Unless Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex has an election leprechaun running around with a pot o’ gold and votes, it looks like Sen. Vince Sheheen can now be called the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor. Shortly after noon on Friday, attorney and lobbyist extraordinaire Dwight Drake ended his campaign.

I got into this race because I believed that South Carolina’s families deserved much more than they were getting from their Governor. We are facing the toughest times in a generation, and we can only take that on with dedicated, experienced leadership that is focused on putting our people back to work and building a better future for our kids. I have ambitious ideas for getting our state back on track, and I have the knowledge and experience to put those ideas into action.

But a statewide campaign for office is not just about these things. It also requires resources – campaign dollars to run in a competitive primary and in a competitive general election.

This comes on the heels of former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mullins McLeod dropping out of the race and endorsing Sheheen. As of now, Drake has not announced an endorsement, but anybody paying attention to the race knows the Democratic race has been decided.

The McMaster for Governor campaign — a comedy of errors. Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster has flubbed one issue after another in his run for governor, and can’t seem to stop himself from doing it again. Either his political instincts disappeared overnight a few months ago, or his advisers are giving some really wretched advice. McMaster’s latest political impression of Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford is yet another example.

For a while, the General Assembly has struggled to pass a tax increase on cigarettes that would bring South Carolina up to the national average. It’s not an unreasonable policy. Even though we fell victim to Demon Nicotine, ciggies will kill you. Heart disease, lung cancer, you name it. Increasing the cigarette tax just seems like the soundest idea coming out of the intersection of Main and Gervais in some time.

This year, it really could happen. In a story in The Independent-Mail, Sen. Thomas Alexander said a bill to put South Carolina on par with other states is on pace to be fast-tracked. That’s good news for raising cigarettes to a price point to where people will quit, and help pay for the health care costs that come from long-term smoking that the state has to deal with.

But don’t tell McMaster it’s a good idea. We have this image in our head of him reading that story and letting out a Colbert-esque, “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Because, God forbid we raise taxes on anything, especially something that will kill you and drains the state coffers.

Attorney General Henry McMaster, spurred by a weekend of back-and-forth discussion on the issue with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Rex, said Monday he would not support raising the tax, spokesman Rob Godfrey said.

[...]

About three-quarters of state residents support raising the tax to $1 a pack, from its current 7 cents a pack, according to a 2008 survey by the Republican-leaning polling firm Public Opinion Strategies. The poll was conducted for the S.C. Tobacco Collaborative, a coalition of nonprofit and public health groups that support raising the cigarette tax to cut smoking rates.

[...]

“Henry McMaster is not raising taxes under any circumstances,” Godfrey said, noting McMaster had signed a national anti-tax pledge. “It’s a good way to make a bad economy worse.”

If the Attorney General appeared on “Car Talk,” one of the Magliozzi brothers would be giving him a dope slap. Hey — there’s a difference between being for cutting taxes and small government, and being so foolish as to think keeping cigs as cheap as possible is actually smart thinking.

And while we’re not always on point with former The State editorial page editor Brad Warthen (his ambivalence toward football can’t be processed over here), he nailed the hell out of this insanity today, writing:

So basically, Henry is trying to out-wingnut the others in his party, to establish himself as SO anti-tax that he won’t, under any circumstances, raise the one tax that three-quarters of the state’s voters say should have been raised to the national average years ago.

That is sufficiently extreme to remove Henry from the ranks of people who deserve to be governor. As you know, some time ago I completely lost patience with people who didn’t want to raise the tax to the national average. To oppose raising it at all is just… indefensible.

Warthen goes on to say it has nothing to do with Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex and Rex’s announcement of his support for raising the tax. True enough. And McMaster just gave his opponents a massive club with which to beat him with from here on out.

We didn’t have much hope for Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex when he entered this Democratic gubernatorial primary campaign. As we’ve said, he barely beat current S.C. Republican Party chairwoman Karen Floyd, and that was just from the push-back against school choice. He also hasn’t been able to fundraise well, which is severely limiting when the front-runners — Sen. Vince Sheheen and attorney Mullins McLeod, have several hundred thousand dollars on hand. Not to mention the two GOP leaders have more than $1 million in the bank.

