Thursday, 10 a.m. — Republican incumbent Hugh Weathers acknowledges that his opponent, the enthusiastic Emile DeFelice, has good ideas — as far as they go. He says the Democrat’s emphasis on organic, sustainable farming "is good; it’s one of the spokes" on the wheel. But he makes a good case that there’s a lot more to advancing South Carolina agriculture than that.

"This race is pretty clear," he said. "I bring the big-picture perspective."

One place where he does not have the advantage, though: "My opponent has a good slogan." No kidding. But Mr. Weathers has at least tried to come up with "my version of a slogan: "Agriculture delivers." He says he kind of likes it, as it can be read on more than one level.

OK, five points out of 10 for trying, but no points for originality. As they say in the advertising biz, "What else have you got?"

Well, what he’s got includes substance, as a fourth-generation farmer and businessman. It was those attributes that Gov. Mark Sanford stressed when he appointed Mr. Weathers to the post vacated by the elected commissioner, who got all tangled up in cockfighting.

He says the governor charged him with two things:

1. To use his business skills to look at the agency the way he would his businesses (Weathers Farms, Inc. and Weathers Trucking, Inc., a bulk milk delivery service for over 30 dairies).
2. Use his farm background to make the agency more effective as well as efficient.

He believes he’s done those things, even if Mr. DeFelice hasn’t seen it. Because of assignment number one, he’s been focused inward — trimming managerial positions and achieving other efficiencies. As to number two, he says the agency is about to issue its request-for-proposal on a new branding campaign for S.C. products this very week.

In an almost mystical statement that would be worthy of his opponent, Mr. Weathers says, "We’re trying to influence two people — the consumer and the citizen. And they’re the same person."

And he refuses to take a back seat to the challenger in the one area where he would seem to have the greatest edge: Enthusiasm. The laconic Mr. Weathers insists he has enthusiasm, too, "But I blend it with the pragmatic… so that you don’t make big plans that don’t materialize." He goes on about it for several minutes, concluding, "You put up the whole of the enthusiasm that I create, I think it will stand up to any comparison."

So there, Mr. Charismatic.

On a personal note, like Ms. Footman, Mr. Weathers also gets his spirit recharged by singing at church (Bowman Southern Methodist). He’s a baritone, of course. Perhaps when this is all over, we can get them together for a duet. It might not solve all of our state’s problems, but it couldn’t hurt.

Tuesday, 4 p.m. — "I may not be on the right track, but this is where my spirit leads me," says Cheryl Footman of her quest to replace Mark Hammond as secretary of state.

And that’s mainly what it’s about for her. Asked why she was running, she said, "Well, I’ve got to give you the honest answer: It’s a spiritual thing." The Lord inspired her to run. "Politically… I don’t really have a political answer."

But she offered some anyway during the interview. One is that she thinks it would be important to be elected as a black woman, for the "message it would send to the nation."

"Cheryl Footman would be a step in the right direction — it’s sort of a slogan that I use."

More specifically to the job, she says Mr. Hammond spends too much time being a cop — chasing after bogus brand-name merchandise sold at flea markets and such.

She would spend more time providing services to businesses — which have to register with the office (the secretary of state’s main function) — and engaging in other, less conventional, initiatives, such as one to teach young people about respect ("basically, a self-esteem program for youth").

She says she would be free to engage in such things since the "office pretty much runs itself, because there really are no policy decisions to be made."

That raises the natural question of why the office needs to be elected, but she says, "I don’t think that if I had to be appointed, that I would get it."

And that’s important because "If the job is to be done correctly, it needs to be done… by me."

Ms. Footman, an Orangeburg teacher, enjoys singing Gospel music in her free time.

Tuesday, 1:15 p.m. — As I’ve mentioned here before, Emile DeFelice is a very cool candidate. We know that because he is a habitue of this blog. He has been known to comment, using his full name (as all good bloggers should), but by his own admission, "I don’t participate that often." He likes to read it, though: "I’m what they call a ‘lurker‘."

