Senators pounce on Sanford proposal

A major portion of Gov. Mark Sanford’s government restructuring plan was nearly scuttled in a legislative committee Tuesday — the same day he urged lawmakers to move the plan forward.

Sanford’s plan “has been torpedoed and is taking on water,” said Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Aiken, as the Senate Judiciary Committee adopted amendments that weakened the bill.

The bill would have changed six of the state’s eight constitutional offices from elected to appointed positions. It also would have required the governor and lieutenant governor to run together on one ticket.

The amendments pulled individual constitutional officers out of the mix, which weakened the bill, said committee chairman Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, the lead sponsor of the legislation.

The amendment sponsors said they believed the public should continue electing constitutional officers.

McConnell blamed lobbying by constitutional officers for the result.

“These amendments are the iceberg to the Titanic, and it’s going down,” McConnell said. “This bill is essentially dead.”

But instead of killing it outright, the committee simply adjourned without taking action on the plan. McConnell said this part of the plan won’t be revived without an outcry from the public.

The restructuring proposal comes in two parts: a bill to make the constitutional officers appointed and another that greatly reshapes the structure of the rest of state government. The first bill requires a constitutional amendment; the second can be adopted by a vote of the Legislature.

The committee gutted the first bill Tuesday. The second has yet to be considered but is still likely to pass, Moore said.

Sanford testified before the committee Tuesday, in a rare appearance by a governor. He urged the panel to adopt both portions of his plan and send both to the full Senate.

The plan gives the governor more power to command state government, Sanford said, but it does not give him more power than the General Assembly. Sanford compared it to the captain of an aircraft carrier.

“There is a very clear line of authority, a very clear line of responsibility back to that captain,” Sanford said. “He ultimately, though, is not in charge of where the ship is going.”

The questions Sanford took from the 22 senators on the committee were mostly mild, and the governor was given a standing ovation as he left.

But that was when the problems began for Sanford’s plan.

The panel began considering amendments. The first was from Sen. John Hawkins, R-Spartanburg, who proposed keeping the adjutant general — the leader of the S.C. National Guard — as an elected position. It passed by a 12-8 vote.

Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, proposed leaving the lieutenant governor as a separately elected position. It passed 16-5.

Another Knotts amendment kept the agriculture commissioner as an elected position. That one passed 11-10.

The only amendment that failed would have kept the superintendent of education elected. That failed 5-12.

Sanford spokesman Will Folks said the governor was disappointed with the committee’s inaction.

“It’s unfortunate that there are some folks who would stand in the way of letting voters decide the structure their own government is going to take.”

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com