Tyranny in the South Carolina Legislature

The following article by Deedee Vaughters was published in the Aiken Standard today.An investigative report on The Nerve sheds more light on the attitude of the Republican caucus. We must insist that the Republican members of the Aiken Delegation support changing the caucus rules.


UPDATE- FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS IMPORTANT SUBJECT GO Here

Tyranny in the  SC Legislature 

By Deedee Vaughters

On August 26^th, The South Carolina Policy Council released a media advisory entitled “Reform the Legislature, Shorten the Session, Record Every Vote.”  This advisory outlines the latest research by the team of investigative reporters employed by the South Carolina Policy Council.  The results are staggering and prove that South Carolina is a state governed and dominated by the legislature.

The S.C. General Assembly makes more than 420 appointments to boards and commissions, more than half of those made by the governor.  Of those appointments, 147 are controlled by the state’s four most powerful legislators, all of which we in Aiken do not have the opportunity to vote for. These four legislators are the Senate President Pro Tempore, the Speaker of the House, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.  The Speaker of the House and Senate President Pro Tempore make more than 100 appointments to the executive branch boards and commissions.  This serves as a means of usurping many of the duties and much of the power of the Governor, who is elected statewide.

The Speaker of the House appoints all committee members within the SC House of Representatives.  The Senate President Pro Tempore is elected by the Senate and then committees are assigned based on seniority.  In other words, the longer you are in the Senate, the better your committee.  Those Senators that favor term limits would therefore never serve on a powerful committee. 

The Speaker of the House appoints one member to the five member Budget and Control Board. The most senior member of the Senate, currently Hugh Leatherman, takes a position as Senate Finance Chairman.  The Senate Finance Committee Chair and the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee along with the Governor, the Treasurer, and the Comptroller General make up the Budget and Control Board that controls billions in state spending and again serves as a means of limiting the power of the Executive Branch or Governor. 

South Carolina is the only state with a Budget and Control Board.  The current design allows for voters to elect three of the five members.  Therefore, the other two are only accountable to their local group of constituents and the Speaker of the House.

The Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore also take over many of the duties of the judicial branch of government by controlling appointments made to the Judicial Merit Selection Committee. This committee screens judges voted on by the Legislature.  Many legislators are also attorneys that try cases held before the very judges that they have appointed.

This much power in the hands of those that are unaccountable to constituents across the state is unacceptable.  Interestingly, most people do not even know their names.   Their power exists because the electorate has been purposefully left in the dark. 

The Speaker of the House is Bobby Harrell, an insurance salesman from Charleston.  Glenn McConnell is the Senate President Pro Tempore, an attorney also from Charleston. The Senate Finance Chairman is Hugh Leatherman, a businessman from Florence. The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is Dan Cooper from Greenville who also sells insurance like Speaker Harrell.

It is important to know these names and to follow their voting records and positions on legislation.  They are in many ways as powerful if not more so, than the Governor.   By knowing this information and knowing the positions of these legislators, the public can begin to understand why nothing seems to get done in Columbia. 

Reforming this system is imperative to responsible government.    The current design allows for a lack of accountability.  That along with the lack of on the record voting, failure to have term limits, and no true balance of power are leading South Carolina down a disastrous path.

Those who currently hold these positions of power, namely Bobby Harrell and Glenn McConnell, are not supportive of these reform measures.  They like the power and lack of accountability.  They like that they are unknown to the general public and that fingers point towards the Governor for all things wrong in this state. Both of these gentlemen have fought publically against on the record voting.  Speaker Harrell has punished those that have stepped out of line with less than desirable committee assignments. This type of tyranny will no longer be tolerated.

It is time for tyrannical power hungry politicians that serve their own interests above those of their constituents to go.  This November, the Aiken Delegation will convene in caucus to elect The Speaker of the House.  Will our representatives have the courage to stand up against the tyranny and vote for a new speaker, or will they stand down to the leadership and leave reform  for another day?

The writer and her husband own a small business in downtown Aiken.  She also serves as a board member for the SC Policy Council.