Tom Davis appointment a case of qualification trumping connection

Here’s something you don’t see every day in South Carolina:

Columbia, SCJuly 6, 2009 – South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler announced today that he has recommended State Senator Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) for appointment to the State Ports Authority Legislative Oversight Committee.  The 10-member legislative committee was recently created with the passage of the port-restructuring bill to help ensure stability and efficiency in state ports operations.

Tom Davis is one of Gov. Mark Sanford’s closest friends and advisers, and has said the gov should stay in office. Harvey Peeler was one of the first GOP senators to call on the governor to step down. Tom served previously on the Ports Authority, as a gubernatorial appointee. And he holds up the Jasper port deal with Georgia as a key achievement of the Sanford administration (when I suspect it is actually a key achievement of Tom Davis).

But Sen. Peeler appointed Sen. Davis anyway. We need to see more of that in South Carolina, a lot more: People being chosen for office because of their qualifications, rather than who their friends are.

Anyway, good choice there, Sen. Peeler.

4 thoughts on “Tom Davis appointment a case of qualification trumping connection

  1. SGMret

    Let’s hope that his appointment turns out to be more, in the end, than just the exception that proves the rule.

    Development of another port facility would be a significant boon to SC’s economy. There’s an incredible latent potential there if only SC and GA can work together. Charleston could also use some heavy lifting work by the Ports Authority to prevent it from falling into irrelevancy vis-a-vis our neighbors and competitors on the Atlantic Seaboard.

    It is truly a global economy and this is a niche that SC can take advantage of.

  2. Lee Muller

    We need more manufacturing, unless we just want to be a shipper of goods from Tennessee and North Carolina.

  3. Lee Muller

    The reason we can’t have both is that our legislature is making the state hostile to business. Entrepreneurs are leaving. Engineers and scientists are leaving. Bright students and recent graduates are leaving.

    Maybe the legislators want to get rid of thinking people, and just run a state full of government retirees, government employees and those living off welfare.

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