Democrats Got Endorsements From Lawmakers on Their Campaigns' Payrolls

[brooklynite]

New York Times

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Last April, just as the 2020 presidential campaign was getting underway, Senator Bernie Sanders trumpeted a breakthrough in his campaign’s quest for black voters’ support in South Carolina.

Mr. Sanders was honored to have been endorsed for the Democratic nomination by seven black members of the South Carolina legislature, he announced in a tweet.

One of the lawmakers, records show, owned a company that was already being paid by the Sanders campaign. Another would soon be added to the payroll as a vendor.

By the end of 2019, consulting companies operated by the two lawmakers, Representative Wendell Gilliard of Charleston and Representative Terry Alexander of Florence, had collected a combined total of almost $150,000 from Mr. Sanders’s presidential effort, according to federal campaign records.

[Recursion]

1. I've got to admit that's an aspect of campaign finance I'd never thought of (nt)

[jmg257]

2. Apparently this is a thing...

https://m.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/wendell-gilliard-received-5k-from-marlon-kimpson-endorsed-him-on-the-same-day/Content?oid=4706738


S.C. Senate District 42 hopeful Marlon Kimpson announced he had received an endorsement from State Rep. Wendell Gilliard on July 1, the same day that Gilliard's political consulting firm received a $5,000 payment from Kimpson's campaign, according to documents filed with the State Ethics Commission. South Carolina law does not prohibit elected officials from running political consulting businesses while in office.

WGG Consulting LLC, which received $6,000 in total from the Kimpson campaign through July 10, lists Gilliard as its registered agent with the S.C. Secretary of State's office. According to Kimpson's ethics filings, the $6,000 went to pay for "field work, door knocking, sign placement," and "grassroots organizing."

[Bradical79]

3. I mostly ignore individual endorsements and "surogates" -nt