By Paul Gable
Dark money has made its way into the SC Senate District 33 race with attack ads on challenger Autry Benton.
This is not an unexpected development as incumbent Senator Luke Rankin appears to be struggling to gain traction with his message for reelection to voters.
Our American Century PAC raised its head in Horry County again by paying for negative tv ads against Rankin’s opponent, Autry Benton, which began this past week.
There were two points the ads attempted to attack Benton on – PPP money and a contract that Benton’s business, Benton Concrete, had with the City of Conway.
As far as PPP money goes, the Rankin & Rankin Law Firm also received PPP money from the federal program to aid businesses through the Covid Pandemic. The amount of money businesses received was determined by a formula connected to number of employees and payroll.
The ads tried to make a big deal that Benton’s company received a PPP loan that it did not pay back. However, the program was established in a way which provided for forgiveness of loans and virtually all the loans were forgiven by the government with no payback required. The same can be said about the Rankin PPP loan. The PPP program was established by the Trump administration in 2020.
So, no foul there.
The second point tried to make it sound that Benton Concrete benefitted from a contract with the City of Conway while Benton was a council member in that government. Nothing could be further from the truth. Benton cancelled that contract upon assuming his post as a council member. (See the letter attached below)
GSD has learned local media outlets were contacted with the false story about the city contract and, after investigating, discovered there was no story and the messaging in the tv ads was false. In fact, citizens who have heard the true story have lauded Benton for his ethics in removing any appearance of benefitting from his position as a council member by cancelling the contract when he assumed office.
Our American Century is zero for two in its attempts to attack Benton. That is par for the course with hit pieces funded by dark money PACs. They are strong on hit messaging but entirely lacking in factual substance.
But, here is the interesting part. Dark money was used in hit pieces against Rankin’s 2020 opponent, twisting everything it could to paint the challenger as the perpetrator of domestic violence. It was all lies and an ongoing lawsuit resulted, in which Rankin remains a named defendant along with those involved in the production and distribution of the hit mailers, which is working its way through the court system.
If the worst Our American Century could find to attack Benton is the PPP money and the contract with the City of Conway, he must be remarkably clean.
The citizens along Waterside Drive have much more to say about how Rankin’s influence was used to locate a large dog pound and associated entities in their neighborhood, ignoring resident complaints about noise, traffic and other negative influences on their quality of life.
Meanwhile, the Rankin Campaign sent another mailer to voters with claims that Rankin is a conservative legislator who will continue to work for more roads for the area as well as being a friend of law enforcement working to keep families safe.
Rankin is considered a RINO (Republican in Name Only) by many conservative groups around Horry County. Just read the social media posts by members of these organizations. He remains the lone Republican senator to vote NO on the Constitutional Carry Bill which became law a few months ago. A NO vote on constitutional carry is not the action of a conservative legislator in South Carolina.
As for road money, Rankin has been so ineffective in obtaining DOT grants to help maintain and improve road conditions in Horry County that the county is now considering its fourth RIDE (Road Improvement Development Effort), which is ultimately approved by county voters in a referendum question and is funded by a one-cent local option sales tax. Rankin has failed to bring money to Horry County to help with road improvements so the citizens have had to do it themselves.
As mentioned at the beginning, the Rankin campaign is struggling to find a message which resonates with voters, that is one of the negatives of having a 32 year record to check on. The dark money PACs attacking his opponent are having the same struggle to find a message which is born out by the facts.
The Benton letter
Speak Up…