Thomas Ravenel has a long wait if he wants to seek office

If Thomas Ravenel wants to seek elected office again, he'll have to wait 15 years before he can do it.

The former state treasurer told The Post and Courier last week he'd like to get back into politics after his sentence for cocaine use is completed, possibly seeking a seat in Congress. He turns 46 later this summer, which would make him around 60 before he could seek elected office in South Carolina under state law.

It was another political scandal that created the timetable.

In the wake of "Operation Lost Trust," the FBI's 1990 drug and bribery sting of the Statehouse, lawmakers in 1996 drafted a constitutional amendment that made felons and those convicted of election crimes ineligible for elected office for 15 years afterward.

In March, Ravenel was sentenced to 10 months in a federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy with intent to distribute cocaine. The Charleston resident shared the drug but did not sell it, authorities have said. He's scheduled to report to the Federal Correctional Institution at Jesup, Ga., on May 29.

Read more in Tuesday's edition of The Post and Courier.

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