Fertile Ground

West Ashley continues to be fertile ground for would-be politicians, judging by the number of locals who are running for office this year. It also seems to be fertile ground for potential scandals.
Last year, during the mayoral campaign to replace longtime Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., there was at one time five West Ashley mayoral candidates, with at least two others waiting in the wings.
The three front-runners in that race – local activist Ginny Deerin, state Rep. Leon Stavrinakis (D), and eventual winner Mayor John Tecklenburg, crushed the other competitors in the fund-raising department.
This year, there are no fewer than six candidates to replace Colleen Condon on Charleston County Council. After three terms and 12 years on Council, Condon earlier this year announced she wouldn’t be running.
Those six include realtor Patrick Bell, a member of the county Planning Commission whom Condon’s endorsed; former county School Board chair Ruth Jordan; perennial candidate Chris Cannon; College of Charleston adjunct professor and business owner Paul Gangarosa; former teacher and former chairman of the Charleston Republican Party John Steinberger (who has written a political column for West Of); and banker Brantley Moody, son of current City Councilman Bill Moody.
So, why all the political interest springing up in West Ashley?
Gibbs Knotts, chair of the political science department at the college, said that West Ashley’s diversity helps define the political landscape this side of the river.
Knotts said there are so many different types of people and political perspectives here that there’s no way it could be as “heterogeneous” as it is in Mt. Pleasant, where he lives in the Old Village.
“In a lot of ways, it reminds me of the diversity I experienced growing up in Atlanta,” said Knotts, who adds that the “tremendous” growth of West Ashley is also a parallel to Atlanta.
“The good thing is so many people and so many kinds of people are excited and getting involved in politics,” said Knotts, pointing to traffic as the issue that runs through all the campaigns so far.
James Island resident Culver Kidd, the grandson of a Georgia legislative heavyweight, is running to fill Paul Thurmond’s state Senate seat, which includes some of West Ashley. He said the reason is more prosaic: “Everyone is fed up over there after not being paid attention to for 40 years.”
West Ashley lawyer Sandy Senn, who is running against Kidd, said that West Ashley has experienced a lot of “changeover, politically” in recent years.
“It’s a good gig. You feel good about helping West Ashley,” explained Condon, who laughingly said she’d want to be able to retire someday, as one of the reasons she decided not to run again.
Moody said that anytime a seat comes open on Council after being held for 12 years, a lot more candidates are going to come out.
“And, it’s at a time when the City Councilmembers from this part of town are working together, and the mayor is from West Ashley – people here want to get our piece of the pie,” said Moody.
Moody pointed out that he had already filed for the seat and begun raising money for his campaign to replace Condon long before she announced she was not going to seek reelection.
“My moment when I decided I wanted to run? Which one?” said Moody who widely disagrees with Condon’s positions on many top issues, from building Interstate 526 to designating a bike lane and to the cost of recycling services in the county.
Gangarosa said he’d seen how the same kind of people and professions were always running for and winning elections on a national level, was beginning to take hold in the Lowcountry.
And Gangarosa, who also works with the homeless and owns a security business that sells drones and body cameras, thought it was important to offer an option.
Steinberger and the Moody clan have already clashed in the early months of their campaigns. Moody’s dad City Councilman Bill Moody reportedly asked Steinberger to stop attending a Thursday morning coffee klatch he attends at WildFlour Pastry.
And Steinberger, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story, also purchased website domains similar in spelling to Moody’s council campaign websites that direct back to Steinberger’s home page.
And in the Democratic primary race for the state Senate seat currently held by Marlon Kimpson, his predecessor, Robert Ford, is also running. That race may define which is more important: being named “Democrat of the Year” by the state party, as Kimpson was; or name recognition, which Ford, who stepped down in a hail of criticism for illegal use of campaign funds, still enjoys.