Alan Wilson would bring a solid prosecutorial background and proven leadership skills to the office of S.C. attorney general.

He also would bring a firm resolve to the lawsuit by 20 states, including this one, against the massive health care reform law passed by Congress and signed by the president earlier this year.

That unprecedented federal power grab’s mandates on individuals and states raise serious constitutional questions. Its vast expansion of Medicaid eligibility significantly increases the states’ required contributions to that program. As Mr. Wilson aptly told us, over the next decade it represents “a $240 million gun to our head.”

Despite that legal conflict with a Democratic White House, however, Mr. Wilson stresses that the attorney general’s office must operate in an even-handed, bipartisan manner.

He also fairly cites his “institutional knowledge” as a former assistant attorney general. Drawing on that experience, and on his tenure as an assistant solicitor in Lexington County, he proposes a variety of innovative solutions to current problems, including severe funding shortfalls, facing the state justice system.

He says court overcrowding can be eased by reallocating resources more efficiently. He wants to give local police officers vital instruction on courtroom procedures to maximize convictions of the guilty. He wants to enlist more private attorneys as pro-bono prosecutors.

And he supports such “outside the box” ideas as diversion programs and drug courts for substance abusers.

He recognizes the rising menace of gang crime and the need to counter it by helping keep youth out of that self-destructive lifestyle through community initiatives with the private sector.

Mr. Wilson received combat decorations for his distinguished service as an Army National Guard field artillery officer — he was promoted to major — in the ongoing war in Iraq. Clearly, he knows what it’s like to make high-stakes leadership decisions.

He also knows what it’s like to prosecute a wide range of crimes — and what critical challenges will face our state’s next attorney general. The voters should choose this well-qualified candidate for this crucial job.
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South Carolina must stay in the forefront of a federal lawsuit over President Barack Obama’s health care package, the Republican seeking to become South Carolina’s next attorney general said Thursday, challenging his Democratic opponent to take on his own party.

“I’m going to be a leader on this issue, and I think that he wants to sit on the sidelines and do nothing about it,” Alan Wilson said during an availability at a West Columbia medical practice. “No one else is going to take care of South Carolina, but South Carolina.”

Appearing with Wilson on Thursday was Attorney General Henry McMaster, the man Wilson and Democrat Matthew Richardson are seeking to replace. Earlier this year, McMaster and his Florida counterpart, Republican Bill McCollum, teamed up to rally other attorneys general in opposition to the health care reform package.

Just minutes after Obama signed the 10-year, $938 billion health care reform bill into law in March, McCollum filed a lawsuit in federal court in Florida, arguing that provisions requiring individuals to have health insurance or be penalized through taxes and expanding states’ Medicaid programs are unconstitutional.

The lawsuit is likely to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Obama administration had asked a federal judge to dismiss the entire lawsuit, saying the federal government can require that citizens buy health insurance or face tax penalties under its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce. Last week, that judge ruled that he wanted to hear further arguments on the health insurance mandate and Medicaid expansion issues.

Richardson has said he agrees with the lawsuit in principle, concurring with Republicans McMaster and Wilson that the federal government should not be allowed to require all Americans to carry health insurance. But Richardson has said he wants to make sure that South Carolina does not get saddled with legal bills that other states could shoulder.

Wilson has served as a prosecutor at the county and state level, says he has the experience to see the health care lawsuit through and questioned the ability of Richardson, who serves as a committeeman for the Democratic National Committee, to take on his own party.

“Is he going to be willing to stand up and not only say, ‘You’re wrong, this bill is wrong,’ but actively work to fight it?” Wilson asked.

Richardson, who hasn’t worked as a prosecutor but has practiced law nearly five years longer that Wilson, said Thursday that, as the state’s top prosecutor, he would protect the rights of South Carolinians – even if that means taking on national Democrats.

“Unlike my opponent, I have practiced in the federal courts where this case will be heard and decided. This is too important for on-the-job training by a lawyer with no experience in the federal courts,” Richardson said. “Unlike my opponent, I will not waste the money of the people of this state on political lawsuits and posturing.”

McMaster said Thursday that South Carolina and the 19 other states suing the Obama administration are sharing a $50,000 legal bill, of which South Carolina has agreed to pay about $5,000.

Briefs in the national health care lawsuit are due Nov. 4 – two days after the general election – with arguments expected in mid-December.

Published: Thursday, October 21, 2010, Spartanburg Herald Journal

Alan Wilson has the leadership qualities and vision for the Attorney General’s Office that will serve the citizens of this state well.

Wilson is running to be the top prosecutor in the state, and he has prosecutorial experience. He has served as assistant solicitor in Lexington County and as assistant attorney general.

