Tag: Greg Duckworth

Richardson Rolls To GOP Nomination

Ken Richardson was the heavy favorite of voters Tuesday as he captured 71 percent of the vote in the Republican primary special election for Horry County School Board Chairman.

Incumbent school board member Janice Morreale gathered 20 percent of the vote to finish a distant second with former Patricia Milley completing the field at 9 percent.

Richardson will face political newcomer Democrat Heather Johnson in the November general election.

Richardson’s campaign centered on safety in the schools, transparency of board decisions and strict oversight of the school district budget.

The Richardson victory continues a recent trend of incumbents with serious opposition in the primaries falling by the wayside.

Last month challenger Johnny Gardner bested incumbent Mark Lazarus for the Republican nomination for Horry County Council Chairman and William Bailey defeated incumbent Greg Duckworth for the GOP nomination for  SC House District 104. The Richardson victory completed the Trifecta Tuesday night.

What is particularly interesting is all three incumbents had significant help from other incumbents during the primary campaigns.

Lazarus had the endorsement of at least 10 of his 11 fellow county council members as well as endorsements from the coastal mayors and members of the county legislative delegation. State legislators Heather Ammons Crawford and Russell Fry ran the Lazarus campaign.

Duckworth had the active support of fellow legislators Alan Clemmons, Greg Hembree, Fry and Ammons Crawford, as well as North Myrtle Beach Mayor Marilyn Hatley, contacting voters to push Duckworth reelection.

Morreale, the current school board member for District 5, had a group of her fellow school board incumbents actively contacting voters to push her candidacy.

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Election Change Is In the Air

(Ed. Note – The picture with this story is of a Facebook Post by Heather Ammons Crawford, which started the entire “Union Thugs” commentary in the closing days of the Lazarus campaign.)

Defeating an incumbent politician used to be a most difficult undertaking in South Carolina politics. Now it’s almost becoming the norm in Horry County.

Two out of three incumbents on the ballot lost in Myrtle Beach last fall. An incumbent fell to a write-in candidate in Surfside Beach earlier this year.

The latest round of primaries on June 12th saw a state legislator and a long-time school board member go down to opposition. Bill Howard was able to just hold off challenger Dean Pappas in the only contested Republican primary that went to an incumbent. The irony of that race is that newly elected Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune came out late for Pappas and her endorsement may have hurt Pappas in the final days because Bethune has quickly sided with what is considered the establishment in Myrtle Beach even though she was a candidate for “change” in the fall.

Challenger William Bailey took out incumbent Greg Duckworth in the Republican primary for S.C. House District 104. Challenger Helen Smith defeated incumbent Pam Timms in the Horry County School Board District 6 Republican primary. Smith is a former school board chairman in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, but probably half of today’s registered voters weren’t living in the county when she last left office so she qualifies as a change candidate.

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Recount Confirms Gardner Win, Lazarus Concedes

Five days after winning the election for the Republican nomination for Horry County Council Chairman, Johnny Gardner was “recertified” as the winner over incumbent Mark Lazarus by the Horry County Election Commission.

After the S.C. Election Commission approved an audit of the final tally of the votes, the certified result of the election was announced at 11:41 a.m. Saturday June 16, 2018, as Gardner 12,426, Lazarus 12,313, a margin of 113 votes.

The count also included the race for House District 104 where William Bailey received 2,312 votes to 2,295 votes for incumbent House member Greg Duckworth.

Shortly after a mandatory recount confirmed both results, Lazarus called Gardner to concede the election. Gardner said Lazarus was very professional and gracious with his words when he conceded.

Gardner was initially certified as the winner two days ago with an automatic recount scheduled for the next day. When people returned for the recount, they were told that another 209 votes had been found in machines from the Ocean Forest 2 precinct.

This announcement began one and one-half days of confusion, bordering at times on chaos, before the local election commission received approval of an audit of the votes from the state election commission.

During the interval, James Wiles, who told commissioners he was “representing the Lazarus campaign”, gave the members a sheet of paper which he called a “Freedom of Information request” and said the campaign objected to recertification of the results.

“I am prepared to start discovery to see if there should be a protest,” Wiles added.

