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Date Published: October 28, 2004
Eye on the Senate
Dist. 35 candidates address array of issues in 2nd debate
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Chris Moore / The Item
Republican candidate for state Senate Dickie Jones,
left, shakes hands with state Sen. Phil Leventis,
D-Sumter, at Wednesday's debate at the Sumter Opera
House. Jones and Leventis are vying for the Senate
District 35 seat. |
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By LESLIE CANTU
Item Staff Writer
lesliec@theitem.com
State Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, and his opponent for
the Nov. 2 election, Republican Dickie Jones, covered new ground
during their televised debate Wednesday evening, but they also
revisited questions that have trailed the campaign for
months.
Moderator John Brunelli of WJWJ-TV, Beaufort, asked
the candidates during the event at the Sumter Opera House about the
state of race relations, especially because the Confederate flag
still flies on the state Capitol grounds and the NAACP maintains its
boycott against the state because of it.
Leventis said the
Legislature needs to stick to its agreement, which members both
black and white, urban and rural, were able to agree to. That
agreement, in July 2000, moved the flag from the top of the Capitol
dome to the Confederate Soldiers Monument on the Statehouse grounds.
The state doesn't negotiate with private groups, Leventis
said, before taking a jab at Jones by saying that he has been a
member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People for many years but Jones only joined this spring.
Jones said the senator for District 35 must represent all
the people, not just some of the people, and noted the burgeoning
middle-class black community in Sumter.
But he did not
specifically mention the flag.
Sticking to the issue of race
relations, the candidates then tackled the question of whether there
should be reparations for slavery.
"I don't know the answer,"
Leventis said. "I wish I could tell you the answer."
Leventis
said the state should study the issue, and he noted that his own
family came to the United States in the early 20th century to escape
tyranny in Europe.
Jones said there have been great abuses in
the past, which some of his friends have related to him. Later, he
said he does not support reparations because so many different
groups of people have suffered at different times in
history.
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Chris Moore / The Item
Moderator John Brunelli, center, presides over the debate
Wednesday between Jones, left, and Leventis. |
| "The African-American
community in Sumter and Lee are about as big and forgiving on that
issue as any group of African-Americans I've known," Jones said.
"They don't hold a grudge. They have a heart of
forgiveness."
The issue of same-sex marriage has cropped up
in several states this election season, and it popped up in Sumter
during the debate.
"I would be against same-sex unions,"
Jones said. "I believe that God made the family for a man and woman
to be husband and wife."
The government has no business in
the church, Leventis said, but has an obligation to regulate
contracts, even those many people disagree with
strongly.
Later, Leventis said marriage is for churches to
decide. States do not bless marriages. His own church, the Church of
the Holy Comforter, does not endorse same-sex unions, and neither
does he, he said.
However, Leventis said it's simplistic to
suggest the state would send police poking into people's bedrooms to
see what they're doing. Some gay couples will live together, he
said, and the state needs to recognize the reality of that and be
prepared to enforce agreements if, for example, the couple were to
break up.
With the election less than a week away, and
voting already under way in some states, allegations of voter fraud
have already arisen. A question about how confident voters should be
that their votes will be counted opened the door for Jones to
mention the election commission's decision to use punch-card
machines this year instead of transitioning to electronic voting
machines, thereby forgoing $185,000 in federal incentive money to
make the change before the November election.
Up to 7 percent
of votes in Sumter County haven't been counted in the past, Jones
said. Worse than that, he said, the county lost out on the
opportunity to change to the new machines.
"We just lost
because of poor judgment," Jones said. "We need to make sure we have
a senator who has good judgment."
Leventis, who opposed the
new system, pointed out that the election commission, not the
legislative delegation, made the decision to stick to the punch
cards.
But Leventis said more concern should be directed at
the more than 50,000 disenfranchised Floridians in the 2000
election. He supports the election commission's efforts to put on an
election that everyone can have confidence in, he said.
"The
election commission voted to keep the existing technology so there
would be verifiable elections," Leventis said.
The candidates
also discussed a major campaign theme from past elections, the
lottery.
Jones said he believes funding formats should remain
as they are.
The key is integrity, Jones said. If the state
Legislature said the lottery would mostly go to higher education,
then that money should mostly go to higher education.
The
problem, Leventis said, is that the Legislature never said exactly
what it would do with the money. Everyone who voted for the lottery
had a different idea of how the money would be allocated. The one
promise was that the money would not be used to supplant existing
funds.
"Unfortunately, we've begun to do that," Leventis
said.
Currently, the Legislature decides each year how to
allocate funds, he said, and the lottery has become "almost a way to
buy friendships."
"It has to have some stability as to where
the money goes," Leventis said.
His concerns about the
minibottles arise from a similar problem, Leventis said. The
Legislature hasn't said what would happen if minibottles are voted
out of the state Constitution. He would be willing to do away with
the minibottle if the state had a framework in place for regulation
and taxation for life after minibottles. Further, the state stands
to lose $5 million in revenue if it moves away from minibottles.
But Jones said Leventis' concern is a ruse to mask his
support for bottlers and distributors. Jones said he will vote to
abolish the minibottle. Drinks made from minibottles are stronger
than free-pour drinks, he said, and South Carolina suffers from one
of the worst roadway death rates in the country.
"For too
long what has happened, we have allowed those five distributors to
control the law of South Carolina," Jones said.
Leventis
countered that no matter how drinks are poured, people shouldn't
drink and drive. South Carolina's roadway deaths should be blamed on
too few highway troopers, he said.
The minibottle issue is
actually about taxation and regulation he said. Currently, two
agents collect $23 million in revenue, but as many as 20 agents
would be needed to collect only $18 million in revenue if the state
did away with minibottles, he said.
Some studies have shown
the state would actually get more revenue if it moved away from
minibottles, Jones said.
The familiar issue of the University
of South Carolina Sumter and four-year status was introduced for
discussion. Jones said the fight started back in 1991 but fell to
the wayside because of a lack of strong leadership.
Leventis
responded by saying that he certainly shouldn't be blamed for that
because he was fighting as a volunteer pilot in the first Persian
Gulf War at the time.
The S.C. League of Women Voters will
close out the series of debates today with the candidates for
sheriff, Republican Robbie Baker and Democrat Anthony Dennis, taking
the stage at Nettles Auditorium at USC Sumter at 7 p.m.
Contact Staff Writer Leslie Cantu at lesliec@theitem.com or
803-774-1250.
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October 28, 2004 
