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SC adjutant general not running for fresh term

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s Adjutant Gen. Stanhope Spears said Tuesday he will not run for re-election after serving 16 years as the state’s top military officer and the nation’s longest serving adjutant general.

“These 16 years have been the best years of my life,” Spears said in a letter released by his office. “But it is now time to pass the torch.”

The adjutant general oversees the 13,000-member Military Department of South Carolina, which includes the Army National Guard, the Air National Guard, the State Guard and the state’s Emergency Management Division.

Spears was elected to his fourth term in 2006, besting Democrat Glenn Lindman, who argued that the adjutant general should be appointed by the governor and serve under a term limit.

Spears brushed aside that argument at the time, saying his longevity in the post helped South Carolina’s position at the military table.

“I don’t have to go to the Pentagon, the Department of Army or the National Guard Bureau and introduce myself to them,” Spears said.

The 72-year-old said in his letter that he was proudest of taking the state’s Army and Air Guard from a strategic reserve to an operational force and working to get the Air Force’s newest fighter jet, the F-35, based at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, near Columbia.

During his tenure, Spears oversaw the state’s largest guard deployment since World War II.

In 2007, South Carolina’s 1,800-strong 218th Brigade Combat Team deployed to Afghanistan for a year. Its members trained soldiers in the Afghan military and members of its police force.

In his 2006 election campaign, Spears argued that he had realigned the guard’s structure in the state, worked to improve guard benefits and helped protect state military installations during the 2005 round of Base Realignment and Closure.

Spears was originally elected adjutant general as a Democrat, but switched to the Republican Party during his first term.

State Republican Party Chairman Karen Floyd issued a statement praising Spears for his “professionalism and dedication” adding that she intended to help elect another adjutant general from the GOP to succeed Spears.

“Given the threats to our national and homeland security that we face today, the leadership of our National Guard has never been more critical,” Floyd said.

Brig. Gen. Robert Livingston of Columbia, who commanded the 218th in Afghanistan, is running as a Republican for the job. Livingston has $262,000 in hand for the coming election, according to a report with the S.C. State Ethics Commission.

In September, Greenville Republican Dean Allen launched a campaign for the adjutant general slot by selling $25 tickets to a barbecue and offering a chance to win an AK47. Allen said the event was meant to show his support for gun rights.

Spears played football for the University of South Carolina and has served in the South Carolina National Guard since 1959. He retired as a brigadier general after 32 years in the Guard and retired as senior vice president with insurance brokerage firm Marsh-McLennan Inc. after 27 years.