Republicans, state indebted to Wilkins' leadership

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Guest column • Bob McAlister: Republicans, state indebted to Wilkins' leadership (07/29/04) • John Holland: Free market approach would cut health costs (07/28/04) • Charles A. Hill Jr.: Public transportation must serve neediest first (07/27/04) • : Dogs offer us a miniaturized perspective on our mortality (07/26/04) • Ed Leap: July launches medical residents into exciting careers (07/25/04) More details Bob McAlister grew up in the Welcome community of Greenville and graduated from Carolina High School. A University of South Carolina graduate, he was a broadcast journalist for what is now WYFF Television. He was a top aide to Sen. Strom Thurmond, served as Gov. Carroll Campbell's chief of staff and now owns McAlister Communications, a public relations company in Columbia.

And the strictest ethics law in the country forbids Speaker of the House David Wilkins, who wrote much of it, from accepting even a free cigar. In November, the Greenville native will celebrate an historic milestone: his 10th anniversary in the job, making him the third longest-serving speaker of the S.C. House of Representatives in history. That fact alone demonstrates the grind of being the state's most powerful legislator.

But Wilkins isn't complaining; it's not as though he hasn't had other opportunities. He has shunned entreaties to run for statewide office and turned aside opportunities for a judicial appointment by President Bush (his Statehouse office is dotted with pictures of Wilkins and his family being feted by the president at Camp David).

Last week, the low-key 57-year-old Greenville attorney was nationally recognized for his service by winning the 2004 Excellence in State Legislative Leadership Award.

One person who nominated Wilkins for the award is the point man for opposing Wilkins and the Republican majority, Democratic minority leader James Smith, D-Richland County. In a letter to the nominating committee, Smith wrote, "Though I often disagree with him on the issues before the state, he has always led the House in a fair and even-handed manner." That speaks well of both men.

The speaker's rise to political prominence parallels that of the S.C. Republican Party. While Carroll Campbell today is regarded as a political icon, pundits predicted utter failure when he became only the second GOP governor in modern history. Campbell faced a hostile Democratic majority in both the House and Senate determined to thwart his agenda and make him a one-term anomaly.

Campbell early on tagged three Greenville lawmakers — Wilkins, Howell Clyburn and the late Terry Haskins — as his "go-to" guys. They cobbled together a coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats that ultimately made Campbell one of the most successful chief executives in state history.

The Republican agenda then was much as it is today: higher-paying jobs, low taxes and maximum freedom for individuals to improve their quality of life.

Wilkins was Campbell's point man in wooing conservative Democrats to the Republican Party and guiding his programs through vicious partisan politics. Their work, along with the labors of many others, resulted in the GOP takeover of the S.C. House of Representatives in 1995, making Wilkins the first Republican speaker in the Deep South since Reconstruction.

In a meeting that night before the public celebration began, Campbell, who was leaving office, privately told Wilkins that his success as governor would not have been possible without his efforts. Both men exchanged glances with tears in their eyes.

But the speaker was on his own after the Democratic resurgence in 1998 when Jim Hodges defeated Gov. David Beasley. Wilkins became the de facto leader of a fractured party with a tenuous hold in the House and a hostile Democratic Senate.

The twin nuclear issues that defeated Beasley, video poker and the Confederate flag, were dumped in the speaker's lap. Video poker barons, emboldened with victory after spending millions to defeat Beasley, threatened political retaliation against their opponents. They swaggered through the corridors of power. Influential Republicans — shocked and scared — demanded that Wilkins make amends with the gambling bosses "for the sake of the party."

He didn't budge. He and Haskins again teamed up and, in a maneuver that is now the stuff of legend, rewrote the video poker law that the S.C. Supreme Court later used to ban the scourge for good. The gambling kingpins no longer swagger.

Then came the Confederate flag debate, when Wilkins again was professionally and personally threatened. His wife, Susan, was physically threatened. Once more, intimidated Republicans warned Wilkins he could take down the party he helped build and destroy his career by tackling the issue. Again, Wilkins did the right thing and won an honorable resolution to the issue.

Things have changed in the intervening years. Senator Thurmond, who sparked the Republican revolution, is no longer with us, and Gov. Campbell, who solidified it, is heroically fighting that insidious villain named Alzheimer's.

Now a new generation of GOP leadership, commanded by wildly popular Gov. Mark Sanford, dominates South Carolina's political landscape.

David Wilkins is the bridge between the past and the future. As University of South Carolina historian Dr. Walter Edgar noted, Wilkins "has been a speaker with a capital 'S.'... He was willing to get out in front."