Pubdate: Mon, 16 Jul 2007
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Valerie Bauerlein

POLITICAL WOES DOG REPUBLICANS ACROSS THE SOUTH

Infighting and Scandals Could Undermine Party In Longtime Stronghold

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The Republican-led South Carolina legislature was 
in the final throes of a bitter session last month when word of 
criminal charges against a high-ranking state official swept through 
both chambers.

A federal grand jury had just handed up an indictment against 
Treasurer Thomas Ravenel, scion of one of the state's leading 
political families, for allegedly distributing cocaine. Mr. Ravenel, 
who had recently defeated a Democratic incumbent who held the office 
for 36 years, was the statewide chairman for former New York City 
Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign, in what has historically 
been a decisive early primary state.

The indictment is just one of the political headaches across the 
South that are making Republicans look more vulnerable than they have 
in years to losing ground in the region's legislatures and 
statehouses. Though there isn't any sign of them losing their 
dominance in the region, the once-formidable "Solid South" coalitions 
they forged in the 1980s and 1990s to end a century of Democratic 
dominion have given way to messy schisms and infighting. Today, they 
look a lot like the bitterly divided Democrats of three decades ago.

Most of those divisions stem from internal rivalries that have 
developed as the party consolidated power in the region, where they 
control half of the legislative chambers. Some of the tensions can be 
ascribed to dueling priorities between legislatures and governors. 
Others have been caused or exacerbated by personal scandals like the 
one involving Mr. Ravenel, who has pleaded not guilty to the cocaine 
charges, but hasn't made any public statement about them.

Last week, Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana admitted what he called a 
"serious sin" in his past after his name surfaced on the list of 
callers to a Washington, D.C., madam. Mr. Vitter, the Southern 
campaign chairman for Mr. Giuliani, couldn't be reached for comment. 
Mr. Giuliani called the situation a personal matter and said Mr. 
Vitter would continue to represent his campaign.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue recently vetoed a property-tax rebate and 
much of the budget crafted by Republican House and Senate leaders, 
and killed pet projects in House leaders' districts. House leaders 
said the vetoes seemed personally motivated. The Republican governor 
has said there should be no lasting hard feelings. "You can get from 
point A to B and disagree on what roads to take, but we all want to 
get to the same place," said Bert Brantley, Mr. Perdue's spokesman.

Cigarette Tax

In Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour has clashed with his fellow 
Republican lieutenant governor and party legislators over a push to 
swap an increase in the cigarette tax for a cut in the state's 
comparatively high sales tax on food. Gov. Barbour opposed the idea 
out of concern about changing the tax structure as the state 
continued to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

There have been indictments and scandals involving Democrats in the 
South in recent years, too -- the former speaker of the North 
Carolina House was sentenced last week on bribery charges. But the 
series of missteps involving Republicans has coincided with other 
signs of trouble for the party after two decades of increasing 
influence in the region, and could create opportunities for Democrats.

Last year, Democrats picked up a total of 25 seats in Southern 
legislative races, their first net gain since 1982, according to the 
National Conference of State Legislatures. In Kentucky, a recent poll 
of 693 registered voters by InsiderAdvantage, showed half of 
independent voters and nearly a third of women voters were undecided 
about the governor's race, an ominous sign for Republican incumbent 
Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who got a big boost from independents the first 
time around.

Mr. Fletcher fended off two Republican challengers in a May primary 
in which the dominant issue was his indictment in an investigation 
into whether he improperly rewarded supporters with state jobs. The 
indictment was dropped last year in a deal with prosecutors. "The 
governor acknowledged that some mistakes were made in his 
administration, but it didn't rise to the level of criminal 
activity," said Marty Ryall, Mr. Fletcher's campaign manager.

Despite their control of nearly every elected statewide position and 
huge majorities in both houses of the legislature, South Carolina 
Republicans have been unable to deliver on significant campaign 
promises, including a program that would give state residents 
vouchers to help pay for private schools.

