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Review committee questions Jan. 13 letter supporting PSC candidate; candidate and Home Builders director deny coordination
Summary
A state review committee examined whether a Jan. 13, 2026 letter from the Home Builders Association of South Carolina supporting a Public Service Commission candidate violated state ethics law. The candidate denied prior knowledge; the association’s executive director said he wrote and sent the letter via Votervoice and denied coordination.
A state review committee on Jan. 13 questioned whether a letter sent by the Home Builders Association of South Carolina on Jan. 13, 2026, improperly sought legislative support for a candidate for the Public Service Commission.
The committee read aloud the state statute transcribed in the record as "South Carolina code section 8 13 9 35," which the committee said bars a candidate or someone acting on a candidate’s behalf from seeking pledges or contacting members of the General Assembly before the committee has released its qualifications report. The letter — read into the record by a committee member — was signed by Mark Nicks, identified in the transcript as executive director of the Home Builders Association of South Carolina, and praised "Carolee Williams from the Public Service Commission, First District," saying she "brings a thoughtful, steady, and highly qualified approach to utility regulation." The association’s executive director acknowledged he wrote and sent the letter.
Carolee Williams, the candidate referenced in the letter and repeatedly addressed in the hearing as "Miss Williams," told the committee she had not seen the letter before being told about it by a legislator and that she had not asked Mr. Nicks to contact legislators on her behalf before Jan. 13, 2026. Asked about the statute, she said the rule ‘‘is intended to create a level playing field for everyone’’ and that only a candidate may present her own qualifications.
Mr. Nicks told the committee he did not coordinate with Williams before sending the message and said he used a communications tool called Votervoice to send the message to legislators because it contains legislators’ email addresses. He provided the email address recorded in the transcript (Nix@hbasc.com) when asked how the message was sent. "I asked her to put it on to Votervoice," he said in response to a question about distribution.
Committee members pressed both Williams and Mr. Nicks about the timeline of contacts and family ties: Williams said her husband is a home builder and that her son, Alex James, had worked as a lobbyist for the home builders in the past but did not currently work for the association. Staff told the committee they had interviewed both Williams and Mr. Nicks on Jan. 13, 2026, and reported that Williams denied prior knowledge and Mr. Nicks denied coordination.
The transcript records committee discussion and a motion to enter executive session to consider the matter further; the excerpt does not record a formal vote, a committee finding, or any sanction. Committee members closed by saying they expected the review committee and future applicants to follow the statute's spirit and that the committee would consider the matter as part of its oversight.
The record for the hearing includes (as read into the transcript) the letter of support, staff summaries of interviews with both parties, and testimony from Mark Nicks; the committee cited the statute transcribed in the record and discussed the limits on third-party solicitations of legislative support.
