South Carolina Democrats are calling on the state’s ethics commission, attorney general and judicial branch to investigate a sitting state senator for alleged “violation(s) of state ethics laws.”
According to a news release, Democrats claim S.C. senator Stephen Goldfinch of Murrells Inlet, S.C. is violating several state laws by hosting a county legislative delegation meeting in his law office “after refusing to hold public legislative delegation meetings for over two years.”
“Senator Goldfinch’s actions raise two legal issues,” Democrats claimed in their release. “First, state law prohibits an elected official from profiting from elected office. Senator Goldfinch’s use of his private law firm to conduct county and state business provides an opportunity to showcase his private law firm to the public. This is a clear benefit afforded to him because of his elected office.”
Hmmm … seems like a bit of a stretch to me (and I have never counted myself among Goldfinch’s fans).
According to Democrats, Goldfinch also violated South Carolina’s open meetings law by failing to post notice of the gathering on the delegation website.
Again … really?
Forgive me, but none of this is even remotely blowing my skirt up … and I was really hoping for something sexy when I saw the headline of the Democrats’ release touting “ethics violations” by Goldfinch.
The guy is one of the worst “Republican” votes in the S.C. General Assembly, especially when it comes to offloading the anti-competitive albatross known as Santee Cooper, the Palmetto State’s government-run utility. Goldfinch was also exceedingly vulnerable in last spring’s GOP primary election – however conservatives inexplicably failed to field a candidate against him.
Sadly, Democrats do not appear to be delivering the goods …
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Nonetheless, S.C. Democratic party chairman Trav Robertson, Jr. – who inexplicably still has a job after the shellacking his party took last fall – offered the obligatory “what is he hiding” quote.
Oh, and made the whole thing racial …
“What is Goldfinch hiding?” Robertson said. “Is he afraid to meet publicly with the African American members of the delegation to discuss appointments? We intend on asking the S.C. supreme court’s office of disciplinary counsel to review the matter.”
Sheesh …
Not surprisingly, Goldfinch seemed unfazed by the allegations – although he did call off the meeting just prior to it being called to order.
“Every member of our delegation has had a meeting at their respective offices,” Goldfinch told us. “We’ve been doing it that way for years. It seems to me Democrats would want their leadership focusing on winning elections rather than (arguing over) where we’re having our meetings. Regardless, I don’t want to answer some bogus ethics complaint, so I cancelled the meeting before it was called to order.”
Don’t get us wrong, if Goldfinch indeed violated ethics laws he should be held accountable for his actions. But for Democrats to make a big deal about these minor infractions while at the same time ignoring glaring violations in their own ranks, well … that seems pretty hypocritical to me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
(Via: FITSNews)
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading.
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