Senate committee torpedoes Sanford restructuring bill

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The series of votes came less than two hours after Sanford appeared before the panel, telling members, "I cannot effectively run the ship given the current structure of South Carolina government."

Critics of the outcome said that partisan politics and old-boy networking were to blame.

The public can't have a voice in real reform "when you chop it up for your political friends," an angry Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, chairman of the Republican controlled committee, told the committee after the series of votes.

Sanford had sought approval for a voter referendum to change the state's constitution to allow the governor to designate a running mate for lieutenant government and make four other elected offices appointive, state education superintendent, adjutant general, commissioner of agriculture, secretary of state and comptroller general.

But the Judiciary Committee voted to keep three Republican offices elective, lieutenant governor, agriculture and adjutant general. Members rejected an amendment to delete the education post, now held by Democrat Inez Tenenbaum, the only official supportive of the legislation.

Republican Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom said he was open to considering the proposal.

Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, said, "We didn't see nothing wrong with the process and yet we get a newcomer in state government saying, 'Let's do it over.'"

In the showdown with most of the state's elected constitutional officers, Sanford, whose only political and government experience was three terms in Congress before being elected governor in 2000, came out second best.

McConnell declared the bill "essentially dead."

Separate legislation for a massive consolidation of state agencies remains alive in the same committee.

Sanford wasn't available for comment.

"It's hard to believe that some folks don't even want voters to have a choice in the direction of their government and that's unfortunate," said a downcast Sanford spokesman Will Folks outside the Statehouse after the vote.

"The last time South Carolinians had a voice in the structure of state government, women and most minorities couldn't vote," Folks said, echoing Sanford's earlier comments on the 1885 Constitution that still governors the state.

Folks declined to quantify the scope of the setback for Sanford who had campaigned on the plan in 2002 and had pushed hard to win approval from his fellow Republicans in the Legislature.

Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, "This looks bad, but he's going to look a lot better" on the agency consolidation bill.

"Unfortunately, it was worse than I thought," Martin said. "I knew if they started picking one apart, it was going to all fall apart. If you help me on mine, then I've got to help you on yours and that's what began to happen."

Sanford emerged from his first session a year ago with little to show for it, attributing that to his need to learn the legislative culture and get to know the lawmakers.

He entered this year with higher hopes and a more vigorous agenda, backed by less reluctance to schmooze with lawmakers. His other signature issue, a state income tax cut, is expected to win House approval, but faces a tough fight in the Senate.

Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Columbia, said Sanford made a push to reduce the number of elected officials without public support.

"Gov. Sanford means well, (but) there is no public outcry. Are PTO moms and teachers asking us to do this?" he said of the education superintendent's position. "It seems like Big Brother reaching his hand down."

Tempers frayed as the meeting wore on.

Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Clearwater, said the only reason the 23-member GOP-dominated committee voted to reject an amendment to remove the education superintendent from the bill is because the incumbent, Tenenbaum, is a Democrat.

Treating that office differently, Moore said, is unfair and a "tragic situation" in which partisan politics scuttled an important issue.

McConnell, agreeing on the appearance of partisanship, scolded the committee before adjourning.

"It does look like partisan politics," McConnell said. "There will be another day when real reform will raise its head."

In his presentation to the panel — called "unprecedented" by McConnell — Sanford compared trying to manage state government current structure, part Cabinet-level agencies, part board-run agencies, to trying to captain a super carrier by committee.

"I (only) have a piece of the ship," he said in remarks dominated by nautical and football metaphors.

When he agreed to take questions from senators, things got more specific.

He was asked for, and gave, assurances that he would select the current lieutenant governor, Republican Andre Bauer, as his running mate, if the bill passed and voters approved the change.

Amendments came fast and furious once Sanford departed.

Sen. John Hawkins, R-Spartanburg, a National Guard officer, moved to exempt the adjutant general, commander of the Army and Air Guard.

"We come out on top (in ratings) time and time again and I ask you not to drastically alter our National Guard in a time of war" when one-third of the troops are overseas, Hawkins said.

But Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head, said the amendment "goes against the concept of what we're doing."

It passed, 12-8.

Sen. Jake Knotts, Lexington, won a 16-5 vote to delete the lieutenant governor from the bill.

Supporting him, Jackson said, "I always have a difficult time saying to the citizens, 'You cannot get it right.'"

Knotts also proposed deleting the education superintendent.

Martin said that with 60 percent of the state budget devoted to education and with most governors making education their salient issue, "this is one way to give the governor some influence over the state's largest single expense."

Sen. Dick Elliott, D-North Myrtle Beach, demurred, saying that Democratic Gov. Dick Riley from 1979-87 "had more influence over education than any governor and he didn't have such control."

Knotts' amendment failed, 4-12.

"Don't disenfranchise farmers," pleaded Sen. John Kuhn, R-Charleston, a farmer in his younger years.

The amendment passed, 11-10.

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Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 298-4883.