SC Freedom Caucus Under Fire for Using State Plane

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by WILL FOLKS

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Members of South Carolina’s fiscally conservative Freedom Caucus are under fire for using the Palmetto State’s taxpayer-funded plane to travel to a public policy conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this week.

According to passenger manifests obtained by FITSNews, caucus leader Jordan Pace joined state representatives Thomas Beach, Stephen Frank, Jay Kilmartin, Chris Huff and Lee Gilreath (all caucus members) on the flights.

State representative Jeff Bradley, who is not a member of the caucus, joined them.

The conference in question was sponsored by the White House’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA). It took place earlier this week at the Eisenhower building adjacent to the West Wing. Dozens of other lawmakers attended the conference, most of them paying for their own airfare.

Here is one of the passenger manifests obtained by our media outlet…

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Frank signed the manifest’s required certification, contending the trip – which included multiple legs on two different days – was for a “meeting with (the) White House domestic policy council,” thus qualifying as “official business of the state of South Carolina.”

Questioned by this author about the use of taxpayer-funded travel for such an event, Pace insisted he and his fellow caucus members sought guidance from ethics officials prior to embarking on the trips.

“We checked to see if this was an official office function,” Pace told FITSNews. “The answer was ‘yes’ all around.”

“Spouses weren’t invited, it wasn’t a caucus thing, it wasn’t a partisan thing,” Pace added.

While the use of the plane may have adhered to the letter of the law, that didn’t stop status quo “Republicans” from blasting Pace and his Freedom Caucus colleagues for the terrible optics associated with their decision. State representative Brandon Guffey, one of the lead attack dogs for fiscally liberal S.C. House speaker Murrell Smith, unloaded on Pace and his colleagues, noting “forty other (lawmaker)s paid their way.”

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According to Guffey, Freedom Caucus members violated a state budget proviso which excludes press conferences, bill signings and other political functions from the definition of “official business” for which members can use taxpayer-funded travel.

“This is simply pointing out the hypocrisy,” Guffey added, challenging our media outlet (by name) to report on it.

“It’s a fair point when you preach taxpayer responsibility and take the state plane against the law to a partisan meeting every Republican was invited to,” Guffey wrote on X.

“If it wasn’t partisan, show me where Dems were invited,” Guffey added.

Pace rebuked Guffey and other establishment GOP lawmakers, stating they were “upset because they wanted the plane” for themselves and didn’t sign up for it in time to use it for the conference.

Whatever prompted the criticism from Guffey – and whatever may have compelled him to single out our media outlet in his social media posts – the fact of the matter is Freedom Caucus members (and especially their leader) should have known better than to use the state plane for a trip like this. While these flights may have technically been in accordance with the proviso – and thus legally defensible – they are completely indefensible coming from a group of lawmakers that purports to stand for the best interests of taxpayers.

While the cost of these flights amount to a mere drop in the bucket of the billions Guffey and his establishment allies waste every year, optics matter… and these optics are absolutely atrocious for the caucus members involved.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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