McMaster, Sellers spar at arm's lengthBy Bill Davis, senior editor OCT. 10, 2014 -- Drama and importance have been building for years for this November’s lieutenant governor’s race between Republican workhorse Henry McMaster and upstart state Rep. Bakari Sellers, D-Denmark.  Now it’s time for a new player after four lieutenant governors since 2008.
- In 2009 during Mark Sanford’s time in the Governor’s Mansion, his six-day trip “on the Appalachian Trail” raised the office’s visibility as many wondered whether Sanford, now a congressman, would resign which would cause then-Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer to take over.
- Then came the scandal of 2012 when then-Lt. Gov. Ken Ard resigned after a series of allegations for campaign finance improprieties.
- His ouster led to then-Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, to give up his powerful seat for the state’s number two office, even though it now appears there was no law forcing him to do so.
- When McConnell resigned this spring to become president of his alma mater, the College of Charleston, it set off a political game of musical chairs in the state Senate. McConnell’s replacement as president pro tem of the Senate, Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia, was resolute that he would not take the job, and stepped down, allowing Finance chairman Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, to take the job. Then Sen. Yancey McGill, D-Kingstree, gave up his long-held seat for a short tenure as lieutenant governor -- a seeming welcome mat to his political retirement after 25 years in that chamber.
Public, political service The drama that has shrouded the lieutenant governor’s office in recent years takes a new form this political season. Instead of an odd reality show, the two leads in the race seem to have been sent over from a casting office.  McMaster, who did respond to more than a week of phone and email requests for comment for this story by deadline, has had a long record of public service, dating back to being a staffer for legendary U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond in the 1970s.
In the years since, McMaster was appointed U.S. Attorney for the state by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, elected as the chair of the state Republican Party from 1993 to 2002, served as the state’s Attorney General from 2002 to2011, and has since been appointed to several state commissions. In 1990, McMaster ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor against Democrat Nick Theodore, and also ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2008, not making it out of the primary against current Gov. Nikki Haley. Observers say McMaster seems to be counting on the state’s historically conservative political base and is running a front-runner’s race, as evidenced by his failure to respond with comments for this story. He also has agreed to only one debate with Sellers. Even then, while televised live on state public television, there will be no audience present in the studio for the debate. On his website, McMaster states he will fight for conservative reform in state government, work with Haley and protect seniors as head of the Office on Aging. The first plank in his campaign website invokes his filing the first lawsuit against Obamacare. And in the other corner Tall and as verbally sharp as he is physically angular, Sellers has seen his political profile rise nationally. The youngest person ever elected to the S.C. General Assembly at 22, Time magazine named the son of a civil rights hero one of its “40 under 40” new civic leaders to watch list four years ago.  Now 30 and engaged to be married, Sellers has crisscrossed the state on a “seniors tour,” focusing on his six-point plan to help elderly citizens on issues related to transportation, caregivers, homestead exemptions, increasing access for Medicaid nursing home beds and championing the fight against Alzheimer’s. [Website]
Sellers said the race isn’t about age or experience, but about “creating a vision and ideas for moving South Carolina into the 21st century. Sellers does not neatly fit into the mold of feisty liberal, as he carries a lifetime score of 68 from environmentalist group the Conservation Voters of South Carolina and an 83 from the state Chamber of Commerce. This week, he was endorsed by S.C. Realtors, which also endorsed Haley. And the winner is … Conventional wisdom has McMaster winning easily, as South Carolina is a largely Republican state and Haley’s tenure has seen unemployment drop by more than half from 12 percent at the height of the Great Recession. Because the lieutenant governor’s race is a down-ticket office, there has not been independent polling done, which makes predictions about the result murky.
Bill Davis is senior editor of Statehouse Report. He can be reached at: billdavis@statehousereport.com.
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Vernacular house, Cummings, S.C.
We’re not really sure about the story behind this great, old vernacular house along the railroad tracks in tiny Cummings, S.C., a few miles southeast of Hampton. And while the house is boarded up and front door is open, it seems to still be getting some use as a storage area. No doubt, there a lots of stories that could be told about its better days. Photo by Andy Brack. More: Center for a Better South.
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Lots of meetings ahead- Education. The EIA and Improvement Mechanisms Subcommittee of the Education Oversight Committee will meet 10 a.m. Oct. 13 in 433 Blatt. On the agenda: Next year’s budget, public comments. The full committee will meet in the same room at 1 p.m. The meeting will be broadcast online at www.scstatehouse.gov. Its agenda: TransformSC, standards, exceptional needs children.
- DSS. The Senate General DSS Oversight Subcommittee will meet at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 14 in 110 Gressette. On the agenda: Discussions on improvements with presentations from Casey Family Programs and a representative of the University of Chicago.
