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Rob Groce

Summerville resident Rob Groce took a look at the two major party candidates for Congress in the 1st District and didn’t like what he saw, so he did the only sensible thing – declare his candidacy for the seat.

Groce announced last week he’s running as the Working Families candidate.  Groce, the former public relations committee chairman of the Dorchester County Democratic Party and a one-time delegate for John Edwards, said he wants to provide a choice to voters dissatisfied with the Democrat and Republican running for the seat.

Democrat Ben Frasier, a perennial candidate, doesn’t represent Democratic values, he said. Republican Tim Scott, a former Charleston County Council chairman, current state representative and race favorite, is aligning himself with the more extreme Tea Party views than with traditional conservatism, Groce said.

Jobs and the economy are uppermost in most people’s minds.  Groce said the government should combine a program of employment and alternative energy that would put people of all educational backgrounds to work.  

Much as the Tennessee Valley Authority provided needed electric power and jobs during the Great Depression, a new program could develop wind and solar power sources and bring jobs here to South Carolina, he said.

The auto bailout didn’t go far enough, Groce said.  He pointed out that his foreign car, a Hyundai, is actually assembled in the United States and that 64 percent of its parts are manufactured here.  Domestic automakers, however, don’t have to disclose how much of their cars are actually manufactured in the U. S.  It’s time to end incentives for manufacturers to produce their goods abroad, he said.

Groce favors the recently passed health care bill and believes most opposition to it is based on misinformation.  People are already paying for medical care for the uninsured, he said.

In 2008 there was $46 billion in uncollected medical costs, he said – not including charitable care that was given without expectation of payment.  That $46 billion is being passed on to people with insurance, resulting in annual premium increases, he said.

“By making sure everyone has medical insurance, it alleviates us from having to assume that cost,” he said.

Illegal immigrants should also be stopped from taking jobs from Americans, he said.  The way to do that is to focus on employers, he said.  There isn’t a strong enough monetary penalty to dissuade those who would break the law, Groce said.  

He thinks the Arizona law is clearly discriminatory and doesn’t favor repealing the 14th Amendment, but he would favor passing a law disallowing citizenship to children born of two illegal immigrants, if enough solid evidence could be found of the extent of the problem.  Right now the figures are too uncertain, he said.

On social issues, Groce said he is personally opposed to abortion but wouldn’t take away the right to choice.  The real issue, he said, is how women end up with unwanted pregnancies.  The federal government should be promoting comprehensive sex education rather than abstinence-only programs, he said.

Groce said he personally doesn’t much care whether same sex marriages are allowed.  As a legal matter, however, such marriages don’t affect anyone else’s rights and don’t impose costs on the government, so there’s no legal basis to deny them, he said.

Groce will appear at a candidate forum Saturday sponsored by the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.  Also scheduled to appear are United Citizens Party candidate M.E. McCullough, Green party candidate Robert Dobbs, Libertarian Keith Blandford, Independence candidate Jimmy Wood and possibly Democrat Ben Frasier.  

The forum is at 1 p.m. in county council chambers at 500 N. Main Street in Summerville.

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