Hugh Leatherman, stalwart South Carolina senator, dies at 90

By MEG KINNARD
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — State Sen. Hugh Leatherman, South Carolina’s oldest and most powerful state lawmaker, has died. His office says Leatherman died Friday at his home in Florence, where he was in hospice care with inoperable cancer. Leatherman was in his 11th term, still serving at the age of 90. First elected to the Senate in 1980 as a Democrat, he ran unsuccessfully for governor years later before switching parties in the 1990s. In a state where the governor has less power, Leatherman chaired the Senate Finance Committee, and was long considered South Carolina’s most powerful politician for his control over the state budget.