According to all the information I could find on Wiles, he was suspended by the Pennsylvania Bar Association in 2005 and is not a member of the South Carolina Bar Association. He can certainly act as a private citizen representing himself before the election commission, but what status he had “representing the Lazarus campaign” and “prepared to start discovery” is open to question.

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Rep. Greg Duckworth v. The Public?

A post earlier this week in The Nerve told of newly elected Rep. Greg Duckworth (SC House District 104) pursuing libel lawsuits against two supporters of outgoing Rep. Tracy Edge.

Duckworth’s libel claims concern letters to the editor by Charles Collins and Bren Gibson during the 2012 election season. Edge defeated Duckworth in the 2012 Republican primary but lost to him in 2014.

The first thing that comes to mind – “Is this guy serious?”

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HCSWA Supported PAC Targeted Tracy Edge

When Rep. Tracy Edge looks back on his 2014 primary election defeat, he can thank the Horry County Solid Waste Authority (HCSWA), at least in part, for the result.

According to its check register, HCSWA donated $5,000 of public money, in Fiscal Year 2013-14, to sponsor two tables at the Conservative Voters of South Carolina (CVSC) annual Green Tie Luncheon fundraiser.

CVSC targeted Edge for defeat, directly supporting his opponent Greg Duckworth.

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Anti-Incumbent Fever Rages in Horry County Primaries

Anti-incumbent fever raged through Horry County primaries Tuesday as five of six incumbents running in contested primaries lost.

One of the causes for the upsets, if you can call them that, was the pitiful, approximately 13%, voter turnout countywide.

The only survivor was S.C. House District 56 representative Mike Ryhal who won in a rematch against challenger Dennis DiSabato who Ryhal defeated two years ago to win the new house district seat.

The two biggest surprises of the night were the losses by incumbent S.C. House District 104 representative Tracy Edge and by Horry County District Three council member Brent Schulz.

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Plot to Stop Lindsey Graham Faltering

What does it tell you that the Tea Party’s best candidate to challenge Sen. Lindsey Graham is a former Democratic operative who ran the Michael Dukakis campaign in South Carolina?

Det Bowers officially filed yesterday to challenge Graham. While he is now talking about right wing issues such as illegal immigration, Obamacare, term limits and balanced federal budgets, it is Bowers’ former Democratic associations that reportedly bring hope to stopping Graham.

The thought process is that Bowers will attract at least some of the crossover Democrat vote in the June open Republican Primary that was expected to fully support Graham. It is hoped that this will bring Graham’s vote in the first round of the primary to under 50% forcing a runoff.

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SCGOP Drops Ball, Fails County Chairs

When, and if, voters go to the polls Tuesday to vote in the Republican or Democratic primaries, they still may be voting for ineligible candidates.

According to information we have been gathering over the past 24 hours, the adherence to the requirement in state law for non-exempt candidates to file a Statement of Economic Interest “at the same time and with the same person” as they file their Statement of Intention of Candidacy, cannot be guaranteed even at this time.

In two separate rulings, the S.C. Supreme Court has said both documents had to be filed in accordance with state law section 8-13-1356(B) and it was the responsibility of the parties to verify that had been done.

In a May 2, 2012 ruling, the Court directed the parties to verify their records and certify candidates to the S.C. Election Commission by May 4, 2012.

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Florence Blinks, More Candidates Eliminated

Florence Blinks, More Candidates Eliminated

New developments in the election filing controversy that won’t go away saw more candidates eliminated from Tuesday’s upcoming primary ballots and a potential for more candidate challenges after the voting.

The Florence Republican Party requested a clarification from the S.C. Supreme Court yesterday on whether candidates who were incumbents in one office, but running for a different office in this election cycle, were to be treated as new candidates with respect to filing a Statement of Economic Interests at the same time and with the same person that they filed their Statement of Intention of Candidacy.

The Supreme Court refused to provide a clarification. Some took this to mean that the Court felt it had already answered the question with its May 2, 2012 and June 5, 2012 rulings.

This led an already gun shy Florence party to make the decision that such candidates were to be treated as new candidates and were subject to state code Section 8-13-1356(B).

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