Rep. Rick Quinn’s loss in Tuesday’s primary leaves a significant hole in the leadership of the Republican-controlled S.C. House.

The Richland County Republican is the majority leader, the point person on health policy and the author of a leading plan for tax reform.

House Speaker David Wilkins said Quinn was a “major player” who will be missed when his term ends in January.

“Rick Quinn knew the health care budget better than anyone in the House, and was incredibly important there,” said Wilkins, R-Greenville. “As majority leader, he had a great deal of savvy and an ability to see the big picture and see where we wanted to be.

“It will take a while to fill those roles.”

Quinn, 38, has held his Irmo seat for 16 years — since he was 22. He lost his re-election bid in the Republican primary to newcomer Nathan Ballentine, who criticized Quinn for spending too much time on other responsibilities and too little time in his district.

Quinn said he is proud of his record. His stint as majority leader saw the Confederate flag come down from the State House dome and video poker disappear.

He led the influential Ways and Means subcommittee on health care, controlling $1 billion in state spending and billions more in federal matching funds and grants.

And he crossed party lines to work with Democratic Sen. Vincent Sheheen to write the Quinn-Sheheen tax plan to change school funding.

“I’ve offered some good ideas,” Quinn said. “I’ve changed the debate, I hope, and ultimately, South Carolina is going to benefit from that.”

So what becomes of Quinn’s three major roles?

MAJORITY LEADER

Quinn continues to serve in the second-highest ranking GOP position in the House — behind Wilkins — until the November election and the subsequent reorganization of the House Republican Caucus.

As majority leader, Quinn is the lead Republican strategist, deciding what the party’s interests are on matters that come to the House floor. He rounds up votes in favor of legislation the party wants, and against bills it opposes.

The majority leader also is responsible for assisting each Republican House member run their own campaigns, including help with fund raising.

Assistant Majority Leader Bill Sandifer, R-Oconee, will pick up more duties, Quinn said. Sandifer is the leading candidate for the leader’s job, though other representatives are laying the groundwork to challenge him.

“I don’t know what happens now,” said Rep. Dan Cooper, R-Anderson. “We’ll keep going on, though.”

HEALTH CARE AUTHORITY

The budget-writing Ways and Means Committee has 23 members, perhaps the most coveted slots on any committee.

Quinn chairs the Medicaid subcommittee, with responsibility for the departments of Health and Human Services, Social Services and Mental Health, among others.

Two Republicans on the committee are mentioned as leading candidates to replace Quinn — Tracy Edge, R-Horry, and Rex Rice, R-Pickens.

Rice knows the budget thoroughly but bucked Quinn and the House leadership this spring when he backed a hefty cigarette-tax increase to create a recurring source for Medicaid spending.

Ways and Means could have several vacancies once the primary runoffs and general elections pass. Members say the committee might take that opportunity to reorganize into different subcommittees or shift members around entirely.

Sue Berkowitz, director of the S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center, serves clients who rely on Medicaid and other social services. Quinn has expertise in health care, she said, but he focused much of his time on possible fraud in the program that the agency has shown does not exist.

New leadership could “shake loose” new life for the cigarette tax, she said, and for a recurring source of health care funding.

Wilkins said the House remains committed to funding Medicaid and to comprehensive reforms authored by Quinn. The House passed restructuring and reform measures in 2003, but the Senate did not adopt them.

TAX REFORM PROPOSAL

The bipartisan Quinn-Sheheen proposal — gaining steam at session’s end — would shift much of the burden for paying for schools from local property taxes to state sales tax.

Democrats like Sheheen, of Kershaw, back the plan because it would right the financial inequity between underfunded rural schools and flush urban ones.

Quinn and other Republicans like him would lower property taxes by adding 2 cents to the sales tax and eliminating some sales tax exemptions, such as those for residential purchases of electricity, newsprint and newspaper subscriptions, long-distance telephone calls, lottery tickets and bulk mail.

Faced with losing his most influential ally, Sheheen plans to call on other House Republicans who backed the plan, as well as school administrators and advocates, to apply pressure from outside the State House.

“The one thing that hurts is that, of all the leadership, Rick was the most interested in tax reform,” Sheheen said. “But we had enough people who are interested, so we can work — either from the outside in, or get more of the (legislative) leadership involved.”

Wilkins said the Quinn-Sheheen plan was one of several tax reforms proposed, including Gov. Mark Sanford’s plan to lower the income tax and Ways and Means chairman Bobby Harrell’s proposal to reassess property only when it is sold or significant improvements are made.

“It’s still on the table like several other plans out there,” Wilkins said. “We’re going to continue to review the tax structure and see what changes, if any, we ought to make.”

LESSON LEARNED

Overall, legislators were reeling from Quinn’s election loss. They said it was a reminder of their own political mortality, and an admonishment to remember the people who sent them to Columbia.

Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg and chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, said he will miss Quinn’s willingness to listen.

“Rick had developed a reputation as a firm but fair individual,” Govan said. “You may not always agree with him on an issue but you could sit down and try to hash it out.”

Govan said he and his colleagues should take the lesson to heart.

“We all realize this when we come up there: The seat’s not ours,” he said. “That can happen to anyone at any given time.”

As for Quinn, he will stay involved with politics, through his family’s consulting business, Richard Quinn and Associates.

For now, though, he is out of the spotlight and the pressure of the campaign, and enjoying time with his wife, Amy, and daughter, Caroline, born last year.

“I’ve always had a strong faith in what’s planned for me, and at this point in my life, this is where I’m supposed to be.”

Reach Bauerlein at (803) 771-8485 or vbauerlein@thestate.com.