Campbell enters congressional race

MOUNT PLEASANT — Carroll Campbell III, a Charleston businessman and son of former South Carolina Gov. Carroll Campbell, formalized his entry into the First Congressional District race Wednesday and wasted no time blasting a fellow Republican, incumbent Rep. Henry Brown.

“I have been in the Wendy’s restaurant business. And when I take a look at Mr. Brown’s record, I have to ask, ‘Where’s the beef?’” Campbell said. “Unfortunately, Mr. Brown’s beef is nothing but pork.”

Standing on this town’s new pier underneath the Cooper River bridge — a setting chosen because of the USS Yorktown and Columbus Street Terminal in the background, Campbell vowed to break from “back-slapping, old-style” politics and fight to curtail spending in Washington, to push for simpler, fairer taxes and to promote new jobs in South Carolina.

Campbell, who has not sought office before, was joined by his family, including mother Iris, brother Mike and fiancee Tracey Amick, a reporter with WCSC-TV Channel 5.

Given the nickname “Tumpy” as a child, Campbell is chairman of Carroll Campbell Associates, a consulting firm. He also has served on the S.C. State Ports Authority board and as chairman of the Palmetto Alzheimer’s Association Board, which fights the disease that claimed his father in 2005.

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