What It Takes To Merit A Weekly Column

People often ask how it is possible to write a new column every single week.
On some weeks, like this one when state news has been excruciatingly slow, it’s not easy.
Through the years, I’ve written about 700 columns, the equivalent of eight books. (And yes, I know newspaper readers have thrown them away every single week for 13 years!)
Generally, it’s not tough to find a commentary subject. Because I focus on Statehouse policy and politics, I monitor more than 30 state and national publications with an eye peeled for particular subjects: poverty, politics, the state’s economy and budget, education, environmental conflicts, health care, and statistics that compare the Palmetto State to the rest of the country.
In particular, I look for intriguing stories or trends that may have a nugget of information that needs more inquiry. Often, a headline will be enough for me to think, “Well, that’s a good idea” or “That’s really stupid” and then poke around a little more.
This week, for example, it seemed really dumb that members of the S.C. House returned to Columbia — at a cost of more than $30,000 — to consider two relatively minor vetoes by Gov. Nikki Haley. One bill called for libraries to be able to throw out unruly patrons, which seemed like an issue that might not actually require time and attention by the state legislature. Perhaps if libraries with the problem had proper rules and procedures in place, they could get rid of people for disturbances without having to get the legislature involved.
The other bill sought to allow a tax hike to pay for firefighting in the Murrells Inlet area. While it may be needed, this again seems like something that could have been done locally — or at least put off a few months to be passed next year without having to spend the $30,000 for a special session.
Maybe there was something else going on in Columbia — a favor or paying back a political debt — that merited the special session. Who knows? More than anything, the one-day, three-hour session seemed like an interesting story to comment on as being dumb and a waste of time, but it didn’t have enough power for a full column. It only merited (count them) three paragraphs.
Then comes the story that House Speaker Bobby Harrell, pummeled for months with negative stories about possible ethical improprieties, appointed a special 10-member House panel to look into ways to toughen the state’s domestic violence laws. This action followed a powerful five-part series by The Post and Courier about the state’s too-high rate of women killed by men and the legislature’s convenient neglect of the issue for years.
While the domestic violence issue, which I’ve written about several times, has merit, this week’s developments smelled more like an embattled House speaker desperately looking for good headlines than an issue driving the story. So again, that issue (two paragraphs) was out.
Other possibilities for this week’s column and why they were rejected:
• How the Carolinas resolved a border dispute (too arcane);
• State Supreme Court to hear case over video poker losses (not a big fan of video poker);
• Charleston restaurants reportedly violating labor laws (too local);
• Zais tells group that 4-year degree doesn’t guarantee success (tired of the lame duck state superintendent);
• College of Charleston to try to build diversity in admissions (interesting, but doesn’t have enough zing);
• Tourism officials fear impact of offshore drilling (this is a little better, but this isn’t a particularly new subject);
• Rubio, Rand Paul visit state (the presidential candidates are already coming this much? Tired of them already).
Bottom line: There was nothing that really got up my dander. And in calling around and emailing people about what news was happening in the state, there only seemed to be the routine work of government, few meetings on substantive issues and no big headlines that screamed out for a comment.
So what’s a guy to do? Write a column about how he writes columns?
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. He can be reached at brack@statehousereport.com.