Liz Patterson, Former SC State Senator and Congresswoman

Liz Patterson was a member of Spartanburg County Council (1974-76);  the South Carolina Senate (1979-1986); and represented  the Fourth Congressional District (1987-1993) in the United States House of Representatives. 

She is a graduate of Columbia College and also did graduate studies in political science at the University of South Carolina.  She received a Masters of Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Political Science at Converse College.

She is married with three adult children and four grandchildren.  She remains active in the United Methodist Church, on the boards of several non-profits, and is the current president of Spartanburg Rotary.

No woman has served in Congress from South Carolina since Patterson left office in 1993.

UpstateBizSC:
Where were you born and raised? What is your educational background? 

Liz Patterson: 
I was born in Columbia, but moved back to my hometown of Spartanburg shortly thereafter.  When I was five years old, my dad, Olin Johnston, was elected to the US Senate and our family moved to Washington.  We lived in Kensington, Maryland where I attended local schools.  

After starting off at Bethesda, Chevy Chase High School, I decided after the 10th grade to finish high school in Spartanburg.  My parents looked favorably on my decision because they thought, correctly, that if I went to high school in the South, I would most likely go tocollege and settle down in the South.  I lived with a good family friend for my senior year, finished up at Spartanburg High School and then attended Columbia College, a women’s college.

UpstateBizSC:
Why did you choose to go to a women’s college?

Liz Patterson: 
Thirteen of us from our high school class attended Columbia College that year.  The fact that it was a women’s only college was not that big a deal for me. 

I loved to cook and sew.  My dream was to be a gourmet chef and put Betty Crocker out of business or to be a famous fashion designer. Columbia College was one of the only schools that offered Home Economics as a major.  

After my sophomore year, though, they decided to phase out Home Ec.  Several of my colleagues decided to transfer out to other colleges, but I stayed and changed my major.

UpstateBizSC:
Home Economics speaks to a bygone era in education.

Liz Patterson:
I’m sorry they don’t offer programs like this in schools anymore.  My daughter is a great cook, but she can’t sew on a button to save her life.  

UpstateBizSC:
What was your professional experience prior to politics?

Liz Patterson: 
There was a long time between graduating from college and running for politics.  My first job out of graduate school in the summer of 1962 was working for the Peace Corps.  I was a summer intern in the first year of President Kennedy’s now famous program.  It was an exciting summer job.  tThe Peace Corps offered me a full time job.I acceptedand did not go back to graduate school

After three years at the Peace Corps, I traveled in Europeone summer with some friends on a Eurail pass returning to the US and to work for the Office of Economic Opportunity in the VISTA program – Volunteers in Service to America – that was started in 1965 in the Lyndon Johnson administration.  This program, still in operation today, had as its mission to fight poverty.  

After that, I moved into a position in the new Head Start Program.  With its focus on education as a way out of poverty, Head Start is now the longest running program to reduce systemic poverty in the country.  I was sent out to Daufuskie Island to resolve a problem with some of the VISTAvolunteers.  Based on my performance, the Governor offered me a job at the Office of Economic Opportunity inSouth Carolina.  

Today, most counties have a community action agency whose primary program is to implement Head Start for ages 2-4 – all day programs for children whose parents need access to early childhood education and can’t afford it.  

UpstateBizSC:
Your father was Governor of South Carolina on two separate occasions.  Do you have memories of living in the Governor’s mansion?

Liz Patterson:
My father served one term as Governor in 1934, but that was a few years before I was born.  At that time, you could not succeed yourself as Governor so in the interim, he ran for US Senate.  He was re-elected as Governor again in 1942.  I have vague memories of the pre-school I attended and Christmas parties, but I did not get to live in the Governor’s Mansion for too long.  Two years into his time as Governor, my dad ran a successful campaign for US Senate, and that’s when we moved to Washington. 

UpstateBizSC:
Years later in the mid 1970’s you decided to run for politics?  Why?

