By Dan McCue

ORANGEBURG — Eight Democratic presidential hopefuls, scores of reporters from around the world and an army of political handlers converged on Orangeburg on Thursday night for the “First in the South” candidates’ debate in advance of January’s South Carolina primary and the 2008 election.

Amidst an atmosphere on the campus of South Carolina State University that was part summer carnival and part ESPN College Game Day, complete with continuous performances by the university’s marching band and cheerleader corps, hundreds of spectators and even the just curious turned out to be part of a spectacle being broadcast nationwide by MSNBC.

At the center of it all was U.S. Congressman James E. Clyburn, the House majority whip, representative of the area and alumnus of the university, who told the Charleston Regional Business Journal, sister publication to SCBIZ, that the debate would have an enormous economic and emotional impact on the state.

“The local chamber of commerce estimated that this event would have a $30 million economic impact on the state, but I believe when you factor in all the hotel room stays and restaurants that will be patronized over the course of this weekend of political activity, the impact will likely be closer to $150 million,” Clyburn said.

“That’s why I think South Carolina should take a serious look at what transpired over this primary season and make it a real state event, as they do in Iowa and New Hampshire,” he continued.

As it was, the S.C. Democratic Party and the S.C. State Foundation raised more than $200,000 in private sponsorships to support the event.

Turning his thoughts to the candidates, who spent most of the afternoon before the debate cloistered in a building adjacent to the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium on campus, which was the site of the debate, Clyburn said they will benefit from the fact South Carolina moved its primary up to be just behind the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary next year.

“What they will learn as their campaigns progress is that South Carolina is an incubator in which they will hone their messages and skills in four very distinct cultures,” Clyburn explained. “In the Lowcountry, of course, you have a community that is transitioning from a military-based economy to one far more supported by tourism; in the Piedmont you have the seat of manufacturing in the state, with BMW being our largest employer there; in the Pee Dee we have our agricultural base, and, of course, the mid-state and Columbia is our seat of government and education.

“So what this single state provides to the candidates is a kind of laboratory to get their mind around a wide range of issues, particularly in terms of the economics of this country,” Clyburn said.

Those sentiments were echoed by the congressman’s longtime friend, the Rev. Al Sharpton, himself a former Democratic presidential candidate.

The civil rights advocate hosted a radio program from the university grounds and created a buzz whenever he strode about the campus, stopping to pose for countless photographs with SCSU students.

“I think that it’s great the Democratic Party is holding this debate here, and I think it’s important not just in terms of the black vote, but also to the Southern vote,” he said. “This brings the campaign right down to the heartland of America.”

Asked about the debate’s implications on economic development and the promotion of entrepreneurship, Sharpton said it, and the campaigns that will transpire here over the next nine months in advance of the Jan. 29 Democratic primary, would be very important in the long run.

“I ran during the last (presidential election cycle), and I can tell you from experience that being in the state over an extended period of time reveals needs in its various communities that have not been come to terms with,” Sharpton said. “In a sense, it makes these things real to the candidates, and that makes campaigning in the state about more than just who smiles the nicest or has the best spin on the questions they are asked.”