By admin 
Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Sam Skardon talked education, gun violence and data centers at the Columbia Rotary Club on Monday.
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Skardon, 38, also spent more than five minutes chatting with Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Lexington, talking about things they had in common, such as growing up in Charleston.
The Columbia Rotary Club has invited Alan Wilson and his running mate state Sen. Mike Reichenbach, R-Florence, to speak but neither has yet appeared.
Joe Wilson, 79, is a Rotarian and the father of state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is the Republican candidate for governor, running against Jermaine Johnson, the Democratic candidate and Skardon’s running mate.
Afterwards, Wilson who has been in Congress nearly 26 years, said he found Skardon an “able candidate” but would still vote — as he always does — a straight Republican ticket.
During his talk and Rotarians’ and answering questions afterward, Skardon talked about data centers — he would like to see a temporary moratorium until “a set of standards” can be passed — and gun violence and domestic violence. On both gun violence and domestic violence, said he advocates legislation that most people agree on, such as keeping guns out of the hands of people who might pose a danger.
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“You don’t have to start with the divisive stuff on gun violence. You can start with the stuff people agree on,” Skardon said.
As for education, one of Skardon’s main issues, he said he would like to see universal pre-K education. That reform alone would result in a lot of healthy changes in many challenges facing the state, Skardon said.
“Starting kids younger is the most important thing you can do,” he said.
Asked about the powers of the governor to deploy the South Carolina National Guard, Skardon said he did not think that Gov. Henry McMaster should have sent National Guard troops to the District of Columbia because there was “not a true emergency”. The matter of whether McMaster exceeded his authority was recently argued before the S.C. Supreme Court.
Skardon also praised his running mate Johnson, who had been born into a low-income family and who lost an older brother to gun violence, but who earned a basketball scholarship at the College of Charleston and won election to the South Carolina House of Representatives.
“He went from ‘No House’ to the State House,” Skardon said.
The election is Nov. 3.
Skardon helps finance low-income housing and other projects. He is a history graduate from Emory University who worked for four years in Washington with the late Congressman and civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia. His wife, Leslie Skardon, is a member of the Charleston City Council.
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Editor’s note: Reporter John Monk is a member of the Columbia Rotary Club.