10:31 a.m. — Michael Koska, a professional photographer, is an interesting candidate in a number of ways.

First, he’s a white Republican running in the district that has been represented by John Scott since 1990. That’s often a sign of someone making a purely symbolic, quixotic gesture. But he’s quite serious.

More than that, for someone running for office for the first time, he’s unusually well-informed and thoughtful about issues. His knowledge is born of experience.

He got interested in serving his community after hearing about a school teacher dying on a road he travels every day — Hard Scrabble. He found out that local government didn’t plan to fix the road for another 20 years. So he started a campaign to do something about it. He collected 10,000 signatures on a petition, and went to Sen. Joel Lourie and Rep. Bill Cotty for help. He got $400,000 to fix a problem right in front of the school, which he calls a "very small victory," as a true fix for Hard Scrabble will run $70 million. And, as he just discovered, that’s just the beginning of local road needs that we haven’t figured out how to pay for. (He said he almost ran two years ago after he heard Mr. Scott offer light rail as as answer to our transportation woes — but he discovered the filing deadline had just passed.) He’s for borrowing the money now to fix these problems, as it will only be more expensive later.

He’s also, as a small business owner, very interested in the state finding a way to provide affordable health coverage. He’s had to pay an exorbitant amount for insurance that doesn’t meet his needs — he was charged $20,000 for his wife to go through a perfectly normal, healthy childbirth. But he doesn’t dare try to switch policies because it took him so long to get this one.

And he recognizes the issue as one that goes far beyond his own case. He sees how small businesses in general are held back, which is a millstone around the state’s neck economically. He speaks of all the people who are trapped in jobs they can’t quit, because they can’t do without the insurance.

The video below shows the knowledgeable way in which Mr. Koska speaks of these issues.

On other matters:

• He favors a move to a Cabinet system of state government.
• Unlike me he may not love light rail, but he’s all for the state doing what it can (since the federal government has failed so miserably) to move us toward energy independence. "We’re financing both sides in the War on Terror." He’s for going nuclear (in terms of peaceful use, that is), and promoting electric cars.
• In general, as a Ronald Reagan Republican, "I think taxes should stay as low as they can." But he refused to sign Grover’s pledge, bless him.

So you’re thinking I’ve gotta love this guy, right? Well, nobody’s perfect. He’s for private school vouchers. He thinks it would mean we’d have fewer public schools to build, and help with overcrowding.

Like I said, nobody’s perfect. Here’s the video (sorry about the wiggly picture — it’s the stripes on his shirt):

Related Posts

• Sheri Few touts ability to raise funds as advantage in House 79 primary
• Preview: Cindi’s column Sunday explaining restructuring
• David Herndon, S.C. House Dist. 79
• Mike Sturkie, S.C. Senate District 23
• Our first endorsement ran today
• Video: Ed Gomez vs. Nikki Haley
• David Herndon, S.C. House District 79
• Michael Koska, S.C. House District 77
• Jim Nelson, S.C. House District 87
• What the Knotts endorsement is really about