Demos aim to neutralize party politics, strategist says

Why look! Here's another instruction to the sheeple from the POS PC P&C, whose editor says they have a "conservative news and editorial policy." I wonder which this is?

Yassuh, Boss! I be's tellin' 'em.

GOP lacks education candidate

Republicans need 2002 challenger forTenenbaum

Sunday, November 11, 2001

BY SCHUYLER KROPF
Of The Post and Courier Staff

     The state Republican Party's biggest political crisis right now is trying to find someone who wants to be in charge of South Carolina's school system.
     Republicans have an abundance of candidates for just about every other office on the ballot: seven want to be governor, three are stumping for attorney general, and three more are running for lieutenant governor.
     But so far no Republican has stepped forward as a candidate for superintendent of education in 2002, leaving a void where the party says it wants to be strongest.
     Political scientists say an education vacancy is not a good message for Republicans to be sending out, especially since polls continue to show that schools are most voters' biggest concern.
     "Somebody's dropped the ball in terms of recruiting," said Francis Marion University political scientist Neil Thigpen. "For the Republicans to offer a ticket that has a slot vacant, that's unusual."
     The situation is especially odd, Thigpen said, since Republicans need to show that the Democrat wins in 1998 were, by their words, a "fluke." The GOP needs to produce a strong and rounded ticket, top to bottom, he said.
     Democrats, meanwhile, say the Republican no-show is an acceptance that Gov. Jim Hodges and the incumbent Democratic education superintendent, Inez Tenenbaum, are unbeatable when it comes to delivering the three R's.
     "Nobody wants to be the sacrificial lamb," Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian said last week about the Republicans vs. Tenenbaum.
     "Our polling shows that Democrats own the education issue, and that Inez is beyond reach to any serious (Republican) candidate," he said. "Education is improving at a phenomenal rate ... and Inez and the governor deserve the credit for it."
     "Education is not an issue (Republicans) want to fight on," said Kevin Geddings, a consultant for Hodges and the Democratic Party for the upcoming elections. "I guess they are going to want to fight elsewhere, on other issues."
     Geddings expects GOP opposition to come forward at some point, but not from the party's top-name tier. The only Republican being mentioned so far as a potential candidate is Kathy Bigham of Rock Hill, who campaigned against the lottery last year - a record Geddings said he would love to run against.
     "Do voters really want someone who is anti-lottery running the Department of Education?" he asked.
     So far Tenenbaum has raised about $325,000 toward her re-election bid, but she also has the power of incumbency. She came to office as one of the most popular candidates of 1998, drawing more than 600,000 votes in defeating Republican David Eckstrom.
     In an interview last week, Tenenbaum said her biggest accomplishments so far are improved test scores, higher teacher pay, pushing the $750 million school improvement bond passed by the Legislature, and a general perception that the Hodges administration is committed to schools.
     She also has navigated the Department of Education at a time when Republicans in the House of Representatives have controlled most of the state's purse strings. "You never see me out there attacking the Republicans," she said.
     Education issues are likely to be just as critical next year as they were four years ago. For starters, the lottery should start to deliver money for education if tickets go on sale in January as planned. But the state also will have to grapple with reduced funding - having possibly $150 million less than budget drafters had to work with this year.
     That means much of the fight will be in how both political parties portray, defend and attack the condition of education in the state.
     House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bobby Harrell said last week that he wasn't too worried about Republicans not having an education candidate lined up as yet, adding that the function of the superintendent of education is largely overrated and that whoever is in that job mostly carries out the will of the General Assembly.
     "It's really an administrative position to implement what the governor and Legislature tell them to do," he said, adding that most of the real education fighting occurs inside the Statehouse. Both Hodges and Harrell have said they want to preserve as much education money as they can next year.
     Republican Party Chairman Henry McMaster also said it's not time yet for the GOP to panic. "I'm sure someone will emerge, but I don't know who that will be."
     McMaster also countered that the Democrats still haven't filled out all of their ticket either.
     "Do the Democrats have anybody running for lieutenant governor yet? I'm sure they will."
     Thigpen, however, said Republicans might want to face the notion that South Carolina Democrats have effectively claimed the education label over the past four years.
     "It could be as simple as the fact that Tenenbaum girl could be the toughest one on the ticket," he said. "She ran away with it last time."

     Schuyler Kropf covers state and local politics. Contact him at skropf@postandcourier.com or 937-5551.

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