NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Gov. Nikki Haley said Friday that South Carolina shouldn’t be left without a lieutenant governor for five months as the current officeholder steps down to take over as a college president.
Haley contends state law may require Senate President Pro Tem John Courson to step into the state’s soon-to-be vacant No. 2 position. But the post has been vacant six times in the last 135 years, most recently from 1965-1967. Courson, who reiterated Friday he will not relinquish his Senate seat to fill in as lieutenant governor, said he believes Haley’s stance is retribution for his calling for the ouster of her Department of Social Services director.
Her comments came a day after Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell told The Post and Courier he will resign from the post next week. McConnell starts his new job July 1 as president of the College of Charleston. But stepping aside from presiding over the Senate frees him in the session’s last few days to advocate for a bill creating a research university attached to the college.
Courson noted that GOP primary voters will go to the polls in less than two weeks to select their choice for McConnell’s replacement. But Haley said the state can’t be left without a second in command until January.
“There are a lot of things people don’t want to do. But we do what we have to do,” she said. “I need a lieutenant governor. I need someone that if I’m going to go out of state or if something happens to me, I can feel comfortable the state is in good hands. I think the citizens of the state want that, too. So this is not about comfort. This is about what is required by the people of this state.”
Courson, R-Columbia, said that under the state’s lines of succession, he’d still be the person to assume the governor’s duties, should something happen. That’s because the next in line after lieutenant governor is the Senate president pro tem.
“The lines of succession are very, very clear,” Courson said. “It would be me regardless.”
Courson said he can’t recall a governor every saying he or she needed a lieutenant governor. For years, they haven’t even gotten along. Courson thinks the comments are a reaction to him saying DSS Director Lillian Koller needs to go.
Haley has repeatedly backed Koller, whom she appointed in 2011, and called the criticism election-year politics. But Courson is among an increasingly bi-partisan group of senators calling for Koller’s resignation or firing amid a Senate panel’s investigation into potential problems at the agency. On Thursday, the Senate unanimously agreed to put a no-confidence resolution directly on the calendar, bypassing the committee process and allowing a vote in the session’s last official week.
Courson said Thursday he didn’t support the resolution because it would set a precedent.
“My argument on Koller is not against the governor,” Courson said Friday. “As far as job performance, she needs to go. That agency has always been in trouble. Regrettably, it’s gotten worse in recent years.”
He said he also worries about Koller’s health. The director suffered a stroke in December. She did not testify before the Senate panel for months, as her agency explained she was under doctor’s orders to moderate her activities as she recovered. Courson said anyone heading that always-troubled agency would be under tremendous stress and staying may not be in her own best interests.
Haley’s office responded that her comments were unrelated to DSS: “The governor was just saying the Senate needs to follow the law,” said spokesman Doug Mayer.
Courson, first elected in 1984, has been Senate president pro tem since succeeding McConnell in March 2012. McConnell reluctantly left the powerful position following the resignation and guilty plea of then-Lt. Gov. Ken Ard over campaign-spending violations. McConnell gave up his 32 years of seniority in the Senate, saying he could not contort the state constitution’s designated lines of succession.
But Courson says this time is different, since the vacancy will occur only days before the legislative session ends and months before the November election decides McConnell’s replacement.
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