Charleston City Paper/The Statehouse Report

With just three business days left in the legislative session, Republicans in the South Carolina Senate tapped the brakes Thursday on a last-minute plan to gerrymander 17-term Democratic U.S. Rep. James Clyburn out of his congressional seat. But regardless of any political outcomes either way, S.C. League of Women Voters Vice President Lynn Teague said her group opposes the proposed redistricting.

“Convincing people to vote when they’ve seen conscious, obvious, blatant attempts to rig the maps is just very hard,” Teague said. “The constitutional purpose is to see to it that all the people of South Carolina are represented in Washington. And this would send exactly the wrong message.”

The State

The LLC-based donation structure is becoming more common in politics. And finance campaign experts say it gives donors who can give more a big advantage. Instead of giving just once, the same donors can give again and again through different LLCs. Because each counts as a separate donor, they can legally give far more than the $1,000 limit — multiplying their influence. Additionally, identifying the people behind an LLC can be difficult. That makes it hard for the public to know who is funding candidates since a specific name or easily searchable business isn’t attached to the contribution.

“Transparency matters because you need to be able to see if there’s a direct connection between the dollars that are being spent to keep somebody in office and how they carry out their official duties,” said Lynn Teague, the vice president at South Carolina’s chapter of the League of Women voters.