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Article published Jan 12, 2005
Senate OKs rule change

ROBERT W. DALTON
Staff Writer

COLUMBIA -- Officially, it's Senate Rule 51E.It could be called the Spartanburg County rule.Approved Tuesday as part of a package of rule changes designed to transform the Senate from an Edsel into a BMW, 51E allows a super majority of a county's senators to recommend magistrate selections to the governor. The old rule required all of a county's senators to approve the recommendations.Nineteen of Spartanburg County's 20 magistrates have been on holdover status since April 2003 because of a squabble that pitted Republican Sens. John Hawkins and Jim Ritchie against Democrat Glenn Reese.Hawkins and Ritchie fought for more than a year to replace former Magistrate Larry Hutchins. Reese backed Hutchins.Last January, three female employees were fired and rehired amid accusations about Hutchins' conduct. A compromise that would have allowed Hutchins to remain on holdover status while the other 18 magistrates were reappointed fell through in June 2003 because Reese wouldn't recommend the others without Hutchins.The state Supreme Court suspended Hutchins in August and he agreed toretire by Dec. 31. He later said he had changed his mind, but retired after the high court said it would hold him in contempt if he didn't."I fought hard for that change," Hawkins said. "It doesn't make sense that one senator can stop the process. With this change, hopefully we can get out of the deadlocked situation we're in."Reese said the change would allow the majority party to make all of the appointments and "run over the minority.""This isn't healthy for our system," Reese said. "There's going to be some obvious abuse around the state as magistrate appointments expire. Human nature being the way it is, people who grant themselves power eventually will abuse it."Seventh Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy applauded the senators for making the change."Holdover status in the long term is not good for anyone – not for the senators, the magistrates or those of us that appear before them," Gowdy said. "I think this is a good change because it's very hard to get unanimity on anything this day and time."Gov. Mark Sanford pushed the Senate to update its rules as part of his five-item "Contract for Change." The changes were needed, he said, to make sure more bills come to a vote rather than die quietly.Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, said Sanford needed the rule changes to get his agenda passed because he is "incompetent and doesn't understand the process."Sanford spokesman Will Folks took exception to Ford's comments."For someone who preaches the importance of respect in this process, it's unfortunate that Sen. Ford so rarely shows it to his colleagues," Folks said.The most significant change makes it easier to end a filibuster. The Senate was locked down by several filibusters last year, and has ended the last two years in a filibuster.Only 26 votes, or 60 percent of the senators present, are needed to end a filibuster under the new rule. There are 26 Republicans in the 46-member Senate. Previously, 28 votes were required.In another major change, a single senator cannot effectively kill a bill by objecting to it and sending it to the contested calendar. The rule change permits a bill to be recalled after six days.The new rules also strip Democrats of their power to make conference committee appointments. Conference committees consist of six members – three from the Senate and three from the House – and work to resolve differences between Senate and House versions of bills.Ritchie, one of the architects of the changes, said a single senator would no longer be able to hijack the entire Senate."Most importantly, we made the Senate a more deliberate body by forcing contested bills to be debated and voted on rather than just letting them languish," he said. "We protected the rights of the minority to be heard, but not to hold the state of South Carolina hostage."Ford said that the changes equate to a rubber stamp for Sanford's agenda.That, Ritchie said, is far from true."Like all legislation, Gov. Sanford's agenda will be judged on its merits," Ritchie said. "Whether substantial amounts of it pass is going to depend on his ability to work with us."Robert W. Dalton can be reached at 562-7274 or bob.dalton@shj.com.