Pitts hosts forum for District 14 GOP candidates
February 11, 2019By ADAM BENSON | INDEX-JOURNAL
Retired state Rep. Mike Pitts, center, moderated a two-hour forum Monday night at The Ridge in Laurens, featuring four Republicans running to succeed him. From left are Michael Seymour, Grant Blair, Scott Horne and Stewart Jones.
LAURENS — With four Republicans facing off for the right to replace Mike Pitts in Columbia, the long-serving House District 14 representative has not allowed any of them to use his name in campaign materials.
But on Monday, the former House Ethics Commission chairman inserted himself in the face, moderating a forum at The Ridge in Laurens featuring Grant Blair, Scott Horne, Stewart Jones and Michael Seymour.
Pitts promised his questions would “differentiate” the GOP hopefuls just a week before their primary race. Democrats Bobby Gregory Jr. and Garrett McDaniel were not asked to participate.
Pitts, using the same direct style he was known for in the General Assembly, ran the gamut, asking about issues ranging from farmland preservation to Second Amendment rights.
Education
As 2019 shapes up to be a year where education takes top priority, Pitts asked candidates whether they backed privatization of higher education institutions and calls by House Speaker Jay Lucas to give teachers a nine percent pay raise over the next two years.
All four said they would vote for that proposal, and could justify it to the public and employees from other sectors of the state’s workforce.
“I think that all of our school teachers have to have a four-year degree, and you get through with four years and you’re only making $30,000, $35,000 a year and you have student loans to pay back. I would just have to say, the job our teachers have is very important to our kids and our future, and it takes a very special person to do that,” said Horne, a former member of the Greenwood County School District 51 Board of Trustees.
Although he favors better compensation for teachers, Seymour said trying to address the wage gap between South Carolina and other Southeastern states within two years could be overly ambitious.
“You might have to start off a little lower so you can give the other state employees a little bit more because if there’s a revolt and they strike, it’s going to cost a whole lot more,” he said.
Financial management
Candidates also found common ground on how state leaders should confront a multi-billion shortfall in its pension plan, saying new employees should be either given the option or switched over to a private system, such as a 401(k).
Jones, a member of the Laurens County Council, said he’s seen the problem first hand, as a local government administrator.
“I would allow them to make that choice. Part of what I’ve seen in Laurens County government is we’ve had an incredibly difficult time in promises made to employees, and government not being able to keep that long-term, and that really makes you look at how we’re dealing with the pension system,” he said.
All candidates also faulted state leaders for not fully financing the local government fund.
“We’re much better off sending that money on down to local government,” Blair said.
Campaign ethics and disclosure
Pitts pulled on his ethics background to ask candidates if they favored full disclosure of their personal finances, and how they felt about so-called “dark money” flowing into war chests of lawmakers.
“I’m running out of my own pocket. No handouts, no nothing. You can go and check,” Blair said.
Horne suggested setting a $10,000 spending cap for all candidates, requiring them to directly interact with voters in their districts.
Seymour and Jones echoed that.
“It leaves candidates beholden to outside groups and forces beyond the county,” Seymour said.
Core Republican principles
All candidates said they believed life begins at conception and promoted constitutional carry privileges for law-abiding residents.
Horne said talking to constituents and other civic leaders is the key to effective lawmaking.
“We should all get together and talk,” he said. “I don’t think any decision that we make will be off the cuff, but if they are, you’ve got understand where I stand and what I stand on.”