Liz Patterson: 
My sister and I always helped out from an early age with my dad’s campaigns, so we had politics in our blood.  We effectively ran my dad’s last campaign for the US Senate because my mom was not well at the time.  It was exciting traveling around the state attending rallies.  I didn’t think about it for myself because, frankly, South Carolina did not have a lot of women in politics at the time.  

I am strong believer that to those who much is given, much is expected.  

UpstateBizSC:
It still doesn’t have a lot of women in politics!

Liz Patterson:
Yes, unfortunately that is true. 

In the 1970’s, my husband and I became very active with the Young Democrats in Spartanburg and helped a lot of friends run for political office.  When an unexpected opening came up on Spartanburg county council, two friends suggested that I run and told me that they would support me financially if did. I became the first woman to serve on council.  

I decided not to run for re-elect but afterI was out of office for two years an opening came up in the state senate in a special election.  I won the primary and general election becoming one of 46 South Carolina state senators, and the only woman.

UpstateBizSC:
How did you balance family and being in the Senate?

Liz Patterson:
My children were young at the time, so it was tough on the whole family.  But the legislature was in session from January to June and only three days a week.  I commuted with another state senator from Spartanburg, driving down to Columbia and back the same day, rarely spending the night.  I also tried to make politics fun for my kids.  They liked going on the campaign trail with me and they loved their occasional trips to Columbia.  It was not such a big deal for our family, but, that is the life in which I was raised.

UpstateBizSC:
What were some of the big issues that you faced in your Senate term between 1979 and 1986?

Liz Patterson:
The Republicans at the time were pushing hard on Proposition 13, a bill that was similar to one that had passed in California that put constitutional limits on government spending. As a Democrat controlled Senate, we were able to defeat that bill.  

Also South Carolina had never ratified the equal rights amendment, so there was a great debate on that.  We never did pass it. 

We also debated a bill to allow living wills, a topic that created passionate discussion on what people called the euthanasia bill.  

UpstateBizSC:
What was it like being one of the few women in politics?

Liz Patterson:
It was strange at times.  In my first stint on county council in Spartanburg, I felt that, as a woman, I could ask questions that the men could not, or maybe would not, ask.  I think the men, several of whom were prominent businessmen in town, didn’t want to admit it when they didn’t know something. Me, I didn’t care.

Over the years, I found that people more often that not turned to me for advice on education and children, mental health etc.  That had less to do with me being a woman, than me finding my true niche, my passion.  

Sometimes I wished I had a law degree because legislation is always written in such legalese.  Luckily, we had a very good legislative council that helped me understand the processes and the language. 

UpstateBizSC:
Why did you decide to run for US Congress?

Liz Patterson:
I really enjoyed my years in the senate, but felt that I could make a greater difference in Congress.  When a seat that had been Republican for eight years came open and I saw that no strong candidates were surfacing on the Democratic side, I decided to run.  We couldn’t just let the Republicans have the seat!  I had developed a network of friends and relationships around the state and thought I could make a good showing. 

I did not have a Democratic primary which was a huge boost.  State law allows you to raise money for primaries even if you run unopposed, so I was able to foster lots of great support early on and was lucky enough to win.

UpstateBizSC:
Compare South Carolina Senate politics to Washington.

Liz Patterson:
It helps if you go to Washington with local, county and state experience because you see first hand the mechanism of federal funding, the requirements that are put on local and state governments to qualify for federal funding.  

I remember being moved by the scope of the issues that we were voting on in Washington. I was there at the end of Ronald Reagan’s second term.  I did not support star wars because my biggest concern was that we did not have enough money. In the early 1990’s, the first Gulf War came up for vote on the floor of the House.  I worried about sending my neighbors’ children into harms way.

I was in Washington in an era when we were passing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  I worried about its impact on the textile industry. I was on the banking committee that did away with the Glass Steagall legislation of 1933 that had put up a wall between banking, investment banking, insurance and securities.  We deregulated those industries.  Skip ahead to this recession and now a lot of people are saying we should have kept strong rules in place.  

UpstateBizSC:
What is your leadership style?  

