Miller by a hair

YOU CAN’T TALK about House District 96 without talking about vouchers. Rep. Kit Spires owes his election in great part to out-of-state voucher supporters who flooded the district two years ago with a nasty, misleading assault on then-Rep. Ken Clark.

Today, Mr. Spires says improving the public schools should be the priority and wants to focus on letting students attend any public school — but he doesn’t oppose giving parents tax credits to send their children to private schools. A clearer picture emerges from his votes: He voted twice last year to subsidize private school tuition. And when Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed the bill that would have created the open-enrollment program he says he supports, because it didn’t include private-school vouchers, Mr. Spires voted to uphold the veto.

Mike Miller, his challenger in the June 10 Republican primary, gives a nearly identical answer about vouchers, although he places more stress on the fact that private schools won’t help people in this poor district straddling the Lexington-Aiken County line. That’s typical: On most issues, the two men’s answers have only nuanced differences.

So the choice boils down to subtle differences, and Mr. Miller comes out slightly ahead. Mr. Spires brings home money for festivals and parades; Mr. Miller wants to bring home money to help Gaston hire a police officer. Mr. Miller is slightly more willing to go against popular opinion when it’s misinformed. And while Mr. Spires has certainly learned a lot in two years, Mr. Miller starts out with as firm a grasp of issues facing the state as Mr. Spires has developed in his first term.