State Rep. Tracy Edge has abandoned his attempt to become chairman of the budget-writing House Ways and Means Committee because another legislator had overwhelming support.

Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, was interested in the post leading one of the state's most powerful bodies in the wake of the election of Bobby Harrell as speaker. Harrell was the chairman of the budget-writing committee.

The panel will elect a leader when legislators gather in the S.C. Capitol today to consider vetoes of bills from Gov. Mark Sanford and to handle some other items of business. They will not pass bills.

Edge, a member of the Ways and Means Committee who leads its Health and Human Services Subcommittee, said Rep. Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont, will be elected chairman of the committee today.

Cooper, 44, is 1st vice chairman of Ways and Means. He has been a House member since 1991. Like Harrell, Cooper is in the insurance business.

"Dan is not undeserving of the job," Edge said.

Cooper has been on the committee a long time and knows what needs to be done, he said.

Edge said some votes were traded when Harrell was running for the speaker's job, with the understanding Cooper would be elected chairman of the committee.

Edge said there was no way he could overcome Cooper's advantage.

The committees elect their own leaders, but the speaker appoints committee members and can influence the election of a panel's leadership, Edge said.

"That's OK; that's the way it works," he said.

Edge said he does not foresee any changes in subcommittee assignments. His subcommittee oversees health care spending including for beach renourishment because the Ocean and Coastal Resource Management agency is under the health department.

Among vetoes to be considered today is one of the Francis Marion Heritage Trail. The proposal, which includes sites in Horry and Georgetown counties used by the famed Revolutionary War Swamp Fox, seemed like a sure thing as it met favor with legislators early in the session.

Sanford vetoed it because he said the project should compete for state grants and should not have its own commission.

Also vetoed was a bill that could excuse communities including Myrtle Beach that have been accused by the state Tourism Expenditure Review Committee of improper allocations of accommodations tax money.

The bill allows counties and towns that had disputed expenditures from 2003 to 2005 to refund the amount and not be penalized further.