COLUMBIA -- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mullins McLeod released a jobs plan Thursday that says South Carolina should remove the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds.

McLeod says the flag continues to hold the state back and makes it more difficult for the state to compete economically.

The flag now flown at a monument to Confederate war dead in front of the Statehouse already has been a topic in the 2010 race. Republican candidates in their first debate in September closed the door to removing the banner.

Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, who played a major role brokering the compromise that removed the flag from the Statehouse dome in 2000, quickly rejected McLeod's suggestion Thursday.

"We settled this issue years ago on a bipartisan and biracial basis, and we're moving forward to tackle the real problems facing South Carolina.  We have pressing issues facing South Carolina and instead of focusing on creating jobs for our citizens, fighting violent crime, and improving the lives of our residents Mr. McLeod is focusing on a soldier’s flag at a soldier’s monument.  We need candidates concentrating on progress rather than press and in looking ahead rather than backwards," said McConnell.

S.C. NAACP President Lonnie Randolph said the flag is a symbol of racism and has no place on public property.

"It is an embarassment to our state and country in this time our concern is for unity to endorse white supremacy and division of people. That is what the Confederate flag stood for and still does," said Randolph.

McLeod says removing the flag would be a signal to the world that South Carolina is ready to make progress.

McLeod's economic plans also call for middle class and business tax breaks that include more deductions for starting a small business.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)