The House passed campaign finance reform 112-0, which House Speaker David Wilkins' office praised as "overwhelming bipartisan support." The bill requires independent people and businesses to report any payments of $500 or more for political purposes to the State Ethics Commission. That includes soft money given to parties for operations or party-building.

The Senate will now take up the measure.

The House also passed a bill that would shorten the legislative session by about a month, but the measure sailed into a brick wall in the Senate chamber.

SANFORD CHOICE

On Tuesday, Gov. Mark Sanford announced that if his Air Force Reserve unit is called into action as a result of military action against Iraq, he will deploy with it and turn the state over to Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer.

That is, of course, if the Air Force actually orders him to go. There was some debate around the Statehouse about whether the armed forces would risk sending a sitting governor into combat situations. It would be a first.

"If it is the Air Force's judgment that I go, I'll go," Sanford said at a meeting with reporters Wednesday morning.

Sanford downplayed the danger of his role, which is basically handling logistics for a medical unit tied to C-17s. He said it wasn't like he would be on the front lines.

Although Sanford said he believes his first duty is to the people who elected him governor, he says there is a trust factor -- that he was elected as a guy who, if nothing else, kept his word. And, as usual, Sanford said that his decision to honor his military commitment also came down to philosophy.

He said that some had made a strong argument that he was more important as governor of a state than as a lieutenant setting up stanchions on a plane, but that there is no dividing line on that slope. Is a doctor more important? A lawyer?

"If you keep going down that list, it's just the little guy who gets sent off," Sanford said. "I think that's wrong. Everybody should be involved in the defense of their country."

THE WAY DOWN SOUTH

After the Senate adjourned one day last week, a cluster of Charleston-area senators huddled around the desk of Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell. But Sens. Arthur Ravenel, John Kuhn and Robert Ford weren't debating Lowcountry legislation. They were discussing the Battle of Gettysburg, with McConnell narrating the action.

One observer noted that, "With those Charleston boys, it's either their schools or the Civil War."

SCHOOL MOVEMENT

Speaking of Charleston schools, Kuhn's bill to restructure the Charleston County School District sat on the Senate calendar without movement all week. Ford introduced a competing bill to deconsolidate the schools and there was talk that Charleston House members were going to introduce their own bill to make school board elections partisan.

Kuhn, meanwhile, continues to lobby for more support for his plan. After a request by some House members, Kuhn has set up three hearings to get public input about the restructuring plan. The meetings all come this month. The first, on Feb. 10, will be at Laing Middle School in Mount Pleasant. The next comes Feb. 20 at North Charleston City Hall. The final meeting will be at West Ashley High School on Feb. 27.

BUDGET REACTION

House leadership began the week with a press conference outlining their plans to cap spending.

The recommendations, which came from an ad hoc tax study committee chaired by Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell of Charleston, propose a new formula based on population and inflation growth to limit spending; call for capping budget growth to 6 percent annually; and increase the general reserve fund to 4 percent of the state budget. Currently it's 3 percent.

Members of the committee said that the government was not responsible enough with the state's money during the boom years of the 1990s.

"This plan offers stability to our state government, even in times of economic turbulence," Harrell said. "It is both fiscally and morally responsible and will ensure that we avoid the kind of financial hardship in which we now find ourselves."

UNDER THE NET

On Thursday, Sen. Bill Branton introduced the Summerville High School girl's volleyball team, the 2002 AAAA state champions. He introduced Larry Grooms and McConnell, two other senators representing portions of Dorchester, and then pointed to the guy in the purple robe on the podium.

"We call him the boy lieutenant governor," Branton said, joking about Bauer, the 33-year-old presiding officer of the Senate.

Bauer grinned and then told the senator from Summerville that "It'll be a long time before you're recognized again."

A LOOK AHEAD

This week the Senate will meet in chambers only once, spending most of its three-day week in perfunctory session to allow more time for committee meetings. The Senate has had little legislation move out of its committees yet.

The House has legislation to combine Charleston County's Election Commission and Voter Registration Board, and the measure is expected to move through the chamber quickly. A bill to do the same thing in Dorchester County is now in the Senate's hands, where it may be amended to give the county's senators a little more power in selecting board members.

The House Ways and Means Committee will start looking at the spending limits House leadership announced last week, and a House subcommittee will begin its study of predatory lending.

In a Judiciary subcommittee, mini-bottles are up for debate again. Lawmakers will try, for the umpteenth time, to change the law that requires restaurants to use airplane bottles to serve liquor. The Senate has historically been the hold-up on the bill. Early word is that may be changing this year.

--BRIAN HICKS