In the world of politics, money rules all. The investigative team at MyrtleBeachSC News now reports on Our American Century and related Political Action Committees.

In South Carolina, despite the supposed “efforts” of our elected politicians to enact campaign “reform”, billions are spent every election cycle by the political parties and the tsunami of political action committees that act as their money men. 

A large number of South Carolina politicians are not selected for their merit. They sell themselves to the highest bidder.  Abuse exists on both sides of the political spectrum. Both Democrats and Republicans in SC are equally involved.

In South Carolina, the ruling party for more than 4 decades has been the republican party.  Democrat Governor Jim Hodges was elected back in 1998, but the state immediately self-corrected the next election cycle. 

Many democrats, in S.C., register as republicans to garner key committee assignments. Committee assignments are often based on seniority in the S.C. Senate. Democrats running as Democrats can choose to vote swap on the floor of the Statehouse (according to S.C. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey).

This “OUR AMERICAN CENTURY” series of articles will focus on some very suspicious activity from some homegrown political groups that provide support to local candidates.  As our state is dominated by what are loosely called “Republicans”, we will focus on a group of these supposed republicans (many in name only) and the machinery set in place to wash millions of dollars through the campaigns of local politicians. 

The questions we will try to answer in this series are several.

• Why did Steve Wynn, a casino mogul in Las Vegas give $13 million to a PAC controlled by a South Carolina native?
• Why did that PAC give $5 million to a company in Virginia that operates out of a two bedroom apartment?
• What, or rather, who was that $5 million spent on?
• Why do the same companies seem to receive the lions share of the monies from these PACs over and over again?
• What local politicians are the benefactors of all of this money flowing through the same PACs and the same vendors?
• How did a candidate for the US House of representatives received a $500,000 loan from a bank in Missouri for his campaign when the total contributions to his campaign for the cycle, which was the “collateral” for that loan, was less than $20,000.00 of that loan?
• What is at the end of the PAC rainbow?

Stay tuned for our attempts to answer these questions.

TEASER – WHAT BUSINESS, TAKING IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, ANSWERS THE PHONE THIS WAY?