Some upset with Charleston GOP mailings

The Charleston County Republican party is mailing forms to voters to get some of its disqualified candidates back on the Nov. 6 ballot as petition candidates.

But some are crying foul because the mailings contain petitions for only one of the party’s former candidates for the Senate 41 seat.

Jock Stender, a West Ashley Republican who received the mailing today, was upset the mailings sought signatures for Charleston lawyer Walter Hundley but not businessman Wally Burbage. Stender is helping Burbage collect about the 4,000 signatures to get back on the ballot.

“This is the type of political behavior you find in Venezuela, Russia, Brazil and other third world countries,” he said. “Totally corrupt.”

County GOP Chair Lin Bennett said the mailings were designed primarily to help County Council candidates Brian Moody and Carolyn Hughes get on the ballot and that Hundley’s petitions were included because his supporters requested it.

Across South Carolina, more than 200 Republicans and Democrats were knocked off this year’s ballots after the S.C. Supreme Court ruled they did not file a paper copy of an ethics form properly. Many are collecting signatures to try to get back on this fall’s ballot as nonpartisan candidates.

Read more in tomorrow’s editions of The Post and Courier.