Mar 18 2008
Skepticism About Legislative Reform Caucus
A new caucus intended to promote government reform might just be another election year ploy, Gov. Mark Sanford said FridayThe bi-partisan coalition established last week with members from the House and Senate, including Sen. Catherine Ceips, R-Beaufort and Rep. Richard Chalk, R-Hilton Head Island, is operating under the Reform Caucus banner.
But the caucus, whose leadership says it doesn’t keep a roll of members and is “an informal group,” already is drawing criticism from around the Internet and the capital for popping up on an even year when all of the state’s House and Senate seats are up for grabs.
“Yeah, people really do care about reform, that shouldn’t just be an even-numbered year area of interest,” Gov. Mark Sanford said Friday. “That should be something people are fired up about year in and year out.”
It’s hard to take seriously the idea that the State Assembly is suddenly all about reform. Sanford has been in Columbia for five years trying to reform state government and the state assembly, run his own party, have stood in the way. I don’t know about Ceips and Chalk in particular. Perhaps they have been on board with reform the whole time. If this is truly a legitimate effort then they need to jump all the way into this and actually make a difference, not be “informal” as is stated. The culture of Columbia needs a major overhaul.