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NEWS: Look for much of the same at Statehouse despite new faces

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State Rep. Bill Crosby, R-North Charleston, during floor debate in June.
State Rep. Bill Crosby, R-North Charleston, during floor debate in June.

By Bill Davis, senior editor  |  South Carolina should expect more of the same at the Statehouse next year — but with a twist after this week’s general election results, observers say.

The state House of Representatives will welcome 18 new members in December when it reorganizes.  Republicans bolstered their majority in the 124-member House to 80 members as they picked up two seats Tuesday.  In the Midlands,  Republican Rick Martin took the Democratic seat of retiring Rep. Walt McLeod.  On the coast, former Charleston County GOP Chair Lin Bennett beat Democratic candidate Bob Aubin in the District 114 race to replace Rep. Mary Tinkler, a Democrat who opted to leave the house to run for Charleston County Treasurer.  (She won.)

16-1111-newmembersMeanwhile, the state Senate will welcome eight new members, a substantial turnover for 46-member chamber.  Republican Rex Rice, who defeated Judiciary Chair Larry Martin, R-Pickens, in the June primary, is expected to work closely with the GOP “William Wallace Caucus,” the most conservative wing of the Republican Party that has grown incrementally and more powerful since the Sanford years.   The caucus, however, lost one of its fire-breathing members earlier this year when former state Rep. Scott Talley beat Sen. Lee Bright in a tough primary battle.  It’s not clear whether Tally will be part of the Wallace caucus.

The Senate also welcomed two more women members.   Lawyer Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, replaces retiring state Sen. Paul Thurmond, while state Rep. Mia McLeod, D-Richland, successfully ran for the Midlands seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Joel Lourie.  Senn and McLeod double the number of female senators to four – a substantial increase, when just a few years ago when there were none.

Winthrop University political scientist Scott Huffmon said that despite the changes, and Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton at the top of the ballot, “we’re gonna see some of the same stuff coming up – more debate on roads funding and infrastructure. That’s not going to die any time soon.  That one is a perennial.”

Lourie (D-Columbia) agreed, saying the voting public is not going to be satisfied with that issue dragging on unsolved for a few more years.

Huffmon added the election also represented a “loss of institutional knowledge” within the legislature, as many senior politicians were either defeated or retired this election.

Huffmon described a new paradigm in which “old timers” would become even more powerful in the seniority-driven General Assembly, while bumping up against the “emboldened” newcomers.

In the Senate

“Tuesday’s election will likely embolden them to try and undermine the ‘Leathermans’ of the world,” Huffmon said, referring to Senate President Pro Tempore Hugh Leatherman (R-Florence), who also chairs the powerful Finance Committee.

11_huffmon_60Huffmon sees the new members of the Senate as more likely to align themselves as the enemy of the “mainstream status quo.” But he added, some “legislative intramural battles could come into play out of the public eye.”

Rice, a former petition candidate, benefited from tea party-affiliated support in his successful bid to unseat 37-year Statehouse veteran Martin. Like Martin, Rice began his career in the House.

Rice pledged this week to give more power to “local folks” and to get government “off the back of Joe Citizen.”

“As a business guy,” said Rice, whose career has been in construction and development, “government regulations keep driving up the cost of doing business, making it tougher and tougher to do it.”

Senn
Senn

Senn, a lawyer and longtime Lowcountry GOP activist, said she was excited about the formation of a “female caucus” where there had been none.

“I’m not saying a woman’s approach is better, but it’s going to be different,” she said. “Maybe we can work together across the aisle” to find more middle ground, she said.

First and foremost, Senn wants to do something about the “molasses pace” in the Senate, but added, “I’ve got a learning to do.”

In the House

House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford (D-Columbia) dourly said Thursday to expect little change in the legislature.

Rutherford
Rutherford

“Given the fact that leadership is largely the same in both parties in both chambers, the new members will have little impact,” said Rutherford. He said new members could try in the House some sort of “institutional upheaval, and that’s their prerogative.  I see it going pretty much like it’s been going.”

House Majority Leader Bruce Bannister (R-Greenville) largely agreed.

“The two additional seats we picked up will not add significantly enough to our majority to change the question of getting to a ‘super majority,’ where we can make constitutional amendments,” said Bannister.

Efforts like furthering state government restructuring will be easier, said Bannister, but added that Tuesday’s election provided him with a different kind of optimism.

Bannister
Bannister

“Votes in the House won’t change dramatically,” said Bannister, saying that what will change is that South Carolina will be able to search for solutions to pressing problems “without the federal government holding us back” as he perceived it doing for the past eight years of the Obama tenure.

Rick Martin, the newly-elected Newberry representative who said he was a “blue collar” Republican, said he wasn’t looking to start anything but renewed industry in his district, and roads improvement projects across the state. He also pledged to listen to “good ideas” from whatever side of the aisle they come from.

Fellow Republican House newcomer Josiah Magnuson replaced Doug Brannon (R-Landrum), after the incumbent riled many in his base by supporting the removal of the Confederate flag from Statehouse Grounds last year.

“Traditional values” activist Magnuson said that while he sees himself as “an agent of change,” he also wants to work with others, especially when it comes to “reforming corruption.”

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