STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 21.49 | DEC. 9, 2022
BIG STORY: House speaker reshuffles committee leadership
NEWS BRIEFS: State may face mild recession in 2023
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Teacher shortage
COMMENTARY, Brack: Smith has leadership opportunity to quell sideshows
SPOTLIGHT: S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus
ANOTHER VIEW: Biden throws lifeline to S.C. Dems with 1st primary
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: Rack of ribs
House speaker reshuffles committee leadership
By Andy Brack | Freshly re-elected House Speaker Murrell Smith has reshaped leadership on House committees as he put his personal stamp on how the Republican-dominated chamber would be led.
“It is our essential duty to come here, come together and find a way to work for the people of this state, not only for some, not only for our voters, not only for our areas… but for the entire state,” Smith said in a statement. The Sumter Republican first was elected speaker in April after the retirement of former Speaker Jay Lucas.
Major committee chairs named this week include:
Ways and Means. Rep. Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, who will chair the powerful budget-writing Ways and Means Committee. Smith is the previous chair.
3M. Rep. Sylleste Davis, R-Berkeley, who will chair the House Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee, formerly chaired by Democratic Rep. Leon Howard. Without him as a chair, the House no longer has any Black lawmakers as head of a committee. Howard and former Judiciary Chair Chris Murphy, R-Dorchester, were appointed to Ways and Means, which is seen as a step up to some because that committee allocates state spending.
Judiciary. Rep. Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, a former chair of the committee, took the big seat again after Murphy reportedly requested a switch.
Education. Rep. Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, takes over for former Rep. Rital Allison, R-Spartanburg, who retired.
Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs. Rep. Bill Hixon, R-Aiken, will take over for Rep. Davey Hiott, a Pickens Republican who now chairs the House GOP Caucus.
Chairs of other standing committees include:
- Ethics: Rep. Jay Jordan, R-Florence.
- Interstate Cooperation: Rep. Mark N. Willis, R-Greenville.
- Invitations and Memorial Resolutions: Rep. Dennis C. Moss, R-Cherokee.
- Labor, Commerce and Industry: Rep. Bill Sandifer, R-Oconee.
- Legislative Oversight: Rep. Jeff Johnson, R-Horry.
- Operations and Management: Rep. Patrick Haddon, R-Greenville.
- Regulations and Administrative Procedures: Rep. Jeff Bradley, R-Beaufort.
- Rules: Rep. Anne Thayer, R-Anderson.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
State may face mild recession in 2023
South Carolina economists say that while there is a potential for a mild recession next year, they expect the state to fare well because of its current strong economy.
“The big theme of 2023 is the recalibration of the U.S. and South Carolina economy,” said Joseph Von Nessen, Research Economist at the Darla Moore School of Business at USC.
“We’ve seen an economy that’s been very unbalanced this year. Demand has been far outpacing supply, and that’s because consumer spending has been high due to a rapidly recovering labor market that we’ve seen over the past two years where people have gone back to work and earned wages.”
In other news this week:
Bob Jones Univ. to face extra scrutiny after Weaver’s graduate degree. State Superintendent-elect Ellen Weaver’s graduate degree at Bob Jones University has been investigated by the board of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The result: is receiving additional monitoring from the accreditor. The university says it didn’t give special treatment to Weaver, who needed the degree to comply with state law.
State senator wants every student to eat for free. For the past two years, every student in the state was given free lunches thanks to pandemic-era programs, but state Congress declined to continue funding. Now, S.C. Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, said she wants every student in South Carolina to eat free next year and pre-filed a bill that provides universal free meals.
Japanese company to build $810 million battery plant in S.C. The company didn’t say when the plant would open, but said it would spend $810 million in Florence County on a facility that would hire about 1,200 workers. In October, BMW announced that it would use the company to make batteries for its electric vehicles, which are expected to make up half of its production by 2030. Other big economic development announced this week included:
McMaster inauguration set for Jan. 11. The event will start with a prayer service, followed by a swearing-in at the Statehouse, followed by an open house at the Governor’s Mansion.