He also has some excellent leadership experience. He is a major in the S.C. National Guard who led men in combat in Iraq in 2007.

Those qualities are likely to combine to make Wilson an effective attorney general. And he has worthwhile plans for the office.

Wilson is correct in pointing out that state and federal authorities have focused on law enforcement but have left the court system undermanned. He wants to loan prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office to circuit solicitors to help them try cases and reduce court backlogs.

He wants to use new lawyers to prosecute victimless crimes and increase the office’s pro bono program to help prosecute criminal domestic violence cases.

Wilson also plans to run periodic seminars for law enforcement officers across the state to update their training on legal issues such as maintaining chains of evidence and testifying in court.

He is committed to pursuing the state’s lawsuit — along with 19 other states — against the federal government, challenging the constitutional authority of the federal health care changes. That suit is necessary to determine where the limits of federal authority lie.

Wilson is also committed to holding the federal government to the agreements it made with the state regarding the nuclear waste stored at the Savannah River Site. It is unlikely that Washington will remove that dangerous material from this state under the timetable to which it agreed. South Carolina will need a strong leader to demand compensation from the federal government.

Wilson, a Republican, is opposed by Democrat Matthew Richardson. Richardson is a bright attorney who espouses many conservative positions. He wants to focus on public corruption.

It would be better if either of the candidates had served a few years as a circuit solicitor, running a prosecuting agency, but neither has. Wilson has some experience as a prosecutor and in the Attorney General’s Office. That gives him an edge.

Wilson has some of the experience needed for the job. He has the personal qualities and the vision for the office that recommend him to South Carolina voters. He is the best choice as the Palmetto State’s next attorney general.

THE MOST striking thing about this year’s race for attorney general is how much less prepared the candidates are for the job than previous attorneys general. Republican Alan Wilson and Democrat Matthew Richardson both seem to be sincere, well-intentioned candidates who understand that the attorney general’s job is to defend the law, whether he likes it or not, and not to use the courts to rewrite the law. But they have less legal experience between them than previous attorneys general have had individually.

This is no small matter. The attorney general runs an important state agency and needs to have the sound judgment and political independence to inspire public confidence in his decisions on criminal and civil matters and in his opinions on complex legal issues. Both men do have qualities that could serve them well in the office, but both also have some shortcomings beyond inexperience.

Mr. Richardson has practiced law longer than Mr. Wilson (12 years vs. seven), he is highly regarded as a smart and capable attorney, and he seems sincere when he says he just wants to practice law. His promise to focus on corruption could be a useful counterbalance in our Republican-controlled state, and though we generally don’t go for this sort of thing, there’s something attractive about his pledge not to run for any other office, given how much better off we’d be if Henry McMaster had decided to stay on. But Mr. Richardson has no demonstrated ability as a leader or a manager, and it’s disturbing that he criticizes Mr. Wilson for being partisan without mentioning that he serves as the state’s Democratic national committeeman, which is an entirely partisan position. And he seems to hold an eight-year-old grudge over the lawsuit Charlie Condon brought to stop then-Gov. Jim Hodges from unconstitutionally appropriating money, resulting in a unanimous rebuke of the governor by the Supreme Court. That he would bring up this suit himself and argue that it shouldn’t have been filed when the governor’s actions were so clearly out of line raises questions about his ability to separate his loyalties from his legal judgment.

In addition to having even less legal experience, Mr. Wilson does indeed show some troubling signs of partisanship, with his all-too-eager embrace of national hot-button Republican issues and the suggestion that he would continue gubernatorial candidate McMaster’s disturbing practice of spending precious state resources seeking to undo congressional actions. But he seems to be more focused on crime fighting, which we hope would limit his dalliances with such distractions, and he has some fairly promising ideas for increasing the use of pro bono prosecutors and diversionary programs. He does have some experience as a prosecutor, and we cannot discount his experience leading troops in war. It might seem an old-fashioned notion, but serving in the military, particularly in a war zone, truly does develop or reinforce valuable traits, from leadership skills to the ability to work with people you might not normally encounter.

Perhaps that experience played a role in the most encouraging thing about Mr. Wilson: his promise to seek out advice from across the political and legal spectrum. This isn’t something we had to drag out of him. It’s something he brought up, and kept returning to. It’s something he’s promised to others. It’s something that seems central to who he is. And given the shortcomings of both candidates, it is for us that deciding factor that makes him the slightly more attractive choice. If Mr. Wilson is able to follow through, if he’s able to approach the job with an open mind, if he’s willing to learn from the capable staff in the office, he could turn out to be a good attorney general.