Should donors feel free to spend unlimited money to influence local elections?

In doing this, they are skirting laws that limit how much they can give to favored candidates.

At fault, observers say, is the lack of a state law to make such campaign giving visible to voters.

The Charleston Post and Courier reported that outside groups dropped more than $6 million in South Carolina’s elections last year.

They aided candidates and attacked opponents in a barrage of non-stop TV ads.

These groups were not required to disclose their donors, hiding the people and corporations seeking to put their candidates in office.

The Post and Courier reported it had identified at least 21 groups bankrolling independent advertising campaigns here last year.

But it’s difficult to see how powerful these groups may be because South Carolina doesn’t track 3rd-party spending in elections.

The groups use obscure names such as State Solutions Inc., the Conservative Leadership Alliance, the Palmetto Prosperity PAC, the American Future Fund, South Carolinians for Ethical Leadership and Citizens for a Working America.

All had something in common: They were free to give as much money as they could muster through their networks of non profits, limited liability companies and political action committees.

The groups finance expensive mailers and online, radio and TV commercials.

Almost none of them filed reports with the state Ethics Commission, which polices campaign finance laws.

Unless state law requires it, they probably never will.

During last year’s races, the American Industry Project, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., attempted to link one of Gov. Henry McMaster’s Republican opponents to SCANA Corp., the 55% owner of the failed $9 billion nuclear project.