Mace, Rice vote to protect same-sex marriages. Republican U.S. Reps. Nancy Mace and Tom Rice, both of South Carolina, and 37 other House Republicans joined with Democrats Thursday to give final approval for the landmark legislation to protect same-sex marriage. The measure, which now heads to President Biden for signature, passed 258-169. Some pundits say it may be the crowning achievement of departing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
More S.C. children covered by health insurance. Thanks to pandemic-era measures like the Families First Act, the state has seen an increase in many insured children to properly take care of infections, viruses and more.
U.S. Supreme Court expected to reject ‘independent state legislature’ theory. The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday failed to reach a consensus in the cases involving state courts’ ability to review election laws. The decisions may rest in the hands of the Court’s three conservative members, who seem ambivalent over the matter.
State jobs agency chief to retire. Dan Ellzey, leader of S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce, announced he plans to step down in February 2023. Gov. Henry McMaster will name a replacement soon, he said.
Teacher shortage
Cartoonist Robert Ariail often interprets things a little differently, but always has an interesting take on what’s going on in South Carolina. Love the cartoon? Hate it? What do you think: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Smith has leadership opportunity to quell sideshows
By Andy Brack | Word that newly-elected House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, is going to make House members write bills better sounds like a good idea at first blush. But is poor draftsmanship what’s really ailing the House or is it the need for bold leadership to calm down the crazies?
Smith this week told the Associated Press that he’s been frustrated in his two decades in the House by a plethora of “poorly written bills that don’t get a thorough review in committees because members aren’t experts or don’t put in the work,” which leads to proposals needing wholesale changes or ending up as bad laws.
He’s got a point. It’s well-known in Statehouse lobbying circles that if you want to get something done for your client, you get it introduced in the House, where it will be quickly sent to a committee. Then the committee chair promptly sends it to a subcommittee for review. But the way that the twisted legislature often works, the folks in the subcommittee believe they are under pressure to get bills out of subcommittee pronto. So they move things through quickly – without much of the very scrutiny Smith is complaining about. The subcommittee’s unvoiced logic is that the bill will get more scrutiny when it is taken up in full by the whole committee.
But when bills return quickly to the whole committee, they often figure they need to move quickly because the speedy return was the “will of the subcommittee” to move things along. So they also rush bills through to the House floor because they think that’s what they’re supposed to do. And by the time these often sloppy bills get to the floor, things have gone so far that they’re hard to slow down.
That’s why the House is often a legislative racetrack and Smith is right to try to slow things down. Not only do subcommittees need to take more time on bills. Full committees do, too.
But to blame what’s happened only on poorly-written bills isn’t where to point the finger. Rather, turn toward the need for old-fashioned leadership. Strong chairmen of committees should be able to stop nonsense that creeps into bills and fuels the continuing partisan culture war in our state.
Fortunately, Smith has juggled committee chairmanships – to a degree – to generally put Republican moderates in control. Or what passes these days in South Carolina for moderates.
Also in the process of reassigning members to committees, he’s put in place his own people, not chairmen he inherited from past Speaker Jay Lucas. That boosts loyalty and if the new speaker is seeking more scrutiny for bills, the new chairmen should deliver. Also, Smith has the final say on which committee each of the chamber’s 123 other members sit on. That should keep some folks in line.
But Smith has a tough job because he also has to control the agenda-setting House GOP Caucus, now 88 members strong after picking up a handful of seats in the 2022 elections. In fact, the House has more new members – 27 – than in recent history. Democrats have a historic low of 36 House members.
The House Republican Caucus is markedly more partisan than it was 20 years ago, polarized by gerrymandering that pitted some extremist candidates against moderate ones in a climate where extremism is rewarded. This polarization too often results in wacky ideas and the continuation of the culture wars that focus on hot-button issues that aren’t truly a big deal but are blown out of proportion to keep crazies back home drooling in support.
