Posted on 04/18/2007 12:11:38 PM PDT by Between the Lines
John McCain’s presidential campaign has paid more than $30,000 in 2007 to a South Carolina senator and the sons of two other prominent elected officials, all of whom have endorsed the Arizona Republican’s bid for the White House.
Campaign finance reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission show McCain’s campaign has paid:
• Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, three payments of $7,000 each as a get-out-the-vote consultant
• Bryan Haskins, son of Rep. Gloria Haskins, R-Greenville, more than $6,500, as a youth campaign coordinator
• Stan Spears Jr., son of Adjutant General Stan Spears, more than $5,000 as veterans coordinator
Fair, Gloria Haskins and Stan Spears Sr. all endorsed McCain prior to the financial arrangements, and the endorsements and jobs are not related, McCain’s top political consultant in South Carolina told The State Tuesday.
The news comes after U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., was criticized for paying $10,000 a month to a public relations firm operated by Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, one of her top supporters in South Carolina.
Efforts to reach Gloria and Bryan Haskins were unsuccessful Tuesday, as were efforts to reach Stan Spears Jr. and Stan Spears Sr.
McCain’s campaign is paying MLF Associates of Greenville $7,000 a month. MLF Associates is Fair’s firm, although it is not registered with the secretary of state’s office as a corporation.
Fair said Tuesday he has not worked for a campaign before but is working to help McCain with fellow social conservatives who have not always supported McCain.
“I was a big Bush supporter eight years ago, which meant you weren’t for Senator McCain at all,” Fair said.
Many social conservatives were distrustful of McCain after the senator made disparaging remarks about evangelicals during the divisive 2000 S.C. presidential primary. But when Rep. Terry Haskins, R-Greenville, died of skin cancer in the summer of 2000, McCain attended the funeral at Bob Jones University in Greenville. Fair and Haskins were close friends, and Haskins was a McCain supporter before resigning over the dust-up with evangelicals.
That McCain showed up for the funeral, “without fanfare,” Fair said, meant a lot to him. In the past year, Fair said, he’s studied McCain’s record and found him to be opposed to abortion, opposed to gay marriage and to be staunchly pro-Israel. It helped convince him to endorse McCain.
Fair’s support has been important, said Richard Quinn, McCain’s S.C. political consultant. Fair endorsed McCain in October but has been paid as a consultant for the past few months.
“We were getting such a positive response from his involvement, were calling on him and calling on him, we asked him to be a consultant,” he said.
Fair e-mailed supporters to let them know he was going to work for the campaign.
Quinn said Stan Spears Sr. endorsed McCain last summer although his son only recently went to work for the campaign.
Quinn said it’s natural for the campaign to have Fair, Bryan Haskins and Stan Spears Jr. on the payroll.
“You hire people you know, who you have experience with,” Quinn said.
Those three are not the only South Carolinians making money off a presidential campaign. In the first three months of 2007, the top six Republican candidates have spent more than $470,000 in South Carolina, and the top six Democratic candidates have spent nearly $250,000.
McCain has also been endorsed by more than a dozen federal, state and local officials, including U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Attorney General Henry McMaster. McCain will hold town hall meetings in Murrells Inlet and Summerville today.
MCCAIN’S S.C. PAYROLL
U.S. Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign spent more than $195,000 in South Carolina in January, February and March. Some of that went to elected officials or officials’ families.
• Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville: $21,000
• Bryan Haskins, son of Rep. Gloria Haskins, R-Greenville: $6,537.24
• Stan Spears Jr., son of Adjutant General Stan Spears Sr.: $5,234.32
SOURCE: Federal Election Commission
So? Can’t hire your friends kids? Or friends of friends kids? How hilarious.
I didn’t necessarily aim the question at YOU....more at the writer of this piece.....although I was wondering what YOU thought.
Well, as Robert Frost said, “Better to die with boughten friendship at your side, than none at all.”
It is “boughten friendship” only as long you keep a buying.
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