Rev. Neal Jones, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia, says his motivation is “a life-long passion for social change.” File photo

A Unitarian minister who has not held elective office before will take on 10-year incumbent Rep. Jimmy Bales of Eastover in the June 8 Democratic primary.

Rev. Neal Jones, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia, says his motivation is “a life-long passion for social change.”

Jones, who is also a licensed clinical psychologist, has resided in House District 80 for the last 11 years.

He has some recognition among Democrats, having worked in various political causes, including the Barack Obama campaign. He also helped organize the monthly Lower Richland Democratic Breakfast and has been active on church-state issues, favoring a strong separation of the two.

But he’s taking on an accomplished politician in Bales, who was first elected in 1999 and has easily won re-election ever since in the rural district located in the U.S. Highway 601 corridor.

“I’m running on my record,” says Bales, 74, a retired educator, residential homebuilder and farmer.

Bales easily defeated his last challenger, Stanley Robinson, taking 75 percent of the vote in the 2008 Democratic Primary. He has a long record of public service, including a stint on a Richland County Council in the 1980s, during which he served as chairman in 1983-84.

Bales has a background in education, having served as principal of lower Richland High School and director of career Education for Richland District 1.

Education is an issue for Jones, who sees critical needs in academics and in school funding, particularly in the part of the state along I-95 known as the “corridor of shame.”

“I am running for change,” Jones says.  “We can no longer afford two South Carolinas — one that is well educated and one that is forgotten; one that is insured and one that is neglected; one that looks toward a promising tomorrow and one that is caught in despair.”

Jones is an advocate for human rights, quality education and affordable healthcare, and paints the problem with a broad brush.

“We should not accept the status quo when the status quo is unjust,” Jones says. “We must hold ourselves to a higher standard, to see things as they could be and not as they are.”

But Bales says he has already established a record on education, pressing for more funding and succeeding in the past few years, most recently for early childhood education. He says he’s still pushing.

Bales also points to benefits he has obtained for his district, including millions of dollars for road widening and recreational facilities.

Expect good behavior on the part of both of these candidates, who declined to criticize each other and say they have no use for personal attacks.


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