- School safety. A task force will meet at 10 a.m. in 433 Blatt to discuss best practices, recommendations and a coming Nov. 6 public hearing. More.
- FOIA. The Freedom of Information Act Subcommittee of a special House study committee will meet 12:30 p.m. Oct. 14 in 516 Blatt to hear testimony from several invited people and the public. It will be broadcast online.
- Teachers. The Select Committee on Public School Teachers in South Carolina will meet 1:30 p.m. Oct. 14 in 433 Blatt to discuss teacher pay and incentives and more.
- Hunley. The Hunley Commission will meet 4 p.m. Oct. 14 in 409 Blatt.
- Animal welfare. A select committee on animal welfare of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee will meet 7 p.m. Oct. 14 in North Charleston at Trident Tech. More.
- Campaign finance. The Campaign Finance Subcommittee of a special House ethics study committee will meet 9 a.m. Oct. 16 in 516 Blatt to hear testimony from several invited people and the public. It will be broadcast online.
- House rules. A Special House Rules and Procedures Review Ad Hoc Committee will meet 1 p.m. Oct. 16 in 516 Blatt on suggested revisions to House rules. Click here to learn how to make suggestions.
- Transportation. the House Transportation Infrastructure and Management Ad Hoc Committee will meet 1 p.m. Oct. 16 in 521 Blatt to hear testimony from four groups on road problems. It is likely that discussion will include points on raising the state’s gas tax. More.
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Same-sex marriage has topsy-turvy weekFirst it looked like gay couples in Charleston and other parts of the state might get marriage licenses as early as Thursday morning. Then state Attorney General Alan Wilson, long a proponent of spending lots of state money defending the state’s “marriage is between a man and a woman only” law, filed an injunction with the state Supreme Court to slow things down.  So enter the state Supreme Court, currently under something of a cloud as it may be part of the brewing federal investigation of vote swaps in a legislative race for chief justice. The court ruled that no licenses are to be issued until a federal judge in South Carolina deals with a same-sex marriage case about the state ban on such marriages.
But as one constitutional law professor has said it might be tough for the federal judge to ignore a higher court’s ruling that a similar Virginia law is unconstitutional. One thing is clear to many on both sides of the aisle -- the train to stop discrimination of gay couples who want to get married is on the tracks and coming into the South Carolina station. We can hear the whistle and it won’t be long, but folks have to wait a little more for the law to catch up with a lot of popular sentiment in which lots of people are saying it’s time to move on. Lost Trust much?  Hushed talk in Statehouse corridors of a new, ongoing federal investigation is reminiscent of the cautious environment that swirled among state legislators 24 years ago in the summer of 1990. That year, news dribbled out day after day about a FBI sting operation that snared legislators and lobbyists. In the end, federal authorities accused 28 people in Operation Lost Trust and got 27 convictions, including 17 state lawmakers, in the now famous cash-for-votes operation that led to dramatically tighter state ethics laws.
These days as suspended House Speaker Bobby Harrell faces nine ethics and corruption allegations and the state’s top federal prosecutor was seen at his bond hearing, the environment among the Statehouse set is similarly frazzled -- lots of people asking questions, few authorities talking and a picture that is emerging slowly of another big scandal, this time involving possible misuse of campaign funds, vote swapping and more. We’ve been hearing the other shoe is about to drop for weeks. More likely -- even though reporters are pushing and pushing -- things will become much clearer soon after the Nov. 4 elections. Until then, lots of folks will be shaking in their boots -- and not just because there’s an election.
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The strategy of running out the clockBy Andy Brack, editor and publisher OCT. 10, 2014 -- The clock is running out and you’re 10 points ahead.  In the huddle, you tell the team, “Pray. Pray that we don’t do anything to fumble. All we have to do is make it through the next little bit and we’ll win. We’re just going to run out the clock.”
You break, wait for some action and take a knee. Then you do it again. And again. Football game? Nope. It’s GOP Gov. Nikki Haley’s campaign, desperate to insulate itself from any kind of October surprise in the three weeks before the November elections.  In spite of relentless attacks about ethical lapses and poor leadership at cabinet agencies from the state Department of Revenue (the hacking of private information from virtually every South Carolinian) to the struggling, embarrassing state Department of Social Services, Haley’s holding on for dear life.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen tried to resurrect the old issue of the Confederate flag to draw the governor into the open, but she didn’t take the bait. In fact, we still don’t know where she stands on whether to take the flag off the Statehouse grounds or keep it in place. (Clue: You won’t find out anytime soon -- just like you won’t find out about her supposed plan to deal with billions of road needs until after the election.) Independent Republican Tom Ervin has tried to embarrass Haley and Sheheen into debates -- especially Haley, who balked on giving any airtime statewide to her opponents on SCETV. So Haley, whose handlers control access better than anyone in the state by just saying no or not responding at all unless it is to their advantage, hangs on, clinging to a Democratic-sounding education message and a fiscal record that hammers how unemployment got cut in half under her watch. The game plan for now
In case you’re wondering, here’s the game plan for the next three weeks: - Continue to hit Sheheen hard on TV for being a (gasp!) lawyer and “liberal” bogeyman.
