County's lack of King holiday knocks Furman out of running for debate

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However, the Upstate remains a leading contender for the debate, said Joe Erwin, party chairman.

"We're going to eliminate Furman," Erwin said, calling the move "a moral imperative" because there is no countywide MLK holiday.

Erwin, a Greenville advertising CEO, told The Greenville News that the decision was his.

The Peace Center for the Performing Arts, located within the city of Greenville where King's birthday is recognized, remains in contention, along with venues in Charleston and Rock Hill, he said.

Furman is located in an unincorporated area of Greenville County north of the Greenville city limits.

Lottie Gibson, a member of the council's Democratic minority that supports a county MLK holiday, laughed and said, "That's a blessing.

"That's just a small example of how far-reaching it's going to be," she said of the county's lack of a King holiday.

Erwin said he notified Donald Gordon, director of Furman's Richard W. Riley Center of Government, Politics and Public Leadership, on Thursday to tell him Furman was out of the running.

Gordon could not be reached for comment, but Furman president David Shi said in a written statement that it's "a painfully ironic development, considering that Furman has been a leading proponent for a countywide Martin Luther King holiday and that the university officially recognizes the holiday on campus."

Council Chairwoman Phyllis Henderson, a Republican, expressed disappointment "we were ruled out, but the best thing is, it's still going to bring people in."

Council Vice Chairman Scott Case said as a conservative Republican he doesn't feel anything was lost.

"I'm not at all displeased," he said Thursday. "The only sadness I feel is that Democrats will not have an opportunity to showcase the extreme liberalism that has overtaken their party."

He said he probably won't watch the debate.

The struggle over honoring the slain civil rights leader in Greenville County has been brewing for decades. The situation boiled over this spring when hundreds of protesters packed County Council chambers and approximately 10,000 marchers converged on County Square in May.

But the Republican majority on the council has not been swayed. Seven members voted April 1 to let county employees vote on their holidays each year rather than establish a paid holiday. The move has prompted civil rights leaders, such as Jesse Jackson, to pledge boycotts of Greenville and spurred a grass-roots movement to oust four council members who oppose the holiday at next year's Republican primary.

Erwin said a Greenville County site "puts us in a very uncomfortable position. We, the state party, are representing the interests of the Democratic Party as an institution and nine presidential candidates, and to put them into a situation where they're in the county, without the caveat of being in the city where there is an MLK holiday, is kind of tough.

"I think I would get some pretty serious push-back — I haven't got it yet — from candidates and national party, if Furman remained in the running or was selected as the debate site," he said.

"It's a call I have to make. I don't even want to get too much to the position of having to drag the Democratic National Committee into it or individual campaigns and put them on the spot. Why would I, as state chair, put each one of those candidates on the spot and have to address it?

"That's not smart politics," Erwin said. "I potentially make a smart play, if Greenville's going to be the location, by putting it in the city limits in a place that recognizes the MLK holiday," he said. "It gives them a chance to say, 'Being here, we're glad and proud this city recognizes what the county doesn't.' "

The hour-long encounter on Jan. 29 will be aired nationally on MSNBC in the heavily watched 7 p.m. time slot with a major NBC newscaster serving as moderator, Erwin said. NBC Nightly News will originate from the debate city before the event.

Other potential debate sites are the College of Charleston's 785-seat Sottile Theatre and 250-seat Simons Center, both smaller than what he wants, Erwin said, and Winthrop University's cavernous, 3,000-plus-seat Byrnes Auditorium in Rock Hill. Greenville's Peace Center seats 2,100 in the main theater. Erwin said he had set a goal of a minimum of 1,500 seats.

He has said "Greenville in particular" is the leading contender for what is likely to be a high-pressure affair for the Iowa and New Hampshire survivors in dire need of showing strength in a Southern state only days later.

Erwin said he would make a decision on the debate site by mid-September.

The network's role in the process, he said, involves technical details, including lighting, dressing room space, camera placement, acoustics, parking for satellite trucks and studio adequacy at local NBC affiliates.

The critically timed debate comes nine days after the Iowa caucuses, two days after the pivotal New Hampshire primary and five days before this state's first-in-the-South primary on Feb. 3. Six of the nine current candidates have signaled their intentions to participate and party officials expect the other three to follow suit because of the event's timing and political importance.

Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 298-4883.