A bit of advice for Democratic State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum: Put on your full armor.

Republicans are coming after you with a vengeance next year, and if there are any doubts, listen to Republican consultant Heath Thompson: "There is blood in the water."

The Department of Education is the last place the Democrats have a strong foothold in this Republican state.

And nothing would please the GOP more than to remove this thorn from its side.

To that end, Republicans must topple Tenenbaum from her education perch for the GOP takeover to be complete.

"If we can get the right candidate with the right resources, we can win," says a confident Thompson.

Two hopefuls are seeking the Republican nomination for superintendent. They are Dan Hallman, an Anderson educator, and Spartanburg lawyer Karen Floyd, owner of a marketing/public relations firm.

The GOP establishment has settled on Floyd. She recently retained direct mail whiz Walter Whetsell and hired John Lerner, the pollster and media adviser for Gov. Mark Sanford.

That ought to tell you something.

"If I were Inez and the Democrats, I would be worried," Thompson says.

Nothing would suit the governor more than for the voters to do his dirty work for him and reject Tenenbaum. She's standing in the way of his education agenda.

The battle lines are drawn.

"This is the first governor in anyone's lifetime who has worked to dismantle public education," Tenenbaum spokesman Zeke Stokes says. "The only person standing in the way is Inez Tenenbaum."

The GOP already has put a target on Tenenbaum.

"We're going to put everything into that race," promises state Republican Chairman Katon Dawson.

S.C. Democratic Chairman Joe Erwin says he's not worried. "Inez will more than hold her own. Inez is strong."

A word of caution for Republicans: Tenenbaum will be no pushover. She has lots of spunk, but she will have to hustle.

"We're in a situation in South Carolina that no Democrat can win statewide unless they get a number of Republican votes," says Francis Marion University political scientist Neal Thigpen, a GOP activist. "She needs to get 25 percent of the Republicans, and that could be tough."

One factor in Tenenbaum's favor is that women constitute 56 percent of the registered voters, a constituency that has a strong interest in education.

Tenenbaum also benefits from the sharp division in the GOP between the hard-core right, which favors school vouchers, and Republicans who support public schools. This split could throw a damper on GOP turnout, a development that worries Sanford.

Sanford has much to concern him. He hasn't established a strong record that favors public education, and Democrats are going to make sure that's not lost on voters.

"If you were to put the governor's plans for education up against Tenenbaum's, she'd have a distinct advantage among the voters," College of Charleston analyst Bill Moore says. "Most families send their kids to public schools.

"If Republicans take a position similar to Sanford's on education, it will be a liability. It could become an albatross around the neck of their candidate."

Sanford has had no success getting his tuition-tax-credit plan, which would give tax credits to parents who transfer their children out of public schools, through the GOP-controlled General Assembly.

Tenenbaum denounces such plans and says they would destroy the public school system.

Sounds more every day like a contest between the governor and Tenenbaum.