School board member makes run for State House

Halfway through his term on the Beaufort County Board of Education, local minister Michael Rivers will vie Tuesday for a seat in the S.C. House of Representatives.

A win in Tuesday’s general election would cut short the longtime St. Helena representative’s term on a school board in which he is part of a vocal minority against superintendent Jeff Moss and his supporters. Rivers would have to resign in late December, two years early, to take over the District 121 House seat. A special election to replace him on the school board could cost the county nearly $10,000, according to Marie Smalls, director of the Beaufort County Board of Voter Registration and Elections.

Rivers, the Democratic candidate and minister at United Church of Jesus Christ in Beaufort, faces Republican opponent James Broderick, a Walterboro City Council member whose term also ends in January 2018. Incumbent Kenneth Hodges is not seeking reelection to the district that includes northern Beaufort and southern Colleton counties.

Rivers, first elected to school board in 1998, has not campaigned for the House seat online or on social media. However, he has told reporters he would advocate for transparency and veterans’ affairs — two issues that have marked his past year of service on the school board.

Broderick has said he would focus on ensuring law enforcement has necessary resources and preserving Second Amendment gun rights, providing equitable funding for the state’s school districts and creating jobs.

Rivers has been one of the fiercest critics of Moss since the superintendent approved his wife’s hire to a district-level position in September 2015 around the same time that he altered the district’s nepotism rule. He’s called Moss a bully, told the media he should resign or be fired and said the board would be “fighting an uphill battle” until it aggressively dealt with the hiring dispute.

Then, on Aug. 24, a Veterans Affairs supervisor claimed Rivers made a threatening phone call to one of her crisis line employees. A final investigation revealed Rivers, an Air Force veteran, did not make the threat that was relayed to deputies.

After the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office closed the case, Rivers said he would push for better resources for veterans.

This story was originally published November 1, 2016 at 4:36 PM with the headline "School board member makes run for State House."