Sanford doesn't see black candidates winning statewide

By JIM DAVENPORT Associated Press

COLUMBIA — Gov. Mark Sanford said last week in a television interview it might be a long time before a black candidate is elected to statewide office, raising both some eyebrows and "amens' from black leaders.

In an interview that aired Sunday on a Columbia television station, Sanford was asked about blacks winning statewide office.

"Can I interject?" Sanford asked, interrupting the show's host. "I think there never will be."

"You said you don't think there ever will be?" asked Craig Melvin, who hosts "Awareness" on WIS-TV.

"In the foreseeable future," Sanford said. It hasn't happened in the last 100 years and "that is tragic," said the governor, who is a white Republican.

The only thing that could change that record, Sanford said, is allowing governors to appoint some of the people who now are elected to statewide offices.

"One of the reasons I believe so strongly in restructuring is if I was given a chance to appoint those constitutional officers, there would almost certainly be representation from all the different cultures that make up South Carolina," Sanford said.

Several black Democrats agreed with Sanford.

"You cannot criticize him for being honest," said Rep. David Mack, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus.

"I agree with him," said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a black Democrat from Orangeburg. "That's the only way in South Carolina a person of color will ever hold a constitutional position."

Sanford has made sure his Cabinet is diverse and would do more if given a chance, Sanford spokesman Will Folks said Tuesday.

But not all black Democrats agreed with the governor's outlook.

"It's unfortunate that 30 years after the civil rights struggle has been fought and blacks and whites have come together in a desegregated society that the governor would start espousing ... views that blacks cannot get elected statewide," said Rep. Fletcher Smith, D-Greenville.

Smith said it doesn't make sense that Sanford said blacks can't get elected statewide, then suggested he would appoint them to positions of influence if he could.

Rep. John Scott, D-Columbia, said Sanford's remarks showed a lack of maturity in leadership. He said that, on one hand, Sanford talks about diversity in choices for educating children. "On the other hand, he talks about limiting what they can do career-wise," Scott said.

In 2002, three blacks were on the statewide ballot. Democrats Steve Benjamin ran for attorney general and Rick Wade for secretary of state and Libertarian Marva Y. Manigault for education superintendent. Benjamin received 44 percent of the vote, Wade got 43 percent and Manigault had 2 percent of the vote.

The biggest impediments to a black candidate are dollars, not voters, Scott said. The question is "not whether they could garner the votes, but if they could raise enough money to run statewide."

As for Sanford's outlook, Scott said, "we'll prove him wrong."

Sanford is "selling the people of South Carolina short," Joe Erwin, the chairman of the state Democratic Party said.

"He might be surprised at how fair-minded the people of South Carolina are."

Even the chairman of Sanford's own party isn't sure he's right.

"I see a black candidate on the Republican ticket in the next six or eight years," said Katon Dawson, chairman of the state Republican Party.

Copyright © 2003, The Aiken Standard