Date Published: January 16, 2007   

Restructuring legislation headed for Senate floor debate

By SEANNA ADCOX
Associated Press Writer

Several bills asking voters whether they want to continue electing statewide officers or allow the governor to appoint them are headed to the Senate floor.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved proposals that would let voters decide in the 2008 election whether they want to continue to pick the state comptroller general, secretary of state, adjutant general, commissioner of agriculture, and education superintendent.

The committee postponed dealing with the state treasurer and lieutenant governor offices.

Allowing the governor to appoint those officers would require amending the state constitution. Each officer would be a separate question on the 2008 ballot.

Gov. Mark Sanford, who has made restructuring a top priority of his second term, thanked the committee for taking what he called a first step.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said the people should have a chance to decide whether they like electing their officeholders or if the system is antiquated.

"The only way to end this debate is to bring it up, put it to a vote and resolve the question," McConnell said. "The public may think that's too much power in too few hands."

But whether the proposals make it to the ballot remains far from certain. The bills must pass both the House and Senate with a two-thirds vote. And many senators said Tuesday their votes to send the amendments out for full floor debate doesn't mean they support them.

"It seems to me what we're doing is encouraging the public to give up power," said Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Hopkins. "We are saying to them a governor would make a better decision than you the public."

Many senators also said they supported giving the governor nominating power on some officeholders but not others.

Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia, said he would "go to the wall" to keep the people electing the lieutenant governor and adjutant general.

It would be wrong to vote to take away the right of state troops to elect their leader while they're overseas fighting to give voting rights to others, Knotts said.

"You can't fight a war with politics and expect to win," said the Vietnam veteran. "I like to go to war with a general who knows what he's doing."

Sens. Luke Rankin, R-Conway, and Robert Ford, D-Charleston, said the public should continue to elect the education superintendent. They said the November election proved voters want to keep that office separate from the governor. Education Superintendent Jim Rex was the only Democrat elected statewide in November, beating Republican Karen Floyd, who Sanford endorsed, by 455 votes.

The Senate committee also sent to the floor bills that would ratify constitutional amendments voters approved in November. The amendments would ban same-sex marriage, allow the state treasurer to invest in foreign companies for the state retirement system, limit property value increases during reassessment, limit government's eminent domain powers and specify when the Legislature may meet and adjourn.