Bowers: It requires no more than a simple fix

The chairman of Pickens County Republicans thinks he has found an instance of state lawmakers going overboard, trying to apply a simple fix to what’s wrong. It is election reform legislation, particularly taking out a section of 2010 law that caused candidate qualifying disruption last year over the filing of economic interest statements. Instead of just addressing that, Pickens GOP Chairman Phillip Bowers says, lawmakers now want to usurp the state’s political parties of their primary election responsibilities—-and switch them to the state and county election commissions. According to Bowers, what started in the Senate and has spread to the House reflects a misunderstanding of political parties’ roles in the state’s tradition of primary elections, which nominate candidates to run in general elections. And he’s hoping enough people who feel as he does will let some of the state’s key lawmakers know this, as the House tomorrow is scheduled to take up the bill.