And in a way it did, as it also cemented the tea party’s faithful some spots in the Senate’s back row. But that shake-up didn’t compare in breadth and depth that the stepping down of Ken Ard from the office of lieutenant governor caused over last week.

Ard’s resignation and subsequent guilty plea to seven counts of state ethics violations kicked off an epic game of musical chairs.  Many argue Ard’s resignation hastened more change than Haley’s election.

Implicit in the state Constitution and required by statute, Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell (R-Charleston) was supposed to succeed Ard -- which he did, but not before much handwringing as to if he would and how long he would stay in the office.

Some worried that McConnell, a master of parliamentary procedure and the Senate rules, would install a patsy as president pro tem, resign his position -- but not his elected seat -- and return quickly to the top of the Senate heap.

But when that didn’t happen, wagging tongues and rumors started again -- that McConnell would run for his Senate seat again. State Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, even put in a bill this week that proposed for McConnell to keep his seniority if reelected.

McConnell, however, stanched the gossip Thursday when he issued a statement that said he would stay on as lieutenant governor through the current 2012 election cycle and would not seek reelection to the Senate. 

Incidentally, candidates for his office have until the end of the month to declare for the regularly scheduled election for his office, and those wishing to run for the rest of his unexpired term can announce beginning March 30.

Several senators, both Democratic and Republican, said McConnell’s health played a role in his decision to leave the Senate. McConnell spent several weeks at home and in the hospital in Charleston after “insect bites” reportedly caused him severe problems.

McConnell, busy all week moving and taking meetings in his new digs, could not be reached for comment.

With McConnell now only in the Senate as presiding officer (the major constitutional role of any lieutenant governor) and out of its leadership, two positions were open -- president pro tem and chair of the Judiciary Committee. Longtime GOP ally Sen. Larry Martin was quickly voted into McConnell’s former spot as the head of Judiciary.

Sen. John Courson (R-Columbia) was elected President Pro Tempore over Majority Leader Harvey Peeler (R-Gaffney) with the help of substantial support from Democratic senators.

Martin, who is not a college graduate according to his Statehouse bio, had been the chair of the Rules Committee. By becoming Judiciary chair and vacating his slot on Rules, Sen. Jake E. Knotts (R-W. Columbia) being elected chairman of Rules.

Courson can remain chair of the Senate Education Committee while president pro tempore, as McConnell did as chair of Judiciary.

New Jack City

But what the vote for Courson over Peeler showed, according to observers and senators not wanting their names attached to their comments, is that a coalition is forming between Democrats and mainstream-Chamber of Commerce Republicans. Democrats voted overwhelmingly for Courson, with a majority of Republicans trying to carry the day for Peeler.

Sen. Phil Leventis, the lone wolf Democrat from Sumter who is also retiring at the end of this session, spoke about the oddly growing collegiality between Democrats and mainstream Republicans. Leventis, who often stood alone in his positions in the Senate, said that a third party has emerged in the Senate.

Some call them the “tea party.” Leventis referred to them as “wing-nuts.” Others in the Senate and the Statehouse confirm growing concerns about the remnants of the Sanfordites, who are now loyal to Haley and the “tea party’s” conservative ethos.

As such, Leventis and others said to expect more cooperation between GOP regulars and the Democrats, especially with Sen. Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg) expected to take over for the retiring Minority Leader John Land (D-Manning). “Brad is practical, in the best sense of the word,” said Leventis, adding that he hoped that some of the most strident “wing-nuts” don’t win reelection.

Paradigm shift

Ard’s resignation also resulted in another power shift in Columbia. Just a few years ago, the state’s governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer, House speaker and president pro tempore all called the Lowcountry home. Now, the Lowcountry is only home to McConnell and House Speaker Bobby Harrell (R-Charleston).

State Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian has been hard at work with multiple press statements that seek to persuade the electorate to switch voting patterns after Ard’s career went down due to legal issues, as did former Treasurer Thomas Ravenel’s, and with allegations that Gov. Nikki Haley had fiscal improprieties on the campaign trail.

