Governor
During his term as governor, Beasley was known for injecting his Christian faith into the public discourse.
In 1998, Beasley was defeated in his bid for re-election by Democrat Jim Hodges, 53-45 percent. There are several reasons for Beasley's surprising loss in a state that has since become heavily Republican.
First, owners of video poker machines, which were legal in South Carolina at the time, poured millions of dollars into advertisements attacking Beasley for trying to ban video poker. Second, Beasley changed his position on keeping the Confederate flag on top of the Capitol. He ordered it moved to a place nearby on the capitol grounds. Many conservative Republicans remembered this supposed "flip-flop" on Election Day, and simply stayed home. Third, Beasley opposed a proposal for the state to support all-day kindergarten, a decision which cost him Democratic votes.
Though Beasley was defeated, Attorney General of South Carolina Charlie Condon won reelection, 54-46 percent, over the Democratic activist, Tom Turnipseed, a former state senator and lawyer from Columbia, active in the civil rights movement.
Read more about this topic: David Beasley
Famous quotes containing the word governor:
“Three years ago, also, when the Sims tragedy was acted, I said to myself, There is such an officer, if not such a man, as the Governor of Massachusetts,—what has he been about the last fortnight? Has he had as much as he could do to keep on the fence during this moral earthquake?... He could at least have resigned himself into fame.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is better to have the power of self-protection than to depend on any man, whether he be the Governor in his chair of State, or the hunted outlaw wandering through the night, hungry and cold and with murder in his heart.”
—Lillie Devereux Blake (1835–1913)
“Ah, Governor [Murphy, of New Jersey], don’t try to deceive me as to the sentiment of the dear people. I have been hearing from the West and the East, and the South seems to be the only section which approves of me at all, and that comes from merely a generous impulse, for even that section would deny me its votes.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)