 Ignore Ervin and don’t even think of that guy running as a libertarian.
- Completely disregard pesky columnists and reporters, particularly anyone who asks about the recent DSS audit that showed her cabinet agency in complete disarray and meltdown.
- Pray that a budding House corruption scandal over campaign slush funds, vote-selling and general all-around sleaze doesn’t tar the governor’s race.
- Pay no attention to troubling statistics and inconvenient truths, such as the state’s depressingly high rates of poverty, murder, domestic violence, diabetes, hypertension and obesity as well as its too-low rates of high school graduation and disposable household income. If asked any hard questions about any of these things, talk about jobs.
- Use the words “constitutional responsibility” a lot if ever asked about whether the state should allow same-sex marriages and avoid any mention of a personal position on the subject.
- Make sure cabinet secretaries keep as low of a profile as possible as election day gets closer. You don’t want anybody off the reservation.
Start running warm, fuzzy, “nice” ads that highlight a couple of accomplishments, but keep the ads pretty bland so they don’t push any real buttons. It’s important for the ads to make the governor look like a leader as much as possible.
- Avoid any talk about accountability -- yes, that issue that was sexy enough to be pasted all over ads four years ago.
Cynical? Yep. But it’s amazing how the governor -- the person who pledged to bring accountability to South Carolina -- is being wholly unaccountable by hunkering down, refusing a statewide TV debate and just waiting for the clock to run out. Haley’s going to continue to play it safe and low-key. But there’s still time for another shoe to drop. Who would have expected the scathing audit of DSS in the final weeks of the election? Who would have expected all of the hullabaloo about gay marriage? For there to be another governor, Vincent Sheheen and Tom Ervin have to close their deals. Otherwise it will be four more years of Nikki Haley and boatloads of stories wondering (gasp!) whether she is vice presidential material. Four more years? Bless our hearts.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. He can be reached at: brack@statehousereport.com.
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The Riley Institute at Furman  The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. This week's spotlighted underwriter is The Richard W. Riley Institute of Government, Politics, and Public Leadership, a multi-faceted, non-partisan institute affiliated with the Department of Political Science at Furman University. Named for former Governor of South Carolina and United States Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, the Institute is unique in the United States in the emphasis it places on engaging students in the various arenas of politics, public policy, and public leadership.
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Great news on teen birth rate, but more to be doneBy Forrest Alton
Special to Statehouse Report
OCT. 10, 2014 -- It’s fall in South Carolina, which means football season is in full swing. Even ESPN’s Game Day has made a visit to the historic horseshoe on the University of South Carolina’s campus. In the midst of tracking Gamecock, Tiger and (for this Coastal alum!) Chanticleer outcomes each weekend, you may have missed some important news released last week.
According to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, our state has seen a 54 percent reduction in the teen birth rate since 1992! A decrease of this magnitude is just short of unbelievable and is even more impressive among certain age/race subgroups like African American youth ages 15 to 17 whose teen birth rate has declined 74 percent over the same time period.
Since the news broke, our office has been inundated with congratulatory messages and words of encouragement from around the state and nation. After all, the news is remarkable, and it’s flattering to think the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy may have played a small role in such success. We believe strongly that while everyone across the state should take a moment to celebrate this amazing achievement, this is also an appropriate time to borrow a famous phrase from Game Day’s own Lee Corso: “Not so fast, my friend!”
Despite the drastic declines, South Carolina still has the 12th highest teen birth rate in the entire nation. As impressive as it is that the teen birth rate has been cut in half in just one generation’s time, still more than 4,700 young women under the age of 20 became mothers in South Carolina last year. Progress? Yes. Time to move on? Not quite.
What progress does allow is a careful examination of what has worked well over the past 20 years. It provides us all an opportunity to identify “what works” in preventing teen pregnancy and commit to doing more of it. So, what are those things we should be doing more of?
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"Reductions in our state’s teen birth rate saves taxpayers an estimated $172 million annually compared to the costs they would have incurred had the rates not fallen."
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First and foremost, we must recognize that the bulk of our praise should be directed towards the young people of South Carolina who are making better decisions regarding their sexual health. Teens are remaining abstinent at higher rates than they were in the early ‘90s, and for those teens who are having sex, they are using the most effective forms of birth control more consistently. Yet, with progress comes room for continued improvement. Nearly half of South Carolina’s high school students (47.5 percent) indicate that they have had sex and more than one-third (41 percent) didn’t use a condom the last time they did. I think all of us would agree that our young people can use more information that encourages them to remain abstinent, and more information about the benefits of using contraception when they do have sex.
