Anything strike you about this release from state Treasurer Curtis Loftis?
Dear Friends,
The citizens of South Carolina have chosen to re-hire me for another term. I am humbled, enthused and energized by their trust and approval – and I am thankful for the opportunity to provide proper stewardship of their money for another four years.
In 2010, I promised to make transparency and accountability the cornerstones of my efforts to protect your money. I am proud to say that I have done just that. Some insiders and special interests are not happy with me, but I don’t work for them – I work for you!
Our campaign was positive. We traveled extensively and listened to the voters – and we heard them loud and clear. The people want their money and assets protected, the retirement fund to be transparent and well governed, and fraud, waste and abuse in state government to be exposed.
Their mandate is simple, and we understand it. So tonight, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we go back to work with only one goal in mind – to serve the people of South Carolina by fulfilling their expectations.
I want to offer my sincere gratitude to all my supporters, volunteers, friends, and family. Your support has made all of this possible and I look forward to what we can accomplish in the coming years!
Sincerely,
Curtis Loftis
Treasurer, State of South Carolina
Anyone who chose a Democratic ballot yesterday is likely to say, “What? I didn’t vote for him — or even see him on the ballot.” And they won’t in November, either.
Curtis Loftis has, indeed, just been re-elected — by voters in the Republican primary, and no one else.
That’s fine, as long as everybody got a say. But not everyone did.
That’s why voters should have the power to vote in both primaries, and not have to choose one or the other. There is no good reason why someone who wanted to vote for Brad Hutto for US Senate yesterday should have to surrender his right to have a say in who will be state treasurer for the next four years, when those of us who preferred to help Lindsey Graham avoid a runoff did have that right. It’s just wrong.
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Of course, this is not the BEST case for making my argument, since I don’t believe any of us should be voting for treasurer. But imagine that I’m talking about a post that should definitely be elective. Same principle applies.
Actually, treasurer is one of those borderline posts that it’s MAYBE OK to elect, like attorney general. But there’s no reason at all to elect both a treasurer and a comptroller general, or an adjutant general, or an agriculture commissioner, or a secretary of state, or a superintendent of education…
I have worked in central state government for 28 years and can tell you there has been a “quiet revolution” because of the current Treasurer. People only see his feud with the Investment Commission, but don’t see the way he has beefed up the staff and systems of Treasurer’s office, requires signed documents to move money, requires audits (and is fighting for stricter audits) etc. Where once the system was very loose, now it is buttoned up and those that used to game the system now find it much more difficult if not impossible.
Previously, I thought the Treasurer’s position should be appointed and I voted against Loftis in 2010, but the real story of that office has not been told and to me it looks like a great success.
Too many dashes–and mixed use of the Oxford comma? I fear that we are rapidly approaching the day when Democrats won’t bother to field candidates for ANY state office.
I think the dashes are meant to convey a certain casual insouciance.
Maybe….
Maybe heart of the problem is that SC has never had a true two-party structure?
I don’t think that’s the problem, but what you say is true enough. First, all the white people were Democrats. Then, in the space of very few years, all the white people became Republicans.
Personally, I wish everybody would become one party or the other, and then party wouldn’t matter at all. Candidates would be considered as individuals. Back in the 90s, when so many white Democrats were defecting, I wrote that EVERYBODY should join them and become Republicans, so that we could put the party nonsense behind us…
Speaking as one of those special interests Loftis decries, my main reason for voting in the Republican primary was to endorse Loftis’ opponent, Bryan Adams. *sigh* I completely agree with the need for completely open primaries and feel obliged to slide a bit off topic…
As a state retiree and board member of the State Retirees Association, I have personally witnessed Curtis Loftis’ waste of taxpayer time and money attacking us for our support of the state Retirement System Investment Commission. He has childishly engaged in vicious ad hominem attacks on both our and the RSIC governing boards on his “mission from God” to root out imaginary misdeeds in the management of the retirement investment fund.
He has taken the position that the retirement fund is entirely “state money” when it is, in point of fact, entirely the property of state retirees as part of their deferred compensation plans. The money in the retirement investment fund is no more “state money” than that portion of my salary that I put into E*Trade and other investments and savings over the years. He refuses to acknowledge that investigations by the State Attorney General, the State Inspector General, the State Ethics Commission and a bipartisan State Senate special committee have found absolutely no improprieties on the part of the RSIC or its staff.
Yes, I find the fact that Loftis has, indeed, been “re-elected” as the result of an event that disenfranchised a substantial portion of the electorate appalling.
Any mention of Mr. Loftis brings harsh personal attacks from a handful of people. In the post by Mr. Crockett, apparently a democrat voting in the republican primary, Mr. Loftis was called childish, his religion insulted and his positions mischaracterized.
Special interest is indeed self-interested and this case, hateful. It just seems to me that we should demand better, especially from a board member of a state retiree association.