He does not intend to play such a passive role if elected to head the state’s Department of Agriculture, however. There’d be a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on. If he has anything to do with it, South Carolina will be farming — and eating — in a whole new way.

His enthusiasm for change is infectious. He says things like "America is falling in love — again, I should say — with agriculture. And food. Farming. A lot of people are discovering their inner farmer," and it doesn’t even sound particularly weird. You can get caught up in what he calls "gastroeconomics."

"It’s truly the most democratic thing we have," he says. "And I see issues everywhere" — not just among members of the Farm Bureau. Everyone should care deeply about this race, he believes: "It’s bigger than the governor. I mean really, this is our food…"

Think of him as the Oliver Wendell Douglas in this campaign. When he talks about farming and America, you can hear the fife playing "Yankee Doodle" in the background.

Like many candidates, Mr. De Felice says he got involved when he couldn’t get the incumbent involved in something he saw as important. He went to Commissioner Hugh Weathers with an idea to revitalize the dairy industry in the state through the organic approach. "He literally kicked back in his chair and said, ‘This just ain’t gonna fly in South Carolina’."

Actually, Mr. Weathers may be right. Mr. De Felice’s affinity for organic farming and macrobiotics may be a little too innovative for a lot of voters. But I think his approach is great. He certainly has the best slogan of anybody running for any office this year — of anybody running for any office since I’ve been covering S.C. politics: "Put Your State on Your Plate."

To eat local — thereby encouraging farmers to grow a variety of foods, and stimulating grocers to stock their produce — just makes sense on every possible level, not the least of which being that it helps promote energy independence. He invokes the spirit of the Victory Garden.

"It’s the way to eat your way to a much better state," he says.

Mr. DeFelice started out selling herbs "out of my backyard in Olympia" to a retailer at the Farmer’s Market. Now, he grows hogs. He freely admits that they aren’t certified organic, though, because he has no local organic source of feed with which to supplement their grazing. (The farm on which they graze, however, apparently is organic — at least, according to his Web site.) So he’s not doctrinaire. He seems happy just to move in the right direction, as much as possible.

He’s not about theories. He said his opponent is proud of having gotten $600,000 in non-recurring state funds to market South Carolina farm products. He doesn’t study it; "I do it. I don’t need their money… We are marketing our state." He’s also proud that he doesn’t take subsidies in his farming business: "I farm the free market."

Monday, 11 a.m. — Robert Barber is pretty much the anti-Andre Bauer, so I guess it’s fitting that he’s running against him. You might say that if there were an Andre Bauer on the Bizarro planet, Mr. Barber would be it.

That, of course, means he’s not all that interesting. You can come up with all sorts of things to say about a meeting with Andre, but not so with the challenger. Unlike Andre, he says grownup stuff that makes you say, "Yes, that’s true," and you don’t even bother writing it down.

He kept saying stuff like, "I think I bring a level of maturity and judgment to the office that will hold me in good stead." But he won’t trash his opponent. Maturity and judgment are so-o-o-o borring, don’t you think?

Here’s some stuff I did write down:

• The former legislator is a lawyer, but hasn’t practiced for about a dozen years. He’s been a restaurateur for the last few, having good success with his place down in the Lowcountry — good enough that he could give up his give up his lobbying business in order to run.
• He doesn’t think the Gov Lite should have to be elected on the same ticket with the governor. So what if they aren’t of the same party, he reasons? He can work with anybody, just as he works with all sorts in running his business.
• He thinks the superintendent of education should remain separate, too. In this, he admittedly is giving into typical Democratic fear of what the current governor would do to public education if he had control of it. When I protest that we shouldn’t choose our system of government based on temporary circumstances or particular individuals, he says "my eye is more on personalities and attitudes" than on abstractions.
• The main themes he has stressed in his campaign are "some values that I think are not always applied in Columbia:" Hard work, spiritual values, fiscal accountability, "an element of compassion, and certainly a strong dose of common sense."
• Before he was a lawyer or a legislator or a lobbyist, he was a preacher. He was ordained as a Methodist minister, but after serving a couple of churches, decided that there were "some limitations to parish ministry I had not anticipated."
• He’s running, as much as anything, because he has been dissatisfied with how the Office on Aging — that agency the Legislature gave Andre to make it look like he had something to do — was being run. In probably the most direct criticism he would offer of his opponent, Mr. Barber said he spends his time on "a lot of speechifying and a lot of visits that may have a lot more to do with being re-elected" than with serving the elderly. (Gasp! Do ya think?)
• He’s as surprised as I have been at the sudden ramp-up in feeling about the immigration issue, even though there has been no sudden change in the status of the issue to have provoked it.
• When asked what he would do if suddenly called on to serve as governor (the lieutenant governor’s one serious constitutional function), he has trouble envisioning what he would do. That was probably his most disturbing comment.

