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And The Winners Are …

LEE BRIGHT, JAKE KNOTTS, SHANE MARTIN CLAIM SENATE VICTORIES …

FITSNews - June 24, 2008 - Feel free to add your own observations in the comments section as you hear reports from South Carolina’s Republican and Democratic runoff elections today … also, be sure to e-mail any tips to us at info@fitsnews.com …

11:15 PM - All in … here are the official runoff results from the South Carolina Election Commission. We’ll be back to break it all down for y’all in tomorrow’s edition of FITSNews. Of course the bottom line, just like the primary election two weeks ago, is that both the status quo forces and the conservative change agents will be able to claim a few victories tonight. Similarly, both sides also suffered some surprise defeats … plenty of spin to be had, but we’ll be up in the AM to make sure you’ve got the straight dope.

10:59 PM - We’re back. Getting a link to some final totals here in a minute …

9:30 PM - Rrrawww! Mrs. Sic Willie has just descended the stairs in what we can only describe as a most fetching evening ensemble … looks like our founding editor is going to have to take a break from the updates for a little while. We’ll be back later on this evening with more results … hopefully much later …

9:26 PM - David Herndon has defeated Sheri Few by a count of 1,136 to 898 according to unofficial results coming out of Northeast Richland County …

9:22 PM - Another commenter just e-mailed us asking how our website’s “undorsements” … or “anti-endorsements” … fared during the runoff elections. Actually, we were 2-0, as both State Rep. Scott Talley and Sen. Jim Ritchie were defeated. We declined to issue an “undorsement” in the contentious Knotts-Shealy Senate race in Lexington County …

9:19 PM - This isn’t a legislative race, but State Rep. Doug Jennings‘ effort to bring the nation’s largest mega-dump to Marlboro County was soundly rejected tonight in a non-binding referendum. Citizens voted 2,374 to 166 against the mega-dump.

9:14 PM - We had a commenter e-mail us earlier asking how the races fared for conservative candidates. At this point, it looks like a mixed bag - much like the primary elections two weeks ago. In the Senate, conservative reformers won two seats and lost one, with a fourth GOP primary being up in the air as far as we know. House results are starting to come in now, and we’ll keep you posted on those as we get them … one thing to remember is that an electoral “split” for conservative candidates in the current legislative climate is actually a win because at the end of the day they have more seats than they did at the start of the day … and they’ll be adding to wins achieved two weeks ago.

We’ll have more on what it all means in tomorrow’s edition of FITSNews, of course.

9:03 PM - Down in Beaufort County, incumbent Rep. Curtis Brantley is currently putting a whoopin’ on former State Rep. Thayer Rivers (and the Legislative Black Caucus, for that matter) in the early going in that Democratic House primary. Brantley is up 636-339 … oh, and in case you missed the irony there, Brantley is black and Rivers is white.

8:59 PM - With two of four counties reporting, Democratic Rep. Creighton Coleman is hanging on against challenger Leah Bess Moody in the race for Senate District 17, which is being vacated by the Senate’s only female member, Linda Short. Coleman has 2,130 votes to Moody’s 1,911.

8:53 PM - Over in Aiken County, Tom Young has narrowly defeated Scott Singer for the Republican nod in another close House race. The Young-Singer matchup didn’t draw much (if any) special interest attention, but Young is generally regarded as the more liberal of the two Republicans. He won 3,151 to 2,843, or 53-47%, and will assume a seat in the House as there is no Democrat running for that seat.

8:50 PM - It’s still early going, but David Herndon leads Sheri Few by a count of 502-309 in a competitive House race in Northeast Richland County.

8:40 PM - In the State Senate District 10 Republican Primary (which covers Abbeville, Greenwood and Laurens Counties), Dee Compton is cruising over Chip Stockman 3,298 to 1,490 …

8:22 PM - Unofficial totals for Lee Bright’s S.C. Senate primary victory over State Rep. Scott Talley tonight in Spartanburg:

Bright 3,897 (52%)

Talley 3,571 (48%)

Yup, trial lawyers everywhere are crying in their Dom Pérignon.

8:15 PM - While we’re waiting for final results to come in from all of these races, Sic Willie would like everyone to know that Kenny Rogers (a.k.a. “The Gambler) has given up just one run through four innings in his outing tonight for the FITS Fartknockers fantasy baseball squad. Wait … what? No one cares? What a do-wrong y’all …

8:03 PM - Lee Bright has defeated State Rep. Scott Talley for the Senate seat previously held by personal injury lawyer lackey John Hawkins. Unofficially, the margin of victory was 330 votes.

7:57 PM - With 24 of 36 precincts reporting, Lee Bright is leading State Rep. Scott Talley by 160 votes in Spartanburg’s most competitive State Senate race. Around 5,000 votes have been cast in that race.

7:51 PM - First official results from Shane Martin’s defeat of incumbent Sen. Jim Ritchie. With about half of the precincts reporting, Martin is up on Ritchie 3,118 - 1,476.

7:45 PM - This race is already over, but Sen. Jake Knotts is now up on Katrina Shealy 5,712 votes to 4,247 votes … looks like a landslide.

7:39 PM - We’re about thirty city blocks from the S.C. Governor’s Mansion right now, but we’re pretty sure we still heard a pin drop over there after we posted our update on Sen. Jake Knotts defeating Katrina Shealy.

7:34 PM - Early reports from one of the Spartanburg County races we’ve been watching confirms our earlier prediction. Shane Martin has ousted incumbent Sen. Jim Ritchie, winning 10 of 10 precincts that are currently reporting. Should have concrete numbers momentarily …

7:31 PM - State Sen. Jake Knotts has handily defeated Republican challenger Katrina Shealy, according to sources close to the Shealy campaign.

