When you hear Municipal Association you may think of the words boring, red tape, government, maybe even dread. But when this rookie found out she would get to attend the Hometown Legislative Action Day in Columbia, there was nothing but excitement, eagerness and, most of all, an overwhelming feeling of humbleness. According to what I was reading about, I was going to spend the … [Read more...]
No Regrets Former Councilman Joe Bustos Believes in the System
At a special meeting of the Mount Pleasant Town Council on Nov. 8, Joe Bustos made a motion to accept the Nov. 5 election results. Four days later, a quartet of new Council members were sworn in and Bustos, the only incumbent seeking to retain his seat, left Town Hall for the first time since 2015 as a private citizen rather than as an elected official of the town he has always … [Read more...]
Major Changes: Voters Choose Four New Council Members
The voters of Mount Pleasant have spoken, and, for the third election cycle in a row, they have made major changes in the makeup of the Town Council. When local residents went to the polls last Nov. 5, they chose four new Council members, none with any previous political experience: Howard Chapman, Brenda Corley, Laura Hyatt and Jake Rambo. The new Council members are … [Read more...]
Mark Sanford Targets the Debt and the Deficit
Mark Sanford has been a two-term governor of South Carolina, twice represented the state’s 1st District in the U.S. House for six consecutive years — 12 total — and taught politics at the University of Chicago for a semester. Now he’s running for the highest office in the land. Well, sort of. “I’m not delusional about my prospects,” said Sanford in mid-September, as he … [Read more...]
Meet Congressman Joe Cunningham
It’s not unusual to run into someone I know when I’m back in Charleston, but when the man who had been following his toddler through the refrigerated aisle at Harris Teeter picked up the boy and waved at me, it took me a second to place him. The only other time we’d met, I was the one trying to keep up with him as we walked from his office to the floor of the U.S. House of … [Read more...]
Reaching Across The Aisle: Republican Officials Backed New Democratic Congressman
In a congressional district drawn specifically to virtually assure Republican dominance, Joe Cunningham concocted the perfect recipe for victory, combining his youth, his message of Lowcountry over party affiliation, his opposition to drilling for oil off the Carolina coast and his disdain for special-interest groups to become the first Democrat to represent South Carolina’s … [Read more...]
Not Trump Enough: Sanford’s Strength Was Also His Weakness
Marshall Clement Sanford Jr. never lost an election until June 2018, when he was unseated in the 1st District Republican primary by State Rep. Katie Arrington, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump. In his own words, Mark Sanford, as he is known to the people he represented as governor of South Carolina and during two separate stints in the U.S. House, “I wasn’t … [Read more...]
Moving Forward: Something is About to Happen on Highway 41
Sometime in the year 2021, construction is expected to be completed on all or part of Highway 41 between Highway 17 and the Wando River, alleviating a traffic issue that is almost certain to worsen long before it gets better in the next five years. Questions remain, however, as to how extensive the work will be, with options ranging from adding two lanes on just a part of … [Read more...]
Mac Burdette – A Career of Caring
No one understands Mount Pleasant’s growing pains better than former town administrator, Mac Burdette. Burdette arrived in Mount Pleasant in 1986, the third person to assume this position in five years. For the next twenty-five years, he was involved in the day-to-day operation of Mount Pleasant. The population, 23,000 when he got here, had triped by the time he … [Read more...]
Councilman Mark Smith is making a difference.
Smith was elected to his first term in office – taking his initial dip into the political pool – in 2013, and has been hard at work ever since. “I average 20 to 25 hours a week between Council and the water commission,” said Smith. He explained that one of the first things he learned on the job is that there is a lot of work involved for what’s technically a part-time … [Read more...]