In May, a split among Republican blocs allowed a coalition of 
Democrats and some Republicans to engineer the selection of a 
Democrat for a rare opening on the state Supreme Court. The party's 
once-tight control of state spending has weakened. The state's 
current $6 billion budget now includes a $9 million grant fund for 
pet projects, such as festivals celebrating pork and catfish in 
various legislative districts. Last month, Senate leaders, angered by 
what they saw as an attempt to blame them for a budgetary logjam, 
crashed a news conference held by Gov. Mark Sanford and House leaders 
in a bid to tell their side of the story.

The squabbling has been made worse by scandals involving alleged 
personal misconduct. Last month's indictment in U.S. District Court 
in Columbia of the 44-year-old Mr. Ravenel, a colorful Charleston 
developer known as T-Rav by friends on his MySpace page, followed by 
days a no-contest plea by a Republican state representative to 
charges of making threats against his estranged wife's boyfriend.

Cockfighting Ring

Last year the state's Republican former agriculture commissioner was 
sentenced to federal prison on extortion charges related to a 
cockfighting ring. The state's 38-year-old lieutenant governor, Andre 
Bauer, another rising Republican star who was close to Mr. Ravenel, 
was pulled over twice for speeding, but wasn't ticketed even though 
he was clocked on one occasion last year at 101 miles an hour.

The legislature just appropriated $90,000 a year so Mr. Bauer could 
have a driver and security detail. Mr. Bauer's chief of staff said 
the lieutenant governor regrets the speeding incidents, but that they 
weren't related to his getting a driver and security detail.

The day after Mr. Ravenel's indictment, state Republican Party 
Chairman Katon Dawson issued a public scolding, warning members of 
his party that personal misconduct and legislative double-dealing 
were a threat to the party. He reiterated his plea in an op-ed 
article published July 3 in The (Columbia) State newspaper, saying he 
was getting constant calls and emails indicating an unprecedented 
"sustained unhappiness" with Republicans. Unless officeholders 
straightened up, he said, "grass-roots activists will not just revolt 
with their votes, they'll revolt with their apathy -- and that would 
cripple this country."

South Carolina House Majority Leader James H. Merrill says his 
Charleston constituents frequently ask why he can't get Republicans 
"to act like Republicans."

"You're going to end up alienating voters," Rep. Merrill said. "You 
saw a little bit of it in Washington. That's why every 20 years, the 
pendulum swings the other way." [Chart]

Mr. Giuliani, who already faces skepticism from Christian 
conservatives because he has been married three times and because of 
his moderate stance on abortion and gay rights, expressed shock at 
the Ravenel charges and named a new state chairman for his campaign. 
However, Mr. Ravenel's father, former U.S. Rep. Arthur Ravenel Jr., 
remains a regional campaign chairman and one of Mr. Giuliani's most 
visible supporters in the state.

Democrats already have seized on the elder Mr. Ravenel's longstanding 
support of flying the Confederate flag at the South Carolina state 
capitol, and on references he made in 2000 to the National 
Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mr. Ravenel 
referred to the NAACP as the "National Association for Retarded 
People." Mr. Ravenel said yesterday he wasn't sorry about his remarks 
but didn't mean to give offense to the retarded. He has previously 
said that he mistakenly transposed the name of the civil-rights 
organization with an advocacy group for the mentally disabled with 
which he worked in the past.

The elder Mr. Ravenel has another son with Down syndrome. Elliott 
Bundy, a spokesman for Mr. Giuliani, declined this week to comment on 
demands by Democrats that Mr. Giuliani condemn Mr. Ravenel's previous remarks.

Treatment Program

According to his attorney, the younger Mr. Ravenel has embarked on a 
30-day treatment program at an Arizona facility. Gov. Sanford has 
suspended him temporarily; under South Carolina law, he would 
automatically lose his office if convicted.

The Republican turmoil has raised some Democratic hopes that parts of 
the South may no longer be as lockstep in support of the Republican 
Party. But Donald L. Fowler, a former chairman of the Democratic 
National Committee and the husband of Carol Khare Fowler, South 
Carolina's Democratic Party chairwoman, cautions that Republican 
fatigue doesn't yet necessarily portend broad Democratic comebacks, 
particularly in South Carolina.

He says it would require a major demographic shift, such as an influx 
of people from other parts of the country, and a major economic 
change, such as a depression, to change the landscape.

"At least where we are now, Democrats don't have the wherewithal to 
take advantage of the split in the Republican Party," Mr. Fowler said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman