POLITICAL WOES DOG REPUBLICANS ACROSS THE SOUTH

Infighting and Scandals Could Undermine Party In Longtime Stronghold

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The Republican-led South Carolina legislature was
in the final throes of a bitter session last month when word of
criminal charges against a high-ranking state official swept through
both chambers.

A federal grand jury had just handed up an indictment against
Treasurer Thomas Ravenel, scion of one of the state's leading
political families, for allegedly distributing cocaine. Mr. Ravenel,
who had recently defeated a Democratic incumbent who held the office
for 36 years, was the statewide chairman for former New York City
Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign, in what has historically
been a decisive early primary state.

The indictment is just one of the political headaches across the
South that are making Republicans look more vulnerable than they have
in years to losing ground in the region's legislatures and
statehouses. Though there isn't any sign of them losing their
dominance in the region, the once-formidable "Solid South" coalitions
they forged in the 1980s and 1990s to end a century of Democratic
dominion have given way to messy schisms and infighting. Today, they
look a lot like the bitterly divided Democrats of three decades ago.

Most of those divisions stem from internal rivalries that have
developed as the party consolidated power in the region, where they
control half of the legislative chambers. Some of the tensions can be
ascribed to dueling priorities between legislatures and governors.
Others have been caused or exacerbated by personal scandals like the
one involving Mr. Ravenel, who has pleaded not guilty to the cocaine
charges, but hasn't made any public statement about them.

Last week, Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana admitted what he called a
"serious sin" in his past after his name surfaced on the list of
callers to a Washington, D.C., madam. Mr. Vitter, the Southern
campaign chairman for Mr. Giuliani, couldn't be reached for comment.
Mr. Giuliani called the situation a personal matter and said Mr.
Vitter would continue to represent his campaign.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue recently vetoed a property-tax rebate and
much of the budget crafted by Republican House and Senate leaders,
and killed pet projects in House leaders' districts. House leaders
said the vetoes seemed personally motivated. The Republican governor
has said there should be no lasting hard feelings. "You can get from
point A to B and disagree on what roads to take, but we all want to
get to the same place," said Bert Brantley, Mr. Perdue's spokesman.

Cigarette Tax

In Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour has clashed with his fellow
Republican lieutenant governor and party legislators over a push to
swap an increase in the cigarette tax for a cut in the state's
comparatively high sales tax on food. Gov. Barbour opposed the idea
out of concern about changing the tax structure as the state
continued to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

There have been indictments and scandals involving Democrats in the
South in recent years, too -- the former speaker of the North
Carolina House was sentenced last week on bribery charges. But the
series of missteps involving Republicans has coincided with other
signs of trouble for the party after two decades of increasing
influence in the region, and could create opportunities for Democrats.

Last year, Democrats picked up a total of 25 seats in Southern
legislative races, their first net gain since 1982, according to the
National Conference of State Legislatures. In Kentucky, a recent poll
of 693 registered voters by InsiderAdvantage, showed half of
independent voters and nearly a third of women voters were undecided
about the governor's race, an ominous sign for Republican incumbent
Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who got a big boost from independents the first
time around.

Mr. Fletcher fended off two Republican challengers in a May primary
in which the dominant issue was his indictment in an investigation
into whether he improperly rewarded supporters with state jobs. The
indictment was dropped last year in a deal with prosecutors. "The
governor acknowledged that some mistakes were made in his
administration, but it didn't rise to the level of criminal
activity," said Marty Ryall, Mr. Fletcher's campaign manager.

Despite their control of nearly every elected statewide position and
huge majorities in both houses of the legislature, South Carolina
Republicans have been unable to deliver on significant campaign
promises, including a program that would give state residents
vouchers to help pay for private schools.

In May, a split among Republican blocs allowed a coalition of
Democrats and some Republicans to engineer the selection of a
Democrat for a rare opening on the state Supreme Court. The party's
once-tight control of state spending has weakened. The state's
current $6 billion budget now includes a $9 million grant fund for
pet projects, such as festivals celebrating pork and catfish in
various legislative districts. Last month, Senate leaders, angered by
what they saw as an attempt to blame them for a budgetary logjam,
crashed a news conference held by Gov. Mark Sanford and House leaders
in a bid to tell their side of the story.

