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Sanford's top aide may run for state Senate

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Gov. Mark Sanford's top aide will decide this weekend whether he'll step down as chief of staff and run for state Senate.

Tom Davis, 47, a partner at downtown Beaufort law firm Harvey and Battey and a key architect of both of Sanford's gubernatorial campaigns, said Friday he's "given a lot of thought" to running against Sen. Catherine Ceips for the District 46 Senate seat.

"It's always been in the back of my mind; it's always been something I've thought about primarily because the approach I have for government is consistent with where I think people in Beaufort County are coming from," he said. "I think there's been a loss of focus on what makes us great, which is liberty and the people and their ability to drive the economy."

Davis, who met Sanford while the two attended Furman University more than 25 years ago, moved to Beaufort in 1985 when he joined Harvey and Battey. He worked in the governor's office in 2003 and 2004 as senior policy adviser and co-chief of staff. In 2005 he served on the S.C. State Ports Authority's board of directors.

Davis returned to Columbia in January 2006 to become deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs and policy and eventually became chief of staff.

"He's been on a personal level, a dear friend," Sanford said Friday, "and on a professional level, an incredible ally."

If he runs, Davis would face Ceips in a June Republican primary for the Senate seat that represents most of Beaufort County. Ceips claimed the seat last year after a hard-fought Republican primary against County Council Chairman Weston Newton. The District 46 seat became vacant in February 2007 when then-Sen. Scott Richardson resigned to become director of the state Department of Insurance.

Ceips was elected to three terms in the state House before moving to the Senate.

"You'll never hear me say anything negative about people who want to offer public service," Ceips said Friday of Davis' possible candidacy. "And that seat doesn't belong to me, it belongs to the people."

Davis has been an ardent proponent of creating a shipping terminal on the Jasper County side of the Savannah River and was instrumental in creating the bi-state agreement that will see that port managed by South Carolina and Georgia.

"We've come from a situation where a port looked like a remote possibility, to two years later completely reversing it," he said, adding that once built, he expects the Jasper port's economic influence in the Lowcountry will rival that of BMW in the Upstate.

Sanford pointed out that while Davis was a critical cog in the port plan, he's also been a "real lynch pin" in a lot of what the governor has been able to get done in Columbia.

"I think he's somebody who gets the bigger picture of where we are in terms of globalization," Sanford said. "Of all the different team members, I think he, at both a gut and intellectual level, understands this like very, very few in the organization."

Filing for November's partisan elections opens Sunday and runs through March 30.

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