S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster: Will not return campaign donations from lawyers hired by state

South Carolina’s attorney general says he will not return thousands of dollars in campaign donations from private lawyers he hired to pursue a case against drug maker Eli Lilly & Co.

Spokesman Mark Plowden said Friday that Attorney General Henry McMaster will not return the $7,000 in contributions because the donations were proper. A state ethics official disagrees.

State law says nobody awarded a contract by a public official without a bidding process can then make a campaign contribution to that official. Deputy Attorney General Bob Cook says that law doesn’t apply to McMaster’s agreements with attorneys.

Ethics Commission investigator Cathy Hazelwood says that’s not so. Hazelwood says McMaster should consider returning the money.