told major supporters he will back Lucas while retaining ways and means,” one source said, referring to White’s chairmanship of the influential S.C. House ways and means committee.
White – who followed Harrell into the House’s top budget-writing position in 2005 – seemed a shoo-in to follow him as Speaker, too.
What happened?
Sources tell FITS House members had concern over White’s previous ethical issues – which were glossed over in 2011 but could have easily come back to bite him (hard) in the wake of Harrell’s incident last week on public corruption charges.
What did White do? According to reporter Corey Hutchins, he spent thousands of dollars of his campaign money on personal expenses – including $10,000 at Sears on “office” expenses. White was never publicly investigated by his colleagues on the S.C. House ethics committee, though, which isn’t surprising seeing as this is the same corrupt cover-up panel that whitewashed Gov. Nikki Haley’s public corruption charges.
In addition to his campaign finance issues, lawmakers also expressed concern about White’s proximity to a central figure from the 1990 Operation Lost Trust probe – in which twenty-seven people (including seventeen state lawmakers) were convicted on corruption charges.
Details of that connection are forthcoming, we’re told … but one lawmaker told FITS the connection between White and the lobbyist was a “deal breaker.”
“I don’t know how he was ever the frontrunner,” one lawmaker told FITS. “He’s joined at the hip with a Lost Trust lobbyist and has his own campaign finance troubles. It’s just crazy. And making him Speaker would’ve been crazy.”
Lucas – the House’s Speaker Pro Tempore – is serving as interim Speaker while the charges against Harrell are sorted out.
And while he still faces a challenge from a pair of former “majority” leaders – Kenny Bingham of Lexington and Jimmy Merrill of Charleston – it was White who was considered to be his primary competition for the post.
Stay tuned … we suspect the dominos will start falling very soon in this drama.
13 comments
This whole lot needs to be replaced from the Governor down.
Go Jay!
Good…whew, we dodged that disaster spelled Brian White. Brian is a smart fella though. Takes from the cookie jar under the radar and stays in the shoes that fits him. Cant stick that White neck out too much, given his deeds that are well known to a whole bunch.
There is another disaster called Stephen Goldfinch brewing. Dems calling for his suspension…Harrell and Goldfinch sighted together…prosecutors confirming Goldfinch’s case is transferred to Charleston…Goldfinch’s attorney offering no comments….and Goldfinch suddenly “cannot be reached” either. The elections are a side-show, it appears, with all the legal drama going on with our state legislators.
The real scandal lies in the number of our elected officials who are employed in the insurance industry. Insurance companies have been ripping off South Carolinians for 50 years.
Lucas, White, leatherman, Peeler, Martin, McGill Haley……good GOD, this State is truly screwed, booed, and tatooed!
Yes, they seem to be employed in successful small business that people can buy things from. How could they possibly get so many customers in such a short period of time. You would think they were offering something besides the product they sell. What could it possibly be???
That was a response to coming and going.
Take a look at how many of them hold or have held “public relations” type jobs while in office and how many of our governors have gone on to work in national insurance “associations”. Facts are facts and many of them have never sold a policy in their life.
Indeed. Bobby Harrell is coasting on policies his daddy wrote decades ago — customers that stay with him mainly because they think he’ll help elbow State Farm them with claims, being the big-shot politician he is. Once he’s out of office, his business will collapse, and he knows that. No wonder he looked so morose and worried in the news yesterday. Existential angst.
I don’t like politics. I wanna see Thad Viers’ dick.
Brian White has gayface. Go Cocks!
This would be a good time for Ron Cobb to make a return to SC politics. Seems the Statehouse is just as corrupt as it was back then, maybe more so but not by what is illegal, rather what they get away with that is legal.
Lucas has been Harrell’s protege so I suspect he is nothing but a stalking horse for the speaker.
Leon Stavrinakis for Speaker! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Leon-Stavrinakis-for-Speaker-of-the-House/713581685390566?sk=info