Rep. Tim Scott Tapped to Succeed DeMint in Senate

Daily News Article   —   Posted on December 19, 2012
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Tim Scott, left, speaking during a news conference, accompanied by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, right, at the South Carolina Statehouse on Monday, Dec. 17, 2012.

(by Valerie Bauerlein and Naftali Bendavid, The Wall Street Journal) – U.S. Rep. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican backed by tea-party groups, made history Monday when he was appointed to fill the seat of departing Sen. Jim DeMint, [who announced Dec. 6 he was resigning with four years left in his six-year term to lead the Heritage Foundation conservative think tank.]

Mr. Scott, who will be the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction, instantly became the GOP’s highest-profile African-American, as the party isn’t represented by any other black members of Congress or any black governors. …

South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley said she chose Mr. Scott because he was a successful small-business man and fiscal conservative with the same philosophy as Mr. DeMint. …

Mr. Scott said he would seek to uphold Mr. DeMint’s record, [and stressed his own fiscal conservatism.]. Mr. Scott said raising taxes on the nation’s wealthiest people would damage business owners and cause jobs to be lost.  “That’s not the right direction,” he said.

[Currently] a member of the influential House Ways and Means committee [which controls taxes], Mr. Scott said [that as a Senator] he would focus instead on the federal government’s spending, particularly on entitlement programs*. “Our nation finds itself in a situation where we need some backbone,” Mr. Scott said. … [*NOTE: entitlement programs are government programs guaranteeing certain benefits to a segment of the population]

Mr. Scott, a 47 year-old former insurance agent, has had a rapid ascent. He was elected to the U.S. House in 2010, defeating the sons of former Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond and former Republican Gov. Carroll Campbell to represent a booming coastal district.

The congressman earlier served in the South Carolina House of Representatives for two years and on the Charleston County Council for 13 years. He also owned insurance company Tim Scott Allstate and was a partner of Pathway Real Estate Group.

His move to the Senate will create an unusual landscape in Washington next year, with a black Democratic president, a House with 40 African-Americans, all Democrats, and a Senate with a lone African-American, who is a Republican. …

Mr. Scott, who [was raised by a single mother], graduated from Charleston Southern University in 1988.  He said his appointment serves to show that even someone who grew up poor and struggled academically could turn things around. “I’d love to speak to the single moms out there,” he said. “Don’t give up on your kids.”

The appointment gives Mr. Scott the advantage of incumbency in the 2014 election for the remaining two years of Sen. DeMint’s term. Gov. Haley said she expected Mr. Scott “to fly through 2014.”

Copyright 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. Visit the website at wsj.com.



Background

AFRICAN AMERICAN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS:

A total of 134 African Americans have served in the United States Congress, most in the United States House of Representatives. This includes five non-voting members of the House of Representatives, who represented the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. An additional House candidate, John Willis Menard, was elected in 1868 but was not seated due to an election dispute.

Seven African Americans have served in the U.S. Senate, four Republicans and three Democrats.  During the Reconstruction Era, two Republicans from Mississippi served in the Senate.  More recently: three Democrats from Illinois (including Barack Obama who served for two years and his successor Roland Burris who served for one year) and two Republicans from Massachusetts (Sen. Brooke for 12 years and now Sen. Tim Scott) from South Carolina. (adapted from wikipedia)

  • The House Committee of Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Committee has jurisdiction over all taxation, tariffs and other revenue-raising measures, as well as a number of other programs including:

    • Social Security
    • Unemployment benefits
    • Medicare
    • Enforcement of child support laws
    • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a federal welfare program
    • Foster care and adoption programs

    The U.S. Constitution requires that all bills regarding taxation must originate in the House of Representatives. Since House procedure is that all bills regarding taxation must go through this committee, the committee is very influential, as is its Senate counterpart, the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. (from wikipedia)