S.C. Democrats say fund raising for their Feb. 3 presidential primary is going well, but two months out they still are struggling to put down rumors the vote won’t be held.

Word that the Democrats were having trouble raising money and getting organized has had some in the candidates’ campaigns whispering.

The rumble got so persistent that the state party’s executive committee discussed it at a meeting earlier this month.

“I thought we had put that rumor to rest,” said committee member Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a state representative from Orangeburg. “The presidential primary will happen, and any presidential campaign that doubts that will be on the losing end.”

Former party chairman Dick Harpootlian said the campaign of national front-runner Howard Dean has been circulating those rumors.

“That’s wishful thinking on their part,” Harpootlian said of the Dean camp.

Asked about the rumors, Dean spokesman Don Jones said the former Vermont governor is committed to working in South Carolina, and that should show he believes the Democrats can be successful.

“We’re taking South Carolina very seriously,” Jones said. “I doubt (the Dean campaign) would be saying that and then paying people to come down here and start working.”

Primary preparations are going well in some parts of the state, party leaders say.

Democrats in most counties are making good progress in reserving polling places and recruiting volunteer workers, said Carol Khare, who is overseeing statewide organization for the first-in-the-South primary.

However, she said party leaders in about a third of the state’s 46 counties have a long way to go.

The roughly 5,000 volunteers that Democrats hope to recruit are essential if the party is going to open all the state’s polling places on primary day.

If it has to pay people to work the polls, the party’s cost to hold the primary would be much more than its $500,000 fund-raising goal.

Democrats said they still are counting how many volunteers have signed on. Khare said she would grade the overall progress in the counties as a B, “maybe a B-minus.”

“There are some people who would get A-pluses and some people who would get C-minuses,” she said.

South Carolina and Utah are the only states that require political parties to organize and pay for their own primaries.

Money has been a major concern for Democrats, who were nearly broke in May when they hosted the first nationally televised presidential debate of the campaign season.

State Democratic chairman Joe Erwin said fund raising has picked up, and the party is getting closer to the $500,000 it needs. But the party is no longer making its progress public.

Because the party is using “soft money” for the state primary, it will not have to report its progress to election officials, either. Party leaders said they want to protect their donors and stem rumors about their fund-raising progress.

“There’s just no reason for us to talk about it,” Erwin said. “It’s going well. We are definitely going to have the money.”

In 2000, state Republicans also would not reveal how much they raised to pay for their primary.

Harpootlian and former Gov. Jim Hodges have signed on to help raise money.

State trial lawyers recognized U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., at a Thursday night event that netted about $100,000 for the party, Harpootlian said.

That adds to at least $220,000 the party reported it had early last month. About half will go to pay the party’s overhead.

The party will spend an additional $40,000 on a debate it is hosting Jan. 29 in Greenville. All nine candidates have agreed to participate in the debate.

Charleston lawyer Waring Howe Jr., a Democratic National Committee member, said some party organizations in the larger counties, such as Charleston, would pay for their primaries themselves, reducing the financial pressure on the state party.

For instance, he said, Charleston has scheduled a Dec. 11 oyster roast in honor of Hollings, hoping to raise more than $50,000.

“We worked for years to get this early primary,” Howe said. “There is no way we’re going to blow this opportunity.”

Reach Talhelm at (803) 771-8339 or jtalhelm@thestate.com. Reach Bandy at (803) 771-8648 or lbandy@thestate.com.