Candidate Profile: Robert Rikard, Senate District 20

With the June 12 primary less than a week away, Patch will be profiling candidates on the ballot for St. Andrews and Irmo voters. 

Today, we'll take a look at Robert Rikard, one of two Democratic candidates for state Senate District 20. If Rikard wins the primary he'll face Republican incumbent Sen. John Courson in the November general election. 

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If you want to meet the candidates in person before the primary, head to .

Name: Robert Rikard

Age: 40
 

Occupation: attorney

Prior political experience: working on campaigns

Family: three sons

Education: bachelor’s and law degrees from USC

Website: http://www.rikard4senate.com/

Why are you running?

I’m running because I’m just concerned about the direction of the state and where it’s headed. We’ve got too many politicians  who care about titles and being somebody rather than doing something. We have critical problems with education with the state retirement system, and with economic development. We’ve got to get back and focus on what makes our communities and state stronger.


What are you going to do to improve South Carolina’s education system?

We’ve got to focus more on children before they reach the first grade. We’ve got to focus on that ciritcal window of birth to three years. If we don’t reach and help children then, they’re always going to be behind when they get to first grade. The way I see it, it’s an investment by the state in our economic well-being and our children’s well-being. And we have to look at how we fund schools because there are too many school districts are at an economic disadvantage, mostly related to property tax funding. We’ve also got to do a better job of focusing development and incentives into our technical schools. Although we need to graduate people from our traditional schools, we also have a great tech schools. We have to give those schools the tools to attract students and graduate students.


What do you think about South Carolina’s job creation strategy and what do you think should be done to bring more jobs to the state?

First of all, I’m not sure what South Carolina’s job creation strategy is. The only strategy seems to be massive giveaways to entice companies to come here. What we need to focus on is improving education opportunities for everyone in the state so that students are able to stay in school, graduate and get a job, and companies will want to come here to hire our residents. We’ve got to give folks the educational opportunities so that companies want to come here and hire people. Our governor. talks about the corporate tax rate. We have one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the nations. compete with people in other states.

You talk about ethics reform on your website. Why is this important to you?

Well in my day job, I do a lot of legal malpractice work where we sue other attorneys who have breached ethical standards. I’ve seen first hand what Our stathouse is becoming a place wehre money, influence and a privileged few get all of the attention and all of the state’s resources. We’ve got to reform the ethics laws at the state,  especially what are called leadership pacts. Right now, the way a complaint is handled is internally. A legislative complaint is handled by other legislators you see every day. We need to give that responsibility to another group that is independent, unbiased, much like the various licensing boards at the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. We need something similar for the State House. We have legislators policing other legislators, and that’s a recipe for disaster.

Have you heard any repeated concerns from residents in the St. Andrews and Irmo area?

I think for most people, like all throughout the district, it’s common that times are tough, and everyone is working as hard as they can to provide for their families but they feel that state government is not doing anything for the normal working class family. That’s really the biggest issue I’ve heard resonate. It’s not anything specific. It’s just that they feel state government has forgotten them.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I truly want to be a big advocate for everyone in this Senate district and not just a few people who can afford to come up to the State House. This is one of the most interesting Senate districts. It runs all the way from the behind the VA Hospital to the Newberry County line. It’s a Senate district tied together by small communities and mom-and-pop businesses, and those people need a strong representative at the State House. That’s what I want to be: a strong advocate for everyone.