The clerk of the South Carolina House of Representatives is resigning from his post effective April 1 of this year to lead a once-prominent business advocacy organization.
Charles Reid, a Columbia, S.C. native, has served as clerk of the House since November of 2004. Prior to that, he spent two years as an assistant attorney general and six years as legal advisor to former S.C. House speaker David Wilkins.
This spring, Reid will take the reins of the South Carolina Business and Industry Political Education Committee (SC BIPEC).
For the last two decades, SC BIPEC has been run by Tom DeLoach – a consummate Palmetto political insider well-known for his organization’s dubiously derived legislative scorecards. Under DeLoach, SC BIPEC branded itself as “promoting and protecting the free, private and competitive enterprise system through research and education” – however its scorecards were routinely manipulated to cast fiscally liberal legislative leaders in the best possible light.
One year, this news outlet referred to SC BIPEC’s report cards as “shameful, manipulative special interest groveling,” and for the better part of the last decade we have declined to cover them.
Anyway, according to an email obtained by this news outlet DeLoach “informed the SC BIPEC Chairman a few months ago of his desire to face new challenges.”
Since December, the group has been searching for a replacement – and finally settled on Reid.
[su_dominion_video_scb]“Charles has a strong academic and experiential background that will serve SC BIPEC Members in a manner to which we are accustomed,” the group noted in its email.
Not surprisingly, Reid’s job will be coveted – although according to our sources current S.C. House speaker Jay Lucas has already decided who he wants to fill the position. Lucas doesn’t get to appoint the position outright, though. Any nominee for the post would ultimately have to be elected by a majority of the 124-member House.
Developing …
UPDATE: The new clerk-in-waiting …
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