NEWBERRY — After 20 years as Newberry County’s representative at the State House, Rep. Walton “Walt” McLeod will be retiring at the end of his current term in November 2016.
It wasn’t an easy decision for the veteran lawmaker to make.
“It was a reluctant decision that I carefully reviewed and evaluated. I went to Oktoberfest and I was really moved by the outshowing of support. I concluded that I could be re-elected again,” McLeod said. “However, I also concluded that 20 years is a long time. It is the county’s best interest, and my best interest, to decline running again.”
McLeod said it was his opinion that our system of government works better when there is a rotation of people with fresh points of view.
Since announcing he would not run for re-election, McLeod said he has received many well wishes and thank yous.
“I have been humbled and impressed with the response I have received. So many people wished best wishes to me and said say it is not so. In 19 years you help people with many difficulties and when they tell you thank you, you can feel they have a deep appreciation,” he said. “The supreme duty of a legislator is to try and be supportive of constituents. I have tried to be supportive of people, churches, industries and I tried to be helpful.”
You could almost say politics was in McLeod’s blood. He was born June 30, 1937, in Walterboro and his father, also named Walton, was a state attorney for six years.
“In my family there are lots of lawyers in public service. I just inherited the gene,” McLeod said.
One of McLeod’s brother served on the city council for Walterboro, was a House member and a member of the Senate. Another brother was a district administrator in Charleston.
McLeod’s own service started after he graduated from Yale University in 1959 and joined the Navy. He served for two years, after which he attended the University of South Carolina Law School, graduating in 1964.
“In September of 1965 I moved to Newberry County and started work at Pope & Schumpert. I was a kid lawyer,” McLeod said.
In the summer of 1967 he began working as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, but left the position in 1968. He then began working as general counsel for S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. During this time he met his wife, Julie, a professor of music at Newberry College. Together they raised one son, Tad, and lived in Little Mountain.
While living in Little Mountain, McLeod served on town council as a councilman and as mayor — twice. He was mayor from February 1983 to January 1989 then took time off as mayor and served on town council. He decided to run for mayor again and was re-elected in December 1992, and stayed in the position until November 1996.
It was then that he decided to run for the State House. He won by 160 votes.
“Dave Waldrop was the 16-year incumbent. We were friends before the election and we were friends after that, still are,” he said. “Newberry has informal term limits, people get beat after 16 years. I did not mean to beat that term limit. I just did.”
McLeod said he ran for office because if you scratched his arm, it would bleed politics. He enjoyed working as a public service lawyer and just liked to serve the people.
“After you are elected, people start asking questions and asking for assistance pretty quick. Constituents are a very important aspect of elected life,” he said.
When McLeod was elected, he was sworn in twice, the first time by a local judge and then at the State House during the organizational session.
During his time in office McLeod said there were a number of bills that were meaningful to him. However, the one that stands out in his mind had to do with Piedmont Technical College in Newberry.
“Every seven years a county has a Capital Project Sales Tax for various projects. An exclusion for the tax was toward educational facilities, you could not build new schools or improve one,” he said. “Mr. Wayne Adams (Newberry County administrator) called me late in session seven years ago and asked if we could amend the law to allow any technical college facility to be included.”
McLeod told Adams it would be tough, because the session was winding down. He said he was concerned about how he could produce the results needed.
McLeod said he did some research and found a bill pending that related to the sales tax. The pending bill was in the Ways and Means subcommittee in the House, so McLeod went to the chairman of the subcommittee. He found out that the subcommittee and the full committee already met on the issue.
McLeod asked the chairman if the bill could be amended on the House Floor. The chairman agreed and it passed.
“After it passed the House, the bill went to the Senate where our local senators helped get it passed. Then the governor signed the bill into law,” McLeod said. “This bill allowed funding to be available for the Newberry Campus of Piedmont Technical College and it went on the ballot.”
Now that McLeod is retiring, he said he isn’t sure what he will do next but he is sure of one thing he won’t do: be a candidate for the graveyard.
“I enjoy being a resident of Newberry County. My goal is to continue to build a strong and better county,” he said.
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