But it gets so much worse. With the release of his disclosure report Friday, Rex spent more than he took in — an oddity this far out form the primary — and is in fifth place in cash-on-hand behind Sen. Robert Ford. The problem appears to lie in two places. One is extensive spending on travel, meals and events. It’s all over the place. The old adage, “You have to spend money to make money,” extends to fundraising, but the idea is that you more than break even. That didn’t happen. He also appeared to be a cash cow for consultants. Rex went to multiple firms and threw the money around like it didn’t matter. Unless he’s got a million-dollar house to mortgage, or a rich uncle about to kick, or a leprechaun on staff who’s hoarding a pot of gold, things don’t look very good.

JIM REX
Contributions: $117,282.04
Expenditures: $133,047.55
Cash-on-hand: $28,647.09

Significant contributions
Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, $3,500
Insurance company
Edward Sellers, $2,000
CEO, BCBS of SC
Edison Learning, $1,000
Education company
Emile DeFelice, $100
Former commissioner of agriculture candidate
Molly Spearman, $500
Executive director, S.C. Association of School Administrators
Zeke Stokes, $3,500
Consultant
S.C. Bankers State PAC, $500
Political action committee
Linda Ketner, $2,000
Former candidate for SC-01
Doug Echols, $250
Rock Hill mayor

Significant expenditures
S.C. Department of Education (use of state vehicle), $641.20
ZekeStokes LLC (consulting), $1,000, $500, $500, $1,000, $164.70, $1,000, $2,000
The Macrina Group (consulting and travel), $2,595, $5,639.20, $2,500, $2,500
The Rackes Group (Internet services), $5,000, $2,000, $5,000, $500, $2,885
Integrated Strategy (consulting, expense, travel), $1,077, $7,258.06
Signs Now (advertising), $4,969.88, $4,000
Strategic B&P (consulting), $2,500
Hamilton Campaigns (research), $5,125, $9,085.03
Snipe Hunt Films (media services), $901
Squier Knapp Dunn Communications (consulting), $5,000

UPDATE: In the middle of all those payments for travel, events and consulting, we missed the one where Rex had to pay the State Ethics Commission $100 on Nov. 1 for a penalty resulting from his initial disclosure report.

South Carolinians for Responsible Government’s boy Friday at FITSNews, in between showing off his penchant for T&A jokes that an eight-year-old would find sophomoric, tried to make a recent video taken at an education conference into a joke about Gov. Mark Sanford. The Governor has a history of loving media attention (well, before late June, anyway). But, something says that the impetus for the video had nothing to do with Sanford.

Yes, SCRG staffer Neil Mellen was running the camera. And, check out where it was pointing — the camera was pointed at Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex the whole time. Even when Sanford spoke, the camera didn’t move. The expression of irritation on Rex’s face is a dead giveaway. He knew what was happening, even if SCRG’s apologist-in-chief would like to take some hits on his old boss to divert attention.

What Sanford was appearing to do was fire back at his old Devine Street buds in order to defend Rex, a guy he has damn near to nothing in common with when it comes to education policy. It seems to us that Sanford was kind of pissed off at this bush-league maneuver that, while normally seen at rallies and debates, is rarely employed at roundtables like the one taped.

Guess SCRG is starting early with its slash-and-burn election tactics. Now, we’re ready for the misleading direct mail attacks and advertisements (in conjunction with half a dozen other groups comprised of the same people) that usually come with its election-year activities.

Last night’s gubernatorial debate between 10 — 10 — candidates was largely a genial affair in which the Democrats and Republicans were mixed with each other by alphabetical order. Because it was sponsored by an environmental organization, the questions centered around environmental protection and issues surrounding economic development, energy exploration and their impact on the flora and fauna, air and water of our state.

