Don’t know if you saw this on Jim Rex’s Facebook page:
Statement by Jim Rex
Thursday, September 3, 2009“I have decided that I will not seek re-election to the Office of State Superintendent of Education in 2010, regardless of whether or not I decide to run for Governor. It is clear from my time in this office that there is a limit to what we can accomplish to move South Carolina’s schools and our state forward so long as we do not have someone in the Governor’s office who is making education, jobs, and economic development the top priorities of this state. I am in the final stages of making a decision about whether or not to offer myself to South Carolinians to be that kind of Governor – a “turnaround” Governor – or whether to return to the private sector and continue to work to make a difference there. Sue and I appreciate the support and encouragement we have received as we have moved around the state in these last few weeks, and I look forward to a final decision very soon.”
So that’s one shoe. He said at Bud’s house that if the other shoe’s gonna drop, it will be this week or next.
So if he does get into it, what does that do to the race for governor? I was intrigued that Wes Wolfe suggested Rex would be in third place behind Vincent Sheheen and Dwight Drake. I asked Wes why he thought that, to which he responded:
The money and connections Drake has are pretty powerful. Plus, Rex’s only claim to fame was beating Karen Floyd by 455 votes. Also, Rex’s fundraising operation, at least so far, has been woefully inadequate compared to Drake and Sheheen. I think he could pull third, but he’d have to show me something special to prove that he can get into the runoff.
My own thought is that Rex has more name recognition than Vincent, and lacks the controversy that attaches to Dwight as a result of his lobbying clients. In a Democratic primary, that is. For many Republican voters (those of the Sanford ilk), Rex brings baggage just from being associated with public education, which they despise. And there are enough of that sort of voter to be a factor in a general election. But that’s not a factor in a Democratic race.
I don’t know for sure which of those three ought to get the nomination, but if I were to predict I’d say Rex would start out with an advantage, whether he should or not. But of course, no one really knows; we’re making educated guesses.
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Dwight Drake had me at (500) Days of Sanford….
Rex is certainly the highest profile elected Democrat in the state government (world’s tallest midget, of course), but he’s no Inez, yet.
Rex started running for Governor the first day he took office as Superintendent. Same old public relations stunts, never any bad news, no innovation, no messing with the status quo. When the going gets tough, blame someone else. When the PACT scores start plateauing or dropping, throw out the tests. That provides a couple years of “cover” while the new test results are massaged and packaged for the spoon fed public.
So if I understand his statement, Rex is saying he lacked the ability to accomplish anything over the past few years because of Mark Sanford. But once he’s governor, he’ll turn on all his magical powers to do the things he couldn’t do as Superintendent.
If he doesn’t run, it will be for one reason – he can’t convince people to give him money due to his less than stellar performance as Superintendent.
It would be great to see a candidate who a) actually has accomplished something b) isn’t beholden to the political machines and c) isn’t afraid to say “I am responsible”. In lieu of that, we’ll be hearing the same crap in 2014.
Brad thinks Governor Sanford is solely responsible for unemployment and every other problem in South Carolina. Every other player, from Hugh Leatherman to President Obama and Speaker Pelosi, bear no responsibility.
Then he becomes a megaphone for the failed Superintendent Jim Rex’s claim that he is powerless to improve education; he needs to be governor. It’s all Sanford’s fault.
Doug, while I agree with the lack of accountability in education I also know that little would be accomplished in 2 1/2 years.
Education as an institution is inherently vast and complex. It’s an institution influenced by many groups: the state department, state school board, local school boards, schools, faculties, PTO groups, parents, students, education prep programs, the legislature, the governor (when he’s around), and special interest groups.
The superficial and misguided evaluation of education using SAT scores and drop out rates skews the focus and debate on reform. I know first hand of a high school that steered lower level kids from the SAT and the average score for the school went up resulting in great fanfare. If we had Floyd as superintendent, she would have considered this school to be a success using this one metric.
My point is that until we get to the essence of the problem and avoid talk of SAT scores as the single means of evaluation, vouchers, and expectation of vast reform in 2 1/2 years, we’ll continue to spin our wheels. Again, Rex was never held accountable because Floyd and others hating on public education allowed him to simply run against Floyd and not for anything.
If government-run education is so vast and complex that no once can run it, or change it in a few months, it obviously needs to be broken up and downsized, just as a disfunctional private corporation would be by its stockholders.