Oddly, the thing he did that impressed me the most was after the meeting was over. He and I were chatting about nothing in particular (he was saying small-talk things like, "Being a Gamecock fan is good preparation for being a Democrat in South Carolina"), and I stepped over to turn out one of the table lamps in the boardroom out of long habit. Without saying a word about it, he stepped over and turned out the lamp’s twin on the other side of the room.

No big deal, but no candidate’s ever taken it upon himself to do that before. Maybe he really is a responsible grownup.

Sept. 20, 10 a.m. — Here’s another one where we didn’t have to ask, "Who’s your Daddy?" That’s been a common experience this year.

So why is this man smiling? Well, for one thing he’s an upbeat kind of guy. For another, he has good cause: This race would be a yawner if not for the interesting bit of news Drew Theodore uncovered with regard to incumbent Comptroller General Rich Eckstrom — you know, about how he used a state vehicle and state gas card to take his family on vacation in Minnesota or someplace else so far up north it’s ridiculous.

That, together with Mr. Eckstrom’s penchant for other odd behavior and his lack of social skills, could put the son of the former lieutenant governor in range of victory. Since that means he’d have a seat on the Budget and Control Board, this becomes interesting.

Mr. Theodore says the comptroller general’s office was set up to be an independent fiscal watchdog on state government, "looking at priorities of where the money is being spent." This, he believes, Mr. Eckstrom has not been — not even counting the vacation thing.

He said Mr. Eckstrom, an accountant, is micromanaging the office. The Democrat says that by contrast, he would — as an elected official — concentrate on issues of policy, and let the financial professionals in the office run the day-to-day.

"Policy" is why he believes (unlike me) that the office should continue to be elected, so that there is a fiscal officer with independence. "I think there ought to be an office," either treasurer or comptroller, "elected independently so the governor and the General Assembly know they have somebody looking over their shoulders."

He also defends the hermaphroditic Budget and Control Board, but his logic smacks a bit of longing for forgotten days gone by: "When the system and everybody is getting along, it’s a good thing to have." In other words, the only problem to him is the personalities of some of the members, not the fact that it confuses and entangles the separate functions of the executive and legislative branches.

"It worked before with different parties and different agendas," just not now. "There’s a lack of respect within the board. They’re doing these protest votes." That was a reference to what he sees as symbolic, contrarian gestures by the governor and Mr. Eckstrom against the other two Republicans and one Democrat on the board.

He says he agrees with a lot of things Gov. Sanford wants to do — such as "when he says there are parts of government we should reduce" — and doesn’t understand why he doesn’t work better with people to try to accomplish some of them. "If you really believe what the governor is trying to do, find a way to get it done."

There are contrasts with the governor as well. "I also believe there are some areas where we need to put more resources in," he said. "He (the governor) probably totally disagrees with that."

Beyond that, Mr. Theodore says he would use the office to help local governments, and the state, with economic development.

He would reinstate a hotline for whistleblowers that he said the office used to have under Earle Morris. He said such a setup would be even more effective today, what with e-mail and other formers of modern communication.

