Harrell's new role a long-term goal

COLUMBIA - Since he became a state representative in 1993, Charleston Republican Bobby Harrell has worked toward his goal of becoming speaker of the House.

Harrell will resign as chairman of the House budget-writing committee Tuesday and give up his seat on the five-member state Budget and Control Board, which handles billions of dollars in spending and borrowing decisions each year, as he prepares to take over the speaker's post.

"I think everybody that's elected to the House wants to be elected speaker," he says.

On June 2, Harrell won the race to replace House Speaker David Wilkins, the new U.S. ambassador to Canada, with a 118-1 vote.

Even though he didn't fit the lawyer-lawmaker mold of past speakers, many people started viewing Harrell as Wilkins' heir apparent as early as 1999 when he took over the Ways and Means Committee.

"He's been a student of people," said Harrell's father, Robert Harrell Sr. "His whole life, he will absolutely watch you and figure you out and wait until the time is right to ask you for what he wants to ask for."

It's a good trait for politicians and salesmen.

"Everything we do in life," the speaker-elect says, "revolves around relationships and understanding people. ... I believe in order to be successful at anything, you have to first understand what motivates other people in the process."

While in college, Harrell worked with his insurance-agent father. It's one of the ways he kept close ties to his family and settled on a profession.

Charlotte Harrell says her son was a happy kid who cherishes time with his family.

It was the family's 1977 vacation in North Myrtle Beach that brought Harrell together with his future wife, Cathy Smith.

Harrell was a rising senior at the University of South Carolina studying business, selling shoes at a mall during the day and clearing restaurant tables at night. He was hanging out with a chum from North Carolina and tooling around in a new Mercury Cougar - a gift for his 21st birthday.

As he walked by the condo pool with his pal, Harrell spotted a young woman.

"I said to Joe, 'She's gorgeous. I'm going to date her,'" Harrell said.

They met for the first time July 3, 1977, when he was in the pool wearing cutoff shorts - a breach of pool rules. Cathy Smith's first words to him were: "Get out of the pool with those cutoff blue jeans on," Harrell said. "My first words to her were, 'Yes, ma'am.' And I've been saying that ever since."

They had their first date a couple of weeks later and married in 1979. They have two children.

Harrell's hallmark in the House has been the Education Accountability Act - an overhaul of public schools that sets tough, statewide education standards - but he wasn't successful the first time out.

It was far too harsh, said former state Rep. Molly Spearman, who refused to sign onto the first version of the bill.

It called for firing teachers if students didn't meet stringent standards although they had no control over students' earlier years in school, she said. "There were just parts of the bill that were not realistic," said Spearman, who now directs the S.C. Association of School Administrators.

Outcries from educators killed the bill. Harrell addressed those concerns and was back with a bill that won broader support the next year.

"He responded very quickly," Spearman said.

Harrell "does his homework on issues," and that's going to help him as speaker, she said.

More homework is on the way.

Harrell wants to set up a special House committee to work on tax-system changes this fall.

"I want us to focus on property taxes," he said. That is "the most important issue to people of this state."

That might create friction with Gov. Mark Sanford, who says lowering the state's top income tax rate is more important because it will attract wealthy executives and retirees.

The Sanford-Harrell ties go back to 1994, when Harrell Sr. lost a seven-way U.S. House primary to Sanford and Van Hipp.

Harrell and his family threw their support to Sanford.

"We just thought a business guy ought to be elected," Bobby Harrell said. The Harrells also campaigned for Sanford in the 2002 gubernatorial race.

Since Sanford took office in 2003, however, he has clashed with Harrell over the budget, fiscal policy, taxes and politics.

Harrell says there's nothing personal and "certainly no animosity on my part and I don't think on his part, either."