Posted on 05/21/2003 9:59:54 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Washington U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings will not run for re-election if his party can find another strong candidate, the 81-year-old Democrat indicated Tuesday.
"I'd love to have a candidate that would run, a Democrat candidate," said Hollings, who was first elected to the Senate in 1966. "I've been trying my best for 10 years to find one that will run."
Hollings has given S.C. Democratic Party chairman Joe Erwin permission to shop for another Senate candidate.
"I told him, 'You go ahead and look,'" Hollings said Tuesday outside the Senate chamber.
Asked whether his talk with Erwin and his hope that another Democrat would jump into the race mean that he would prefer not to launch a campaign for a seventh full term, Hollings referred to Erwin's search.
"It would depend on who he would find," he said.
Whether Hollings will run again is the hottest political question in South Carolina. The Democratic Party sees him as its best chance to hold on to a high office in a state that is otherwise dominated by Republicans.
Republican Lindsey Graham is the state's junior senator. Republican Mark Sanford sits in the governor's office. Republicans control both houses of the General Assembly.
At least five Republicans have either announced their intention to run for Senate in 2004 or expressed a strong interest in running -- former state Attorney General Charlie Condon, of Charleston; U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint, of Greenville; former U.S. Rep. Tommy Hartnett, of Charleston; Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride; and Charleston real estate developer Thomas Ravenel.
"Run, Fritz, run!" was the chant at the state Democratic convention earlier this month as Hollings made his way to the podium.
Erwin said he broached the topic of seeking out other candidates with Hollings around the time of the convention. But asked whom he would prefer to run on the Democrat ticket next year, Erwin did not hesitate.
"I would prefer that it would be Fritz," said Erwin, an advertising executive from Greenville who said a major reason he sought the party chairmanship was the prospect of helping to re-elect Hollings.
"The man has one of the greatest records in the United States Senate. He is still youthful and at the top of his game. To lose his voice in the Senate . . . I'd rather not replace him."
Hollings, a Charlestonian who also served in the governor's office from 1958 to 1962, is a moderate Democrat, a hawk on the deficit and his party's ranking member on the Commerce Committee.
But Erwin said he also has a responsibility to the party: to be prepared should Hollings decide to retire. He said he has not yet drawn up a list of other possible candidates and declined to mention any names under consideration.
But he's asking Democratic mayors and others in the party to send him suggestions. In the next few weeks, he said, he and Hollings plan to talk again about the race.
In the meantime, Hollings said he is still undecided and has not set a timeline for making a decision.
In his last election, in 1998, he beat former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., 53 percent to 46 percent.
State Republican Party chairman Katon Dawson said he's "looking for a tough race" no matter who the Democratic candidate.
As for Hollings' running again, he said: "I don't know if he's up to the task."
"Never will I say that he's getting too old," Dawson said. "But no one in South Carolina better understands the amount of work and personal effort it takes to win."
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