South Carolina’s outdoor advertising industry spent at least $339,000 lobbying legislators during its successful campaign to keep billboards from being taken down across the state.

That’s more than most interest groups spend lobbying at the State House in a typical two-year period.

And when the lobbying campaign ended, outdoor advertising supporters had persuaded the Legislature to make it nearly impossible for local governments to get rid of unwanted billboards.

Lawmakers “basically said, ‘Show me the money,’” said Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, who opposed the legislation.

“This was just extraordinary.”

The House and Senate overrode Gov. Mark Sanford’s Feb. 21 veto of the bill less than a day after the governor’s decision. The law restricts local governments from adopting new rules to remove billboards.

Critics say the new law gives undue privileges to the billboard industry while allowing gaudy signs to ruin the scenery along South Carolina roads. Supporters say it protects property rights.

Scott Shockley, who heads the Outdoor Advertising Association of South Carolina, said his group followed the law in its lobbying activities and expenditures.

The state allows businesses and trade associations to provide campaign contributions up to $1,000 per election cycle for legislative candidates and $3,500 for statewide candidates.

“We are not unlike any other legitimate business in terms of participating in the political process,” Shockley said.

Most of the $339,000 spent by the Outdoor Advertising Association went to pay lobbyists or for campaign contributions to about one-third of the Legislature’s 170 members, according to state lobbyist disclosure records.

Of the 21 lawmakers receiving $1,000 or more in campaign contributions during the past two years, all but one voted Feb. 22 to override Sanford’s veto.

Public records show that the Outdoor Advertising Association spent:

• At least $3,400 on legislative gatherings. Lunch and breakfast meetings, which drew dozens of lawmakers, were at prime locations such as the Capital City Club and the Palmetto Club.

• $174,000 in 2004. The bill the industry supported was introduced in January 2005; it passed this February.

• $164,000 in 2005 and hired a new team of high-powered lobbyists to push for the bill. Among them were former Lt. Gov. Mike Daniel, a Democrat; Dwight Drake, one-time aide to Democratic Gov. Dick Riley and a member of the former governor’s law firm; and Republican Fred Allen, widely regarded for his lobbying skills.

Lawmakers voting to override the veto said lobbying and campaign contributions had nothing to do with their decision. They said the outdoor advertising industry has a right to protect its investment from the government.

“They could give me a million dollars, and it’s not going to influence my decision,” said Sen. Kent Williams, a Marion Democrat who voted for the override.

Williams received the most in campaign contributions from the outdoor advertising association — $2,500 — during the two years leading up to this year’s veto, according to lobbyist principal reports.

Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Aiken, who is running for governor, got $2,000 in campaign contributions from the association but said he has spent more money buying billboard space. Moore said he spent only a few minutes talking with the billboard industry about the legislation.

“It was a question of property rights and what is just compensation,” Moore said, explaining why he voted to override Sanford’s veto.

The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Harry Cato, R-Greenville. He received a $1,000 contribution three months before introducing the legislation in January 2005. Cato said the contribution had nothing to do with his decision.

The new law requires local governments to pay compensation to billboard companies if local ordinances require the boards to be taken down for good.

Some estimates place the cost in excess of $100,000 per sign because local governments might have to pay for future lost revenue. Before the new law, local governments could require billboards to be taken down without compensation. But they first allowed companies to make money off the signs for a few years.

Additionally, the legislation nullifies at least seven local laws adopted in the past year to get rid of billboards. Charleston, Greenville and Rock Hill are the largest cities affected by the new law. Older city ordinances are exempt from the new state law.

It isn’t known how many billboards will be protected by the legislation; the industry has not revealed that number. Several hundred signs would be affected in the Columbia, Aiken and Florence areas, according to Lamar Advertising.

The restrictions do not apply to about 6,500 billboards on major federally funded highways, state transportation officials say.

Shockley made no apologies for the billboard association’s lobbying efforts.

“We believe that this was an important piece of legislation,” he said. “The Legislature recognized that, and it was an issue of protecting property rights. They voted based on the merits of the bill.”

In 2004, the association’s lobbying expenditures were the sixth-highest in South Carolina, according to the S.C. Ethics Commission. That topped influential associations such as the S.C. Farm Bureau Federation, the S.C. Poultry Federation and SCANA.

John Crangle, director of the government watchdog group S.C. Common Cause, said the outdoor advertising association’s campaign contributions constituted “legalized bribery.”

Shockley said his group’s legal campaign contributions show “we believe in supporting people who support business and property rights.”

In addition to the association’s contributions, individual companies donated to some campaigns.

Williams, for instance, received at least $1,500 in sign company contributions, campaign disclosure records show.

Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, got at least $1,750 from individual sign companies, in addition to $2,000 from the billboard association.

Peeler, the Senate majority leader, said he voted to override Sanford’s veto because he thought sign companies should be compensated when their property is taken.

Peeler said he has lifelong friends in the billboard industry from the Gaffney area. The father of a sign company executive once drove a milk truck for the Peeler dairy business, he said.

“They always supported me,” Peeler said.

Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537.