By Lolita Huckaby
BEAUFORT
With the June 9 primaries rapidly approaching, the focus on political candidates builds just like the summer heat.
But the future of those primary elections, especially for the state’s seven U.S. Congressional seats, seems unclear.
For the past week, members of the South Carolina legislature have been conferring in Columbia working on a redistricting plan that may erase the blue hue of the state’s only Democratic district and African American Congressman, Rep. Jim Clyburn.
You might remember the state legislative session officially ended May 14, but Gov. Henry McMaster, reportedly at the urging of the President, called the 170 elected officials, and their staff, back to work on a new district plan which would diminish Clyburn’s chances for re-election to an 18th term representing the Sixth Congressional District.
The House, with the support of Beaufort County’s five Republican members followed party lines and quickly adopted a plan. The county’s only Democratic representative, Michael Rivers of District 121, likewise followed party lines and voted with the minority against the plan.
Then the state Senate went to work and managed to draw out debate for three days, with opposition to the plan led by none other than Beaufort County’s two state senators, Tom Davis of District 46 and Chip Campsen, District 43. The county’s third senator, Margie Bright Matthews, District 45 and a Democrat, of course was opposed to the plan but it was Davis — with 17 years of seniority — who kept the map from passing and becoming law, for now.
(Hopefully Davis won’t have to spend his birthday, May 31, in Columbia with his peers but his recent marriage engagement was officially recognized by the Senate during last week’s debates.)
How the redistricting plan will emerge from the Senate and end up on McMaster’s desk for signing, possibly sometime this week, is uncertain, but it is expected to pass. Davis and other opponents have laid out the framework for a legal challenge of the document, arguing the rapid schedule did not adequately allow for public input.
And how this new plan will impact the primaries, where early voting has already begun, is also to be seen and leaves those watching this political game of Twister less than amused.
Speaking of watching and wondering, citizens who watch Beaufort County politics have been doing the same.
With the sudden departure two weeks of Chief Financial Officer Pinky Harriott, rumors swirling around the “Pinky-gate” issue have been met with very few answers being provided by county sources, official or unofficial.
Word initially went out that Harriot had been fired May 12, the day after County Council met for over an hour in executive session to discuss “issues related to the employment of a person regulated by council.” The official word from the county’s public information office only confirmed that Harriot, after 18 months, was no longer with the county.
Council had another special meeting on the 19th to discuss the same issue, “employment of a person regulated by council.” There was no action taken after that executive session, but Councilman Logan Cunningham did state he disagree with the rest of council “to take no action following this meeting.” Hmmm.
With five of the 11 council members facing opposition in the upcoming primaries, you would think the issue of “transparency” which has been tossed around frequently in the council chamber, would be a primary question asked by the voters. We’ll see.
Cross Creek gets new owners; Could a movie theater be next?
BEAUFORT — News last week that the Cross Creek Shopping Center on Robert Smalls Parkway has been sold to a Baltimore-based realty corporation probably means “new life” and more traffic to that side of Beaufort.
Sale of the center, which opened in 1990, follows the opening in 2024 of the Beaufort Station right across the busy street. At least two of the Cross Creek businesses — T.J. Maxx and PetSmart — jumped across the street to Beaufort Station but Belk’s and the northern Beaufort County’s first Walmart stayed in place, along with Planet Fitness, Big Lots and Academy Sports.
It will be interesting to see what changes come to the former forest property with the new owners. The area is especially “ripe” for retail development with new apartment complexes sprouting up all around it.
Many are hopeful the future will include at least a bowling alley and movie theater, since the growing city has neither.
Lolita Huckaby Watson is a community volunteer and newspaper columnist. In her former role as a reporter with The Beaufort Gazette, The Savannah Morning News, Bluffton Today and Beaufort Today, she prided herself in trying to stay neutral and unbiased. As a columnist, these are her opinions. The Rowland, N.C. native’s goal is to be factual but opinionated, based on her own observations. Feel free to contact her at bftbay@gmail.com.