Pilot to run for Congress in 1st District

Col. Robert Burton of Mount Pleasant, who was piloting a Delta jet bound for New York as the 9/11 attacks unfolded, said he will run as a Democrat for the 1st Congressional District.

Burton, still a full-time commercial pilot who plans to retire as an Air Force reservist next year, said his top issue would be reforming Social Security.

"Everybody in the world knows that Social Security is going broke, and no one in Congress will take it on," he said.

He said he favors a process similar to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, whose list of recommendations was put before Congress in its entirety for an up or down vote.

Burton ran as a Democrat for S.C. adjutant general in 1998 and lost to GOP incumbent Stan Spears.

Burton said he is eyeing Congress because he is frustrated with its gridlock. "To get something done, you have to work together. I don't want to be an obstructionist."

Burton said he also would work to lower corporate income taxes and to encourage President Barack Obama to follow through on his pledge to eliminate the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding homosexuals serving in the military.

"Everybody in the military knows who the gay guys are, and as long as they're doing their job, they don't care."

Burton, 52, said he spent a week in Canada because American air space was closed in the wake of 9/11, and said he feels that the only people who have sacrificed in the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are military families.

"Congress sent us off to war and didn't have the guts to pay for it. When we are going to war, everybody should feel a little pain."

He is expected to face Robert Dobbs of Georgetown and Richard B. Withington of Pawleys Island, and possibly others, in the June 2010 primary.

On the Republican side, U.S. Rep. Henry Brown faces a challenge from Carroll Campbell of Charleston and Katherine Jenerette of North Myrtle Beach.

Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771 or at rbehre@postandcourier.com.