by Dean Allen | December 1, 2021
Here richly, with ridiculous display a politician’s corpse was laid away.
While others sighed and harangued,
I wept. . . for I had longed to see him hanged!
November 12th South Carolina State Senator Hugh Leatherman R(ino) Florence, departed this earth after 90 years. He was the longest serving member of our state senate. (1981 – 2021)
At one time he was President Pro Tem of the state senate, Chairman of the senate appropriations committee, on the board of directors of the State Infrastructure bank, and a member of the Budget and Control Board, all at the same time.
His concrete business did $28 million worth of business with the state government. Roads are paved beautifully from Florence all the way to the beach. We here in the Upstate, a hundred miles north of Florence, may as well be on the dark side of the moon. In fact, some of our pot hole infested roads compare favorably with the dark side of the moon.
Among other things, Leatherman conceived and guided the largest hike in our gasoline tax in history through the legislature four years ago. Now, there are millions of dollars in surplus money in a fund to repair roads. Upstate roads still look like. . . well, shi[r]t.
Power in the state will shift now. Politicians will play musical chairs again. This will be at least as big as when President Trump appointed Nikki Haley to become our UN Ambassador.
Few figures in the Republican Party were hated and cussed as much here in the Upstate as Hugh Leatherman.
I believe it was Mark Twain who said he had never wished anyone dead; but had read several obituaries with great satisfaction. That about sums up my feelings about Hugh Leatherman, whom I never met in person. I can honestly ask the Lord to comfort his family; but I will sure never miss the era in South Carolina politics that ended with his internment.