The Post and Courier Reported this week: State Rep. Rick Quinn used his public office as a multimillion-dollar money funnel that enriched his family’s powerful political empire while doing the bidding of shadowy corporate interests in the Legislature, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Misconduct charges handed down as part of the ongoing Statehouse corruption probe paint a picture of influence and greed involving a key cog in one of the state’s oldest and more durable political machines.
Quinn, a Lexington [Columbia, S.C. Area] Republican, is accused of failing to report more than $4.5 million that unidentified groups had paid to companies operated by him and his father, embattled political consultant Richard Quinn. He then improperly lobbied on their behalf, using his businesses and public office to influence government actions involving those groups, the indictment stated.
Both local elected leaders and questionable Myrtle Beach area associated groups [PACs] of whom merchants have expressed as having close ties to Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce board members have used Quinn’s political marketing firm for ongoing political attack ads hostile to any challenger willing to run against incumbents. Those elected incumbents feed this group of insiders over $30 million of corporate tax welfare annually. These funds are paid to insiders by way of a local ad tax that Senator Luke Rankin helped establish and local Myrtle Beach city councilmen voted into law without a public referendum.
Three of those four current MBACC board associated PACs include:
Grand Strand Business Alliance
P.O. Box 8082
Myrtle Beach, SC 29578
Myrtle Beach Lodging Legislative Committee
P.O. Box 8082
Myrtle Beach, SC 29578
Grand Strand Restaurant Legislative Association
P.O. Box 8082
Myrtle Beach, SC 29578
A fourth questionable PAC is “Good Government for Myrtle Beach” 3001 North Kings Highway, Suite D224, Myrtle Beach, S.C. 29577.
Another questionable PAC is “Myrtle Beach Residents for Lower Taxes” P.O. Box 30846, Myrtle Beach, S.C. 29588
All insider groups need to do in order to form a new PAC is simply file, so the list and the insider hiding can become endless if necessary.
S.C. Senator Luke Rankin successfully hired Richard Quinn’s [father of Rick Quinn] firm last year to belittle Governor Nikki Haley supported challenger Scott Pyle with a series of Gomer Pyle T.V. ads largely run on local Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce corporately funded media. Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus was the Rankin campaign manager.
When challenger Mark McBride lead the city council campaign midway Fall 2015, the attack campaign mailers against McBride poured out. McBride came in fourth in a three seat run. Two incumbents and one insider preferred candidate all won.
Quinn’s father is a kingmaker in South Carolina politics, with a vast stable of clients and tentacles throughout state government. His firm represents more than 25 lawmakers, a couple of large state agencies and a quartet of the state’s biggest corporations. The firm famously represents U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham.
The younger Quinn also works as a campaign consultant and owns Mail Marketing Strategies, a Columbia-based direct-mail company that does work for politicians.
As the entire S.C. deep state institutional, colluded systems are being investigated and exposed, Myrtle Beach insiders are eyeing their own Fall 2017 political campaigns. In the past, candidates like Randal Wallace or Wayne Gray simply kept quiet while Quinn and Associate hires destroyed any and all challengers via direct mail.
Longtime government observer John Crangle , of Common Cause, said the General Assembly’s caucuses need to be strictly regulated, including banning them and lawmakers from raising campaign money in years when there are no legislative elections.
“Something’s got to be done to stop the caucuses from raising political money,” Crangle said, saying the caucus funds “really are little more than slush funds.”
MyrtleBeachSC.com reached out to both Senator Luke Rankin and Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce C.E.O. Brad Dean on Wednesday concerning the Quinn indictments and their close ties to the indicted Representative. Both declined to comment on the matter.
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