Rep. Barrett stops in Florence to campaign for governor

FLORENCE — “Come on in and sit down, we’ve got plenty of room,” Gresham Barrett said early Thursday as he made a campaign swing near Florence in a motor home. “I even brought the rain with me.”

Barrett is seeking the Republican nomination for governor of South Carolina. He currently represents the 3rd District as a U. S. Congressman.

Barrett was on the third leg of a four-day campaign swing throughout the state. He was heading to Myrtle Beach after Florence.

He said he was running for governor because “I believe with all my heart that if we’re going to change this nation, we’re going to do it one state at a time. And you will make this change from the bottom up, not the top down.”

The 1983 Citadel graduate is campaigning on three key issues, economic development, education and energy.

“But I think I can sum up my whole campaign with three words,” he said, “and that is jobs, jobs, jobs. We’ve got to put people back to work.”

Regarding economic development, he said the port of Charleston needs to be the gateway to the East.

“With container traffic increasing, it’s extremely important that our ports are number one,” he said. “One out of every 10 jobs is directly related to the ports. When I think about the businesses whose life blood is the port of Charleston, I think of Fuji, Caterpillar, Michelin and BMW.”

Barrett said infrastructure can’t be overlooked. He said infrastructure must be in place to entice business into the state.

In the area of government restructuring he said, “If we’re going to give the governor more responsibility, let’s give him the authority. And more than government restructuring, it’s taxation restructuring and we need to do it through a holistic view by looking at the tax code in its entirety.”

Barrett said discipline and accountability are needed in the public school classrooms. And he said the money doesn’t seem to be filtering down to the classrooms.

He said community colleges are a boon to the state because they are helping people that don’t have jobs to get jobs and people who do have jobs to get better jobs.

“I believe South Carolina can be and should be the nation’s leader when it comes to nuclear energy,” he said. “We’ve got four nuclear reactors in the state and those are $10 billion dollar investments. Nuclear energy is clean energy. The nuclear field can create jobs, economic opportunity and can lower the cost of doing business in the state.

“So I think when you put those three together, economic development, education and energy, you get politics out of government and come up with common sense solutions that work for the people. I think it’s a winning combination.”

Barrett said the motor home tour is giving him a chance to “sit down with folks.” He said it’s also a convenient way to travel because he can do paperwork and talk on the phone between destinations.

And what are the main concerns he’s hearing.

“I repeat, it’s jobs, jobs and jobs,” he said. “People are saying they want the government to be a partner, not an impediment. And many of those I talk to are nervous about President Obama’s health care plan.”