GUEST COLUMNIST

KATON DAWSON During my six years as chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, I have been proud to see our conservative Republican team in Columbia fight tirelessly to make our state a better place to live, work and raise a family. There has been no harder working member of our Republican team than Cherokee County's own Senator Harvey Peeler. The people of Cherokee County - as well as people all over State Senate District 14 - should be proud of Senator Peeler's dedicated leadership.

Senator Peeler, who was named Majority Leader of the State Senate in 2005, has played a major role in making fiscal discipline a priority at the Statehouse. At the beginning of 2008, Senator Peeler said reining in excessive government spending would be a legislative goal this year. And he was right. Currently, our Republican team is considering the best way to cap wasteful state spending and stabilize our state budget during economic downturns.

Senator Peeler and our Republican team in Columbia have cut taxes. They delivered the largest permanent tax cut in state history, slashed the marginal tax rates for small business for the first time in state history and cut property taxes.

Republicans also worked together to bring worker's compensation reform to South Carolina.

Thanks to this strong record of Republican economic accomplishment, Republicans have attracted record capital investment in South Carolina during the past two years and overseen a net gain of 2,500 new small businesses in South Carolina since 2003. Senator Peeler's commitment to pro-growth policymaking in Columbia has not gone unnoticed. In 2007, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce honored Senator Peeler as "Public Servant of the Year."

But that's not all.

Senator Peeler and our Republican team in Columbia have also gotten tough on Internet sex predators and criminals who commit identity theft. They have tightened up domestic violence laws. They have redoubled their efforts to pass legislation to discourage illegal immigration.

Senator Peeler also played a role in South Carolina's 2008 First-in-the-South Republican Party Presidential Primary. As a member of our South Carolina Republican Party Presidential Primary Task Force, Senator Peeler deserves credit for being personally involved in one of the most historic events in South Carolina's storied political history. Thanks to the hard work of our task force, South Carolina hosted two nationally televised Republican presidential candidates debates.

These debates generated millions of dollars for our economy and earned invaluable exposure for South Carolina businesses, universities and entertainment venues.

With Senator Peeler as a part of our conservative Republican leadership team in Columbia, we will continue to see South Carolina become a better place to live, work and raise a family. This election year, voters are going to check campaign rhetoric against records of accomplishment.

Fortunately for the voters of Senate District 14, Senator Peeler's record of accomplishment will earn him another term.

(Katon Dawson is chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party

and the sixth longest serving state

Republican chairman in the country. He was elected in 2002 and re-elected

unanimously in 2004 and 2007.)