By Paul Gable
Attorney General Candidate David Pascoe visited Conway last week to talk with voters about his anti-crime/anti-corruption campaign.
Pascoe is currently First Judicial Circuit Solicitor making him the chief prosecutor for Calhoun, Dorchester and Orangeburg Counties. Since the age of 15, Pascoe said all he wanted to do was be a prosecutor. He went to work as an assistant solicitor directly out of law school and first won election as First Circuit Solicitor in the 2004 election cycle.
However, Pascoe is better known as the appointed Special Prosecutor who investigated and convicted former Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell for ethics violations involving personal misuse of $325,000 of campaign funds.
Pascoe expanded that investigation into the largest Statehouse corruption investigation since the 1990’s Lost Trust Case took down 17 legislators and lobbyists. Interestingly, while attending law school, Pascoe was a law clerk for Bart Daniel, the Chief Prosecutor in the Lost Trust case.
In addition to Harrell, Pascoe investigated and secured convictions against the President Pro Tem of the Senate, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and two majority leaders.
Pascoe sought to expand the corruption probe further but was stopped by a decision of the SC Supreme Court which said he could go no further unless he was Attorney General.
Pascoe said the investigation exposed not just individual corruption on the part of legislators but structural corruption. Pascoe and his team issued a 247-page grand jury report laying out every fact, every transaction and every connection.
Speaking of structural corruption on his campaign website, Pascoe says, “We see it continue today in a system where lawmakers control judicial selection, where lawyers dominate the legislature, where influence protects influence and where consequences are rare if not totally extinct.”
Pascoe told the Conway crowd he will focus on three areas if elected Attorney General:
Public Corruption – Pascoe will create a Public Corruption Unit to investigate corrupt politicians; finish the work of the Statehouse Corruption probe and support stronger legislation against corruption.
Fighting Crime – focus on domestic violence; focus on violence against kids and commit to fighting repeat offenders, fentanyl dealers and dangerous illegal immigrants
Child Predators – turn the full force of the Attorney General’s office against those who harm children including seeking the death penalty against child rapists and child traffickers; increase the conviction rate of child pornographers and taking predators off the street permanently
Pascoe is seeking election as a Republican for the first time. He was elected and reelected as First Circuit Solicitor since the 2004 election cycle. Pascoe said he left the Democratic Party because the party deserted him by taking positions opposite his own conservative values.
In endorsing Republican JD Chandler for SC Senate District 29 in 2024, Wilson said, “The two-party system in South Carolina is not Republican versus Democrat, but those who try to serve the people versus those who try to serve themselves.”
Pascoe said he will be less involved in federal issues than current AG Alan Wilson, instead concentrating on prosecuting criminals and combatting corruption in South Carolina.
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