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Arthur Ravenel Jr.

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Arthur Ravenel, Jr. (born March 29, 1927), is a prominent businessman and a Republican politician from Charleston, South Carolina.

Early life

The Charleston-born Ravenel served in the United States Marine Corps from 1945-1946. He thereafter received a bachelor of science degree from the College of Charleston in 1950. He is a Realtor and general contractor. He was a Democratic member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1953 to 1958.

He switched to Republican affiliation in the early 1960s and ran many times for office. He lost a total of five elections for the South Carolina State Senate (1962, 1974, and 1976), for the United States House of Representatives (1971 special election), and for mayor of Charleston (also 1971).

Political career

Ravenel was finally elected as a Republican to the South Carolina Senate in 1980. He served until 1986, when he was elected to the U.S. Congress from the Charleston-based 1st District. He was reelected three more times without serious opposition. He did not run for reelection in 1994, but instead ran for governor. He finished second in the Republican primary to then State Representative David Beasley, but lost the runoff. Beasley, considered more conservative than Ravenel, went on to serve a term as governor. In 1996, Ravenel was elected to his old seat in the state Senate, where he served until 2005.

Ravenel staged a comeback in 2006, having been elected at the age of 79 to a seat on the school board of Charleston County. Only a year earlier, he had suffered a stroke. In the same election, his son Thomas Ravenel, also a Republican, was elected state treasurer. Thomas served for only six months before he was suspended after having been indicted for buying and distributing cocaine.

The Arthur Ravenel, Jr., Company is today one of the largest real estate firms in the Charleston area. It is headed today by son Arthur Ravenel, III, and his wife Heidi.

Controversies

Ravenel said that he had run for the state Senate in 1996 specifically to seek funding for a new bridge, and due to his efforts on passing laws for its funding, fellow lawmakers voted to name the cable-stayed bridge in Charleston the Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge. Some felt that the bridge should not be named after Ravenel, with the head of the South Carolina infrastructure bank saying in 1999, "Certainly, Arthur Ravenel is a fine, decent person, but that bridge is bigger than any one individual and it should reflect all the qualities of the state and not some state senator who happens to be in the Legislature the time the structure is being built."[1]

Ravenel is a member of Moultrie Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans, and is a supporter of the Confederate flag being flown at the South Carolina statehouse. He provoked controversy at a rally for the flag in 2000 when he referred to the NAACP as the “National Association for Retarded People”.[2] Ravenel upset even more people after he apologized to mentally handicapped people for comparing them to the NAACP. Many called for the Charleston bridge to be renamed.[1]

Ravenel once said that his fellow white congressional committee members operated on "black time" which he characterized as meaning "fashionably late."[3]

References

  1. ^ a b "Bridge controversies now history". Charleston Post and Courier. Retrieved 2007-06-27. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ "Giuliani's South Carolina adviser has controversial history with NAACP". CNN "Political Ticker" blog. 2007-06-26. Retrieved 2007-06-27.
  3. ^ "Rudy's New South Carolina Co-Chair". Observer, June 25, 2007.
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