7:25 PM - With sixty percent of precincts reporting:

Sen. Jake Knotts - 4143, Katrina Shealy - 2,991

7:20 PM - First unofficial results from Lexington County Senate Race - Jake Knotts up by 1,000 votes over Katrina Shealy. No details on the precincts that are reporting …

7:11 PM - A final report from the Knotts-Shealy race in Lexington. Sources are telling us there was “record” turnout for a runoff, with numerous precincts topping their totals from the primary election two weeks ago.

7:04 PM - A final report from the Martin-Ritchie Senate race in Spartanburg. Turnout is said to have been higher than usual for a runoff election, with one precinct even reporting more people voting today than two weeks ago. Typically, runoffs draw fewer voters than primary elections. Oh, and if you’re wondering what a runoff is, click here.

7:00 PM - Polls are closed. Turnout across the board is said to have been strong. Now we wait for the results to come in …

6:13 PM - The newspaper La Socialista has an interesting story up about Lexington County residents basically being too stupid to know what Senate district they’re in. Surprising? Not really …

6:00 PM - One hour till the polls close … and one hour until Sic’s fantasy baseball squad takes the field for the results everyone is really waiting to see. Wait a minute … you people don’t care about our fantasy baseball team? Seriously?

5:56 PM - We’re gonna go out on a limb here and predict that State Sen. Jim Ritchie is getting his ass handed to him tonight by NASCAR man Shane Martin in another Spartanburg County State Senate primary. Assuming Ritchie does go down in defeat (he was within 50 votes of losing his seat outright two weeks ago), he’ll be the third incumbent Senator ousted this primary season.

5:40 PM - Turnout continues to be termed “strong” in the Lexington County Senate race between Jake Knotts and Katrina Shealy. It also appears that both Knotts and Shealy have “covered their bases,” or gotten voters to show up in their respective “strongholds.” For Knotts, that’s the Springdale area of the district and for Shealy, it’s Saxe Gotha.

5:00 PM - Mmmmm … Mrs. Sic Willie has fixed some delicious chicken and vegetables for Sic and the FITS gals. We’ll be back directly …

4:55 PM - Down Jasper County way (South Carolina’s southern-most county, just across the Savannah River from Georgia), a fierce Democratic primary battle between Rep. Curtis Brantley and former Rep. Thayer Rivers is reportedly neck-and-neck. Oddly enough, Brantley - who is black - has been actively opposed in his reelection effort by the S.C. Legislative Black Caucus.

4:43 PM - We just stopped by Spartanburg Senate candidate Lee Bright’s blog and there’s pretty much nothing going on there … in fact, Bright has posted this incredibly syrupy story about him sitting down with his “two precious girls” at breakfast the other day and being really impressed with their public school education. Uhhh … yeah. So is it hokey or endearing? Guess female voters will let us know in a couple hours …

4:35 PM - Crunch time … between now and 7:00 PM is when elections are won or lost, as the so-called “target market” of undecideds and politically-disengaged voters either make up their mind about the candidate they will vote for or realize “Damn, there’s an election today” on their way home from work. Die-hard supporters and party activists all voted in the morning so they could spend the rest of the day making calls to get their friends to the polls. In the next two hours we find out how well they did their jobs …

4:22 PM - We’re now hearing that Scott Talley’s campaign apparently chose to plant poll “complainers” instead of poll “greeters” at voting locations. Basically the complainers are instructed to inform the poll managers that the other campaign’s greeters are bothering them … which sort of makes it a metaphor for Talley’s whole campaign when you think about it.

4:19 PM - Up in Sparkle City, sources close to Lee Bright’s campaign are telling us that Scott Talley supporters are harassing poll greeters, giving out bum (i.e. incorrect) precinct information to voters and sending multiple poll watchers into the same voting place, which is apparently also illegal. Yup, sounds like a typical Warren Tompkins-style campaign to us.

3:47 PM - Hey, somebody just bought a Free T-Rav thong over at our official online storefront. Wait … that doesn’t have anything to do with the runoff elections. Sorry …

3:43 PM - Actually, here’s another whole laundry list of state election laws … one of which says “it is unlawful on an election day within two hundred feet of any entrance used by the voters to enter the polling place for a person to distribute any type of campaign literature or place any political posters.” Damn … all we can say is whoever wrote that needs to seriously rethink their approach to sentence structure.

3:40 PM - Well, we finally found the state law dealing with election day activity … and it’s like a million pages long. Seriously, voting is friggin’ complicated, people … and South Carolinians ain’t that bright to begin with. Anyway, we’re looking for the “poll greeter” section now. Hopefully we’ll find it sometime before the 2010 primary …

3:25 PM - Turnout is reportedly higher today throughout Lexington County than it was two weeks ago during the primary election. So … does this mean that Democratic efforts to enlist cross over voters for Sen. Jake Knotts were successful? Or does it mean that Republicans got fed up about all the Democratic intervention and came out to vote for Shealy? We shall see …

3:17 PM - Reports are coming in from Spartanburg, S.C. that State Rep. Scott Talley’s campaign is protesting poll “greeters” who are supporting his opponent, Lee Bright. We’re not sure how you can protest a poll greeter, but then again we’re not sure what a “poll greeter” is, so obviously we’ll have to look into that and edumicate ourselves …

3:09 PM - FITS gal Lindsey is en route back from Lexington County, S.C., where she checked in at two precincts that could help determine the outcome of the race between State Sen. Jake Knotts and challenger Katrina Shealy. This has been one of the most expensive and hotly-contested State Senate races in South Carolina history … we’ll have her report momentarily …

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