Scarborough, challenger race too close to call
Brad Nettles
The Post and Courier
Rep. Wallace Scarborough (left) and Mark Hartley compare election numbers from 2006 and Tuesday's election night at the North Charleston Embassy Hotel.
JAMES ISLAND — Republican Wallace Scarborough and Democratic challenger Anne Peterson Hutto were in a tight race for the House District 115 race as election officials struggled to count votes in Charleston County.
Scarborough early on claimed victory, but early returns showed Peterson Hutto in the lead.
Turnout in the district, which includes Folly Beach, was high and the vote count was slow Tuesday as Scarborough sought a fifth term in the state Legislature.
Early this morning, election officials were reporting returns from just 2 of 23 precincts, giving Peterson Hutto 63 percent of the vote to Scarborough's 37 percent.
But Scarborough, 49, said the count putting him in the lead came from visits to polling sites and tabulating counts there.
Peterson Hutto, 41, an attorney, is making her first bid for office. She stressed helping education and fighting traffic woes.
Scarborough pushed his support of the Morris Island Lighthouse project, the James Island Charter High School and parts of Gov. Mark Sanford's agenda to illustrate why he deserved a fifth term in Columbia.
The race was hotly contested and Peterson Hutto even revisited the 2006 incident in which Scarborough was arrested for assault with intent to kill after accidently firing a handgun at the ground when two South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. workers wandered onto his parents' property.
The charges were eventually dropped but Hutto used the incident to question Scarborough's character.
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Comments
This article has 6 comment(s)
Posted by boplaw on November 5, 2008 at 6:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Not so fast Wally.
Posted by blaze on November 5, 2008 at 9:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
So Scarborough tried to declare?
That's not surprising given the size of his ego.
Posted by commonsence on November 5, 2008 at 9:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The AM news was reporting that Hutto was ahead nearly 2:1. Congrats to the voters to sending another incumbent packing...
Posted by zoomru on November 5, 2008 at 10:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
A. P. Hutto...........
Its the ENERGY ..... !! Plain and simple !!
Folly Residents know that OUR state has .....WIND !!! But no WINDFARMS ??!!
Seacoaster's know that we have PLASMA technology to CLOSE DOWN ...ALL !! LANDFILLS !!! ...and turn OUR trash into energy to be SOLD back through the POWER grid !!!
Folly residents know that Methane tapping landfills only benefit ....WHO ?? Taxpayers ??
Folly residents know that OUR state's farmers SHOULD be producing Our own ALGEA-biofuel Diesel fuel to power our state's fleet of school buses !!! OUR Carta buses !!
Folly Residents will not bend over to HUgo Chavez or Nigeria or AHAB the ARAB any LONGER !!!
Folly residents are tired of the "GODZILLA" power poles coming down Folly Road and they don't support elevated Mag-Lev transport !!! How many poles do we need coming down Folly Road anyway !!!???
Folly Residents like AIken nuclear workers MORE than Coal Miners in West Virginia !!
A.P. Hutto..... sharpen those NAILS !!! Get ready to rip that bra off and put it around Harrell and McConnell !!!
Get ready to take a tour of Bees Ferry Landfill !!! See if you see any room for a Plasma Facility !!! Get ready to talk to some Farmers...especially Mr. Heath Hill in Lower Richland County and ask him about the NEW ash landfill SCE&G is trying to get permitted !!
MRS. A. P Hutto !!! ...are you a strong willed woman that will stand UP for ALL South Carolinians ?? !!!
We will be watching your actions VERY closely !!!! You've got two years !!!! Get busy !!!
www.startech.net
www.valcent.net
www.selsam.com ... and GE in Greenville
www.unimodal.com
Posted by melissa672 on November 5, 2008 at 3:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It is about time someone put Scarborough in his place! I am sooo tired of the good ole boy politics---guaranteed SCE&G let him off for future favors. Disgusting ,adulterous, gun slinging, coke heads!! Let's keep putting them in office so we can see how much further down the tubes South Carolina can go!
Posted by Whopper on November 5, 2008 at 5:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wally's got a gun.