Solicitor files Thursday for re-election

TREY GOWDY Rumor and speculation have been following Trey Gowdy for the better part of a year that a higher office might be in his future.

On Thursday, however, Gowdy put rumor to rest and said he is where he wants to be.

Gowdy, who serves as the Seventh Circuit Solicitor - the top prosecutor for Cherokee and Spartanburg County - filed his election paperwork in Columbia on Thursday to run for a third term in office.

"(Being a prosecutor is) the reason I became a lawyer," he said just minutes after filing the paperwork. "It gets me up in the morning, and keeps me awake at night."

Gowdy laughed while recounting a recent conversation he had with his daughter. She asked him if he would go work in a restaurant if he didn't run for re-election.

"It didn't enter her mind there were other ways to use a law degree," he said. "To her, being a lawyer is being a prosecutor."

Several reports in the past year have introduced speculation Gowdy might one day become a candidate for state Attorney General, or another higher office.

"I don't think there is a higher office," Gowdy said of his current job. "I really don't."

Besides, he said, "We've got an Attorney General. He's indicated to me he likes his job and wishes to stay and I happen to like him. I'm grateful for the job I have and I don't plan on leaving. It would take a lot for that happen."

Gowdy's trip to Columbia on Thursday had dual purposes.

Besides filing his election paperwork, Gowdy also met with several members of the state House and Senate to continue pushing for tougher drunk driving laws in South Carolina. He's made multiple trips to Columbia for the same reason in recent months, almost always at the request for Gov. Mark Sanford, who has made tougher DUI laws a priority.

"I'm actually more excited about what we have coming up in the next year or two years than I have been at any other point," Gowdy said.

Besides real interest at the state level in toughening DUI laws, Gowdy said rule makers and the public are engaging in serious discussions about how South Carolina can better handle crime, repeat offenders and prison sentences.

Gowdy said his frequent talks with service, civic and church groups have shown him the public wants fairness in its criminal justice system, efficiency so there are no tremendous time lapses between crime and punishment, and effectiveness.

"They're tired of the reactive nature of the criminal justice system where you have to seriously injure or kill someone to get appreciable (prison) time; they're tired of drunk drivers, of drugs and they're tired of recidivism.

"I think that if we follow what the public wants (the next few years) will be good," he said. "If public safety isn't the preeminent function of government," he added, "I don't know what is."