Reports: S.C. treasurer-elect self-financed his campaign

COLUMBIA -- South Carolina's next treasurer self-financed his first run for office and hopes to recoup $670,000 in outstanding loans, while the GOP nominee to lead public schools heads into November in debt, according to campaign finance reports.

Republican businessman Curtis Loftis spent $805,681 in his bid to oust Treasurer Converse Chellis, who was seeking his first elected term. Loans accounted for 89 percent of the $827,077 Loftis raised. His campaign filing shows he has $26,003 cash available but still owes 91 percent of what he borrowed.

Loftis, who had the backing of tea party activists, won the June 8 primary with 62 percent of the vote. He has no Democratic opponent for the job that pays $92,000 a year.

Loftis said Monday he is building his transition team. He hopes to repay as much as he can through fundraisers.

"I look at it as true service," he said about political office. "I felt I should invest in the campaign first. If I won, it should be easy enough to raise the funds."

Second-quarter filings were due Saturday. Candidates have a five-day grace period to file reports before fines accrue.

Filings in other races show the Democratic candidate vying to be the school chief has collected from donors three times more than his GOP opponent and spent less.

Greenville attorney Frank Holleman has $220,000 in cash available heading into November, while former Newberry College president Mick Zais emerged from a six-way primary and runoff in the red.

The two are running to replace Superintendent Jim Rex, the only Democrat in statewide office, who stepped aside for his unsuccessful bid for governor.

Holleman had raised $390,300 and spent $181,400 by June 30. He won the June 8 Democratic primary with 56 percent of the vote against a single opponent.

Zais had spent $209,485. Loans accounted for nearly half of the $204,494 he'd raised. He has $5,565 cash on hand but still owes the $100,000 he borrowed.

He came in first in a crowded GOP primary and won the runoff two weeks later with 54 percent of the vote.

Holleman contends the nominees' lopsided balances can't be explained away by Zais' additional opponents and runoff contest.

"What he is selling people aren't buying," said Holleman, chief of staff and deputy U.S. secretary of education under former South Carolina Gov. Dick Riley during President Bill Clinton's administration.

Zais' campaign did not immediately respond to e-mail and phone messages. But the 31-year military veteran, who took over the private Newberry College after retiring from the U.S. Army as a brigadier general, has said he wants to concentrate on reading in the early grades and school discipline.

But he opposes any expansion in the state's limited 4-year-old kindergarten program, likening it to daycare, and advocates using tax credits to help parents send their children to private schools - an idea that has divided the GOP and failed repeatedly in the Legislature. Holleman, who helped start First Steps under former Gov. Jim Hodges, believes it's essential to expand early childhood education for 4- and some 3-year-olds who need a boost and opposes efforts that divert taxpayer money to private schools.

Holleman argues that Zais would send the state's reform efforts backward, while Zais has said he's the conservative reformer against a bureaucrat.