Symbolic and real

The departures of Land and Leventis will start a new game of musical chairs that will deliver Sen. John Matthews (D-Bowman) to the front row of the Senate chamber. Sitting on the front row physically represents how a senator is a member of senior leadership. With Matthews on the front row, it will be the first time a black member has sat there since Reconstruction, according to Leventis, who has the option of allowing Matthews to take his front-row seat this session.

Crystal ball:  Will Courson be able to control and manage the Senate as well as McConnell did? Several senators said no -- that Courson didn’t have the people or political skills that McConnell possesses. And where McConnell was fixated on the details and nuances of Senate procedures and rules, which he used to wield power, Courson is seen as more of a “big-picture guy” by several of his colleagues. But his stay may be short-lived, as McConnell, with 31 years in the Senate, could return in two and a half years when he fulfills the rest of Ard’s term.  Meanwhile, tongues will continue to wag.

Bill Davis is editor of Statehouse Report.  He can be reached at:  bill@statehousereport.com.

The Senate will return, at least for the first of the week, to a bill that would expand and alter how charter schools are created, constructed, and funded.   The Senate is expected to take up the budget  at the end of April.

Also on tap:

• House Ways and Means. A series of subcommittees will meet next week on Tuesday to discuss a series of bills regarding smaller tax issues. There are too many to succinctly list here. Go here to look for a full list.
  
  
• House 3M. The full committee will meet Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. or an hour and a half after adjournment to discuss recommendations from subcommittees, including regulations for dieticians, lifeguards, massage therapists and more. Agenda.
  
  
• House Education. The full committee will meet Wednesday at 9 a.m. in 433 Blatt to discuss recommendations from subcommittees, including measures on smoke-free college campuses and changing vehicle fees. Agenda.
  
  
• House Judiciary. A subcommittee will met Thursday at 9 a.m. in 516 Blatt to discuss a series of bills that would make gold and silver legal tender in South Carolina, and would require families seeking financial assistance from the state undergo drug testing. Agenda.

Even after “Sunshine Week” ends for local media to tout the importance of open records laws, look for more stories and editorials to continue to appear about governmental attempts to restrict what state and local governments are required to release to the public. Law enforcement will argue it will protect ongoing investigations. The media will argue that proposed changes will lead to protecting governmental mismanagement.

Late Wednesday, House unanimously approved a $23 billion package total budget for the upcoming fiscal year that would, if the Senate concurs, include 70,000 new poorer children in state health care programs, give teachers a 2-percent raise and put aside $180 million for three-fifths of the state share to deepen Charleston’s harbor. 

Even though the budget is now on its way to the Senate, the fight in the House over the budget isn’t over, as recommendations from a GOP ad hoc tax reform committee will be introduced in a series of bills in the House next week. Raises are expected to become a sticking point between the House plan and budget work already begun in the Senate, according to sources. House Speaker Bobby Harrell (R-Charleston) praised the work done, saying that it provided tax relief across the board, unlike the executive budget proffered by Gov. Nikki Haley, which, he said, only benefited certain businesses.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

House Democrats and Republicans clashed this week over how to spend $32 million, the state’s portion of a settlement in a nationwide lawsuit against big banks in the wake of the nation’s mortgage crisis of the past few years.

Republicans wanted all of the money to go to the state Department of Commerce for use as “closing” dollars, and to be used to help Commerce recruit and land big companies in the state. Democrats, led by a vocal Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter (R-Orangeburg), argued that the money should go toward shoring up families struggling to keep their homes. Their reasoning? The settlement money was only available because of the damage banks did to state homeowners. In the end, with nearly $300 million already set aside for statewide mortgage support, Republicans prevailed and sent all the money to Commerce.

“Thank you, South Carolina,” comedian Jon Stewart says over and over and over like the Energizer bunny.

