COLUMBIA - Black legislators lost a bid to elect a black woman to an
open administrative law judge seat Wednesday.
While the Legislature elected a black woman to fill a Circuit Court seat,
black caucus members said they had gained nothing. In that race, Michelle Childs
ended up with no opponent after others dropped out.
"That was not a pickup" of a seat, said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg.
"That was the status quo."
Although blacks make up nearly 30 percent of South Carolina's population,
they hold just 6 percent of the state's trial court seats. That's left members
of the Legislative Black Caucus and others calling for an overhaul of the
state's judicial election system.
Black lawmakers hoped to pick up an administrative law court seat, but they
knew the election would be tough.
Page Gossett, who is white, won the administrative law court seat by a 94-69
vote over Shirley Robinson, who is black. Gossett, 36, is married to Senate
Clerk Jeffrey Gossett and is a partner in the Columbia firm Willoughby &
Hoefer. Robinson, 55, is a lawyer for the state Department of Labor, Licensing
and Regulation.
The Senate clerk said he did not involve himself in his wife's campaign and
did not talk with legislators on her behalf. "I did not push or prod," Jeffrey
Gossett said.
The outcome blended two elements that black legislators say have kept
qualified black candidates from winning elections. "It was a double 'R':
relationships and race," Cobb-Hunter said.
House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, agreed on part of that. "I think
relationships is probably what drove that election," he said.
"I've been here 11 years and nothing changes," said Rep. Leon Howard,
D-Columbia and leader of the Legislative Black Caucus. "It's either race or
relationship and the net result turns out to be the same."
"This process has got to change. Until this process changes, I think we're
like a car stuck in the mud spinning our wheels," Howard said.
Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, said long-held biases emerged in the
election.
"There are a number of white members in this House who will not vote for
black candidate," he said.
