5/24/00 10:25 a.m.
The Luckiest Politician in America?
Flag compromise completes political trifecta for SC Gov. Jim Hodges.

By Michael Graham, political columnist and talk radio host in South Carolina

ayor Giuliani's departure from the NY Senate race confirmed in the minds of many that the name "Clinton" is synonymous with "luck." But when South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges signed the Confederate Flag compromise Tuesday, he completed the second lap of a political Trifecta that only a London bookie could love.

During his decade as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, Democrat Jim Hodges was clear on three things: the Confederate Flag needed to come down, gambling (particularly video poker) destroyed families, and lotteries were an unreliable and unfair way to pay for state education spending. In 1997, when Hodges left the House to begin his long-shot challenge against incumbent Republican governor David Beasley, he reversed himself on every one of these high-profile issues. It was a complete, unapologetic political transformation so breath-taking in its opportunism it would have made a Clinton blush.

These political acrobatics gave Jim Hodges the money and organization he needed to beat an incumbent Republican governor in a strong Republican state. However, political observers at the time believed that Hodges opportunism on the two hottest issues in the state — gambling and the Confederate flag — would haunt him while in office. But less then two years after his election, two of those three policy flip-flops have disappeared of their own accord, leaving Governor Hodges doing what governors do best: take credit and avoid blame.

The biggest issue in his 1998 campaign was not the flag, but gambling — in particular the $2 billion-plus video poker industry which had pledged to defeat Governor Beasley. Beasley had made the morally-admirable but politically-suicidal decision to declare video poker a "cancer on the state of South Carolina" in an election year. When the video poker bosses suddenly needed a candidate to back, Jim Hodges did not let his consistent opposition to the industry ("it is a destroyer of families") prevent him from taking millions of their dollars in campaign contributions.

Along with the money came a modification in his position. After years of insisting that it was the legislature's job to vote on the tough issue of legalized gambling, Hodges announced that, as Governor, he would now allow a referendum. The video poker industry spent millions (some estimate as much as $10 million) to defeat the Republican governor. After the election, Governor Hodges was immediately labeled the leader of the "Poker Party," and SC editorial writers predicted that video poker would fall like a plague upon the new administration.

If Hodges returned to his principles, he would send the poker millions to a future opponent. If he stayed in bed with the industry, he could be viewed as a stooge of organized gambling. What happened?

In the fall on 1999 the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that legislation allowing a referendum on video poker was illegal. The legislation, crafted by GOP opponents of poker, was written so that if the referendum did not take place, poker would become illegal on July 1, 2000 by default. Governor Hodges never lifted a finger, and the entire issue of "Diamond Jim and the Poker Bosses" disappeared.

The governor has had even better luck with the Confederate Flag. In 1996, Governor Beasley told reporters that God had come to him in the night and laid upon his heart that the Confederate Flag should be removed from the State House. Unfortunately, the Lord failed to convey this message to the House or Senate, where Beasley's plan died a painful, public death and alienated a significant part of the GOP base.

Flag supporters felt betrayed, and bumper stickers reading "Keep the Flag, Dump Beasley" soon sprouted across the state. But how could the conservative flag voters back a flag opponent like Democrat Hodges who had repeatedly called for the flag to come down?

In May of 1998, Hodges met with several leaders of the pro-flag community, including the president of the Council of Conservative Citizens. That's right: the same Council of Conservative Citizens called a "white supremacist political organization" in a House resolution sponsored by SC Congressman Jim Clyburn. According to The (Columbia, SC) State, "Hodges got right to the point. He said that, as governor, he would not initiate any action to bring the banner down."

Though Hodges has supported the Beasley plan to remove the flag less than a year earlier, he pledged "not to revive that effort" if elected. Not long after, Hodges' new-found friends in the Council of Conservative Citizens began receiving contributions to their pro-flag PAC from — the video poker industry! This money was used to fund media targeting the pro-flag base still angry over Beasley's betrayal of their cause.

This convenient matching of Hodges' most wealthy backers with Beasley's most vociferous opponents helped Hodges win a stunning victory over a GOP governor in a conservative southern state. But what to do about the Confederate Flag after the election?

Republican Beasley, who attempted to remove the flag, received an embarrassing 4% of the black vote, while the Democrat candidate who worked with "white supremacists" and pledged to avoid the flag issue took the remaining 96%. Hodges answer was to avoid the issue as long as possible.

It was the NAACP's boycott that forced the state legislature to act, allowing Governor Hodges to sit quietly on the sidelines. When it became clear that the boycott was having an effect, Hodges publicly reversed himself again on the flag issue, calling for its removal. But Hodges again avoided the heavy lifting. The plan that eventually passed was proposed by Republican state senators and passed by the House with more GOP than Democratic votes.

The one plan Hodges and his legislative allies did push during the floor debate — a multi-flag display around the Confederate Memorial to reduce the profile of the Confederate banner — got a whopping 33 votes out of 121 members present. Hodges, nearly invisible during the flag fight, was merely opaque at the conclusion.

A public television camera and mic inadvertently left on during his speech rehearsals Tuesday afternoon caught the governor commenting to an aide he wanted "to distance myself as much from the debate. I know I can't do it entirely." Not entire, perhaps. But close.

On July 1st, both the video poker industry and the Confederate flag atop the State House will become history, each a politcal hot plate from which this southern Democratic governor escaped without a burn.

All that's left is the lottery, which the former Rep. Hodges opposed, candidate Hodges championed and the popular Governor Hodges is making the centerpiece of his first term. It goes to the voters in a referendum in November. If it's defeated, it will be a crippling blow to the Governor. If it passes, it will be "the people's lottery," and Governor Hodges will once again escape the consequences of abandoning his principles. And I , for one, won't be betting against him.