Trio of lawmakers slowly built clout

Gov. Mark Sanford has spent much of his seven years in office waging and losing battle after battle with the General Assembly. In that process three legislators -- call them The Three Legiteers -- have emerged as the real power brokers who run the state.

At the end of each legislative session the Legiteers, Senate leader Glenn McConnell, House Speaker Bobby Harrell and Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman, are able to check off a list of legislative accomplishments. Gov. Mark Sanford's had his successes, too, but his wins and losses come at the will of the Legiteers.

Sanford sees this as a fundamental flaw that places too much executive power in the hands of the legislature, commissions and agencies instead of the governor and the Cabinet. Without more direct lines of accountability, he says, South Carolina's progress always will be stunted.

"I think we all know much of South Carolina's government runs on a remote control by separate islands of government," Sanford said.

McConnell said Sanford tried to build himself up by trying to tear down the Legislature. The Senate leader and his fellow Legiteers agree with much of the governor's message but say Sanford has a tragic flaw that can't be ignored: His word has not been reliable.

Sanford could have been a great governor if he had been willing to work with and find compromise with the Legislature, McConnell said.

"He had a lot of sympathy in the Republican ranks here, but it was his execution that undercut every chance to go forward," McConnell said. He summed up Sanford's tenure in three words: "A missed opportunity."

Senate's leader puts focus on teamwork

COLUMBIA -- Watching Senate leader Glenn McConnell move legislation through the Senate is like watching a master chess player who has figured out the moves before his competition takes a turn.

McConnell, a Charleston Republican, is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was elected by the Senate to serve as president pro tempore in 2001, the top ranking position in the upper chamber. He first was elected to the Senate in 1980.

The secret to McConnell's power is his knowledge of Senate rules, his sharp legal mind and the long hours he devotes to writing and researching bills. He is well-liked by his colleagues and respected for his bipartisan approach.

McConnell said he does not always agree with his fellow Legiteers, House Speaker Bobby Harrell and Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman, both Republicans, but they work through their differences to reach compromises.

"At the end of the day," he said, "we know to get something done we've got to agree to something."

In his position, McConnell said he must be the senator for District 41, but as president pro tempore he must bring consensus out of opposing viewpoints and competing political parties.

McConnell said he can support certain parts of Gov. Mark Sanford's priority efforts to restructure state government and shift more authority to the executive branch. But, he said, centralizing power in a chief executive is not an automatic fix.

The people run the state through their elected representatives, including Sanford, McConnell said. The governor executes his power with his vote on the Budget and Control Board, through his Cabinet agencies and his political appointees on many panels and commissions.

"I think our forefathers had enough experience having a royal governor that they did not want a chief executive with all the power centralized under him," McConnell said. "I think they wisely dispersed power.

"I do not have the public out there clamoring for me to change Columbia into a little Washington on the Congaree by putting everything under the governor like the president."

Finance panel chief in thick of tax cuts

COLUMBIA -- Nearly seven years after Sen. Hugh Leatherman switched parties to become a Republican, he was offered the opportunity to take over the powerful Senate Finance Committee by the late Sen. Verne Smith.

Smith, elected to the Senate in 1972, converted from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party and his switch in 2001 gave the GOP enough seats to take over the majority in the Senate. Leatherman, a North Carolinian who moved to Florence in 1955, was the most senior member in the party on the Finance Committee behind Smith.

Politics and party affiliation in South Carolina evolved greatly from 1980 to 1990. Leatherman, who first was elected to the Senate in 1980, said he considers himself a "compassionate conservative" who has long-held the same political ideals and philosophies as he does now. He said he wants to help the people in the state who cannot help themselves, but he wants to make sure South Carolina is on sound financial footing.

"I didn't leave the party. The party left me," Leatherman said of his decision to bolt the Democratic Party.

Leatherman chaired the Finance Committee as the Legislature issued many recent tax cuts, including the elimination of the grocery tax and some property taxes on owner-occupied homes for an increase in the sales tax. He faced off with Gov. Mark Sanford over a cut in personal income taxes. The governor fought for a cut in the top-earning bracket while Leatherman successfully argued for a cut in the bottom bracket, so all workers would see a benefit.

Political observers put Leatherman, a civil engineer by education, as Sanford's top political adversary. The two agree on the desire to cut taxes, but they part on how to do it and how to spend state money.

"I respected his philosophies," Leatherman said of Sanford. "I didn't agree with them. I think the road he was trying to take the state down was the wrong road. I guess at times I was forced to oppose what he wanted to do because I didn't think it was good for the state. It never became a personal thing."

House speaker builder of consensus

COLUMBIA -- House Speaker Bobby Harrell, a Republican, is the newest of the three Legiteers.

His peers, Republicans and Democrats, elected him to the House's top post in 2005 after he spent 12 years rising in the ranks after his election as a representative in 1993.

He chaired the Ways and Means Committee and earned a reputation as a consensus builder. His colleagues say that his word is his bond. When it comes to business, he chooses his words carefully and never says more than he intends to.

But he is enthusiastic, the type of person who would be fun to share a pair of tickets to a football game or invite to a backyard oyster roast. He enjoys life and that carries over into his legislative duties.

He is struck with awe at the history and tradition preserved in South Carolina's Statehouse. He points out the slash marks in the banisters leading up the chamber that Gen. William Sherman made while riding his horse through the Statehouse as it was under construction in 1865 and the brass stars that mark the spots where Sherman's cannons hit the capitol building and damaged the exterior walls.

"Having this position puts me in a unique place to try to affect those goals and it is an incredible experience to come into this chamber and look around the walls and realize that there aren't a lot of people who've held this position throughout history," he said a couple of years ago.

The key to his legislative power is his realization that nothing can be accomplished in the Legislature alone. Sixty-three votes are needed to pass a bill in the House, and 24 are needed in the Senate.

If there is one thing that measures a legislator's influence, Harrell said, it is his or her ability to work with other members to accomplish goals.

But without the constituents there is no power.

"It is quite clear: the citizens of our state are running South Carolina," Harrell said. "Without their support, I -- along with many other members -- would have had very short legislative careers. The people drive the direction we take our state and every two years they get a chance to fire us if they feel that direction isn't being followed."