Moore Interview

When I first called Senator Tommy Moore about doing an interview with The Clemson Forum I left him a voicemail asking him to call me back. I forgot, however, that the song Ms. New Booty was set as my answer tone and after he called me back I was certain the interview would never happen; but it did. We tried to ask Senator Moore questions that were relevant and fair when the Governor - oops, excuse me - Senator called us last month.
Clemson Forum: In June your wife was endorsed by Lt. Governor Andre Bauer to be the first lady of south Carolina, did you take that as an endorsement for you and how has that affected your campaign?

Tommy Moore: I think anyone who knows my wife would endorse her to be first lady, she is sincere, very compassionate about children and people who cannot help themselves. We’ve been married for thirty-five years and before that were high school sweet hearts. Anyone who knows her would tell you she is kind and gentle and compassionate, and that endorsement has been a resounding positive for our campaign.

CF: Over the summer, the governor made two controversial moves, vetoing a bill which would have made it illegal to protest at funerals, and signing a bill which makes twice offending child molesters eligible for the death penalty. How do you feel about each of these bills and do you feel the Governor acted appropriately?

TM: Vetoing the funeral bill I thought was stunning. Of course we all believe in the right to free speech, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask someone to give 1,000 feet to a family whose loved one was killed in Iraq. All we were saying was yes, you can protest but you can’t come within 1,000 feet of a grieving family who rightfully deserves privacy and peace. I don’t think you’ll find anyone who would agree with the governor on that issue; it was a very unpatriotic thing of the governor to do to say the least, and it does not represent mine or thousands of South Carolinians views.

As for the other bill, if someone has abused a child for the second time it has to carry a severe penalty. If it comes under the category of violent crimes eligible for death penalty, I have supported that and do support that. I think the fact that he vetoed one of those bills but signed the other shows a lack of consistency, leadership, and vision in our governor.

CF: Education has no doubt become one of the biggest issues of this election. The Governor strongly believes in private school vouchers, and I’m sure you don’t see eye to eye with him on that issue. What do you think we need to do to fix education?

TM: I’m not afraid of reforming education. We need flexibility, we need to have better curriculum, we need to give teachers and principles flexibility. Counties in South Carolina are different, there are different ideas and I have no problem allowing different regions flexibility. The key to all that is funding. 3 out of 4 years the governor has called for less funding in public schools, that’s not what South Carolina is about. This effort to gut public education and turn your back on it, there’s no leadership or vision from our governor there.

CF: As a Clemson student, I’m aware of a lot of budget cuts that have come our way from the state government over the last few years, would you reverse this trend?

TM:What’s happened to higher education in South Carolina is an absolute shame. In the 1980s the state would fund over eighty percent of the university budget, but Clemson and other public universities are lucky now to get twenty percent of their budget covered by the state, and have to resort to higher tuition, so we have to and we will reverse that trend.

CF: Would you ever consider raising taxes?

TM: Nobody is in favor of raising taxes. What we need is a comprehensive review of our tax structure in South Carolina, we need to just review what resources we have. As a small business man I know I have to use the revenue I have coming in, but if I’m not bringing in enough money then I have to raise service rates. We need to make sure we’re as efficient as we can be, I will not support a bill that does not fully fund education, and if we absolutely have to increase our revenue and put our faith in the people of South Carolina, then we will.

CF: Money often decides elections, regardless of who has the better ideas. How is fundraising going for you?

TM: Going very well, we had a great August. We cannot out raise the current governor because he has fifty percent of his money coming from out of state interest groups, but we will utilize what we have and we will be competitive. Money is important but campaigns are about people, if we can be smart in how we utilize the resources that we have, we can win. I will remind you in Georgia 4 years ago the incumbent governor had 28 million, and the challenger only had 4 million and won, so that’s a good example of that.

CF: Latest polls show you within 10 points of Sanford, Will the national party kick in more money?

TM: The National Democratic Governor’s Association was in Charleston a couple weeks ago, and saw the Rasmussen poll that you’re referring to, and some private polls that have us even closer. Yes, they have gotten interested and they have committed to help, but people must understand this race is to be run by our people here in South Carolina. No one from outside of South Carolina is going to run our campaign.

CF: Along with improving education, health care has been a key issue in your campaigh, what do you think needs to happen to fix health care in South Carolina?

TM: We’ve got to take a look at Medicaid. We’ve got a lot of people in south Carolina on Medicaid, and we’ve got to invest in healthcare for children from the prenatal stage to 4 and 5 years old so we can change what’s going on. It’s crazy to throw money at diseases later in life when it could have been recognized and stopped early on in life. We’ve got to look at tax structure and resources, we must consider a cigarette tax increase. We charge 7 cents a pack, the lowest in the nation, we could take that money and invest in treating and preventing disease and save the taxpayer a lot of money later on by preventing or treating a disease early on.

CF:Do you have plans to ever run for a higher political office?

TM:No I do not at this point, I’ve got to give everything I’ve got to the Governorship of South Carolina. The greatest resource we have is people, we’re not afraid of reform and better ideas. I can’t predict the future, but right now I’m dedicated to making South Carolina a better place, and have no plans for higher political office.

CF: Finally, Senator Moore, would you ever walk through the state house with pigs in you arms?

TM: No sir, the governor was extremely disrespectful of his office and the State House when he did that. There’s a law on the books in south Carolina which says it’s illegal to bring livestock into the State House, so not only did he disrespect the institution of his office, he also broke the law.