By Delayna Earley
The Island News
The race for mayor is heating up as incumbent Phil Cromer now has some competition for the position.
Beaufort City Councilman Josh Scallate put his name into the race when he filed on Friday afternoon to run for the top office in the city.
Cromer, who has held the office since January, won a special election against opponent Mike Sutton after the previous mayor, Stephen Murray resigned in September 2023.
After Scallate filed to run for mayor, Cromer said to The Island News that he applauds the councilmember for offering himself for mayor as “a community always benefits when there is a choice.”
Scallete agreed with Cromer about the importance of the community having a choice as to who the next mayor will be.
“One of the main reasons I decided to run for mayor is because I have learned a lot about how important local government is while on City Council and [I] believe that our community deserves to have a choice when deciding who will represent them,” Scallate said.
Scallate has served as a City Council member since December 2022.
Four people have filed to run for City Council member seats as well, including incumbents Mitch Mitchell and Neil Lipsitz as well as Josh Gibson and Julie Crenshaw.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there have been no additional filings for the City Council or mayoral races.
The filing period for both the mayoral position and City Council seats ends on August 15.
Delayna Earley, joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
