SENATOR PANEL REFUSES TO ADVANCE TWO KEY GUBERNATORIAL APPOINTEES …
In a shocking rebuke of gubernatorial authority, a committee of South Carolina Senators refused to advance a pair of Henry McMaster‘s appointments to the board of the scandal-scarred S.C. State Ports Authority (SCSPA).
Their stated reason? Concerns over a mushrooming scandal involving McMaster’s consultant – embattled neo-Confederate advisor Richard Quinn.
Quinn – who is also paid by the SCSPA – was named last week in an indictment of suspended S.C. Senator John Courson. According to the charges filed against Courson, the veteran consultant allegedly provided the lawmaker with $130,000 in kickbacks on roughly half a million paid from the Senator’s campaign account over a four-year period.
State law forbids the conversion of campaign funds for personal use.
Quinn has yet to be charged in connection with the scandal. However, he was reportedly summoned to appear last month before a statewide grand jury convened by special prosecutor David Pascoe. Also Quinn and his son – S.C. Rep. Rick Quinn – were named in the pages of the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) report that kicked off the investigation.
Apparently all of that was enough to give Senators cause for pause – including powerful S.C. Senate president Hugh Leatherman, who recently hired Quinn to run his reelection campaign.
The deferral of McMaster’s nominees came one day after it was revealed that the ongoing investigation into Quinn had subpoenaed SCSPA records.
Additionally, one of McMaster’s two port nominees – William Jones – failed to report campaign contributions he made to McMaster back in 2010.
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