The Charleston Post and Courier of September 24 has a major story about the Speaker of the South Carolina House, Bobby Harrell. According to the story, for at least four years he has reimbursed himself from campaign contributions and has not kept receipts or other records showing how he spent the money. Representative Harrell has served in the legislature for twenty years. He was unopposed for re-election in his Charleston district in November 2010. He is co-chair of the 2012 PGA Championship, and it appears much of the money was spent on his trips to PGA tournaments in other states.

In 2012, he happens to have two ballot-listed opponents, Green Party nominee Larry Carter Center, and independent John Steinberger, a fair tax activist. The South Carolina Democratic Party has initially thought of cross-endorsing Center. South Carolina permits fusion, and for a while it appeared he would be the first Green Party nominee in South Carolina to be listed as the Democratic nominee as well. But then the Democratic Party changed its mind and returned Center’s filing fee, so he is only listed as a Green. Thanks to Eugene Platt for the link.

South Carolina has always permitted fusion (i.e., letting two parties jointly nominate the same candidate), but it has not been used very much in the last 100 years. The Working Families Party, which has been ballot-qualified in South Carolina starting in 2006, had had to struggle to persuade Democrats (those that the party wants to cross-endorse) to accept the WFP nomination.

This year, however, four Democratic nominees for U.S. House are also Working Families Party nominees. By contrast, there were only two such U.S. House Democratic nominees who accepted the party’s nomination in 2006, and none in 2008, and one in 2010. Of course, sometimes the Working Families Party does not desire to nominate certain Democratic nominees.

Here is an article about the Working Families Party’s four nominees for U.S. House. The Working Families Party also has more legislative nominees (again, they are also Democratic nominees) than ever before in South Carolina.

South Carolina, like New York and Connecticut, lets the voter choose the party label for candidates who are the nominees of two parties. So, a voter can not only vote for such a person, but can choose whether to cast the vote under the Democratic label or the Working Families label. Most states that permit fusion do not give the voter that option.

This Toledo Blade lengthy article explains the status of the many pending lawsuits in Ohio over vote procedures.