In truth, it was more fun to watch the unusual things. Like, say, Lt. Gov. André Bauer’s high-performing eyebrows. This is an old story, oft-told, but it’s just too damn entertaining. Years ago, we were hanging out at a bar where Liberty is now. It was back when, we believe, Bauer was still in the House. A gal from Carolina who did some work at the S.C. Democratic Party ran into Bauer there one night. She was tall, had red hair, always had the just-right clothes and makeup. From our perspective, she was pretty hot and the type of gal who had a penchant for older men. Anyway, they meet and start talking and hit it off, and he invited her to hang out on a boat on Lake Murray. Then, he kind of had a unibrow thing going on, and it tweaked her a little bit. The way she told the story, she went out to the boat with shaving cream and a razor, which was not received well. Ah, fun and games.

Somebody please head out to the store and pick up Sen. Robert Ford a neck. His head is sitting right there on his shoulders with nothing separating them. Where did the neck go? Is there a lost-and-found for body parts that just up and disappear? This sounds like it rises to the level of a full-blown legislative investigation. We just can’t keep allowing needed parts of our elected officials to go off on their own.

In an interesting occurrence, we switched Sen. Larry Grooms with U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, circa 2004. Let’s see if they notice! The end-of-debate push for text updates was simply classic. It eerily reminded us of Lieberman’s debate exhortations for watchers to go to joe2004.com. The man has Groomentum.

There was a second Folger’s slight-of-hand, in which we switched Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster with Colonel Sanders.

We’re wondering when the S.C. Policy Council is going to lay the wood to its friend, Rep. Nikki Haley, for saying that South Carolina needs to provide incentives to businesses. The leadership in the General Assembly did a pretty damn good job of putting together an incentive package to bring Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner production to the state, and the Policy Council went on a week-long wet blanket party afterward.

Also, cavemen, Aaron Eckhart and a few handsome gentlemen.

On a serious note, we were impressed with Dwight Drake’s performance. If he can challenge for the Democratic lead in the money race, he is going to be a real force. However, his continual references as a gubernatorial adviser is beginning to sound like former U.S. Sen. John Edwards’ “son of a mill worker” refrain.

Choice quotes from the night:

Ford: “We got the natural resources in South Carolina. That’s why I propose ‘South Carolina the Beautiful,’ which is a part of my platform, which would employ 100,000 new people in the largest film movie studio industry in the country.”

Ford: “Tell the members not to steal my idea, my ‘South Carolina the Beautiful’ theme.”
Moderator: “Is your idea for sale?”
Ford: “Probably not.”

McMaster: (pats McLeod on the back) “I’ve known Mullins for years. Excellent lawyer. Whole family of lawyers.”

Ford: “That’s why I introduced S. 42, which called for offshore drilling. I would like to remind the panel that in Louisiana, they have serious, serious hurricanes. In fact, during Katrina, the worst hurricane in American history, not one pelican was lost.”

Grooms: “I want to be the first governor to drill a hole.”

Tuesday night, 10 candidates, five from the Democrats, five from the Republicans, gathered for the first big gubernatorial debate of the 2010 election season. We watched it, but are going to go back through the recorded audio to see what were the most interesting parts of a mostly uninteresting debate. After all, for anyone who watched early-season presidential debates, when you have that many people on stage, it’s impossible to get the real give-and-take badassery we’ll end up seeing when both parties’ nomination battles go to runoffs next year.

With that being said, enjoy the tweets.

ChrisAllenSC: Robert Ford late for “prep” – just blew past me on 26 going at LEAST 15 over. (the 4 stickers & 2 magnets hlpd I.d.!)

JKuenzie: This debate is already producing some weird scenes. I’m watching Andre Bauer whispering into Dick Harpootlian’s ear.

JKuenzie: Introductions, photo op and now, makeup lady is on stage doing last minute touchups. Ford and Drake getting powder on their domes.

RobGodfrey: “The path to prosperity is lit with nuclear energy.” — @HenryMcMaster #sctweets

JKuenzie: Strangest answer so far: Ford suggests creation of “film movie industry” in SC as solution for global warming. http://myloc.me/1ka7q

ragley: Tweeting this SC governor debate kinda spoils the purpose of watching it, doesn’t it?

JKuenzie: Our lieutenant governor wants everybody to know he’s an energetic guy.