Smith should do more than just assign members to committees led by loyalists who will demand bills that get better scrutiny. He should also use the power of the speaker’s office to insist that the House GOP Caucus not focus first on political red meat and, instead, work on big problems like improving public education, boosting access to health care and reducing poverty.
Fixing a tired process is one thing. But focusing on what really matters instead of sideshows is where Smith can make a real difference in the quality of legislation that passes to the House.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. This week’s spotlighted underwriter is the S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus. Organized almost 25 years ago, the Caucus has played an important role in many of the historic issues facing our state. As a vibrant minority party in the Senate, its role is to represent our constituents and present viable alternatives on critical issues. The S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus remains a unique place for this to occur in our policy process.
- Learn more about the Caucus at: www.scsenatedems.org.
Biden throws lifeline to S.C. Dems with 1st primary
Republished from the Charleston City Paper | President Joe Biden has thrown the South Carolina Democratic Party a long, huge lifeline by pushing national Democrats to move the first 2024 presidential primary here. Gone as the first national battleground would be the lily-white caucus in Iowa, while the lily-white New Hampshire primary faces a demotion but will still be early.
South Carolina is a state in which no Democrats won a statewide office in 2022. And after Republicans slammed through an overtly partisan redistricting map, Democrats in November lost seven seats in a S.C. House of Representatives already dominated by Republicans. So Biden’s move should help state Democrats get their act together and remain, well, somewhat relevant.
And that — despite the Republican gerrymandering — should make politics a little more competitive from Greenville to Beaufort to Charleston to Florence. More competition in political contests is what we need, not less. For that reason alone, Biden’s push is welcome.
But making South Carolina become the nation’s first primary also has benefits for the president, should he choose to run for re-election. (Other than pundits who are obsessed about what Biden will do, there’s nothing really to indicate that he won’t run.)
First, remember that the only reason Biden won the Democratic nomination in 2020 was his victory in South Carolina, backed by kingmaker and our own U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, turned around a flagging campaign. Having South Carolina first in 2024 would propel him out of the gate quickly in a state he often says feels like a second home.
Second, having a primary in familiar South Carolina should discourage potential Democratic challengers as Biden will already have many of the political operatives loyal to Clyburn or Jaime Harrison, the Orangeburg native who coincidentally happens to chair the Democratic National Committee, in his corner.
Clyburn told NPR on Saturday that South Carolina was a laboratory for political primaries, particularly for Democrats.
“When people do well in a state like South Carolina, where you have such a diverse makeup of people, have a high percentage of African American voters but not an overwhelming percentage — we are around 27% African American — but it’s about reflective of the percentage of African Americans that vote for Democrats.”
South Carolina has been pivotal for Republicans, too, Clyburn noted. “McCain was doing great in his campaign for president until he got to South Carolina. George W. Bush beat him in South Carolina, went on to become a two-term president. So there’s something about the makeup of that state.”
If South Carolina makes the final cut as the first primary state, the state party will benefit from having an influx of new political professionals working in the state. Some of those who become familiar with the Palmetto State will stay and, we hope, work inside the party to expand its reach and make Democrats more competitive in future elections.
The DNC will vote in February to finalize the primary order, hopefully with South Carolina at the top of the list. Let’s encourage the members to do just that.
Send us your thoughts about what’s happening in S.C.
Have a comment? Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com. Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification. Letters are limited to 150 words.
Rack of ribs
So this is going to be a really tough one, but there are clues in the picture (look closely) that should help you with the location. (That’s all we need this time). Bonus points: What’s being char-cooked and for what purpose? Send your guess – and your name and hometown – to feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s image, “New monument,” showed a new World War II monument in Florence that was dedicated last month on Veteran’s Day. Many thanks to longtime reader Barry Wingard of Florence for sending it in.
Hats off to these readers who identified it: Jay Altman of Columbia; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Steve Willis of Lancaster; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Bill Segars of Hartsville; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Frank Bouknight of Summerville; Pat Keadle of Wagener; and David M. Taylor of Darlington.
>> Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
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