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THURSDAY'S EDITORIAL

Senate can be glad it didn't have to decide

THE ISSUE: Disputed Sumter County Senate election

OUR OPINION: Forcing Senate to decide tight race opens door to more bitterness

As the State Election Commission heard arguments in the razor-tight Sumter County Senate election between Democratic incumbent Phil Leventis and Republican challenger Dickie Jones, members of the state Senate were watching with more at stake than interest in who would fill the seat.

The senators could have found themselves in the awkward position of deciding the election. That's because South Carolina election law allows a candidate to appeal the decision of the State Election Commission directly to the body in question — in this case, the Senate.

Orangeburg County has experience with elections being decided in such fashion. Once in the 1980s and again in the 1990s, races for the House made it all the way to the chambers of the S.C. House of Representatives for a decision.

The 1986 race between Republican Will McCain and Democrat Larry Mitchell in District 95 ultimately was decided in 1987 on a vote of the full House.

The body voted 77-36 to adopt the resolution from the House Judiciary Committee dismissing Mitchell's appeal for a new election and, thereby, upholding incumbent McCain's win. The Judiciary Committee had based its resolution on a recommendation from a subcommittee that considered the appeal first.

The scene shifted to the battle for the open seat in District 96 in 1992. Republican Elsie Rast Stuart defeated Democrat Norman Fogle by less than 100 votes. Fogle made his case for a new election to the state commission, which rejected his appeal. He, too, went on to the House, but Fogle dropped his challenge after a House committee also rejected his case. The full House never had to vote.

That's what the Senate hoped for in the Leventis battle in which the challenger lost by 86 votes from more than 30,000 cast. Jones argued there were more ballots cast than there were signatures by voters on Election Day. Sumter County voter registration officials contended Jones' numbers are not official.

The State Election Commission on Tuesday sided with Leventis, leaving the next step to Jones. The challenger then announced he would not pursue an appeal.

That's good news. In the upper chamber, the potential for political ugliness grows — and particularly in this case.

Leventis is a Democrat who has challenged the Republican majority to the point of angering Republican senators and Gov. Mark Sanford on the last day of the legislative session in June. He held the Senate floor for hours, railing against Sanford's nominee for chairman of the Workers' Compensation Commission. Leventis cost the nominee his job and killed several bills dear to Republicans.

It was Leventis' actions as much as any that prompted the governor's call for reform in the Senate rules. Thus, any decision by the Senate against Leventis, no matter the integrity of the process and the senators themselves in hearing the case, would open the door to all kinds of charges and counter-charges.

It's not the way the members of the upper chamber want to begin the new session in January. Elections are to be decided at home, not in Columbia by other lawmakers from around the state.