He went on at some length about ways to reform health care, using models from other states, including Massachusetts. The idea is to form pools in which uninsured folks who work for state government get together to achieve economies. He would raise the cigarette tax to get that started.

He finished up talking about Mr. Eckstrom’s vacation. "He holds himself out as looking out for government waste, but he" does things like this. Where he took it too far (in terms of whether he got away with it or not) is when he used the state gas card, because "that’s how we tracked it."

"He signed the car out saying he wasn’t taking it out of South Carolina," said Mr. Theodore of his opponent. "If he’s a CPA and he didn’t pay taxes on the use of those two vehicles, then he’s got more problems than just being comptroller general."

Some highlights from the
latest candidate interviews

By Brad Warthen
Editorial Page Editor
I LEARN a lot more from candidate interviews than we have room to use in endorsement editorials. So I’ve started sharing my interview notes on my blog — plus photos. Here are some tidbits from our first 11 interviews:

Sept. 6, 10 a.m. “What has gotten me into the political process is when I got my property tax,” says Ray Maly, who is challenging state Rep. Jimmy Bales. He’s dissatisfied with the recent property tax cut the Legislature threw together, because it didn’t do away with residential property taxes entirely. It’s the very idea of the tax that offends him, that he would be “paying Richland County to live in my home….”

Sept. 6, 10:45 a.m. Challenger Anton Gunn in District 79 believes property taxes were cut too much, and that lawmakers should have increased the income tax, rather than the regressive sales tax. Mr. Gunn, whom we endorsed in the June Democratic primary, was one of the more impressive candidates we spoke with in that cycle. That makes for a tough choice this fall, as he faces an incumbent we also like a lot — Rep. Bill Cotty.

Sept. 6, 1 p.m. Longtime GOP House leader Jim Harrison made Boyd Summers mad at him, and as a result, he has an energetic Democratic opponent. Mr. Summers is mad about Mr. Harrison and colleagues stripping local government of the power to regulate billboards, about their trying to send public money to private schools and about the disrespectful handling of the criminal domestic violence bill by some on a panel Mr. Harrison chairs.

Sept. 7, 10 a.m. I particularly liked an anecdote Rep. Jimmy Bales told: “At my church, people tell me ‘I vote for you,’ but I know they don’t.” He says he knows that because they say they hit the button for the straight Republican ticket first, and then push the button for him as well, not understanding that they have to do it differently to choose an individual Democrat. “People just don’t … they don’t understand it. I say, ‘Thank you.’ What else can I say?”

Sept. 7, 1 p.m. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Harrison lists merit selection of judges as one of his greatest accomplishments, but acknowledges something needs to be done to get more women and minorities on the bench. But he worries that the best lawyers aren’t always seeking the jobs. “If you’re a successful black attorney, you’re probably making too much money to give it up, particularly early in your career,” he said.

Sept. 8, 1:25 p.m. Batesburg’s Billy Derrick, Lexington County Council’s lone Democrat, believes regional cooperation “needs to be a two-way street,” meaning sometimes the goodies need to go to the west side of the river. Still, he doesn’t blame Columbia Mayor Bob Coble a bit for having tried (and failed) to keep SCANA. He said it was “completely natural,” and in fact, “I would have been kind of disappointed had they not made a fuss.”

Tuesday, 10:30 a.m. Incumbent Republican Rep. Bill Cotty is opposed by a charismatic Democrat on one side, and a more right-leaning petition candidate on the other, and “I’m the meat in that sandwich.” The moderate Mr. Cotty wants to go into troubled school districts and create state-run charter schools. This would provide a choice for those in failing schools, only this choice would actually be accountable to the taxpayers, unlike the private schools that Mr. Cotty’s primary critics want to throw money at.

Tuesday, 1:15 p.m. “I have lived in the Swansea area all my life,” says Sadie Wannamaker. And even though she is opposed in House District 96 by Kit Spires, who defeated the vastly more qualified incumbent Republican Ken Clark in June, she is unintimidated. “I think I have a good chance.” Why? “I’m known in the community,” she said, and “He is, too.”