The squabbling has been made worse by scandals involving alleged
personal misconduct. Last month's indictment in U.S. District Court
in Columbia of the 44-year-old Mr. Ravenel, a colorful Charleston
developer known as T-Rav by friends on his MySpace page, followed by
days a no-contest plea by a Republican state representative to
charges of making threats against his estranged wife's boyfriend.

Cockfighting Ring

Last year the state's Republican former agriculture commissioner was
sentenced to federal prison on extortion charges related to a
cockfighting ring. The state's 38-year-old lieutenant governor, Andre
Bauer, another rising Republican star who was close to Mr. Ravenel,
was pulled over twice for speeding, but wasn't ticketed even though
he was clocked on one occasion last year at 101 miles an hour.

The legislature just appropriated $90,000 a year so Mr. Bauer could
have a driver and security detail. Mr. Bauer's chief of staff said
the lieutenant governor regrets the speeding incidents, but that they
weren't related to his getting a driver and security detail.

The day after Mr. Ravenel's indictment, state Republican Party
Chairman Katon Dawson issued a public scolding, warning members of
his party that personal misconduct and legislative double-dealing
were a threat to the party. He reiterated his plea in an op-ed
article published July 3 in The (Columbia) State newspaper, saying he
was getting constant calls and emails indicating an unprecedented
"sustained unhappiness" with Republicans. Unless officeholders
straightened up, he said, "grass-roots activists will not just revolt
with their votes, they'll revolt with their apathy -- and that would
cripple this country."

South Carolina House Majority Leader James H. Merrill says his
Charleston constituents frequently ask why he can't get Republicans
"to act like Republicans."

"You're going to end up alienating voters," Rep. Merrill said. "You
saw a little bit of it in Washington. That's why every 20 years, the
pendulum swings the other way." [Chart]

Mr. Giuliani, who already faces skepticism from Christian
conservatives because he has been married three times and because of
his moderate stance on abortion and gay rights, expressed shock at
the Ravenel charges and named a new state chairman for his campaign.
However, Mr. Ravenel's father, former U.S. Rep. Arthur Ravenel Jr.,
remains a regional campaign chairman and one of Mr. Giuliani's most
visible supporters in the state.

Democrats already have seized on the elder Mr. Ravenel's longstanding
support of flying the Confederate flag at the South Carolina state
capitol, and on references he made in 2000 to the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mr. Ravenel
referred to the NAACP as the "National Association for Retarded
People." Mr. Ravenel said yesterday he wasn't sorry about his remarks
but didn't mean to give offense to the retarded. He has previously
said that he mistakenly transposed the name of the civil-rights
organization with an advocacy group for the mentally disabled with
which he worked in the past.

The elder Mr. Ravenel has another son with Down syndrome. Elliott
Bundy, a spokesman for Mr. Giuliani, declined this week to comment on
demands by Democrats that Mr. Giuliani condemn Mr. Ravenel's previous remarks.

Treatment Program

According to his attorney, the younger Mr. Ravenel has embarked on a
30-day treatment program at an Arizona facility. Gov. Sanford has
suspended him temporarily; under South Carolina law, he would
automatically lose his office if convicted.

The Republican turmoil has raised some Democratic hopes that parts of
the South may no longer be as lockstep in support of the Republican
Party. But Donald L. Fowler, a former chairman of the Democratic
National Committee and the husband of Carol Khare Fowler, South
Carolina's Democratic Party chairwoman, cautions that Republican
fatigue doesn't yet necessarily portend broad Democratic comebacks,
particularly in South Carolina.

He says it would require a major demographic shift, such as an influx
of people from other parts of the country, and a major economic
change, such as a depression, to change the landscape.

"At least where we are now, Democrats don't have the wherewithal to
take advantage of the split in the Republican Party," Mr. Fowler said.