FEB. 10, 2012 — In a Statehouse filled with hot-air politicians who live inside partisan bubbles and believe their own press releases, our state needs more people like Phil Leventis.

But Leventis, a Sumter state senator for 31 years, has just announced that this legislative session will be his last.

As a result, South Carolinians — Republicans, Democrats, independents, crotchety-types and those who let it all hang out — will suffer for not having his kind of thoughtful, mentoring leadership.

Phil Leventis approaches politics and government practically. He fights for what he believes is best and right for the state. He doesn’t hate government, but knows it can’t solve all problems. Yes, he’s a Democrat, but he irritates people in his own party occasionally because he doesn’t follow the party line all of the time — like the time he endorsed a sitting Republican senator over the Democratic candidate because he thought the GOPer was better for our state. And he certainly sticks in the craw of ideologically-driven Republicans when he exposes their bad ideas for just what they are.

Far from a partisan firebrand, Leventis is courteous, gracious and genteel. After 31 years, maybe he’s learned you get more done with a honeyed approach than to spit venom and invoke Jesus, brimstone, fear and division.

While Leventis is a genuinely nice guy, he’s no liberal pushover. Remember, he was a Desert Storm pilot in 1991 who flew 21 combat missions over Iraq for which he won the Distinguished Flying Cross. Leventis learned in war that the enemy fires bullets. The enemy, he knows, is not someone in the legislature who merely spouts verbal torrents.

State Sen. Thomas Alexander, an Oconee County Republican, says Leventis will leave a leadership void that probably won’t be filled. Leventis often forces both sides to pause when they need to consider whether a policy is right for the state, Alexander observed.

“I’ve always seen him to be a constructionist, not an obstructionist.” he said. “When we’ve paused and listened, we’ve come up with a better product.

“He’s about results. He’s reasoned in his approach to things. It’s not mean-spirited, not done in a condescending way. It’s about the end product that is going to be good public policy for the citizens of our state. That’s what he’s about.”

State Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, says he admires the rational way Leventis approaches public policy.

“I call him the bravest man in the Senate because he absolutely always votes how he thinks is right, regardless of the political consequences, and he is willing to speak his mind.”

Maybe that’s because of how his experience in business — he ran a beer and wine distributorship for years — and his military service — he retired from the S.C. Air National Guard as a brigadier general — blended with an inquisitive mind to try figure out practical ways of getting things done.

An outspoken conservationist, he led successful efforts for tough rules for hazardous waste landfills. He fought hog megafarms. And he authored a bill for the Conservation Bank Act to protect environmentally-sensitive areas.

His record also shows strong support for full-day kindergartens, smaller classrooms, increased teacher pay and better facilities. In fact, just look to November when he flew GOP Rep. Doug Brannon to Kentucky to show him a net-zero-energy green school. Why? So Brannon would learn a new way to build schools that could save money.

That kind of leadership made Brannon become a huge Leventis fan.

“The cool thing about Leventis is I don’t even know if he consciously thinks, ‘I’m going to teach this person something,’” Brannon observed. “He doesn’t preach. He doesn’t twist. He simply lets whatever he wants you to learn just happen in front of you. He puts you in a place to be educated.

“How can you not be a fan of a man who was a serving senator who got up and flew missions in Iraq? What a statesman.”

At 66, Leventis is healthy and full of energy. He’s not about to ride off into the sunset and stop serving the public.  But it’s hard to imagine the state Senate without his special kind of leadership.

Andy Brack, publisher of Statehouse Report, can be reached at: brack@statehousereport.com. If you have a story about Leventis you’d like to share, send it along today.