NEWT GINGRICH ON SOUTH CAROLINA, HISTORY, REFORM AND CANDIDATES
July 14, 2010 · Vol. 5, No. 28
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Slave Auctions, Freedom, Reform, and South Carolina
Last Friday, I had an amazing trip to South Carolina.
The most emotional moment was standing in Charleston with Tim Scott at the site of the largest slave auction house in pre-Civil War America.
Tim Scott is an African American, Republican candidate for Congress. He became the Republican nominee by defeating Gov. Carroll Campbell’s son in the primary and Sen. Strom Thurmond’s son in the runoff.
Tim received 68% of the vote in the runoff and is expected to win the seat in November. He says he was inspired by the idealism of the Contract with America in 1994 and ran in a special election for county government the next year. Tim served 13 years in county government and two years in the state legislature.
His brochure has a “Contract with the Voters” with great principles (the national GOP could adopt most of Scott’s contract and have a better message.) To learn more about Tim Scott, visit www.votetimescott.com.
While in South Carolina, I was also struck by the intense energy and enthusiasm for Nikki Haley.
Like Tim Scott, I had known Nikki Haley when she was a state legislator and I visited Columbia as part of my work with the Center for Health Transformation.
Nikki describes herself as “a policy kind of girl.”
She loves policy.
She also is charming, happy, enthusiastic and enormously courageous.
When the state legislature passed a pay raise in secret, Nikki took note of the fact that only 8% of the legislature’s votes were recorded. She thought conducting the public’s business in secret was wrong so she moved to force recorded votes.
The establishment was enraged that some upstart Indian-American woman would challenge them, but Nikki cheerfully endured their abuse because she knew they were wrong.
Nikki succeeded because she represented three things:
Moral truth;
The public’s right to know;
The force of history moving toward transparency and accountability.
While the forces of the past sought to isolate her she focused on rallying the voters of South Carolina.
She started in the gubernatorial primary running fourth but ended up almost winning a majority against three male opponents. She won a massive majority in the runoff.
Nikki was helped by endorsements from former Governors Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, but the victory was hers. She has built a reform sentiment and a citizen movement that will be a potent force in creating a better future for South Carolina.
As Newsweek noted in its cover story last week with Nikki Haley on the cover (“The Face of the New South”), could you pick a more perfect symbol of change?
To learn more about Nikki Haley visit www.nikkihaley.com.
There were other signs of profound change underway in South Carolina.
Five out 15 Republican incumbent legislators facing primary challengers were defeated by reformers. Other members of the old order retired.
District attorney Trey Gowdy defeated Congressman Bob Inglis in the most one-sided result since 1974. Gowdy is a determined reformer.
State Sen. Mick Mulvaney has a great chance to defeat Democrat John Spratt in the 5th Congressional District. Spratt has voted consistently with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama while representing a conservative district. As budget chairman, Spratt failed to produce a house budget for the first time since the budget act was passed in 1974. For more on Mick Mulvaney’s campaign, go to www.mulvaneyforcongress.com.
State Superintendent of Education candidate Mick Zais is a retired general, former college president, and determined education reformer. He is a breath of fresh air in South Carolina education. His reform campaign can be seen at www.mickzais.com.
Finally, Curtis Loftis is a great example of the changes underway. He had never run for public office. He ran a foundation. He decided the South Carolina Treasurer’s Office was obsolete, ineffective and failing to serve the people. So he got in his van and spent months crisscrossing the state, making the case for a new model treasurer who would be transparent, accountable and work to keep the pension money in South Carolina. He won the GOP nomination and has no Democratic opponent so he will be the new treasurer. For Curtis Loftis’ ideas go to www.curtisloftis.com.
Change has come to South Carolina, and it is a story worth studying as the country wrestles with bad government policies, a bad economy, big deficits, incompetent bureaucrats, and arrogant politicians.
Your friend,
Newt
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