COLUMBIA --- The men seeking South Carolina's lieutenant governor job both say they have the private sector experience to improve the state's battered economy and -- while each has worked in government -- insist they're political outsiders.
Democrat Ashley Cooper, a Charleston attorney, characterizes himself as someone who can bring business leaders, educators and politicians together to forge a plan to bolster jobs and the quality of life for the elderly.
"It's time to tone down the rhetoric. We need to re-earn and re-establish trust in our state's elected officials," Cooper, 38, said in a recent debate.
He hasn't been elected to an office but worked for four years as Sen. Fritz Holling's attorney and legislative director.
Republican Ken Ard, a Florence County councilman, has insisted he has "zero political experience," but would be able to use the office to forge a business-friendly climate in the state.
"We've got to get people in elective office who are willing to wake up every day and sell South Carolina," said Ard, a former co-owner of the truck body business founded by his father. "Until we get people who stop pointing fingers and stop placing blame, and instead roll up their sleeves and try to fix things, I don't know how we get much better."
The lieutenant governor serves as president of the Senate and assumes the position of governor if the governor is unable to perform his duties. The part-time job pays $46,545 and is open because two-term Republican Lt. Gov. Andrew Bauer ran unsuccessfully for his party's gubernatorial nomination. The post, elected on a separate ticket than the governor, also oversees the state's Office on Aging.
Cooper says the Office on Aging is organized around annual budget plans that don't offer "a vision for the future" and the state's 600,000 seniors.
As a graduate of Clemson with a degree in economics and a law degree from the University of South Carolina, Cooper said he has the experience to help protect the elderly from financial predators and also reduce crimes against seniors.
"We need to implement a 20-year plan for how we are going to meet the needs of our seniors in a way that is responsible to the taxpayer," he said.
Ard said his background as a businessman who met a payroll and balanced a budget will help him make the Office on Aging "the most efficient, customer-friendly office in state government."
Ard said he wants to help seniors file consumer complaints in a timely manner, increase punishments for criminals who prey on the elderly and create seminars to forge "intergenerational wellness" programs for children, parents and grandparents.
Although Ard's campaign released a biography stating he "attended Wofford College," he said in an interview that he attended one session of summer school there in 1985. He said he went intending to play football, but family issues caused him to return home.
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