Carolina Politics Online

There are three candidates in South Carolina’s State Senate District 7 in the upcoming election.  The 7th District covers downtown Greenville, the outlaying parts of the city and a bit of Mauldin.  It’s a Democratic gerrymander so odds are that incumbent Senator Ralph Anderson (D-Greenville) will be successful in his reelection efforts, particularly since he is being challenged by two right wing candidates.

The Greenville News recently interviewed the 80 year old incumbent and asked him if there is anything he’d like to see get done still.

“We’re spending millions of dollars a year keeping people in prison. And many of these people, if they had the opportunity to get a job, would find out it’s a whole lot better than being in prison. But they can’t find jobs,” he said.

“I believe if we can get some of those kids jobs and get ministers to counsel them and help them to change their lifestyles, they can be productive citizens so they don’t go back to crime.”

While this is a noble cause for certain, I don’t agree with the Senator’s philosophy.  How would we pay for this?  Our prison systems are already understaffed and the state is feeling a serious pinch right now in tax revenues and its operating budget.  Unless Anderson is prepared to raise everyone’s taxes, his idea isn’t viable.

Secondly, there is also the issue of fairness.  Why should someone who has broken the law and been sent to prison get a free education paid for by the taxpayers when the rest of us who aren’t renegade outlaws have to pay on college loans for 20 years to obtain ours?  There’s something wrong with that picture.  Besides, prison isn’t for rehabilitation.  It’s for punishment and the way to keep repeat offenders out is to make prison such a horrible experience that no man in his right mind would want to go back.  I’m all for bringing back the chain gangs and having them out in the sun for 12 hours a day breaking rocks with a pick axe.

Roán Garcia-Quintana is the Republican challenger in the race.  He was born in Havana, Cuba, has a Ph D. from the University of South Carolina and is currently the Executive Director of the Americans Have Had Enough Coalition.  Garcia-Quintana is a major advocate of cracking down on illegal immigration.  As a Senator he promises to make sure that the South Carolina Immigration Reform Act, passed in June of this year is strengthened and not gutted down the road.  He also supports making sweeping changes to the state’s public education system, which is in a shambles:

• Once and for all fix the outdated and flawed funding system that is currently being used by the state to disburse our funds.

• Provide a good assessment system for students and a fair and just assessment system to determine the quality of our schools and their districts.

• Students should be tested every year starting with end-of-Kindergarten tests.  We cannot afford to wait until third grade to find out that our students are two grades behind in reading and mathematics.

• Provide student and parents choices as to where their child can go to school.

• Make it less bureaucratic for parents and teacher to create charter schools.

• Change the teacher-education program by increasing the focus on academics and decreasing the emphasis on philosophies, psychologies and histories, which have never proven to do anything for advancing student learning or the pedagogy that results in higher student achievement.

• Guarantee that each teacher has an environment conducive to learning.

• Restrict the number of administrators that a school district will have.  District and School administrators should have to teach at least one course every year.  This should be a requirement for license renewal.

The man is an excellent candidate and very qualified for an elected role in state government.

The third candidate is John Langville and he is running under the Constitution Party banner.  Don’t dismiss him so quickly because he is a third party candidate.  The Constitution Party candidate in a special election for Greenville County Council in 2007 garnered 39% of the vote.

Langville supports the following issues, from his campaign site:

• Grant local law enforcement the authority to enforce immigration laws (Opposed to any guest worker/amnesty programs)

• Eliminate taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens

• Address high fuel costs

• Reduce state spending

• Protect private property owners’ rights

• Eliminate government involvement in education (Advocates parental responsibility)

• The Biblical definition of marriage is one man and one woman

• Stop the murder of unborn children (100% pro-life)

• Pro-Gun rights

Some of that is a bit vague.  I shot him off an email yesterday afternoon, but haven’t heard from him yet.  If he responds to my questions I’ll do a quick post on him.  I want to know how he plans to address high fuel costs and precisely what he means by eliminating government involvement in education.  Also, he notes that he is 100% pro-life.  I take it the 100% means exactly that, which leads me to logically conclude that he would be opposed to abortion even in the case of rape or incest, which I think is a view that would be a bit out of the mainstream.

So, if you’re in Greenville’s District 7 here are your choices for November 4th.

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