Liz Patterson:
It’s important to network, to get to know people.  To make them feel comfortable with you so that you can work together.  I like to work with people, to work out compromises.

I am not one who craves headlines and I don’t need the credit. I have been on a lot of Boards and Commissions, but I have always felt I could get more done, and have more influence, if I was not chair.  Board chairs often have to take a neutral position.  I could express myself freely as a general member of a committee. 

I like to be organized, to do my homework before I go into a meeting.  One thing I have always prided myself on is preparation.

UpstateBizSC:
What did you learn from your father?  

Liz Patterson:
I learned to know when to pick your battles.  When my dad ran for governor, people were complaining about $33 license plates.  In his campaign, he had promised to lower the fee and when he became Governor, he became so embroiled with the Highway Department that he called out the National Guard.  He got $3 license plates, but he created a real stir with that issue. 

My dad was brought up in a textile mill so he was always sensitive to working folks, in particular, poor people. He was a very gentle man; not a headline seeker.  He belonged to a pre-television era when you had a lot of straightforward people in politics.  I’m not sure he would not have survived in today’s super-charged climate.

UpstateBizSC:
Have politicians become less authentic today?

Liz Patterson:
I would agree somewhat.  It’s a more of a show now.  If you don’t look good on television, you won’t make it.  Still, there are a lot of great people serving at all levels of government.

UpstateBizSC:
How can we get more South Carolina women to serve in politics?

Liz Patterson:
I often faced scrutiny about leaving my children behind to pursue my political career.  I can’t tell you how many times I faced that question and I’m not sure it has changed that much today in South Carolina. I often encourage women to run for office and the response is not now, maybe later. 

It takes time and money to run for political office, and too often, women don’t feel as though they have either.  They don’t think they can afford the time away from home, and while they may be comfortable raising money for their church or schools and charities, they don’t like the idea of having to raise money for themselves.  I empathize with that.

UpstateBizSC:
Why did you become a Democrat?

Liz Patterson:
My dad was a Democrat, so obviously that was a big influence, but more than that, I respected and admired the things that the Party advocated and supported.  My early introduction to the Head Start program was a big influence on me because I saw first hand the impact the program made on young families who could not afford to send their children to kindergarten.  

Many friends have told me that I could have been elected to just about anything as a Republican.  That’s not why I entered politics, and besides, daddy would turn over in his grave! 

UpstateBizSC:
Where would you put yourself on the political spectrum?  

Liz Patterson:
People like to paint politicians as either liberal or conservative.  I was often a thorn in the side of the Democratic leadership because of my concern for the deficits and my strong desire to restrain spending.  People actually accused me, a Democrat, of cutting programs.  I frequently opposed increases in spending on programs, not the programs themselves.  

I was perhaps liberal on some of the social issues, but conservative on fiscal matters.  Some labeled me as a yellow dog Democrat, but I always tried to vote my heart, not strictly along party lines as has become the norm these days.  I taught politics for several years  years at Spartanburg Methodist College and I always challenged my students to think long and hard about the titles liberal and conservative.  

UpstateBizSC:
The state is solidly Republican these days.  What can the Democrats do to regain more influence?

Liz Patterson:
Democrats in this state have been painted as baby killers, supporters of special rights for gays, who don’t believe in prayer.  I had people come up to me and say that there is no way I could be a Christian – because as a Democrat – I was pro-choice.  I had a bumper sticker on my car for a couple of years that said: I am a Christian and a Democrat.  Democrats must remind the electorate of the many good programs we have supported and advocated over the years.

We are too reactive; I don’t think we have been proactive enough telling our tale.  

UpstateBizSC:
What do you see yourself doing over the next couple of years?

Liz Patterson:
I am writing a book about my life called, I’m a government baby, too. I don’t know who will read it, but it will be for my children and grandchildren. I am still involved in politics recruiting and encouraging good candidates to put their name forward.  I still care deeply about who represents our state.  It’s a bit of a rough and tumble world out there now in politics.  I admire all individuals who have the courage to serve.