Campaign puts focus on League of South

State Senate candidate Ken Wingate is coming under fire from some black lawmakers and his opponent for an endorsement he received while running for governor two years ago.

The S.C. League of the South, a states’ rights political group that advocates secession, threw its support to Wingate in the 2002 GOP gubernatorial primary.

Wingate is running against state Rep. Joel Lourie, D-Richland, for the District 22 Senate seat begin vacated by Warren Giese, R-Richland.

The issue highlights the rising level of contention behind the scenes in the race, despite its mild public tone.

Both candidates have aired local television ads focusing on education and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in the race.

They agree on many issues, such as raising the cigarette tax, reducing partisanship in the Senate and exploring an increase in the state sales tax to reduce the burden on property taxes. But they disagree sharply on vouchers and tax incentives to help parents pay for private schools.

Lourie opposes any government incentives or credits for private or religious schools; Wingate supports such measures.

In a separate controversy, Lourie supporters said last month that they received calls from “push pollsters” asking if they knew that Wingate was a “born-again” Christian. Wingate said he had no connection to the polls.

State Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, said he plans to call attention to the League of the South’s endorsement of Wingate. Another black lawmaker, Sen. John Matthews, D-Orangeburg, also said Wingate ought to repudiate the endorsement.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled the league a “neo-confederate hate group.” The group rejects that label.

Wingate said he has no relationship with the group and was not in a position to criticize or support it.

“I don’t know anything about them, their issues, their policies, what they try to do or what they’re involved with,” Wingate said.

Lourie and some other lawmakers said it is no secret what the group stands for.

“He has a responsibility to denounce their endorsement,” Lourie said. “This group, which everyone knows about, espouses so much hatred, so much division, that I just cannot understand why anyone would ever want to be associated with them.”

Wingate said he does not know enough about the group to reject the endorsement. “I won’t make any comment, positive or negative, about the League of the South,” he said.

Although a letter on the group’s Web site indicates that Wingate approached the group seeking the endorsement, he said he does not remember that.

“I have not sought the endorsement of the League of the South in this race or, as I recall — and it’s been more than two years ago — in that race,” Wingate said.

The Web site includes a letter from Bob Slimp, listed as “Midlands SCLoS Political Coordinator,” detailing conversations in which Wingate approached Slimp to gain his support.

This week Slimp said he did not remember writing the letter and said he never held a title with the group.

The league has not weighed in on the state Senate race.

Robert Hayes, the league’s state director, acknowledged that the group endorsed Wingate for governor, but he said the decision reflected frustration with their first choice, then-Attorney General Charlie Condon. Hayes said the group had trouble communicating with Condon as the primary drew near.

Condon and Wingate received 16 percent and 4 percent respectively in the seven-way race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, won by eventual Gov. Mark Sanford. Sanford later appointed Wingate chairman of a commission on government reform.

Hayes said it is possible the league never spoke with Wingate about the endorsement, but he said the Columbia attorney knows what the league stands for.

“Mr. Wingate definitely knows about the League of the South; I don’t care what he says.”

Hayes said the league opposed removing the Confederate flag from the State House dome in 2000, opposes state funding for education and opposes affirmative action. Hayes said the group supports secession as an option for protecting states’ rights.

Jackson initially brought the issue to Lourie’s attention.

“As someone who spilt a whole lot of political energy and blood on that flag compromise, it concerns me that the League of the South would endorse this guy,” Jackson said.

Wingate said he has not had any communication with the League of the South in more than two years, since receiving a phone call from a representative of the group. He said they did not discuss an endorsement.

“It’s a non-relationship,” he said. “I refuse to let it become an issue.”

Reach Drake at (803) 771-8692 or jdrake@thestate.com.