Darrell Jackson

In February 2007, The Hotline reported that South Carolina state representative, pastor and "prized political consultant" Darrell Jackson had "confirmed that he had decided to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton, less than six days after his public relations firm, Sunrise Enterprises (sic, actually Sunrise Communications ), agreed to a contract with Clinton's campaign worth at least $10,000 a month through the 2008 elections - a total of $210,000." 

Jackson told the South Carolina newspaper The State, "I’m somewhat offended in the sense that ... the national media thinks that an African-American in my position cannot support a candidate without being paid off. ... Second, they seem to have a hard time believing that in South Carolina there could be a legitimate African-American public relations firm that’s not a hustler." 

Armstrong Williams, a conservative pundit outed for promoting the Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind Act" without telling audiences he was being paid to do so by the U.S. Department of Education, as a subcontractor of the public relations firm Ketchum, slammed Jackson. "That is scandalous," Williams said on his radio talk show program, referring to Jackson's endorsement of Clinton. "It really is. You at least should support a candidate because of what you believe in. They’re not buying his services. They’re buying his influence." 

On February 22, 2007, The State reported that "two additional state lawmakers with financial ties to" Jackson's firm, Sunrise Communications, had endorsed Clinton's 2008 White House bid. "Reps. David Mack, D-Charleston, and Terry Alexander, D-Florence, operate Sunrise of Charleston and Sunrise of the Pee Dee, respectively. ... Mack and Alexander said their decisions to endorse Clinton are unrelated to her arrangement with Sunrise Communications, which they said is a separate entity from their firms." 

External articles

 * Ben Smith, "Gay rights in S.C., cont'd," The Politico, October 24, 2007.