S.C. delegation gets extreme makeover
WASHINGTON -- The elections that produced a national Republican rout turned the South Carolina congressional delegation on its head, stripping power from Democrat Jim Clyburn and defeating John Spratt while empowering Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and sending four GOP freshmen to Washington.
With Republicans regaining control of the House, Clyburn lost his leadership post as majority whip, while State Sen. Mick Mulvaney sent House Budget Committee Chairman Spratt into retirement.
"There is no stronger message that voters can send than to vote out the 28-year incumbent (and) Budget Committee chairman," Mulvaney said. "Times have changed at home, and they need to change in Washington."
In the Upstate, Spartanburg prosecutor Trey Gowdy breezed to victory after his June Republican primary defeat of Greenville U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis made him one of four GOP upstarts across the country to defeat a Republican incumbent.
State Rep. Tim Scott of North Charleston, elected to replace the retiring U.S. Rep. Henry Brown in the 1st Congressional District, will come to Washington as the first black Republican elected to Congress from South Carolina since Reconstruction.
State Rep. Jeff Duncan, a Laurens Republican, sailed to victory in the 3rd Congressional District as the successor to U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, who gave up his seat for a failed gubernatorial bid.
Calling South Carolina's incoming first-time congressmen "the four horsemen," Duncan said he, Mulvaney and Scott had exchanged congratulatory e-mails and phone calls.
"Three of the four of us have served together in Columbia" in the General Assembly, Duncan said. "We know each other's convictions and abilities. We don't know Trey Gowdy as well, but we're encouraged by what we see in him. South Carolina is going to be a force to be reckoned with."
U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, a Lexington Republican, defeated Democrat Rob Miller of Beaufort for a second straight House election.
But if the state gained new Republican blood in Washington, it lost significant Democratic juice.
Republicans' gain of at least 60 House seats rebuked Clyburn's pre-election claim that they would fail to gain the minimum 40 needed to overtake the Democrats.
Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat, was overwhelmingly elected to his 10th House term over Republican Jim Pratt.
DeMint, re-elected to a second term in a romp over Democratic eccentric Alvin Greene, said the election results validated his repudiation of President Barack Obama, but also delivered a stern message to Republicans who will now share power.
The Wall Street Journal published a DeMint letter Wednesday to the half-dozen conservative Republican rookies who won election to the Senate thanks in part to his financial and political support.
"Many of the people who will be welcoming the new class of Senate conservatives to Washington never wanted you here in the first place," DeMint wrote. "The establishment is much more likely to try to buy off your votes than to buy into your limited-government philosophy."
