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by WILL FOLKS
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In an election cycle dominated by negative attacks and wealthy self-funders – candidates capable of plowing limitless personal resources into their aspirations for higher office – the Democrat nominee for attorney general of South Carolina is taking a different tack.
Charleston attorney Richard Hricik (it’s pronounced “riss-ick,” in case you were wondering) says he’s going another route, offering the citizens of the Palmetto State “a very unique opportunity to do politics in a very different way.”
How different? According to Hricik, he’s not merely refusing political contributions of any kind – he’s not putting any of his own money into the race, either.
“I’m running without taking a dime from anyone,” Hricik told us. “No donations, no PACs, no special interests, and I’m not self-funding it either. Beholden to no one. That’s my firewall against all corruption: when you owe no one, you can fight for everyone.”
It’s a nifty idea, but how does a candidate committed to not spending any money get his message in front of South Carolina’s estimated 3.33 million registered voters?
One by one, Hricik says – which he insists is where “the best marketing occurs.”
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“I recognize it’s very unconventional – and very unusual – but that’s exactly what I’m doing,” Hricik said of his cash-free candidacy. “If you want less money in politics, I’m your guy. If you want somebody to come into the office corruption-free, who’s not bought and paid for, I’m your guy.”
Hricik said he spent $200 of his own money on a GoDaddy website and email – for a campaign website he designed himself. Other than web costs and his filing fee, Hricik said that’s the only money he’s going to put into his candidacy.
“That’s it,” he said.
According to Hricik, voters are sick of all the political messaging anyway.
“Is there anybody who sits at home and says, you know what, I really want? I want to get texted, I want to get a postcard in the mail. I want another TV advertisement that’s telling me about a politician, and when I get on the internet, what I really want is an over-the-top ad or a banner ad about our campaign,” Hricik told me. “Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to get the email that says, ‘you know my opponent – he’s the devil, and if you don’t do this, the house is gonna burn down, so you better send me 10 bucks.’ Nobody needs that.”
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RELATED | DAVID STUMBO CLAIMS GOP NOMINATION
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Hricik is facing Republican David Stumbo, South Carolina’s eighth circuit solicitor, in the November general election. Stumbo, 50, of Greenwood, S.C., emerged victorious over a three-person GOP field that included Democrat-turned-Republican prosecutor David Pascoe – the Palmetto State’s first circuit solicitor who was initially seen as one of the perpetual minority party’s best bets to contend at the statewide level.
In a year in which Democrats appear to possibly have some wind in their sails, though, Pascoe decided to go another route.
The lifelong Democrat is widely believed to have switched parties on the advice of his strategist, Wesley Donehue, given that a Democrat hasn’t won a statewide office in 20 years – and hasn’t won an election for attorney general since 1990.
“Everybody makes their own choices,” Hricik said of Pascoe’s decision to run as a Republican. “I think David explained himself, and that’s what he did. I understand the ‘D’ at the end of my name is going to turn off a lot of people and that’s okay.”
According to Hricik, the race is going to boil down to candidate qualifications – not party labels. While crediting Stumbo for being “a good prosecutor,” he said the job of attorney general is much bigger and more complex.
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“This is a vast law firm that must do many, many things,” Hricik said. “This is not a criminal prosecution law firm. They must do all kinds of federal litigation – including defending statutes, representing the state and handling federal appellate litigation, up to and including before the U.S. supreme court.”
Managing such complex cases requires “intimate knowledge of constitutional rights, and not just constitutional rights of individuals, but those of the state and states’ rights.”
Hricik said his extensive experience in complex litigation – dating back three decades – and his many years managing a thriving law practice better equip him to handle the broad duties of the attorney general’s office than Stumbo.
“It is also about representing and protecting the states,” Hricik said, criticizing the current attorney general – GOP gubernatorial nominee Alan Wilson – for his alleged failure to step up on environmental issues.
“The attorney general’s office is responsible for defending the natural resources of the state, and you know what? Right now, we have plastic nurdles in the river and in the harbor of Charleston, and the attorney general has not participated in any environmental litigation that I can see,” he said.
One case Hricik declined to criticize Wilson on, however, was the prosecution of notorious accused killer and confessed fraudster Alex Murdaugh, which is currently headed to a retrial after the S.C. supreme court reversed the convictions Wilson’s office originally secured against
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RELATED | FLURRY OF NEW MURDAUGH MOTIONS FILED
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Hricik previously spoke with us about the Murdaugh case – joining his GOP counterparts in committing to retry it in the event he were elected attorney general. In our most recent conversation, Hricik elaborated on those comments – saying he would entrust lead prosecutor Creighton Waters and his team to continue handling the prosecution.
“Those are people I would see no reason not to entrust with the retrial of the case,” he said. “It’s always easy to judge a case from afar. I read the supreme court order, I’m familiar with what they held, and all I will say is, you know, I am going to trust the people who are involved. Decisions get made with complete information. There’s been a new piece of information with the supreme court decision, and if that is going to change some admissibility of something or other, that would be discussed obviously with the prosecutorial team, and I trust them to make good decisions as well.”
Ultimately, Hricik told us decisions need to be made based on the rule of law – not politics.
“The divisions that have occurred amongst us as a people, the one thing that unites us is the rule of law, and it’s ordinary people believing in the rule of law,” he said. “The moment we infect into the law that justice is red or blue, it is going to cost us this entire thing. And I’ll also tell you this: it’s an economic argument, too. Do you know why America was so successful economically? Because our courts enforced our agreements. People knew there was certainty in doing business in the United States, that court judgments meant something, and that contracts could be honored, and you could go to court, and the rule of law would be upheld. If suddenly business contracts are based on whether or not they’re a blue contract or a red contract, the whole thing falls down.”
Can Hricik’s earnest, apolitical approach succeed in a state dominated by increasingly toxic partisanship? Especially if he’s declining conventional means of mass communication to convey his message to voters?
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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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