South Carolina governor pressures lawmakers on behalf of a left University nominee

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster is calling personally the members of the SC General Assembly and asking them to support the candidacy of the former National Basketball Association (NBA) Star Alex Ingles for a seat on the University of South Carolina board of trustees.

Are your efforts moving the needle in this contentious battle? Or are lawmakers rejecting your pleas?

Pulling the lens further back, Is the decision of the threatened occupant to enter this battle providing more food for those who wish to challenge him in 2022?

Remember, McMaster is facing major headwinds before his run for reelection next spring … with several reliable candidates already moving against him.

To recap: English is at the center of a high profile and politically charged struggle for this post of higher education – which he temporarily held since last June, when McMaster appointed him to replace the current dean of the law school. William Hubbard.

Also seeking the vacancy is the banker from Columbia, SC Robert Dozier and Irmo, SC entrepreneur Kevin Hunter – both seen as fiscal conservatives.

Among the issues that define this race is the Englishman’s effort to rename the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center at the university center, Columbia, SC campus. Named eighteen years ago in honor of the late US Senator Strom Thurmond – a prominent advocate of segregation during the 1960s – the building has been the focus of an aggressive campaign for renaming after the assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the last Memorial Day.

(Click to view)

(Via: Columbia SC Photographers Travis Bell)

English’s support for the renaming of “Strom” has upset some lawmakers who still admire the late senator – as well as other lawmakers who believe the university is trying to undermine legislative authority when it comes to renaming government buildings.

In addition, McMaster’s lobbying campaign on behalf of the British allegedly led some lawmakers the wrong way, considering the governor – a ex officio member of the university council – already has the power to make two appointments to this panel with contestation of results.

In fact, one of these nominees – a major McMaster donor – was at the center of the governor’s successful effort to make a retired US Army general Robert Caslen the 29th president of the school in spring 2019.

How did this change work for the school? Eh …

While not unprecedented, lawmakers told us that meddling for governor in a race for university curators was unusual – and unexpected.

“In a quarter of a century, I don’t remember a governor ever asking me to support a candidate for a university council,” a lawmaker told us.

Another lawmaker was more direct in his criticism of McMaster’s involvement in the name of English …

“If the governor wants to put this guy on the board so badly, he should release one of his seats for him,” said the legislator. “That is our seat.”

To compound the frustration, McMaster is asking conservative Republican lawmakers to vote in favor of a decidedly liberal nomination – creating a momentum similar to what occurred in a recent legislative election for a seat on the SC appeals court.

“He’s asking us to get shot for him,” a Midlands Republican told us.

Lawmakers have publicized several of English’s recent social media posts – including one in which he celebrated the recent Democratic sweep of US Senate contests in neighboring Georgia (and praised the liberal activist Stacey Abrams for their role in ensuring these victories).

“Put Stacey Abrams in the history books”, English tweeted in the aftermath of Democratic victories. “I never want to hear ‘my vote doesn’t matter’ again.”

Other tweets and retweets in English infuriated conservative lawmakers. Meanwhile, several black lawmakers expressed frustration that the Englishman hired the son of a white Republican lawmaker to lead his lobbying campaign.

McMaster’s meddling in this race comes at a time when the university is struggling heavily on several fronts – especially with regard to its finances.

As our founding editor, founding editor Will Folks has often pointed out, South Carolina is receding academically, falling to position 118 in the last US News and World Report national classifications. And with the exception of women’s basketball, its athletics department has completely imploded – with no end in sight for terminal speed.

Meanwhile, despite its dire financial difficulties, the school continues to invest taxpayer money in speculative real estate deals … having clearly failed to learn the lesson of the economic disaster that deceived taxpayers a decade ago.

Finally, the university is already at the tip of the spear when it comes to all kinds of liberal liberal thinking (although it falls far short of the diversity it demands from everyone else).

As noted earlier this week, FITSNews does not take up positions in university board races due to our founding editor’s longstanding support for the privatization of higher education in the state of Palmetto (and beyond).

“Higher education must be privatized immediately and permanently,” wrote Folks in 2018. “No more government appropriations, period. In addition, student loans in this country must be issued based on what the market determines as an acceptable level of risk, not a federal guarantee. Anything below that will only add more destructive force to a time bomb that has become an existential threat to the American economy. “

Consequently, choosing between political appointees seems hypocritical in light of the fundamental belief that these higher education institutions should be removed from the control of political governance.

That said, we will continue to closely monitor the latest developments in this race – which is scheduled for March 3, 2021.

State lawmakers have routinely threatened to fire university trustees because of poor school administration in recent years … however, they continue to rename them.

Will they follow suit with English?

-FITSNews

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Flag: SC Governor’s Office