THREE TRUTHS about our state: South Carolina has tremendous challenges that we can no longer afford to ignore or to nibble away at, and only a governor has the stature and portfolio to lead us to sweeping changes.
The Legislature can stop a governor from making things happen.
Chances are better than even that our next governor will be a Republican.
Unfortunately, we do not see among the GOP gubernatorial candidates a bold plan for putting our state on the right track. But we do see a candidate who has a record of bringing people together to work collaboratively toward creative solutions to difficult problems, who has shown admirable political courage and on occasion come up with bold initiatives, who exudes an infectious optimism about our state’s potential, and who has demonstrated the ability to work well with the Legislature.
When he ran for attorney general eight years ago, Henry McMaster impressed us mainly by being devoid of big ideas. But he turned out to be a very good attorney general.
He restored credility to an office that had been badly damaged by eight years of the provocative antics of Charlie Condon, putting out opinions based on law rather than politics and opening up the secretive process that had allowed private attorneys to reap windfalls by bringing lawsuits on behalf of the state.
Working closely with women’s advocates, he recruited attorneys to donate their time to prosecute batterers who had been getting away with their crimes because solicitors didn’t have the staff to handle those cases; he since has teamed with partners from beauticians to Wal-Mart in a successful effort to encourage more women to report abuse.
He helped break the Legislature’s dangerous and unconstitutional practice of stringing unrelated matters together in a single bill, not only refusing to defend the practice in court but even putting forth the argument that the Supreme Court adopted to rein in a practice that encourages corruption and undermines majority rule.
He laid out the legal roadmap that allowed the Legislature to bypass Gov. Mark Sanford on federal stimulus funds, even though he personally opposed the federal law and knew his position could hurt him in this election.
Although the details are different, his efforts to pair tougher sentencing laws for the most violent criminals with aggressive and expansive alternative sentences for non-violent offenders clearly laid the groundwork for legislative action this year on a crime-fighting and budget-saving initiative that lawmakers have refused heretofore even to discuss seriously.
Today, Mr. McMaster’s plans for our state are underwhelming. His centerpiece idea — to make South Carolina “the most business-friendly state in the nation” — relies too heavily on the blind faith that even lower taxes and even less regulation will attract the sort of businesses that will make our state a better place to live.
But he is committed to harnessing our research universities to help grow the sort of knowledge jobs that can be transformative; and he does understand and accept — like many Republican leaders in the Legislature but unlike his opponents in this race — that the only way we are ever going to make dramatic and lasting improvements is by providing programs to challenge, teach and encourage underprivileged children from a very young age.
Some of the reasons for supporting Mr. McMaster are negative — his opponents either wouldn’t be able to get along with the Legislature or would bring too much baggage and too little depth or are just too indistinguishable.
But Mr. McMaster is inspirational in his enthusiasm for our state’s possibilities, and if he has demonstrated anything in the past eight years, it’s that he can rise to the challenges and opportunities of his office. He is clearly the Republican most capable of leading our state forward as governor; voters would do well to choose him in the June 8 primary.
