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Candidate:
Communication
is crucial part of governing
September
13, 2006
By MEGAN
VARNER
Index-Journal
senior staff writer
 |
| “You can’t succeed unless
you invest in education and health care and economic
development,” says Tommy Moore, the Democrat running for
governor. | South Carolina’s
economy, education and health care systems are suffering from
a lack of communication within the government, according to
state Sen. Tommy Moore.
But Moore, who represents
McCormick, Saluda and Edgefield counties, said open, effective
communication would be a vital part of his administration if
the voting public supports him in the November
elections.
Moore is the Democratic nominee for governor and
will face incumbent Mark Sanford, a Republican elected in
2002.
“(The state’s) problems are interconnected,” Moore
said Tuesday during a visit to The Index-Journal. “You can’t
separate them. When you start talking about jobs and economic
development, you have to have an educated work force, and
you’ve got to have a healthy work force. You can’t succeed
unless you invest in education and health care and economic
development.”
Moore said the answers begin with strong
leadership.“It’s a matter of having the vision and the courage
to say that we are going to sit down at this table and try our
best to come to a conclusion to move this state forward,”
Moore said. “At the end of the day, (you have to ask) ‘What
have we done to improve South Carolina and the lives of South
Carolinians?’”
MOORE, WHO SAID he grew
up in a mill village and is a product of the public education
system, has been traveling across the state during the past
months, talking with constituents about the issues that are on
residents’ minds. He said the experience, though tiring, has
been “enjoyable.”“In traveling the back roads, you really do
get to appreciate the beauty of South Carolina and its natural
resources,” Moore said. “It’s been fun and I’ve enjoyed it
very much.”
Running against an incumbent is always a
difficult venture, Moore added, as people tend to believe an
incumbent has an advantage in a race. But Moore said his
ability to draw support from Democrats and Republicans alike
has been an advantage to his own campaign.
“I come from an
area that is pretty Republican, and I still get a lot of
Republican votes,” said Moore, who has served in the S.C.
Senate since 1981 and was a member of the S.C. House of
Representatives from 1979-80. “Hopefully, by re-electing me,
they tell me that I have been one who makes sure that I pay
attention to the issues and the people, and have not had any
blind allegiance to a party. ... It’s not about a party, it’s
not about philosophy, it’s about people.”
Moore said the
answers aren’t dependent upon a party, but rather on effective
communication between party members that brings about change.
But he said government isn’t the only solution to the problems
facing the state today.
“People want the government to be a
partner to the solution. Government can’t be the only answer —
it is part of the solution,” he said, adding that government
leaders need to work with local governmental, community,
business and church leaders. “I’ve spent my entire legislative
career trying to bring people together. This is not a
Democratic issue or a Republican issue, it is an issue that
affects South Carolinians. How do we take the best ideas and
put them together ... and how do we get to that point to move
the state forward?”
Moore said it is that philosophy has
also been gaining him support from both political parties, in
the wake of “dissatisfaction” felt toward some of Sanford’s
legislative policies and changes.
BUT MOORE
IS not against change, he said, and he added that his
experience serving on committees for restructuring, ethics
reform and public service commission reform have exposed him
to the “tough, snagging issues” that are plaguing in the
political climate.
“But the way you get that (reform) done
is not to say that, ‘Here’s my idea and it’s going to be my
way, no way or the highway,’” Moore said. “It doesn’t work
that way. Democracy doesn’t work that way.”He pointed to
changes brought about in the late 1980s by then-Gov. Carroll
Campbell, who Moore said worked with both political parties to
help bring restructuring and ethics reform to the state, as
well as large industries such as BMW and Fuji.
“He was
willing to work with people to make it happen, not just throw
it up on the wall and see what sticks,” Moore said of
Campbell. “It’s a style and a willingness to
communicate.”
Moore said Sanford was “not a bad guy,” but
rather someone with different ideas and styles than himself,
and someone who comes from a different background. Moore said
he just wants “what’s best for all the families in South
Carolina.”
One of the ways he plans to do that, if elected,
is to focus more attention and investment on issues affecting
children, from prenatal stages to age 5. He said early
detection of illnesses and diseases, by health screenings and
mental health evaluations, can have a dramatic impact on the
state’s financial resources.
“If you invest and
realistically solve those problems, you’ll reduce a lot of
money that you’re throwing on the back end,” involving
juvenile justice and corrections, diseases and sicknesses,
Moore said. “A lot of that can be diverted in the front
end.”
Moore said the state has made advances, particularly
in immunization, but he said more must be done for early
childhood development. Those years, he said, can contribute to
the state’s dismal rankings in infant mortality, teenage
pregnancy, unemployment figures and Medicaid
dependency.
Moore said budget cuts within the state’s
Department of Commerce have also had a negative impact on
South Carolina and its residents in terms of recruiting
industry and fostering jobs.
“The Department of Commerce
has got to be fully funded,” Moore said. “We are recruiting
against the Georgias, the North Carolinas, the Mississippis
and the world, and we’ve taken it in the chin.”
One
potential prospect for more jobs in South Carolina is a
proposed port facility in Jasper County, Moore said, but the
site is tied up in litigation.
“What I learned is that, not
one time have all the players been at a table to talk,” Moore
said, adding that, again, a lack of communication is proving
to be a destructive force. “There has been discussion among
individuals, but collectively, all the key players have never
sat at a table and said, ‘OK, how do we work this
out?’”
Rural infrastructure, including roads, sewer lines,
water lines and high-technology communication lines, must also
be in place in order to attract new industry into the
state.
“You can’t expect a Fortune 500 company to come in
if you don’t have the infrastructure in place,” Moore said.
“You can’t have jobs if you don’t have the infrastructure in
place. You can’t have jobs if you don’t have education and
healthy people for employees. It’s all tied
together.”
Moore said he would welcome a debate with
Sanford regarding these issues.
“I’d love for us to debate
in Greenwood. I’d love for us to debate in every county where
the unemployment rate is higher than the national average,”
Moore said.
And if the people of South Carolina decide to
put Moore into the Governor’s mansion in November, he said he
wants his legacy to be centered on the communication he
stresses.
“If someone were to say (I) was a governor who
was really willing to listen to different ideas, who was not
afraid of reform, who was willing to surround himself with
people who might know more about an issue than he does and
that he invested in children to improve South Carolina,” Moore
said, “that would be a pretty good accolade.”
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