GREENVILLE ? Joe Erwin has made his fortune with a Greenville advertising company and is spending some of it paying for state Democratic Party technology and facility upgrades.

Erwin, the party's chairman, has given the state party's various accounts more than $103,000 since May 2002, public records show. Erwin said he's given $20,000 besides that to accounts that at the time weren't public record.

Most of that giving has come during the past year. State Ethics Commission reports show Erwin gave nearly $62,000 to the party's operating account and $1,000 to the party campaign account from May 2005 to January 2006.

Points can be made about his party's relative financial weakness compared with the Republican Party's, Erwin said.

He said he has "been giving money to the party and its candidates for years and that wasn't going to stop when I became chairman."

Many people "are willing to contribute their ideas, but he's willing to contribute his ideas, his time and his money, and to me that reflects well that he's willing to do all those things," said Roger Owens, president of Greenville's Save Our Sons program.