Riley ran strongest in white voting areas

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley cruised to victory in the city's white suburban and lower-peninsula precincts in a mayoral race with the lowest turnout in recent memory.

Despite contentious campaigning, fewer than 27 percent of city voters made their ways to the polls Tuesday, compared to the 39 percent who voted four years ago.

Some pundits expected that a lower turnout would help the mayor, whose campaign cash and experience would guarantee that his core supporters would cast their votes.

"He's much better organized than the other candidates, and his people are more likely to turn out," said Bill Moore, a College of Charleston political science professor.

Riley has received fewer votes in every one of his re-election bids since his blowout 1995 win over former state Rep. Ron Fulmer. That contest carried a strong partisan overtone as South Carolina Republicans sought to damage Riley's prospects for a gubernatorial bid.

The 10,299 votes that Riley received Tuesday — according to unofficial results — were more than 1,000 fewer than he got in his four-way re-election race in 2003 and more than 2,000 fewer than his 1999 win over former City Councilman Maurice Washington.

Still, Riley's main challenger this time, William Dudley Gregorie, received fewer votes than the mayor's former main opponents, including Washington, Fulmer, and former state Rep. Jimmy Bailey. Gregorie received 4,629 votes.

That didn't surprise those who noted that Gregorie's experience as a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development director in Columbia didn't do much to help him build a political base in the Lowcountry, a fact reflected in his weak fundraising. Gregorie largely bankrolled his bid.

"Gregorie I would argue is a far weaker candidate than Maurice Washington because he doesn't have the ties to the community," Moore said. "He doesn't have those ties that Fulmer and Bailey had."

Gregorie did manage to carry 22 of 89 precincts, mostly in the northern part of the peninsula not far from his Wagener Terrace home, but his wins there weren't as impressive as Riley's were elsewhere.

For instance, Gregorie's most impressive win came in Charleston 18, the predominantly black precinct that votes at the old Rivers Middle School. He won there by 210-80 over Riley.

But in Charleston 3, a predominantly white downtown precinct that votes at Mason Prep, Riley bested Gregorie by a 304-27 count.

While race wasn't an issue in the campaign, Gregorie, who is black, fared better in precincts that are predominantly black or mixed, while many of Riley's biggest wins came in predominantly white precincts.

Riley's share of the vote, 64 percent, is better than the 57 percent he mustered four years ago, and he ran strong in downtown precincts south of Calhoun Street, where he received 1,469 votes compared to 185 for Gregorie.

Riley won 713 votes on Daniel Island, compared with 172 cast for the three other candidates combined. Gregorie won only two of James Island's 19 precincts.

During the mayoral debates, Riley's challengers seized on the Sofa Super Store fire in which nine city firefighters perished as a sign that the city needed a change.

Moore said that while Gregorie and others mentioned the tragedy, "they had to be very careful the way they did it. You never saw an advertisement mentioning that. I consider it a very positive campaign overall."

Challengers Marc K. Knapp and Omar Brown were distant finishers, an expected result given their minimal spending on the race. Knapp, a perennial candidate for local office, did manage to get 877 votes — about 600 more than he got in 2003. Brown received 270 votes.

Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771 or at rbehre@post andcourier.com.