For social liberals in South Carolina, the state Democratic Party can be kind of a letdown. Entrenched in red territory, its current nominee for governor, Vincent Sheheen, won't even come out in favor of marriage equality.
Enter gubernatorial candidate Steve French, a pro-choice, pro-marriage-equality candidate who adamantly believes South Carolina should be the next state to legalize recreational marijuana use. If you want a social liberal in the Governor's Mansion next year, here's your guy.
French is the Libertarian Party candidate, though, so he also holds some aggressively conservative views on fiscal matters. He likes school vouchers, for example, and he wants to replace income and corporate taxes with an across-the-board 7 percent sales tax with no tax breaks or incentives.
As the fall election season heats up, French is going to say some things that are a little hard for both sides to swallow. But he'll tell you that all he's looking for is a little consistency.
"We have Republicans that talk about smaller government, but they'll kick your door in because you're playing a poker game," French says. "We've got the Democratic Party that talks about individual liberty, but then they want to unload all these taxes on us at the same time."
French is sitting in his home campaign office in Mt. Pleasant, leaning forward in a swivel chair as he lays into his campaign platform. At age 33, French would be one of the youngest governors in state history (the minimum age is 30). The man is intense in his rhetoric, self-assured in his views. When it comes to Sheheen and other state Democrats, he thinks the soft-sell approach isn't working.
"I don't know why the Democratic Party down here doesn't go as far left socially, whether they just don't believe they can win with that," French says. "I think the opposite. I really feel like our generation especially is pretty much in agreement of what we feel the government's role should be."
All Aboard the Grease Bus
Steve French is in the grease business. He is the CEO of Low Country Grease Service, a company that buys used cooking grease from local restaurants, refines it in North Charleston, and sells the product to biofuel companies.
"I'm not that far from being in poverty," French says. "When we started my business back in 2009, we were lower than broke."
Read the original here:
Libertarian gubernational candidate Steve French is left of the Dems, right of the GOP