Wednesday, 10 a.m. Republican Denise Jones, who is challenging incumbent Rep. John Scott, has signed Grover Norquist’s “no new taxes” pledge. But although she’s tried to mail it in, it must not have gotten there, because they keep writing to ask her for it. That might be fitting, since she does support a cigarette tax increase, and other signers think that would violate the pledge. That’s the biggest reason it hasn’t passed even though 70 percent of South Carolinians are for it.

Wednesday, 12:15 p.m. Richland County Council member Kit Smith said the city of Columbia’s recent hurried action on homelessness — essentially hijacking a regional process by making unilateral decisions about a permanent one-stop center — has thrown the county for a loop. Basically, city leaders “prematurely brought it out to the community with a scare tactic,” forcing a hasty decision. She said the problematic relationship between Richland County and Columbia “is a constant — sort of like race,” on issue after issue.

Thursday, 9:30 a.m. When we asked Rep. John Scott about his Republican challenger, he reminded us: “You know, I’ve got this new me?” he said. “If I can’t say something good …,” and left it at that, except to say, “We can’t afford to have inexperienced people at the helm.” Indeed, we were somewhat shocked back during the primary season by the transformation of the former in-your-face lawmaker into the kinder, gentler John Scott. But we’re starting to get used to it. In fact, we kind of like it, now that we’re sure that’s really him.

Thursday, 9:30 a.m. When we asked Rep. John Scott about his Republican challenger, Denise Jones, he reminded us:

"You know, I’ve got this new me?" he said. "If I can’t say something good …," and left it at that, except to say, "We can’t afford to have inexperienced people at the helm."

Indeed, we were somewhat shocked back during the primary season by the transformation of the former in-your-face lawmaker into the kinder, gentler John Scott. But we’re starting to get used to it. It no longer seems nearly as weird as it did in May.

We talked about a number of state and local issues, from gang violence to annexation to local transit — but it’s the last one that is his passion, to the point that after a decade of working on the issue from a public policy standpoint, he actually went into the transportation consulting business several years back.

He said we need to "eliminate this thing that buses are for poor people." Society needs to get the more affluent into public transit, "instead of having three or four cars in the yard, all going in the same direction" every day. He said we’ve "really got to get serious" about the emissions problem, which is getting particularly bad in the Upstate.

He said the public won’t tolerate raising the gasoline tax enough to meet the state’s serious backlog in highway construction and maintenance — implying that those critical needs will have to wait a serious reordering of spending from the general fund.

After that, he mentioned tobacco, which led generally to the overall issue of health, which led specifically to his other great passion, the state’s obesity epidemic.

This, of course, led to another lecture to me about sugar, which my fanatical colleague who was present joined in on. This was unfair, because I’ve been taking my coffee black all week, but just that morning I had decided to allow myself one little luxury (for which I did 50 extra push-ups), and so I admitted that the cup on the table had the dreaded natural sweetener in it.

So how much, he wanted to know. A teaspoon? Two? "Two?" I responded incredulously. "Look, this is a really big cup — I used …" and before I could say "three," the judgmental head-shaking started.

I think I’ll just end our review of this interview right here.

Wednesday, 12:15 p.m. We’ve talked to Kit Smith often enough that we don’t have to ask a lot of the basic Civics 101-type questions we have to ask candidates we know less well ("How important is party identification to you?") We’re able to jump straight into the latest developments on issues we’ve spoken of many times before.

She said the city of Columbia’s recent precipitate action on the homelessness issue — essentially hijacking the carefully-constructed regional process to make unilateral decisions about a permanent one-stop center — has thrown the county for a loop. "If it’s not going to be a regional action with regional decisions, then I don’t know" what the county’s role is now.

This past week, the county had been set to appoint its representatives to the metropolitan commission that was supposed to guide the process, but postponed the decision now that the city seems to have pre-empted the need for such a body. Basically, city leaders "prematurely brought it out to the community with a scare tactic," forcing a hasty decision.