Just look what’s happened in the last few days in the latest installment of the political made-for-TV reality show called “South Carolina.” 

On March 9 after months of silence about what was going on with a criminal investigation of campaign shenanigans by Lt. Gov. Ken Ard, state officials engaged in his well-orchestrated resignation, indictment and sentencing within a matter of hours. 

Then Ard’s successor, Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell (R-McConnell) reluctantly took Ard’s place, an office with far less power than McConnell accumulated over 31 years in the Senate. Speculators whispered left and right about whether McConnell would finish the term and, instead, run to return to his Senate seat. By Thursday, McConnell quashed that talk by saying he couldn’t in “good conscience” put the state through more political throes.

Even the best fiction writers can’t create this kind of political drama.

What brought on the Palmetto State’s latest chapter of embarrassment was Ard’s spending spree following his November 2010 statewide election. Eventually accused of 107 counts of violating state ethics rules, Ard last July paid a $48,400 ethics fine (the second largest in state history), $12,500 to reimburse the state for its ethics investigation and $12,121.35 to his campaign account for personal expenses like clothes, fuel, lodging, football tickets, limo services, cell phones, TVs and computer equipment. 

Then his case went to South Carolina’s state grand jury to determine whether he broke any state laws. During a second investigation, state officials interviewed 70 people. The grand jury issued 46 subpoenas, heard from 18 witnesses and received 113 documents totaling about 7,000 pages, according to state Attorney General Alan Wilson.

At 10 a.m. Friday, Ard resigned. Three hours later, Wilson detailed a seven-count indictment of him for scheming to “create the false appearance of a groundswell of political support through fictitious or bogus campaign contributions” worth $75,000. Two hours after that, the defrocked and disgraced Ard pleaded guilty to the seven misdemeanors and asked for mercy. A judge sentenced him to probation for five years, ordered him to pay a $5,000 fine and perform 300 hours of community service.

More than likely, it happened so quickly because state Republicans like Wilson want the latest installment of scandal to disappear from voters’ memories as quickly as possible. And who knows? It might work. Just consider that voters continue to kowtow to the Republican Party despite a rollicking recent history of disgrace.   See if you can remember the names of Republican stars who have kept Comedy Central focused on the Palmetto State:

a) The philandering governor who gave a new meaning to “hiking the Appalachian trail” after he made international news for visiting his mistress in South America;

b) The U.S. congressman who disrupted a 2009 speech to Congress by President Barack Obama by yelling, “You lie!”

c) The former S.C. House member who became an assistant attorney general and was arrested at a cemetery while in a parked car with a stripper, Viagra and sex toys;

d) The Republican operative who called First Lady Michele Obama a “gorilla” in an online “joke;”

e) Another former lieutenant governor on the 2010 campaign trail who compared citizens of free and reduced lunch to stray animals; and

f) The incumbent state comptroller general whose steamy email affair with a state superintendent candidate became embarrassingly public.

Those six incidents are since 2008 -- and don’t include the state treasurer (Thomas Ravenel) who had to step down in 2007 after being indicted on felony cocaine charges for which he later served time in prison.

To South Carolina politicians, all that a columnist like me can do is say, “Thanks. Thanks for keeping life interesting and providing me with job security.” This is one time, however, when I’d rather not to have to say thanks.

Andy Brack is publisher of Statehouse Report. You can reach Brack at: brack@statehousereport.com.

Answers: a) former Gov. Mark Sanford; b) U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson; c) former S.C. House member Roland S. Corning; d) former S.C. Elections Commission chairman Rusty DePass; e) former Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, currently running for U.S. Congress; and f) Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom.

• 3/9:  Looking for last great governor
  
• 3/2: SC's $700 million education problem
  
• 2/24: American South is different now
  
• MORE BRACK:  See our archives

Real estate. Home sales are up nearly 17 percent compared to last year, and fewer homes are going up for sale, too. More.