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Luke Rankin sits on the most prestigious and select boards in the S.C. Senate. Rankin serves on the Public Utilities Review Committee (PURC). He has served there since 2006. Rankin also serves as the Senate Oversight Chairman of Public Utilities.
Why is PURC so important? PURC is the group that gave the authority to Santee Cooper and SCANNA to borrow $9 billion on two failed nuclear power plant projects. This failure will cost every Horry County Santee Cooper rate paying family $6,200. Horry Electric customers will pay $4,200 per family.
John Gallman lays out Rankin’s role in Santee Cooper legal issues
In response to the above and several key mailers sent out this week, Senator Rankin posted the following today:
WE REACHED OUT DIRECTLY TO RANKIN AS HE REQUESTED
Luke,
In reading your post of today, I am taking your advice and reaching out to you directly.
We are doing a feature on the Santee Cooper settlement agreement.
AP NEWS HERE: https://apnews.com/b97631134dbb1a9b1915c8f6e4968e11
In this article, former S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Judge Jean Toal has been assigned the case. Jean was previously appointed to the bench by you and your team at the Judicial Merit Selection Committee.
It appears your friend, and former legislator, Myrtle Beach Attorney George Hearn will be paid $74 million of the $520 million settlement.
George’s wife, Kay Hearn, now sits on the S.C. Supreme Court. She previously served with Jean Toal. You and your team at the Judicial Merit Selection Committee also appointed Kay to the S.C. Supreme Court.
We are told that the Santee Cooper board wants a quick settlement so as to avoid any further public scrutiny.
You, as the Oversight Committee Chairman of the Santee Cooper utility, were a key member of the team that approved the loan allowing the two utilities to borrow up to $9 billion on the failed nuclear projects.
It appears the customers of Santee Cooper are suing themselves. It also appears that George Hearn will be the big winner.
Please let us know your response on this matter so we can include it in our article.
KEY QUESTION: In light of the above, do you think lawyer legislators should pick our S.C. Judges (example -you pick our judges)? Or do you believe allowing lawyers (who are State Senators) to pick our judges creates a politically corrupt circular system?
Sincerely,
David Hucks
MORE ON FORMER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE JEAN TOAL:
More on George Hearn:
Gallman Mailer upsets Rankin Campaign
S.C. Palmetto Gun Rights Mailer Upsets Rankin Campaign
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: We reached out to the Gallman campaign. They said sending the mail from Alabama was simply the cheapest way to do the mailer. The mailer was sent 100% transparently.
As of this publishing Senator Luke Rankin has not responded to our KEY QUESTION. Despite his promise above, we do not expect a response from his campaign.
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