John Scott: Senator For Hire?

Less than a week after S.C. Sen. Robert Ford (D-Charleston) was forced to resign his office amid an embarrassing ethics investigation, another black Democrat is being accused of some ethically questionable behavior.

S.C. Sen. John Scott (D-Richland) moved this week to block legislation that would have created new consumer protections for South Carolinians who fall victim to scams involving the sale of their timeshares – or fractional property ownerships. This non-controversial legislation passed the S.C. House of Representatives unanimously earlier this year, received a unanimous favorable report at the committee level in the State Senate and was on track for final approval this week.

We haven’t been following this bill because it has no fiscal impact on taxpayers, its sole purpose is to make sure South Carolina timeshare owners don’t get hoodwinked by the numerous scams out there involving the sale of these fractional ownerships.

Anyway, at the very last possible moment Scott stepped in – exercising his prerogative to “put his name” on the bill, a procedural move which guaranteed it would not clear the S.C. General Assembly this year.

Scott’s stated reasons for objecting to the legislation were, umm … confused, at best. He described his concern as wanting timeshare owners, when they were tired of owning a unit, to simply be able to hand it back to the seller (something they are perfectly capable of doing anyway).

Late Wednesday afternoon, Scott invited a representative of lobbyist Richard Davis – whose firm does not have a client in this dispute (that we know of) – to attend a meeting convened with the expressed purpose of resolving his “issues” with the legislation. Of course this meeting was late getting started – because Scott was busy huddling with Davis in a dark corner of the S.C. State House.

Moments later, Scott emerged to announce his objection to the timeshare legislation – killing it for the year.

For those of you who don’t read between the lines, Scott was blocking this measure for one reason: To generate more business for his lobbyist crony. What does he get in return? No one knows. No ethics reform measure contemplated this year is able to address that which is not disclosed.

Having said that, we will be watching Davis’ lobbyist disclosure filings for the coming session of the S.C. General Assembly with interest – just as we will be watching Scott’s campaign finance reports.

Again, we don’t particularly care about the timeshare industry (we don’t own one) – and our view of most lobbyists is well known – but holding up legislation for the sole purpose of enriching a special interest pariah strikes us as counterproductive at best, corrupt at worst. In fact it’s precisely these sorts of nakedly self-serving acts – which take place by the dozen every day under the S.C. State House dome – which cause people to lose their faith in government.

After all, the only interest being served by Scott’s actions is the bottom line of a Columbia lobbying firm. Oh, and whatever favor he gets in return for his opposition to this bill.

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Pic: Travis Bell Photography