SC

South Carolina Gets “D-Minus” On Public Integrity Scorecard

PALMETTO STATE HAS SERIOUS WORK TO DO ON ETHICS REFORM The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) – which has recently partnered with The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier on two big anti-corruption pieces (here and here) – issued its state corruption rankings this week. How did South Carolina fare?  Not well. The Palmetto…

PALMETTO STATE HAS SERIOUS WORK TO DO ON ETHICS REFORM

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) – which has recently partnered with The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier on two big anti-corruption pieces (here and here) – issued its state corruption rankings this week.

How did South Carolina fare?  Not well.

The Palmetto State received a “D-Minus” from the group – with its report card including failing grades on public access to information, campaign finance law, legislative accountability, judicial accountability and ethics enforcement.

“The comprehensive probe found that in state after state, open records laws are laced with exemptions, and part-time legislators and agency officials engage in glaring conflicts of interests and cozy relationships with lobbyists,” CPI’s Nicholas Kusnetz noted. “Meanwhile, feckless, understaffed watchdogs struggle to enforce laws as porous as honeycombs.”

Ouch …

Astoundingly, the organization described South Carolina’s 2015 ranking as “a marginal improvement from 2012,” when the state received a failing grade overall.

Should we celebrate?  Hell no …

“South Carolina is one of only two states where judges are elected by the legislature and one of only a handful that don’t require public officials to disclose private income,” the report noted.  “As a host of reform advocates have said, South Carolina is still very much a ‘Wild West.'”

Indeed … the powers-that-be in this state do two things: Cash checks and evade accountability.

As we noted last month, “this website has been fighting for years to not only expose the corruption itself, but more importantly the self-policing system that perpetuates it.  We’ve also aggressively exposed the ‘reforms in name only‘ lawmakers have put forth as part of a backdoor effort to muzzle criticism of their chronic self-dealing … while giving the appearance of doing something to promote ‘public integrity.'”

We will continue to do that …

***

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17 comments

Crooks R Us November 10, 2015 at 8:05 am

D -, that good, huh? I’m shocked that we did that good.

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sparklecity November 10, 2015 at 9:25 am

Yep, if this state didn’t have Lee Bright & Tom Corbin as state senators SC would have scored a D+ at least

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stumpknocker November 10, 2015 at 8:27 am

yeah i clicked on the link in the article ended up reading articles for a couple of hours, very cool source for information, i put in my favorites.

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TARevolution November 10, 2015 at 9:25 am

Not sure if you’ve tracked all of these POLLS and studies…but the more states go REPUBLICAN, the more the surveys bash them.

It’s just another propaganda tool the left uses to try to make up for the TOTAL rejection they are faced with from the people, they have betrayed. Nothing new here. Just more leftwing lies, trying to cover for their failure.

And Dumbasses like FITS (willingly) buy into this Bullshit.

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The Buzzman November 10, 2015 at 12:31 pm

How cute. GT learns to cuss, just like a grown-up, without using that stupid comic book nonsense in place of the the real words.

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Bible Thumper November 10, 2015 at 12:52 pm

I’m inclined to partially agree. These ratings often discount the corruption that exist between public employee unions and public officials. California was ranked 2nd or 3rd.

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TARevolution November 10, 2015 at 8:40 am

FITSNews has been PROVEN a LIAR about Dr. Ben Carson. Politico has pulled back the lie. FITS has published the lie about Carson, but has refused to admit he got it wrong, and LIED about the man…

What grade should we give FITSNews on its Public Integrity Report Card?

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staffer November 10, 2015 at 11:10 am

A plus!

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Hank 'flip' Geepers November 10, 2015 at 8:53 am

What a profession journalism has become.It is bad enough that the news pages have become the opinion pages for the liberal print media.
Now the MSM and its sycophant wanna be followers routinely just make up lies,falsehoods and create conspiracy theories in an attempt to perpetuate its mindless,Godless agenda of destroying public servants,private citizens and this country.

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flip November 10, 2015 at 11:15 am

You sound like a total idiot. How could so much dumb reside in one person?

Reply
Timmy November 10, 2015 at 8:57 am

Leatherman runs the state. Leatherman is a crook. Therefore, SC is a crooked state!

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TroubleBaby November 10, 2015 at 10:35 am

The only reason it’s not an “F” is because nobody knows the full extent of the malfeasance.

Reply
DeHeck Wit It November 10, 2015 at 7:06 pm

If they had added “agency accountability” it would have plunged too.

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Burningspeare November 10, 2015 at 11:16 pm

Congratulations, FITSNEWS you are the primary disseminators of the most relevant news that matters most to Americans. Uncensored too!

Reply
Manray9 November 10, 2015 at 11:46 pm

As high as a D-Minus ??? Somebody in Haley’s office must have paid off the Center for Public Integrity.

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Todd November 11, 2015 at 12:23 am

If you Google “oxymoron” this story comes up right after the Wikipedia entry.

Reply

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