Last fall incumbent “Republican” governor Henry McMaster blasted challenger Catherine Templeton because she voted for a Democrat in 2010.
This week Templeton returned the favor in spades, ripping McMaster for taking money from a Democratic bundler with ties to an ongoing federal investigation.
Family members and corporate interests affiliated with Imaad Zuberi – a California-based bundler for former U.S. president Barack Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton – contributed nearly $50,000 to McMaster so Zuberi could attend an October event starring U.S. president Donald Trump.
The money enabled the liberal venture capitalist to be part of a private roundtable gathering with Trump prior to the McMaster event. McMaster also attended the roundtable, and Templeton now wants the governor to explain what a Democratic bundler was doing filling his campaign coffers with tens of thousands of dollars.
“Fresh on the heels of refusing to attend a candidate forum Monday in Myrtle Beach, the list of things Henry McMaster won’t talk to you about keeps growing,” Templeton said after McMaster declined to appear onstage with other GOP candidates at the 2018 South Carolina Tea Party convention.
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“Those contributions and others raise serious questions about Henry McMaster and people who stand to benefit from him remaining in office,” Templeton said. “These special interests aren’t giving thousands and thousands of dollars because they like my opponent. Why would a Georgia payday lender, a Tennessee insurer, a DC-based developer and a tobacco conglomerate care about South Carolina?”
“They don’t!” Templeton added. “Neither does a member of Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton’s national finance committees. That’s right, one of Obama and Clinton’s top donors from California is a bundler for Henry McMaster and was part of an exclusive invitational only roundtable with him.”
So far the only response from the McMaster campaign regarding Zuberi’s attendance at the October event was to tell The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier “the U.S. Secret Service saw fit to approve him for previous events, as well as for this one.”
We suppose that qualifies as a response … but it’s not an answer.
Last October, McMaster’s campaign assailed the Lowcountry labor attorney several months ago for voting for 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Vincent Sheheen. Polls have shown Templeton could pay a political price for that vote, but she now has an arguably bigger bomb to drop on the incumbent “Republican.”
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