GOP chairman relishes putting state in limelight

COLUMBIA - The South Carolina man who put the presidential primary calendar into upheaval makes his living selling spark plugs and mufflers.

Katon Dawson, chairman of South Carolina's Republican Party, is an auto parts distributor whose career in politics dates to a 1964 Barry Goldwater speech he attended in his Cub Scout uniform.

'I remembered I wanted to be part of that excitement from that day forward,' Dawson said recently.

One of the highlights of his political career came Thursday, as he announced in New Hampshire that South Carolina would hold its GOP presidential primary on Jan. 19 in order to retain its first-in-the-South status, which will cause New Hampshire to move its first-in-the-nation primary and Iowa to move its caucus.

The move ensures South Carolina will continue to attract national attention as a launching pad for presidential candidates.

The Palmetto State has successfully picked the GOP presidential nominee since 1980, when Ronald Reagan was a surprise winner here.

'We needed to make sure South Carolina and the activists who do the yard signs and the bumper stickers aren't left behind,' Dawson said. 'We're important to conservatives all across the country.'

But the 51-year-old, whose volunteer days started with Richard Nixon in 1968, remembers when Republicans were nearly nonexistent in South Carolina.

Growing up, there were few Republicans in his neighborhood. His parents helped organize the state's first GOP precincts. And at 8 years old, he proudly wore a Goldwater campaign pin, despite being bullied for it.

The grandson of a welder and farmer, Dawson took over his dad's auto parts business 17 years ago and expanded it despite the pressure of national chains. His Republican friends cite that small-business background and down-to-earth attitude as key to his success as GOP chairman.

'This guy's an auto parts salesman. He knows the real world,' said Tucker Eskew, a former spokesman for President Bush and the late Gov. Carroll Campbell who also backed Dawson's campaign for chairman. 'He's developed into an even better chairman than I would have imagined.'

Former state Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian said that while he and Dawson were antagonists on a political level, 'I've got nothing but admiration for him.

'I give him huge credit for playing with the big boys and moving the primary up,' he said.

Dawson, a University of South Carolina graduate, is quick to point out he never took a single political science class. But he's got great political instincts and 'pure old good leadership skills,' said U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins, the former South Carolina House speaker.

Dawson's first campaign win came early, as ninth-grade class president. But he didn't seek public office until 1996, when he lost a primary race for a state Senate seat. In 2000, he put more than 60,000 miles on his car as he campaigned unsuccessfully for state GOP chairman. Two years later, he won the job, which draws no salary.

'Katon's got a lot of energy and determination. He won't quit,' said Attorney General Henry McMaster, Dawson's 2000 opponent.

Republican leaders and operatives praise Dawson's fundraising skills, honed since childhood.

At age 6, Dawson was running a bicycle shop in his parents' yard. He'd outfit bikes with high handlebars, tassels and banana seats. Kids who paid for all three got a noisemaker for free. By 14, he was working in his father's auto parts business.

'I was raised to sell stuff,' Dawson said.

When he became state GOP chairman, the party was deep in debt. He asked friends and neighbors for money so often, he said, one day he went into a restaurant, and a friend moved two seats down to avoid the inevitable question.

'Then all of a sudden we struck gold,' Dawson said, referring to the election of Lindsey Graham to replace the retiring U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, and former U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford's defeat of Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges.

Walter Whetsell, president of a political consulting and direct-mail firm, said Dawson has elevated the profile of state GOP chair.

'I think he brings infectious passion to his job that really does rub off on grass-roots Republicans and donors and potential candidates,' said Whetsell, of Starboard Communications. 'You can't have a conversation with him about Republican Party politics and not walk away thinking Republicans are going to control the world.'