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Mike Campbell will head the just-formed state chapter of a national organization that monitors government effectiveness and promotes free-market solutions to education and health-care issues.

He will be the full-time state director of Americans for Prosperity, a two-year-old group that says it now has chapters in 15 states.

Campbell, a Greenville native and son of the late Gov. Carroll Campbell, recently lost the Republican runoff for lieutenant governor to incumbent Andre Bauer after leading the field in the first primary.

In an interview, Campbell said he will form a 46-county grass-roots network that will "educate them on how to get involved in government to become good watchdogs and basically empower them in looking after their tax dollars by making sure government spending is kept in check."

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Campbell said the announcement was timed for Labor Day weekend, the traditional kickoff for fall election campaigns, and "we want to have a voice in this election cycle."

The organization's national president, Tim Phillips, a native of Lyman, made the announcement.

Phillips said his group was instrumental in helping defeat proposed tax increases in Kansas and Oklahoma and limiting taxpayer-funded lobbying in Texas.