By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | Primary challengers unseated Eastover Democratic Rep. Jimmy Bales and Pelion Republican Rep. Kit Spires, two longtime lawmakers.
Jermaine Johnson of Hopkins won the Democratic primary against Bales, and faces no other declared party candidate in the general election. Ryan McCabe of Lexington won the Republican primary against Spires and also does not face a declared party candidate in November.
Only 13 of 46 state senators and 25 of 124 House members drew primary challengers. With all Statehouse seats up for election this year, 43 percent of House seats and 22 percent of Senate seats have no primary or general election challengers.
The state saw a 23.04 percent voter turnout for local, state and federal races. Of the 469,043 ballots cast in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, the only statewide contest, 29,201 were cast in-person absentee and 53,918 were cast by mail. It was a record number of mail-in ballots for a statewide primary, officials said.
The turnout was similar to what the state saw in the 2018 statewide primaries, which included the gubernatorial ballot, of 20.43 percent.
In other news:
Lack of transparency noted in state industrial incentives. The S.C. Legislative Audit Council released a report this week criticizing S.C. Department of Commerce officials for a lack of transparency and for allowing businesses to keep millions in incentives when they don’t create the number of jobs promised. The audit was prompted by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in 2019 amid discussion of state incentives to the Carolina Panthers. The report found the S.C. Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved hundreds of businesses for state assistance, including paying out more than $526 million in grants and $6.2 billion in potential job development credits. Of the 2014 job grant recipients, 81 percent of jobs promised were created — or 6,484 jobs of the 8,050 promised. Some state lawmakers called for Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt to resign after the report was published this week. Read the report.
Reopening for schools fleshed out. The education subcommittee for the AccelerateSC task force released its draft plan for school reopening Thursday. Recommendations included directing student traffic flow in hallways, eating meals in classrooms and prohibiting visitors past the school lobby. Schools also should consider how they teach traditionally or via distance learning or through a hybrid of the two, task force members said. Read more.
McMaster released proposed spending of federal money. Gov. Henry McMaster issued a letter and report to the General Assembly Wednesday on how he proposes spending $1.9 billion in federal coronavirus aid. His recommendations include: $500 million for the unemployment insurance trust fund, $225 million for state agency reimbursements, $43 million for state health agency reimbursements, $17 million for a 28-day state stockpile of supplies, $215 million for school districts to provide additional days of classroom instruction before the start of school, and $250,000 toward preparing a statewide broadband plan. See the full proposal here.
Broadband expansion discussed. Several groups testified Thursday to the House Education and Public Works Committee’s COVID-19 subcommittee on expanding broadband internet in the state. Subcommittee Chair Raye Felder, R-Fort Mill, said the internet will be vital to educating students in the state, especially given that so many have all but disappeared when schools shut down in March. For example, 61 of about 1,900 students in Bamberg 1 and 2 school districts have not been heard from, she said. Matt Hiatt, director of technology at the Palmetto Care Connections nonprofit telehealth network that serves rural South Carolina, recommended “point to point” outdoor wireless bridging as the fastest way to bring internet to rural parts of the state.
Education Oversight Committee to meet Monday. The S.C. Education Oversight Committee will meet 1 p.m. June 15 at 1041 George Rogers Blvd. in Columbia. Among items on the agenda: A special report on funding charter schools in the state by Dr. Lawrence J. Miller, and an Academic Standards and Assessments committee report featuring action on a parent survey report. See agenda here.
‘Census Day of Action’ set for Wednesday. South Carolina community leaders will push to get more people to complete the census form in one day with “2020 Census Day of Action” June 17. Read more.
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