Lexington Senator Jake Knotts is an outspoken critic of Governor Mark Sanford’s political –and now legal– tactics. The veteran Republican is taking aim at the law firm representing Sanford in the lawsuit against the state. Knotts is filing legislation to prevent attorneys who sue the state, from in turn taking money from the state.
“It will disqualify a law firm or lawyer that sues the state for a period of three years from the date he files the suit from representing any of our state entities, DSS, the State Ports Authoirty, Santee Cooper or universities, boards and commissions. And it will not allow them to represent those entities at the taxpayers’ expense.”
Knotts says the action comes after Governor Mark Sanford’s announcement that the law firm suing the state on his behalf, Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, has received nearly quarter million dollars of taxpayer dollars in recent years for representing state agencies.
Knotts continues, “The Governor is giving business to a firm that has donated over $14,000 to his campaign and flew him around the state. After years of calling those actions “status quo,” we see another example of our hypocritical Governor chasing television cameras. I guess pork barrel politics is okay as long it’s the Governor’s hogs getting fed.”
One of Knott’s concerns is that cost overrun will come out of taxpayers pockets. Governor Sanford has said that would come out of the state’s Insurance Reserve Fund.
In an announcement Monday, the governor intimated that it may not get that far.