Rose heading toward victory

SUMMERVILLE — Republican Mike Rose appeared headed toward victory Tuesday, breaking out from a tight race with petition candidate Bill Collins late in the night.

With 39 of 48 precincts reporting — about 77 percent of the vote in Dorchester County's Senate District 38 race — Rose led Collins 54 percent to 46 percent, according to unofficial returns.

Rose's lead versus the former newspaper publisher was boosted by his endorsement from Gov. Mark Sanford and the support of the GOP establishment in a strongly Republican district.

"I'm happy to be returning to the Senate and will work to the best of my ability," Rose said adding that the results Tuesday night and his win in the June primary means "I'm the people's choice."

Rose's lead is in one of the more bizarre and personality-driven races of the year, starting with the arrest of incumbent Randy Scott on a DUI charge in April.

Rose narrowly defeated Scott in the June 10 Republican primary, a vote held just days after a judge's controversial dismissal of the DUI case.

No Democrat filed for the seat, but days after the primary vote, Collins, former publisher of the Summerville Journal Scene newspaper, mounted a challenge.

GOP leaders set out to squash Collins' run by threatening legal action and appealing to state election officials that some names on his petitions were questionable. All those moves failed.

Rose is trying to return to a seat in Columbia he represented from 1989-97.

Collins was not ready to concede the race late Tuesday, pointing to the thousands of absentee ballots that still needed to be counted.

Sanford's backing for Rose included comments from just a few days ago. "I am indeed here to support Mike Rose to bring change to Columbia," Sanford said at a recent breakfast to promote GOP candidates. "Adding troops to the reform theme is incredibly important in Columbia, if we're going to pull off change," the governor also said.

Reach Schuyler Kropf at 937-5551, or skropf@postandcourier.com.