Catherine Templeton Makes Her Move?

S.C. HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL DIRECTOR STEPS DOWN

|| By FITSNEWS || Catherine Templeton – director of the largest government agency in South Carolina – has resigned her post effective January 12, fueling speculation that she will seek elected office in the not-too-distant future.

The only question?  Which office will she seek …

“When Governor Haley pulled me from the private sector, I promised her four years of public service and I have fulfilled my commitment,” Templeton said in a statement released by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC). “I’m looking forward to serving the state from a different position.”

What position it be though?

Templeton – an adept manager and political messenger – is being touted for several potential campaigns.  First, there’s a major effort underway to get the Lowcountry attorney to challenge embattled U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford – who cannot seem to stop shooting himself in the foot.  In fact it was lost on no one that her announcement came less than forty-eight hours after Sanford alienated fiscal conservatives by supporting liberal U.S. Speaker John Boehner.

“I bet you couldn’t drive a pine needle in Sanford’s (rear end) with a jack hammer right now,” one GOP political operative told FITS.

Ha!

Of course Templeton’s timing isn’t political …  as noted in her statement, she said several years ago she would be leaving state government right around this time, which is one reason for the palpable political buzz building around her over the last few months.

Besides Congress, Templeton is also being eyed as a candidate for governor in 2018 – a field that’s expected to include U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (who also backed Boehner earlier this week).

Others contend Templeton is more interested in becoming a judge than running for elected office …

Now … who will take her place at SCDHEC?

Sources close to the administration of S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley tell us Templeton will be followed at the agency by Eleanor Kitzman – who raised Haley boatloads of money in Texas after spending just six months at the head of the S.C. Budget and Control Board (SCBCB) in 2011.

Kitzman was a cabinet member in Sanford’s administration but was fired by the former governor after a dispute over insurance policy.  She was hired in December 2013 by New York based Starr Investment Holdings, but apparently didn’t last long in that post either.

It’s not immediately clear whether Kitzman’s nomination has the support of the SCDHEC board – which gave Templeton a standing ovation after receiving her resignation notice.

Sources tell FITS several members of the board are unhappy with the governor’s selection – preferring instead to go with a nominee advanced by Templeton and her staff.

“It’s going to be a battle,” one source told us, although they declined to name the candidate put forward by Templeton.

“She had an eminently credible candidate lined up but the governor wanted to go in a different direction,” the source said.

Templeton has been praised for her commitment to taxpayers, businesses and the environment – and for turning around an antiquated bureaucracy resistant to change.

“She pushed to de-regulate whole professions, repealed unnecessary and outdated requirements on the books, and pushed through streamlined processes for entire industries that had not been addressed in decades,” one business association director that does business with SCDHEC said.

She also scored high marks for her handling of the Ebola threat – which included her showing up at one Charleston-area hospital pretending to be a patient with symptoms of the disease in an effort to gauge its response capability.

Even environmentalists – who rarely have good things to say about SCDHEC – praised her tenure.

“Her common sense and candor have been fresh breezes in an agency often embattled and distrusted by both the public and the regulated community,” said Dana Beach, the executive director of the S.C. Coastal Conservation League.

SCDHEC CATHERINE TEMPLETON STATEMENT (.pdf)

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