Your SC politics briefing

Welcome to your weekly South Carolina politics briefing, a newsletter curated by The State’s politics and government team.

The state Supreme Court is set to become all male.

Lawmakers elected Judge Gary Hill to replace outgoing Justice Kaye Hearn, the high court’s only woman, who wrote the majority opinion striking down the state’s fetal heartbeat bill, which banned abortions after the six-week mark of a pregnancy.

In the 3-2 decision, the court said the heartbeat law violated the privacy provision in the state constitution.

Hill’s election, reached after a 140-8 vote by both the state House and Senate on Wednesday, comes as the Republican-controlled General Assembly tries to pass yet another abortion ban after an unsuccessful attempt in a special session last year.

“Women are mad. They were mad about the repeated arguing of abortion when there are hardly any members of the Legislature that are female,” said state Sen. Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, one of only five women in the Senate.

State Rep. Sylleste Davis, R-Berkeley, who backed Hill’s election, told reporters in January that a judge’s qualification should not be based on personal demographics but judicial philosophy.

“When I’m making a decision, especially involving the Supreme Court, I’m looking for someone that is a strict constitutionalist, someone that I know will use the constitution to make their decisions,” Davis said.

This all takes place as lawmakers in the Republican-controlled and male dominated General Assembly debate new efforts to ban abortion in the state. The Senate Thursday passed another six-week ban with exceptions for rape and incest up to 12 weeks, the life and health of the mother and fatal fetal anomaly.

The House is expected to take up a debate on the Human Life Protection Act, which bans nearly all abortions from the point of conception.

If lawmakers are ultimately successful in passing abortion restrictions, it most certainly would trigger another court challenge.

Read more: SC Supreme Court turns down request for rehearing state’s 6-week abortion ban

A $3.5 billion mistake

Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom acknowledged Thursday that his office had been making an accounting mistake for 10 years, which led to an overstatement of the state’s cash balances by $3.5 billion.

Eckstrom, who serves as the state’s chief accountant, said money was counted twice and the error only appeared in this office’s annual comprehensive financial report.

“It had no impact on the state’s actual cash or on the state’s annual appropriation and budgeting process. Furthermore, the general ledger was correct throughout,” Eckstrom wrote in a briefing memo to senators.

But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler promised members of his committee would get to the bottom up what happened.

“How could something like this go on?” Peeler said to reporters Thursday. “I mean, don’t we have auditors? Why didn’t auditors catch this? Something’s amiss.”

Critical race theory ban passes House

The S.C. House passed legislation to prohibit certain concepts, including those considered to be promoting critical race theory, from being taught in public schools.

Dubbed the Transparency and Integrity in Education Act, the law would prohibit public schools from suggesting that by virtue of a student’s race or sex, that student bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, sex, ethnicity, religion, color or national origin.

Critics say it’s nothing more than an attempt by conservative lawmakers to censor the teaching of Black history and other important historical contexts in public schools.

Following a 83-34 vote, mostly along party lines, and a flurry of amendments and procedural challenges, the bill is now on its way to the Senate, where its future remains uncertain after senators left session last year without tackling a similar measure.

Dems pick SC to go 1st

South Carolina will replace Iowa as the first state in the Democrats’ presidential picking order after the Democratic National Committee voted Saturday to overhaul its 2024 contest calendar.

The Palmetto State’s Democratic presidential primary is now scheduled for Feb. 3, 2024 followed three days later by New Hampshire and Nevada. A week later, Georgia would hold its primary. Michigan will follow on Feb. 27.

The move by Democrats, pushed by President Joe Biden, highlights the diversity in the party, pointing to how Black voters make up more than 60% of the party’s voters in the state.

“This calendar does what is long overdue,” said DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, a South Carolina native. “It expands the number of voices in the early window, and it elevates diverse communities that are at the core of the Democratic Party.”

Biden also won the South Carolina primary in 2020 after losing in Iowa, New Hamphire and Nevada.

“The economic and political impact that being first in the country has for our state and our people cannot be understated or oversold,” said Trav Robertson, chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. “The president of the United States of America has placed a great deal of belief and faith in our people and we’re going to take that responsibility very seriously.”

Ultimately the order of the Democratic presidential primary order may not be a large issue if Biden runs for reelection and doesn’t have any major challengers.

Democrats also want to revisit the primary order every four years.

More presidential campaign news:

▪ U.S. Sen. Tim Scott may be the only U.S. senator do jump into race for president, The Hill reports.

▪ Former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley released a hype video of ahead of her Feb. 15 presidential campaign announcement.

▪ Former President Donald Trump may not be Haley’s biggest obstacle to the presidency, Politico reports.

Buzz Bites

▪ Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who commands the South Carolina State Guard, has been promoted to major general from brigadier general.

▪ A bipartisan group of lawmakers want to ban TikTok from state-issued cellphones and other electronic devices.

▪ South Carolina Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin is now set to be a judge on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

▪ Brandon Upson, the leader of the South Carolina Democratic Party’s Black Caucus, is making a run for the state party chair, sparking a potential challenge with the current state party leader who has been at the helm since 2017.

▪ Congresswoman Nancy Mace did some stand up comedy at the annual Washington Press Club Foundation’s Dinner taking shots at Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Kevin McCarthy, Raphael Warnock and George Santos.

“Really, who lies about playing college volleyball? Like, who does that? If you’re going to lie, at least make it about something big, like you actually won the 2020 presidential election,” Mace joked.

C-SPAN aired the dinner, and Mace begins speaking at the one-hour mark.

▪ The state’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs William Grimsley, the first person to serve in that role, is stepping down after three years in the job. Gov. Henry McMaster announced that Todd McCaffrey, a retired Army general who previously served as the senior director of strategic partnership for military and government programs at the University of South Carolina, will be nominated to replace Grimsley.

Mark your calendar

Feb. 15

Nikki Haley launches 2024 presidential bid, heads to New Hampshire and Iowa after

Feb. 16

Sen. Tim Scott starts listening tour in Charleston, then heads to Iowa

March 13

SC House begins budget debate

March 18

Palmetto Family Council holds presidential forum in North Charleston

March 20-24

SC House goes on furlough

April 10-14

SC House goes on furlough

April 18

Income taxes due

Before we adjourn

The state Dept. of Corrections has given Richland County an ultimatum. The county has until April 18 to develop a ‘strategy for remedial action’ for the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center’s ability to remain open could be challenged.

Now Richland County says its committing up to $12 million to improve conditions at the jail and supplementing its staff with private security workers.

The improvements include upgrading inmate housing units, recently raising minimum pay for jail officers and spending $26,000 a week or more on private security to make up for ongoing understaffing.

Efforts to improve the jail come amid a directive from SCDC for the county to come up with a plan to improve conditions.

Four people have died at the detention center in the last year. The jail has not had adequate staffing, inspection reports say, forcing units to be closed.

“In the absence of a satisfactory reply, we would then have to stipulate specific changes with deadlines required in order for this facility to remain open,” The Department of Corrections Director of Compliance Blake Taylor, wrote to Richland County.

Pulling the newsletter together this week was Joseph Bustos, reporter on The State’s politics and state government team. You can keep up with him on Twitter and send him tips at @JoeBReporter or by email jbustos@thestate.com.

To stay on top of South Carolina politics and election news, you can chat with us on Facebook, email us tips and follow our stories at scpolitics.com.