McMaster expected to announce gubernatorial bid

S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster is expected to announce he will seek the Republican nomination for governor later this month.

McMaster, in speaking with the editorial board of the Morning News on Thursday, discussed matters ranging from how he would run the governor’s office to the water controversy with North Carolina to “adult services” advertisements on Craigslist.

“It would be a great honor for me to serve as governor,” McMaster said. “The governor’s area of interest is broader than that (of the) attorney general’s, which is one of the reasons I’m so interested in it.”

McMaster said the state’s people, natural resources and heritage are second to none. He said few states have mountains at one end and the beach at the other.

“We are living in the Garden of Eden and we don’t realize it until you go somewhere else,” he said. “Nobody has got a better state than we do. I look on that as one of the assets we have that allows us to compete very favorably with the rest of the country.”

McMaster said his top priority would be economic development, if he’s elected as governor. And he said the tourism industry is another asset we need to “supercharge.”

The attorney general also alluded to the significance of the port in Charleston. He said another is needed in Jasper on the Savannah River. He said having two ports would give the state a real boost.

“I’ll have the South Carolina secretary of commerce sitting in the office next to mine if I’m elected,” he said. “And every morning the question will be: what can we do for economic development and business in this state?”

In addition to economic development, tourism and the ports, McMaster lauded the state’s research universities and technical colleges.

But, “we’ve got to improve education,” he said. “The way to the future is going to be knowledge-based industries. That means we have to think and improve our educational performance. We have to attract quality teachers into areas where they don’t usually go.

“We have the assets to produce wealth and prosperity if we just have cooperative leadership that is vertical and horizontal across the board. We living in the promised land. Everybody wants to come here.”

Regarding water, McMaster cited the Catawba River, which runs through Charlotte into York County and through the heart of South Carolina. He said activities under way would take 30 million gallons a day away from the state while diverting the water to two cities near Charlotte.

“That would permanently reduce the flow of water in the Catawba, which flows down and becomes the Wateree,” he said. “It then goes to the Congaree Swamp and into the Santee Cooper.”

McMaster said the state is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case in its original jurisdiction, which means the high court would act as the trial court.

“We’re suing North Carolina and asking the Supreme Court to apportion the river,” he said.

And in his much publicized brouhaha with Craigslist, Mc Master said, “We don’t think they are living up to the spirit of the letter of their announcement. They did close down their exotic services site, but opened up another one named adult services.

“We’ve been told that these are prostitution ads. We’ve told Craigslist that if they allow them to stay there, they are going to be prosecuted.”

McMaster said the state’s case is before U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck.