E-mails offer glimpse of Ravenel's world

Weeks before state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel was indicted on a federal cocaine charge, his supporters were encouraging him to run for the U.S. Senate, an Associated Press review of e-mail records shows.

The Charleston developer's acquaintances were asking for help getting jobs. And Ravenel, who also spent some of his official state time tinkering with a letter of support for his chosen presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, was looking to buy a new boat.

"I already have a 29 footer that I keep at Seabreeze marina," Ravenel wrote in a May 30 e-mail to a boat dealer. "It's a bit big for the creek surrounding my place, Brookland Plantation, on Edisto Island."

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The e-mails indicate Ravenel used public time and his state e-mail account as part of his work as Giuliani's campaign chairman in South Carolina, which ethics experts say is apparently barred under state regulations.

http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/jul/06/e_mails_offer_glimpse_ravenels_world/?print