State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, currently the only statewide elected Democrat in South Carolina, plans to file paperwork today to form an exploratory committee to look at running for governor in 2010. Rex says he will make a decisions on whether to run by September. Rex could also choose to run for reelection for his current post.
If Rex chooses to run this could be a game changer for the good guys. Jim Rex has spent much of his life working in higher education ( President of Columbia College, Dean of Education at Winthrop University and Coastal Carolina University, and Vice President at the University of South Carolina). Education should be a big issue in next year’s election due to fallout from a statewide tax swap that has made public school’s more reliant on revenue from the sales tax. There is fear this will cause a budget crunch for many school districts and this is an issue that Jim Rex could exploit. It also worth remembering that Jim Hodges won the 1998 governor’s race by emphasizing funding for education.
This is an important race for Democrats. While I personally think South Carolina is going to be heavily Republican for the forseeable future, in order to begin to win in places like South Carolina, we need a base to build off of. If we control the governor’s office, it will give us somebody to build the party around. Given the fact that Jim Rex has a statewide profile and organization, he would clearly be our best candidate. While it would still be a tough race, this drastically improves our chances of winning this race.