Hargett, Hearn keep Dorchester council seats

SUMMERVILLE — Dorchester County Council incumbents Larry Hargett and Bill Hearn handily defeated challengers for their seats, in unofficial returns Tuesday.

Hargett, the council chairman, won the District 4 seat with more than 60 percent of the vote over Summerville 9-12 Project chairman John Hull.

Hearn, an attorney, defeated businessman Roger Goodman for the District 6 seat with nearly 69 percent of the vote.

Both races featured campaigns that were fought doggedly and sometimes gratingly.

The Republican primary winners will not face Democratic opposition in November.

Hargett said he was delighted to be able to serve another four years for the county.

“My agenda is basically the people’s agenda. Whatever the people want to do, that’s where we’re going,” he said.

Hearn said the council will try to continue to make progress.

“It was a challenging and unique campaign, to say the least,” he said.

The District 4 seat represents suburban Summerville in the Wescott Plantation vicinity.

The District 6 seat represents parts of Summerville as well as the Jedburg and Knightsville communities.

The races pitted conservative Republican incumbents against challengers who contended they were not conservative enough. Hargett took the unusual step of running television ads to stave off a last-minute phone-bank push by Hull.

Goodman filed a police report after confronting a Hearn campaign worker removing signs that Goodman’s campaign had placed, that appeared to be signs supporting Hearn, but carrying a pro-sales-tax message.

Reach Bo Petersen at 937-5744, @bopete on Twitter or Bo Petersen Reporting on Facebook.