Fant announces run

By Cindy Landrum  

JANUARY 19, 2012 2:20 p.m. (1)

Incumbent South Carolina State Senator Ralph Anderson said he’d decide in the next couple of weeks whether to seek re-election to the District 7 seat.

There’s one announced candidate for the seat so far.

Former state Rep. Ennis Fant, one of 17 state legislators convicted in the Operation Lost Trust statehouse corruption scandal more than 20 years ago, has announced his candidacy.

Fant pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with the investigation that showed he accepted $1,300 in exchange for his support of a pari-mutuel betting bill.

Fant said he was humbled by the experience and knows it was a mistake.

“The tragedy of life is not the mistake, that is part of the human condition,” he said. “The real tragedy is not rising above it and allowing others to rise above it.”

Anderson said when he last talked to Fant several months ago, he told him he would not run again if his wife’s health did not improve.

“I don’t want to run for the office and know I won’t have the time to devote to it,” he said this week. “In a couple of weeks, I will know for sure. I’ll either have a fundraiser or a press conference.”

Anderson touted his work on public health and education issues and mentioned being cited by groups in those fields. “I’m real eager to start campaigning,” he said.

Fant said he wants to be a champion for the disenfranchised in Greenville County by helping to steer more jobs to the Upstate, focusing on better funding for public education and not balancing the state budget on the backs of children, education and the poor.

He wants to make District 7, which contains some of the poorest and economically distressed areas of the county, a stronger and more viable place to live.

Fant said local economic development efforts are hamstrung by legislators who steer projects away from Greenville. He wants to return Greenville’s power to Columbia.

Fant said a key to creating a stronger economic base in Greenville would come from full funding of public education. The current funding levels represent 1995 numbers, which is not good enough if Greenville wants students who can compete in a global marketplace.

“We need 21st Century education in order to train students for 21st Century jobs,” he said.

Fant grew up in Nicholtown and graduated from J.L. Mann. He is the senior pastor at Pleasant View Missionary Baptist Church.

Anderson, a retired postmaster, has held the District 7 seat since 1997.