House District 48 race

Democrat Kathy Cantrell is our choice in Tuesday's special election to fill vacant state House seat.

In Tuesday's special election for the District 48 seat in the state House of Representatives, we endorse Democrat Kathy Cantrell.

This election will determine who replaces former Rep. Carl Gullick, R-Lake Wylie, who retired before the end of his term. Gullick moved to Kentucky where his wife, Lynn, took a job with a hospital.

Also vying for the seat is Rock Hill real estate developer Ralph Norman, a Republican.

Cantrell, an Ohio native and former Michigan resident, moved to Lake Wylie 11 years ago. She and her husband, Jim, reside in the River Hills community.

Cantrell has been a member of the Clover school board for the past three years. She recently retired as director of the Greater Clover Chamber of Commerce.

Prior to that, she had served for six years as director of the Clover Area Assistance Center, the largest service organization in western York County. The Assistance Center helps provide food, financial assistance and medical care to needy residents in the county. It is funded by a combination of grants, donations and in-kind services from doctors and other professionals.

Cantrell, we believe, would be an independent voice in the Legislature and an effective advocate for improved education — her top priority — job training and attracting new jobs to the state, and an overhaul of the state's tax system. She thinks Act 388, the tax reform measure that eliminated most residential property taxes in lieu of a penny increase in the sales tax, was detrimental to education and should be repealed.

She also favors a universal pre-kindergarten program statewide and would work to lower the dropout rate and close the achievement gap. She opposes vouchers or tax credits to help parents send their children to private schools.

Norman also favors repeal of Act 388. In fact, he voted against it during the term he served as District 48 representative. He decided against seeking re-election in 2006 so he could challenge U.S. Rep. John Spratt, the longtime Democratic incumbent in the 5th congressional district.

Norman toyed with the idea of running for lieutenant governor next year before deciding to run for his old House seat instead. Norman also is frank about his ambition of higher office, saying he hopes to run again for the 5th District congressional seat if Spratt retires, something District 48 voters should take into account before casting their ballots.

If elected, Norman would be another small government, anti-tax Republican in a House dominated by those of the same persuasion. During his term in the House, however, Norman cast his lot with Gov. Mark Sanford, with whom he voted in lockstep on most issues.

Norman was one of only a few legislators in 2005 who voted to sustain all but two of Sanford's 163 vetoes. Among the vetoes he voted to sustain was one for $622,000 for maintenance and infrastructure at York Technical College and another for $1 million for a new auditorium for Winthrop University.

We fear that Norman, like Sanford, might forgo practical solutions to the state's numerous problems in favor of an ideologically pure approach.

Cantrell, we think, would bring a fresh point of view to the House. She also would be one more woman helping to counterbalance a mostly-male General Assembly.

We think Cantrell is the better choice in Tuesday's election.