Litmus Tests

Which Republican members of the S.C. Senate are true conservatives?

And which ones only play that role on the campaign trail, or when the mainstream media microphones are set to “record?”

The breakdown between these two camps became a bit clearer earlier this week when the Senate overwhelmingly passed a politically-motivated, knee-jerk, big government “solution” to the current crisis at our battered and bleeding State Ports Authority (SPA).

The status quo bill – championed by Senate Majority Leader Glenn McConnell – does absolutely nothing to address the flawed, socialist business model that is at the heart of the Ports Authority’s problems.

Instead, it would place the agency under a virtual legislative stranglehold and remove the executive branch’s right to remove board members at its discretion – a key accountability component that Gov. Mark Sanford, for whatever reason, has failed to utilize during his six years in office.

But just because Sanford has refused to remove big government liberals like Bill Stern from the Ports Authority Board, that doesn’t mean South Carolina should move to a legislatively-dominated system that strips away accountability from future governors.

In fact, Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) and S.C. Rep. Jimmy Merrill (R-Charleston) have the best idea, which is to get rid of the Ports Authority board altogether and replace it with a Chief Executive who reports directly to the governor.

Of course that would make too much sense for our ever-meddling State Senate.

Anyway, the breakdown of Republican votes on this bill represents the first real snapshot of where the GOP is heading ideologically this session.

Not surprisingly, Senators Hugh Leatherman, Luke Rankin and Billy O’Dell (all former Democrats) enthusiastically embraced McConnell’s bill, along with longtime RINO’s Thomas Alexander, Ronnie Cromer, Jake Knotts and Larry Martin.

Those seven Senators might as well put “D’s” by their names, people.

Paul Campell and Ray Cleary also voted for the bill, which surprised us, but not as much as the votes cast by three Senators from very conservative districts – Mike Fair, Wes Hayes and Harvey Peeler.

The biggest surprise of all, however, was the fact that Larry Grooms, typically a very consistent conservative, “volunteered” to serve as the bill’s lead sponsor.

Throughout the debate, Grooms repeatedly put himself in unfamiliar (and dangerous) territory by extolling the virtues of a government-run port system as opposed to a free market model.

Those are quotes we have no doubt will come back to haunt him – unless of course he reverses course.

McConnell did the same thing, which will probably put a damper on those Goldwater credentials he’s so fond of invoking.

So … which Republicans took the pro-business, pro-free market, pro-accountability position by voting against McConnell’s bill?

These twelve: Lee Bright, Kevin Bryant, John Courson, Tom Davis, Shane Martin, Shane Massey, Mick Mulvaney, Mike Rose, Greg Ryberg, Phillip Shoopman, David Thomas and Danny Verdin.

Of those, Courson and Thomas were pleasant surprises, while the other ten all seem to be consistent conservative votes.

Incidentally, these twelve Republicans were joined by two Democrats, Sumter’s Phil Leventis and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen, who obviously doesn’t want to unnecessarily limit the appointment power of the office he’s seeking.

Republican Chip Campsen did not vote, although he would likely have fallen in with the conservative camp.

Assuming that to be the case, the GOP breakdown on this litmus test vote would be dead even, 13 big government backers versus 13 true conservatives, although we expect there to always be some movement at the margins.

We’ll continue to follow this so-called “Republican majority” in the Senate as it votes next week on another critical conservative litmus test, Sen. Hugh Leatherman’s Tax Realignment Commission proposal.

Stay tuned …

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