JKuenzie: Lot of discussion here about wind power. Rex says we should put turbine in front of stage.

JKuenzie: Ford says in Katrina, “not one pelican was lost.” Thus, SC should OK offshore drilling.

tylermjones: Gresham: “don’t take my word for it, take the heritage foundations word”…yeah, that’s what we’ll do.

lbstewart: I think Dwight Drake got a haircut just for tonight

tylermjones: Andre knocked the global warming question out of the park. So did dwight drake for that matter. Robert Ford dropped the ball with gibberish.

tylermjones: Larry Grooms denies global warming. I deny his candidacy.

tylermjones: Mullins McLeod is the wildcard in this race.

JKuenzie: Big winner in tonight’s SC gubernatorial debate: the wind.

RJShealy: Not at the debate. Hear it’s a decent one. Hoping someone askes Dwight Drake about spamming people.

Grooms4SCGov: Global Warming is NOT man made. The ground we’re standing on for this debate used to be under water.

tylermjones: Gresham Barrett talking like a DC politician, not a SC Governor.

tylermjones: Ok someone please kick Robert Ford off the stage.

RepBoydBrown: thank you Robert Ford for providing my nightly dose of comedy, your responses are priceless

lbstewart: Good grief Robert Ford wants SC to become Louisiana or something. #scdebate

Grooms4SCGov: We don’t need to be putting our people out of work and giving our jobs to other countries. Cap and trade will do that.

willmaxey: Mr. McLeod, any kind of speech trying to convince anyone of anything IS rhetoric

RepBoydBrown: “Don’t sue NC and GA every chance we get.” Check. Thanks for the heads up, Robert.

wesleydonehue: Having all the candidates on the same stage shows how laughable the SC Dem Party has become. All the GOP candidates are superior to theirs.

willmaxey: why won’t Barrett tell us HOW cap and trade would cost 14K jobs instead of parroting Heritage Foundation stats

mattheusmei: Man, Henry’s looking old — he’s come a long way from telling HS Jrs “Cold Beer and Beautiful Women are what the Republican Party are for”

lbstewart: @wesleydonehue that’s a pretty bold statement. What’s your reasoning all GOP candidates superior to Dems? Other than own ideology of course

RepBoydBrown: @wesleydonehue (forget Ford is on stage), Dems are offering solutions, GOP reeling off talking points.

wesleydonehue: @lbstewart Are you watching this debate?

mattheusmei: @wesleydonehue — really, that’s like saying “mine is bigger than yours” . They all look like jokes to me.

tylermjones: Wow. Nikki Haley sounding pretty impressive on DHEC. Ahh, but then Mullins brings it back to reality and knocks it out of the park again.

JustinBradley: @Grooms4SCGov Why aren’t you using the hash tag that your candidate encouraged everyone to use? #scdebate

tylermjones: So far – winner of this debate is Mullins McLeod by a long shot. Hes removing rhetoric and offering common sense solutions. Its refreshing

lbstewart: Robert Ford is apparently ready to revitalize and memorialize the Antebellum South thru his moviemaking plan. #scdebate. Embarrassed

wexler: @wesleydonehue Y’all said the same thing in ‘06 and look where it got South Carolina.

tylermjones: Gresham Barrett sounding most sane out of all of the GOP candidates. But that’s not saying much. Grooms sounds (and looks) like Glenn Beck.

willmaxey: @tylermjones he is also repeating his tired “get rid of politics and rhetoric” bit every turn…while using rhetoric to convince us of this

willmaxey: @tylermjones but he made a great point about appointing a professional to head up DHEC!

wesleydonehue: @wexler Looks like people are eating what the GOP is cooking. Aren’t you in Virginia?

RepBoydBrown: does Henry practice that accent in the mirror?

wexler: @wesleydonehue Nope, I’m safe and sound in DC. Obama won my ward with 82% last year.

lbstewart: Will Robert Ford hire me at his new film studio? #scdebate

RepBoydBrown: Need to keep a bottle of aspirin on hand next time I listen to Gresham Barrett

RJShealy: hear Robert Ford is winning the debate

tylermjones: I think Andre just said (in a roundabout way) that children are a burden on our educational system. Odd.

lbstewart: Gresham B seemed to get a giggly kick out of Andre’s comment that he can help him in the Bauer administration #scdebate

lbstewart: Larry is getting quite…emotional…

tylermjones: Ok so Larry Grooms just went all howard dean on us.

