South Carolina's Bauer Regrets Comparing Needy to 'Stray Animals'

2 years ago

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Mary C. Curtis

National Correspondent

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Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer is the latest South Carolina politician to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. On Monday, the Republican candidate for governor said he regrets remarks he made comparing people who receive public assistance to stray animals. His words had drawn criticism and mocking from Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show."

"Do I regret it? Sure I do. I wouldn't have to be taking this heat otherwise," Bauer said in an interview with The State newspaper.

In a town hall meeting last week, Bauer recalled that when he was a child, his grandmother had told him to stop feeding stray animals. "You know why?" he asked. "Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a human ample food supply." He said, "They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that."

Bauer, 40, later said he was criticizing "a culture of dependency" and government programs, which amount "to little more than socialism, paid for by hardworking, tax-paying families." He also said: "You show me the school that has the highest free and reduced lunch, and I'll show you the worst test scores, folks."

In a Monday interview with Politico, he said of the reaction to his remarks: "I never saw it coming, but it is what it is."

"Clearly, I was taken out of context. Nobody in that meeting or any other meeting where I've said that before had any problem with it. In fact, I had a black minister at that meeting and he came up to me afterwards and asked if I could come speak to his congregation." Bauer told Politico that "there is an undercurrent of people that are fed up. And maybe I didn't use the right verbiage, but they want this discussion."

A Winthrop University political science professor and pollster told The State that Bauer's words were aimed at social and fiscal conservatives in South Carolina. That message "has been a staple" of social conservatives and evangelicals who believe personal responsibility is a key both to salvation and success, Scott Huffmon said. "So, I do believe the message was targeted to try to win those voters over, and I think those voters got the message loud and clear, and he's trying to help himself in the Republican primary."

Democrats had criticized Bauer for his statements, particularly as unemployment hit a record high of 12.6 percent in South Carolina. Department of Social Services Director Kathleen Hayes told The State, "We are seeing people who have never sought services of DSS before."

Bauer's Republican opponents in the gubernatorial race did not take him on that strongly, though the remarks may come up in the state party's debate in Charleston on Thursday night. A spokesman for Lexington Rep. Nikki Haley told The State, "If that's the kind of thing the lieutenant governor wants to focus his campaign on, that's his prerogative." Haley has the support of Jenny Sanford, who is divorcing South Carolina's current governor, Mark Sanford.

Filed Under: Democrats, Republicans, Scandal, Woman Up, Governors

Tagged: andre bauer, AndreBauer, Daily Guidance, DailyGuidance

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