South Strand Republicans face a pleasant challenge in picking a nominee to replace S.C. Rep. Tom Keegan in the S.C. House of Representatives. The Sun News recommends engineer Nelson Hardwick for the GOP nod in the June 8 primary. But in reality, his chief opponent, former Surfside Beach Town Councilman Allen Deaton, also could perform capably in the stead of Keegan, who is retiring. The third man in the race, Bill Blankenship, an office-supply retail manager and hard-working campaigner, also has the makings of a capable public servant, though Deaton and Hardwick possess stronger, more refined knowledge about what it takes to succeed as a legislator.

Why Hardwick, then? He rightly has a predatory view of legislative service, which is primarily about carving up state resources and redistributing them to agencies, local governments and school districts. Hardwick understands that in such pie-dividing exercises, Horry County has not fared as well as it deserves to, given its burgeoning population and the proportionally larger share of tax revenues it sends to Columbia. He is especially interested in sending more state road money District 106's way, and in leveraging more state school funding for the Horry County school district.

To be fair, Deaton and Blankenship understand these necessities, too. What sets Hardwick apart is his well-honed sense of realpolitik - that is, the need to apply leverage, in unpleasant ways if need be, to get Horry County the resources it deserves.

As well, Hardwick's strong personal and professional relationships across the county and the Pee Dee would help him form alliances with local and regional legislators whose interests converge with those of his constituents. In our view, he's the strongest candidate the Republicans could field against Democrat Patricia Ferguson-Majors, who will appear with the GOP nominee on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.