By Tony Kukulich
When voters go to the polls to vote in the June 14 primary, there will be two familiar names listed in the race for sheriff of Beaufort County.
The incumbent, Sheriff P.J. Tanner, was first elected to the position 1998 in what was then his second bid for the role. He’s been Beaufort County’s sheriff ever since. Before the 2018 election, Tanner hadn’t faced a challenger since 2002.
“I have the experience and the insight in my 23-plus years to know what direction we should take,” Tanner said. I’ve got the ability and the resources to get things done. I have a proven track record of getting things done.”
Joey “JoJo” Woodward, who served under Tanner for a time in the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, is facing off against his former boss for the second time. He also ran against Tanner in 2018. Woodward lost that contest, but captured 45% of the votes cast. While the margin of Tanner’s victory was sound, there were only 1,696 votes that separated the winner from the loser in that contest.
“That told me that the citizens were really looking for a change,” Woodward said. “I still think they’re looking for a change today.”
Woodward started his career with the Sheriff’s Office in 1986 and held a number of roles until he was promoted to captain and given responsibility for the southern half of the county in 2013. After the 2018 election loss to Tanner, he left the office and went to work as an investigator for the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. He left that position to concentrate on this year’s election race.
Chief among Woodward’s concerns is the current staffing level at the agency.
“Sheriff Tanner, through his own words, is 40-something people down in the Sheriff’s Office,” Woodward said. “He’s got 47 openings. That fluctuates from time to time. I’m sure they hire a few and lose a few more. He also told the county council that he has 50 people eligible to retire. If those 50 people walked off the job tomorrow, that’s going to leave a very bad situation for the Sheriff’s Office.”
Staffing has been a concern for law enforcement agencies across the state, Tanner said. Earlier this year, he commissioned a study of law enforcement salaries, and as a result of that study base salaries for the entire staff were increased. The move was intended to improve the retention of existing staff and attract qualified candidates to the department. He said the move is having the desired effect.
“Our application pool is growing by the day,” Tanner said. “Because of our starting salaries, we’re getting more applications from certified law enforcement officers from around the state that are looking at Beaufort County as an opportunity to work because of the salary and benefits, as well as the community as a whole.”
The number of shootings, particularly north of the Broad River is another area of concern for both candidates.
“We’ve got to have the community behind us,” Woodward said. “The community doesn’t trust P.J. Tanner’s staff. There’s good officers out there, and they’re working as hard as they can. But you’ve got to have that community element out there helping you, talking to you. When they see something, they say something. As sheriff, you cannot blame the citizens of Beaufort County for the crime problem. The bottom line is that we’ve got to do more to solve crimes. To solve crimes, you’ve got to have boots on the ground.”
Woodward went on to say that, as he sees it, there are too many supervisors in the ranks of the Sheriff’s Office. His plan is to put some of them on the street.
Tanner believes the solution to the problem will be found in changes to the criminal justice system.“We’ve got to have some local criminal justice reform,” Tanner said. “We’ve got to have swift justice. It starts with the arrest, but that’s only the beginning. From there it needs to go through the criminal justice system swiftly. And there needs to be punishment. There needs to be people held accountable and understand that there are consequences for committing crime. The victims need to feel vindicated that something has been done with their case.”
In the 2018 election, Tanner won most precincts north of the Broad River as well as Hilton Head Island and Sun City. Woodward had an exceptionally strong showing in Bluffton, a fact that he attributes to his time leading the department’s southern division. His effort to expand his name recognition north of the Broad River was hampered by the short election cycle, he said.
“I only campaigned for 10 weeks,” he explained. “This time I’m literally running from event to event and trying to make that difference up, get my name out there and get people to see us. It’s been very difficult because there is only a certain amount of time from when you file until the primary.”
In a strange twist in the hard-fought campaign, Woodward’s campaign manager, John Acker, admitted to manipulating the Facebook account of South Carolina State Representative Bill Herbkersman (R, 118), a Tanner supporter. Acker reportedly used Herbkersman’s account to like posts on Woodward’s Facebook page, and he deleted Herbkersman’s video in which he endorsed Tanner. Acker admitted his actions in a Facebook posting that appeared on Herbkersman’s Facebook page Monday morning.
“I made a mistake and over zealous decision in deleting the endorsement video of Rep. Bill Herbkersman to Sheriff PJ Tanner,” wrote Acker. “It was wrong. I have apologized to both candidates and I also apologize to the voters of Beaufort county. Neither JoJo Woodward nor Rep. Herbkersman we’re [sic] aware of my actions, they were mine and mine alone. This was a major mistake on my part, something I will learn from and never do again.”
It will be up to voters to decide what, if anything, this blunder will cost Woodward and how it might impact the outcome of the race.
Tony Kukulich is a recent transplant to the Lowcountry. A native of Wilmington, Del., he comes to The Island News from the San Francisco Bay Area where he spent seven years as a reporter and photographer for several publications. He can be reached at tony.theislandnews@gmail.com.
