Unlimited Corporate Donations Raise Concerns Over Election Transparency

The Challenge: Unlimited corporate campaign donations allow special interests to dominate South Carolina’s political process, and citizens want the state to impose greater transparency on corporate influence in elections.

What do South Carolinians think? Participants across the spectrum share this concern. One person noted that "politicians can hide where they are getting donations by taking money from PAC funds" and that "this money can be from out-of-state oligarchs." The time cost is also a concern: "politicians spend as much as 50% of their time fundraising rather than performing legislative activities — many actually leave the floor to make fundraising phone calls."