RepBoydBrown: God Bless Robert Ford, the self-proclaimed “greatest senator in American history”

JustinBradley: Very interesting, but good debate between the candidates for SC Governor. #sctweets

willmaxey: for having 5 GOP candidates and 5 Democratic, that debate was incredibly civil

Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex got some mixed news in an internal poll that was reported by The State on Wednesday. It has him with a significant lead over his counterparts in the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, with 25 percent saying they would vote for Rex, who had a 60 percent name ID.

However, 43 percent of people polled had no preference, and the other major candidates — Sen. Vince Sheheen, attorney and former lobbyist Dwight Drake and attorney Mullins McLeod — don’t have much statewide recognition beyond the political class.

As a whole, it looks more like the polls that showed U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman leading the Democratic presidential pack early in the 2004 primary race. He didn’t have the goods, but he had name ID.

While the Rex campaign tried to spin it like he was the front-runner, Democratic pollster Carey Crantford said in the story, “If I’m advising someone who is the only statewide elected official, running against a group of people with no name ID, I’d be a little bit concerned with the numbers. It shows the intrinsic strength that Rex has is only marginal.”

Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex looks in a pretty deep hole compared to his rivals for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, as it stands right now. He has raised $81,5151, spent $37,102.40 and has $44,412.60 on hand. When your opponents are in six figures already, that could look daunting. However, it seems that the operation has chosen today as the official roll-out day for the campaign. In addition to other things, the campaign made the following announcements:

Campaign manager: Zeke Stokes
Finance director: Elizabeth Smith
Field director: Michelle Macrina
Special adviser: Kelly Adams
Advertising: Squier Knapp Dunn
Polling and research: Hamilton Campaigns
New media: The Rackes Group

There were no notable contributions for this quarter.

Notable disbursements
ZekeStokes LLC (travel, reimbursements), $407.42, $952.19
Brandi Roberts (consulting), $4,224.50, $4,000
Hamilton Campaigns (research), $10,000×2

Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex announced early Thursday via Twitter and Facebook that he will not be seeking reelection to his post next year, clearing the way for a full run at the open seat. According to the statement:

[Rex] announced he will not seek re-election to the office of State Superintendent of Education, regardless of decision to run for Governor. Statement coming soon.

There you go. As of right now, he’s one of five Democrats running for governor (according to state law, there is no such thing as an exploratory committee). While we think that Sen. Vince Sheheen and lobbyist Dwight Drake are the two strongest candidates in the field, Rex could always pull something out that could make a run worthwhile.

Of course, former gubernatorial candidate Brent Nelsen has been running for the Republican nomination for superintendent for a few weeks, as is Dutch Fork High School teacher Kelly Payne. As of right now, it doesn’t look like the GOP primary will be as contentious as the 2006 version, but it’s still relatively early.

Also, we’ve been told that S.C. Association of School Administrators executive director Molly Spearman is looking at a run, but hasn’t made a decision yet.

UPDATE: Rex put up the following statement, on Facebook, shortly before 9:30 a.m.

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.

The Web site GSA Business, which covers — natch — business happenings in the Upstate, polled its readers to see who they would support for the Democratic nomination for governor among a field of five candidates. This has to be the most pointless try at news, ever. And, considering the lack of news not involving Gov. Mark Sanford, it scores a win.

But, not only did the sample just consist of GSAB readers, only 45 of them responded.

Behold, results!

18 votes, 40 percent: Supt. of Ed. Jim Rex
9 votes, 20 percent: Lobbyist Dwight Drake
8 votes, 17.8 percent: Sen. Vince Sheheen
6 votes, 13.3 percent: Sen. Robert Ford
4 votes, 8.9 percent: Attorney Mullins McLeod