Last year, a bill to update our state’s 25-year-old comprehensive health education act received strong bi-partisan support in the House of Representatives before stalling out in the Senate. The bill would have required that sex education taught in public schools be medically accurate, that information be delivered by trained professionals, and that school districts were held accountable by the state Department of Education. The data above are clear that despite progress, our state still has work to do on this issue. Similar legislation will likely appear this year and here’s hoping that our General Assembly recognizes that further progress can be made with their support. A friendly reminder from you certainly wouldn’t hurt.
Second, here’s a reminder that parents and caring adults have played a huge role in this decline, and will play an equally important role in further progress. Teens tell us consistently that they want to hear about these issues from parents and trusted adults – not the media, not the Internet, not their peers – and we must continue to take this responsibility seriously.
Finally, the committed youth-serving professionals throughout South Carolina who work day in and day out to ensure young people are well-educated and have access to health services deserve an abundance of credit for this decrease. This includes teachers, guidance counselors, clinicians, after school program leaders, and many others who have dedicated their professional careers to helping teens succeed and who recognize that children having children can interrupt a host of other goals and life opportunities. The good news is, our state’s past commitment to funding prevention programs with evidence of success is making a difference in the lives of young people. Let’s let the progress of the last 20 years serve as a reminder to government leaders, elected officials, the business community, and private philanthropists, that a continued investment in prevention can have a huge return. Reductions in our state’s teen birth rate saves taxpayers an estimated $172 million annually compared to the costs they would have incurred had the rates not fallen.
Young people need each of us to step up and do more to help them prepare for life’s journey and to be equipped to make good decisions along the way. To learn more and get involved visit www.teenpregnancysc.org or join the conversation on social media by following #HalfWayThereSC on Facebook and Twitter.
Forrest Alton is chief executive officer of the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
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Surprised to agreeTo the editor:
 I am surprised you would actually point this out [Brack: “Sheheen uses flag to try to shift election focus, 10/3] as I just did a couple of days ago to a couple of friends (obviously worded less eloquently than yours.) Here was my email.
What a typical politician. This guy is losing again so let's pull this out now. It says they asked him his opinion in 2010 and he did not call for removal but for "discussions." Of course that didn't work for him then so let's try "removal" now. Yeah right, that will probably assure 40 percent of vote and go ahead and promote amnesty too and that would be another 15-20%. Oh yeah, we love old people, children, dogs, etc.
-- Name withheld upon request, Florence, S.C.
A rant on Columbia’s new ball team
To the editor:
Since the city of Columbia has asked us to name the new ball park, I would love to throw the name “Columbia’s Ball Busters” into the mix.
They certainly will break our bank unless I’m really very wrong and cause the young people who have yet to be born to deal with a massive debt we didn’t need to incur. And yes, I’m disgusted by their indifference to what the people wanted and all the backroom and under-the-table deals made to bring this unneeded and unwanted thing to Columbia!
-- Name withheld upon request, Columbia, S.C. Rant. Rave. Send us your opinion. We love hearing from our readers and encourage you to share your opinions. But you've got to provide us with contact information so we can verify your letters. Letters to the editor are published weekly. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.We generally publish all comments about South Carolina politics or policy issues, unless they are libelous or unnecessarily inflammatory. One submission is allowed per month. Submission of a comment grants permission to us to reprint. Comments are limited to 250 words or less. Please include your name and contact information. Send your letters to:
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From equality to accountability Equality. It looks like another form of discrimination -- keeping same-sex couples from marrying -- is about to bite the dust.
Irv Condon. Congratulations to the Charleston County probate judge for having the legal foresight and courage to allow gay couples to get marriage license applications. Despite injunctions and stalling tactics, you’ll soon be proven right. (And you also probably secured your elected job for life.)
Harbor deepening. It’s great economic news for the whole state that Charleston’s port will become the deepest on the East Cost. More.
SAT scores up. Overall state SAT scores are up six points to 1429, but still lag the national average by 43 points. More.
Ebola. What’s up with the state’s readiness? On one day state DHEC Director Catherine Templeton says quicker alerts are needed just in case the disease comes here. On the next, she and another health officials said the state was ready to deal with a possible outbreak. More.
House probe. Things look worse and worse at the S.C. House, which is the focus of a state and federal probe of some kind of shenanigans. If there’s ever a clarion call for real ethics reform, now is the time. More.
No debates. Candidates who won’t debate their rivals, such as Gov. Nikki Haley and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, should suffer at the polls for pandering to frontrunner status and avoiding accountability. What are you afraid of?
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