The problematic relationship between Richland County and Columbia "is a constant — sort of like race," on issue after issue — animal control, tax increment finance districts, water rates, annexation policy, and on and on. "I sometimes think what we need is a public mediator," she said.

Working across political boundaries is a challenge with other governments as well, such as on bus service: "It’s a regional public good. But somehow it’s hard to communicate it to the other side of the river," she said. Actually, she added, "It’s hard to communicate it to this side of the river."

She wants all the local governments to take a broad, long-term (20 or 40 years out) on infrastructure needs of the community. She sees a time when the community would have separate lanes for buses and car pools, making such efficiencies more attractive to commuters. Until such a broad approach is taken, she said, "We have a lot of cognitive dissonance about planning."

(We were going to talk to Doug Hart, Ms. Smith’s opponent, on the same day, but he asked to postpone.)

Wednesday, 10 a.m. Denise Jones says she’s been running into her opponent, incumbent Democrat John Scott, at a lot of the meetings she’s gone to in the "African-American community" — a term that would describe much of the district.

"They seem to have more community meetings" than folks in white precincts do, she observed. In some ways, this campaign has been an eye-opening experience to this Republican challenger.

"I’ve been invited to little black ladies’ homes," she said, and "They’re really afraid in their homes." This has highlighted for her concern over the growing gang problem in the Midlands.

Ultimately, she believes, "We all have … the same concerns, the same desires."

The top issues? Education — "I’m passionate about that," she said. "We need to take back our children."

That brought us to her support for the "Put Parents in Charge" proposal — although we had to bring it up. After saying, "I understand both sides," she acknowledged that "I do support that."

"We would all do anything we can for our children to achieve."

Aside from that particular approach to achievement, she had other thoughts on education with which we could agree: She said we need to address school district consolidation, and she understands (unlike most PPIC supporters) that our disastrous dropout rate would have to be addressed separately.

She is not enchanted with the idea of shifting the tax burden from property to sales, and with good reason: She understands the volatility of the sales tax. "You’ve got to be able to count on the property taxes."

As a former finance director for more than one state agency, she’s big on cost savings, and believes the state should offer employees incentives to come up with ways to cut back on spending. "I’m big about ownership," she says more than once.

She would restructure state government to eliminate some of the separately elected constitutional officers, but she’s wary of consolidating some agencies.

An area of agreement with our board: "I don’t think state government should dictate to city government or county government how they should run their business."

An area of disagreement: She has signed Grover Norquist‘s "no new taxes" pledge. The good news is that she’s tried to mail it in, but it must not have gotten there, because they keep writing to ask her for it. That might be fitting, since she does support a cigarette tax increase, and other signers think that would violate the pledge — which is the biggest reason it hasn’t passed even though 70 percent of South Carolinians are for it.

Tuesday, 1:15 p.m. "I have lived in the Swansea area all my life," says Sadie Wannamaker. "I have friends that our parents were friends, we are friends, our children are friends and our grandchildren are friends."

She is very active in the community, and now wants to serve it in the House.

She is a political novice, as is her opponent — Kit Spires, the man who defeated the vastly more qualified incumbent Republican Ken Clark in the primaries, with significant help from the out-of-state anti-public school radicals pushing PPIC. The difference between her and Mr. Spires?

"The biggest would be my strong support of public education," she said. "I don’t think we need it destroyed by any outside influence."

"I have known him all my life," she said of her opponent. "He and I are total opposites" in terms of the ability to communicate and work with other people. Mr. Spires is a pharmacist. Mrs. Wannamaker was female state employee of the year; she spent 31 years working for DHEC.

She is modest about her understanding of legislative issues, but it appears to be greater than Mr. Spires‘. He said repeatedly during the primaries that his one big issue was cutting property taxes, but he was utterly unaware of what proposals the General Assembly was considering along those lines. Regarding what DID come out of the Legislature, Mrs. Wannamaker said, "I’m glad that something was passed, but it might have been too hasty." Showing more knowledge than she admits, she observed that the compromise "may have shifted it to where the businesses will have to pay more taxes, which will defeat our purposes of trying to bring in more" economic development, which her district sorely needs.

