State Lawmakers Look into Future

Sen. Phil Shoopman and Rep. Tommy Stringer addressed a group of northern Greenville County precinct leaders Saturday, August 15 at Rock’s Country Store Restaurant. Following brief presentations on the past legislative session in Columbia and a look to the future, they answered questions posed by members of their audience.

Sen. Shoopman represents Senate District 5 in northern Greenville County. The district reaches from Gowansville in the east beyond Travelers Rest and Marietta in the west.

Rep. Stringer represents House District 18 that includes Greer, Taylors and the Blue Ridge community. Both Shoopman and Stringer are members of the Greenville County Legislative Delegation and serving their first terms in their current offices. Shoopman served two years in the House before being elected to the Senate.

The lawmakers see reapportionment of political districts and the redrawing of district lines the most critical issue facing Republicans during the next year when all federal and state house members are up for election, and South Carolina will elect a new governor to replace Governor Mark Sanford.

The Obama administration has taken the unprecedented action of openly politicizing the census and conducting it from the White House. A former Urban League executive has been appointed to head the census in South Carolina.

Political districts for members of congress, state senate, state House, school board and special purpose districts are drawn based on results of the official census.

With Governor Mark Sanford apparently unable or unwilling to reunite his family and move beyond his current problems, the lawmakers expect the Democrat candidate for Governor of South Carolina will adopt the tactics that were successful for candidate Obama and the Democrats in the 2008 elections. Sen. Obama campaigned against President Bush, although Bush was not a candidate.  Rather than running against Sen. John McCain who was his opponent, Obama ran against President Bush.

It is expected that regardless of who Republicans select as their candidate for governor, the Democrat candidate will run against Gov. Mark Sanford and ignore the actual Republican Candidate. This tactic worked on uninformed and misinformed voters during the 2008 presidential election and Democrats will be betting it will work on some number of voters in South Carolina who fall into the same category.

The prevailing thought among those attending the gathering was that the longer Governor Sanford remains in office, the more difficult it will be for Republicans to win the race for governor in November 2010. The worst possible scenario for Republicans would be for impeachment proceedings against Governor Sanford to occur during the election year.

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