When residents of Mount Pleasant head to the polls this November, they will determine the leadership of this town for the next four years. On the ballot will be candidates for four seats on Town Council, in addition to the mayor’s nonpartisan position. Because Mount Pleasant operates on a Council form of government, the mayor does not set budgets or have hiring or firing … [Read more...]
East Cooper’s First Three Women Mayors: Strength in Numbers
Serendipitous is a word that could be used to describe the unique story behind the first women who served as mayors in East Cooper. The first was born the same week that women achieved the right to vote. The second was born on the first woman’s thirty-fifth birthday. And the third watched the second woman grow up. Whether you call it coincidence, fate or luck, the lives of … [Read more...]
Nancy Mace and Joe Cunningham Face Off as Candidates
This year’s election ballot pits incumbent Joe Cunningham against District 99 State Rep. Nancy Mace. Both accomplished in their own rights, this much-anticipated race will take center stage in the Lowcountry, a place each candidate is proud to call home. A former attorney and ocean engineer, Cunningham enjoys showing his young son, Boone, the benefits of coastal … [Read more...]
Leadership in an Uncertain Time: Our Mayor’s View of the COVID-19 Pandemic
When I was elected as a member of Mount Pleasant Town Council in 2015 and then as mayor in 2017, I ran on the campaign that as the fastest-growing municipality east of the Mississippi, our community was losing its quality of life. I entered public service with confidence — I knew what our citizens expected my priorities to be. Then the novel coronavirus showed up in early … [Read more...]
My Best (and only) Legislative Action Day!
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...]