Democrat Lindsay Blanks, 42, an attorney from Goose Creek, says he wants to bring change to the Legislature.

Blanks faces 10-year Republican incumbent, Bill Mescher, 77, of Pinopolis, a management consultant company president.

The district covers a wedge from Hanahan up Interstate 26 to New Hope and across to Moncks Corner.

"I believe I've got the experience to continue to do good services for the constituents," said Mescher.

"I tell people, if you like the way things are going in Columbia, don't vote for me. I'm going to do my very best to make things change," Blanks said.

Blanks wants tax cuts for middle and working classes and tax credits for small businesses.

"We generally treat working people pretty badly in this state and that's got to change," he said. To get more jobs and better jobs, the state needs to refocus on recruiting and encouraging small businesses."

"We have to do things differently," Blanks said. "Hewlett Packard and Microsoft were started in somebody's garage. There's no reason, with the people we have in this state, we can't do something similar."

Blanks wants to take a long-term approach to improving education, better spending of state funds to increase the number of teachers in kindergarten through fourth grade, and programs to reduce the number of dropouts in higher grades.

Mescher wants to replace personal property taxes with a 2 percent sales tax, continue his work on tort reform to keep down the liability costs of medical services, and to look for ways to make public education more efficient.

Mescher wants to use some state lottery money to improve education in kindergarten through 12th grade. But more than 50 percent of tax dollars go to education, he said, and studies have shown no correlation between the money spent and student performance.

"Maybe the money is not being spent in the right place," Mescher said. He wants to work with administrators to look for better ways, possibly bringing in business people to make non-educator evaluations of what works and what doesn't.

LINDSAY BLANKS

DEMOCRAT

AGE: 42

RESIDENCE: Goose Creek

FAMILY: Wife, Claudette Blanks

EDUCATION: College of Charleston, B.S. in political science, 1984; University of South Carolina, law degree, 1987

PHONE/E-MAIL: 863-1800 / blanksforsenate@bellsouth.net

OCCUPATION: Attorney

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: None

BILL MESCHER (I)

REPUBLICAN

AGE: 77

RESIDENCE: Pinopolis

FAMILY: Wife, Sallie Kitty Stanley Mescher, 4 children

EDUCATION: University of Illinois, B.S.E.E.; Northwestern University, M.B.A., 1986

PHONE/E-MAIL: (843) 899-6351; SGE@scsenate.org

OCCUPATION: William Mescher and Associates management consultants, president

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: S.C. Senate, 1993-04

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