In a state where Democrats aren't all that common, Frank Willis admits he's fighting an uphill battle to become South Carolina's next governor.

But he's hoping he'll be able to persuade voters that the state needs a new direction.

"I think we're going not in the wrong direction, but we don't have a direction," said Willis, the mayor of Florence since 1995. "We need to have a vision for where we want South Carolina to go. I think we're just reacting to circumstances and not having a long-range plan."

Willis spoke with The Island Packet while in town attending conferences of the South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association and the South Carolina Association of Counties.

"It is a huge challenge running as a Democrat in South Carolina," he said.

Willis, 63, was born in Marlboro County and grew up in Darlington, where his father worked on building the racetrack. He said he graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1964 with a psychology degree.

Since then he's lived in Florence, where he runs his family business, Willis Construction, which works mostly on highway projects, he said.

A fellow Democrat, state Sen. Tommy Moore of Clearwater, also has thrown his hat into the governor's race. The primary election will be in June 2006. The winner is expected to face incumbent Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, that November.

Sanford's predecessor, Jim Hodges, was a Democrat. But Willis said running as a Democrat who supports abortion rights won't be easy, especially against a popular incumbent like Sanford.

"I think the general public has a very positive perception of the governor, but the governor has taken some positions very detrimental to South Carolina," he said.

For example, Willis said, Sanford's plan to offer tax credits to parents whose children are home-schooled or attend private schools would hurt the state's public schools.

"Put Parents in Charge is very damaging and detrimental to South Carolina," Willis said.

Over the past couple of years, Sanford also has pushed the legislature to cut the state's highest income tax rate. Several legislators have resisted that idea, instead trying to focus on a property tax overhaul.

Willis said state government shouldn't look at issues so narrowly. Instead, officials should look at the entire tax system and see what changes should be made.

"You can't look at property tax or income tax or sales tax without looking at it in a comprehensive manner," he said.

He said House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, intends to do just that, studying the entire tax system. Ultimately, state officials still have to watch out for the bottom line, Willis said.

"Regardless of where we want to go," he said, "you've got to look at how we pay for it."