She is unintimidated by Mr. Spires’ recent victory. "I’m excited about this challenge," she said. "I think I have a good chance."

Why?

"I’m known in the community," she said, and added significantly: "He is, too — but I’m known in the community."

Polite to the end, she said, "I do want to thank you for this interview," but "I am glad that we’re almost concluding it."

Finally, she said, "I’m running this campaign by faith. I’m led to do this." She referred us to Proverbs 3:5, which, I admit, I had to look up.

Tuesday, 10:30 a.m. This is one of those races that make you wonder why we can’t spread political talent out a little more evenly in this state.

Incumbent Republican Bill Cotty, who was targeted by anti-public school forces and whom we gladly endorsed back in the June primary, is up against talented young newcomer Anton Gunn, whom we also were happy to support back in June.

If only one of them were running in some other district where the choices are a lot less appealing. But only one of these two men can be elected. Right now, the odds look better for Mr. Gunn than one usually expects with a challenger to a widely respected incumbent. The Democrat says he would win on his own. I don’t know about that, but I know he will be helped out by a challenge to Mr. Cotty from the right. Petition candidate Michael Letts — who has declined to be interviewed by this board — could pull enough Republican voters away to make the difference.

Voters are being offered a sandwich, says Mr. Cotty, and "I’m the meat in that sandwich."

"I’m a moderate Republican, and I’m proud of that," he says. As a result of his ability to work across party lines, "I … get things done."

Things such as getting the Confederate flag off the State House dome in 2000, tightening the state’s DUI limit to .08 percent blood-alcohol level, and doing away with the minibottle requirement that forced bars and restaurants to serve stiffer drinks. He was the House floor leader on all those bills.

"I can be a coalescing force," he said.

He also took the point on the complicated tax-shift plan that passed at the last minute this year. (It eliminated property taxes for school operations in exchange for a sales-tax increase, among other things.) But he is by no means satisfied with it. "I’m interested in substantial tax reform," and that didn’t qualify. He sees it as something that will serve until we can actually get comprehensive tax reform

Organizations that have spent money to get rid of Mr. Cotty, such as SCRG, would probably call him a defender of the status quo in public education. They like to tell lies like that, accusing the real school reformers of being mossbacks.

It could hardly be less true in Mr. Cotty’s case. Public education has been the passion that has driven his public service since he was first elected to the Richland 2 school board, and he has always been a change agent. "I’m about change," he said, "but change for the good, not just change."

He has been a critic of the Education Oversight Committee, which was supposed to drive innovation in schools, but which he believes has fallen short of its mission. Since he is now a member of it, that’s an even sharper indictment. That’s not the only failure he points to. "Allendale has been handed back still broken" after the state Department of Education’s intervention into that dysfunctional system. "Allendale has not been fixed, and it won’t be fixed by the folks in Allendale."

This fact leads to Mr. Cotty’s Big Idea: Having the state go into the troubled districts and creating state-run charter schools. This would provide a choice for those in failing schools, only this choice would actually be accountable to the taxpayers, unlike the private schools that Mr. Cotty’s critics want to throw money at.

"They are starved for choice," he says of students and parents in poor districts. "We need to take it to them," and bypass the sadly ineffective local boards in doing so. "Many of those communities think ‘success’ is ‘I got a grant.’

"They think ‘job creation’ is, ‘the government opened a new program.’" He sees his state charter school idea as a key to real economic development in some of the areas that need it the most.

The way they would be funded is that all school funding would follow the child — not the measly $1,000 or so of a tax credit (which poor folks couldn’t get anyway). "I’m talking about the whole $9,800" from all funding sources.

He welcomes criticism of his idea, which is still forming: "What I want is the idea on the table."

As for the PPIC crowd, "They’ll be absolutely opposed to my idea. Why? Because they won’t get a check" sent to each family — and that has always been at the heart of what political appeal the tax-credit idea has.