COLUMBIA, S.C. – Hillary Rodham Clinton stood shoulder to shoulder yesterday with a controversial “supporter for hire” as she appeared here before a mostly African-American crowd.
South Carolina state Sen. Darrell Jackson – who endorsed Sen. Clinton last week just days after her presidential campaign agreed to give him a consulting contract that could be worth over $200,000 – kicked off her town-hall-style session at historically black Allen University.
Jackson, an influential black pastor of a 10,000-member church, has been embroiled in controversy since it was revealed that his coveted endorsement of Clinton came after he bagged a $10,000-per-month consulting deal for his public-relations firm from the former first lady.
Commenting on the matter for the first time, Clinton insisted that her team struck no side deal with the state senator.
“Sen. Jackson has worked in Clinton campaigns going back to 1992,” she told The Associated Press.
Still, the endorsement raised eyebrows by creating the appearance that his support was bought by the highest bidder.
Jackson insists that Clinton’s rivals Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards had offered similar, or better, consulting contracts.
Jackson told The Post yesterday: “It’s not a controversy to me. It’s someone else’s issue. I’m fine.”
“I think the national media should spend more time here, and they would see I have got a lot of friends here. But they may have helped us get a great crowd today,” added Jackson, whose company is now the state’s oldest and largest black-owned p.r. firm.
Jackson stood by Clinton’s side as she made a pitch to African-American voters who make up the majority of the South Carolina’s Democratic Party by emphasizing domestic issues – and calling for the Confederate flag to be removed from the nearby State House.
“I personally would like to see it removed from the State House grounds,” she said in an interview.
Clinton, who swooped into South Carolina two days after arch-rival Obama, emphasized the bread-and-butter domestic issues of health care, education and energy.
The crowd of 3,000, about two-thirds of whom were African-American, gave Clinton hearty rounds of applause, none more thunderous than when she cast her presidential bid in historic terms.
“I believe this presidential campaign is about breaking barriers,” she said. “This is the campaign, and I am the candidate.”