“There are only two ways to run for office: unopposed or scared.” -Senator Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings I ran scared. Adhering to the wisdom of my fellow Citadel graduate who was one of South Carolina’s most successful politicians, it was the only way to run. I was a sitting Mount Pleasant town councilman and decided to challenge the incumbent mayor, so running unopposed … [Read more...]
Councilman Tom O’Rourke
“Differences of opinion are not a bad thing.” A day after graduating from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, 21-year-old Tom O’Rourke arrived in the Lowcountry and took a job with East Cooper School. The private institution of learning eventually faded into history, leaving behind a group of buildings that served as Mount Pleasant’s Town Hall until 2017. Forty … [Read more...]
Councilman Gary Santos
“We’ll get a lot of work done as a team.” It wasn’t all that long ago that Gary Santos was the Mount Pleasant Council’s voice in the wilderness, railing against what he considered to be unbridled growth in his hometown and regularly casting the solitary vote for or against this issue or that. Elections in 2015 and 2017 changed everything, as voters swept into office … [Read more...]
Councilwoman Kathy Landing
“My No. 1 goal is to be responsive to the citizens of Mount Pleasant” Kathy Landing is a successful businesswoman with a long history of community involvement. But she felt that an important line was missing from her resume. “A voice inside me told me there was something else I was supposed to do,” she explained. She discovered that something else Nov. 7, when she was … [Read more...]
Councilwoman G. M. Whitley
“I’ll be a voice for young families and bring their concerns to the table” G.M. Whitley earned a degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Southern California and a law degree at the University of Chicago, later retiring from active practice “to serve as chief operating officer of the Whitley household.” In addition to raising four children, she is active in her … [Read more...]