Election Guide — Filling Riley’s Shadow

For the first time in four decades, Charleston will soon elect a mayor not named Joe Riley.
Next Tuesday, voters from all over the city will file into poling places and cast their lot from a choice of seven candidates, six of whom have strong ties to West Ashley.
State Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, community organizers Ginny Deerin and Toby Smith, and realtor John Tecklenburg all live in West Ashley, while peninsular W. Dudley Gregorie represents a piece of West Ashley on City Council.
Even Paul Tinkler, who stepped out of the race a few weeks ago, calls West Ashley home.
And watching Maurice Washington, a financial planner and consultant, meet recently with a client in the new Sam Rittenberg Boulevard Starbucks, obviously feels comfortable on this side of the river, away from his Hampton Park-area base.
The three frontrunners to make it to the almost inevitable Nov. 17 runoff are Stavrinakis, Tecklenburg and Deerin. They’re all West Ashleyians who have out-fundraised their competition by an enormous margin.
The shift away from Riley’s beloved peninsula was inevitable. More voters live west of the Ashley River these days, as development and a growing economy here have sapped some of the preeminence the downtowners have held for centuries.
The biggest issue the Riley administration has pushed over the waning year of his tenure has been the revitalization of West Ashley.
But maybe the biggest shift of note is the one that hasn’t taken place. Notice that in this nonpartisan race, only one of the candidates is considered a Republican: Washington is an executive in the Charleston County Republican Party, as well as a precinct captain.
Everyone else appears to be a yellow-dog Democrat.
Why is that? Why no bigger named Republicans than Washington, who is making his third run for mayor, throw their hats in the ring?
Some think that the old entertainment biz adage was at play: Never follow Sinatra.
Riley’s imprint and momentum could have scared off Republican mayoral hopefuls until the 2019 campaign season, worried his potential impact in a race so close to the end of his political career.
Riley has stayed on the sidelines during this Democrat-dominated race.
But is that a fair assessment? That the “real” race won’t be for another four years, when Republicans can better run against the mistakes made by Riley’s successor rather than Riley’s own record?
Gibbs Knotts, chair of the Political Science Department at the College of Charleston, thinks not.
“I don’t know about that,” said Knotts, who served as moderator and panelist on two different mayoral candidate forums. “Charleston has gone for Obama the last two elections.”
Knotts said that a Republican candidate would have to be a moderate, like Washington, to gain traction in Charleston. But he added his surprise that none beyond Washington stepped forward this go-around.
“A Republican could have a decent chance in a six-way Democrat race, with support getting split among the other five candidates, making it easier for them to get to the runoff,” said Knotts.
“Anything can happen in a runoff; somebody makes a mistake, skeletons are no longer left in closets, national party money flows in,” said Knotts. “If Chris Christie can get elected as a Republican governor in New Jersey, and Republicans like Rudy Giuliani in New York City, then it could happen in Charleston.”
West Of conservative pundit John Steinberger said Washington has been a good candidate, an opinion shared by one of the other candidates, asking to remain anonymous.
Steinberger, who recently stepped down as Charleston County GOP chair so he could individually endorse Donald Trump for President, said he and his conservative colleagues have been more focused on countywide partisan races.
And the office of mayor is far from the only race on Tuesday’s ballot. The four seats on City Council representing the majority of West Ashley are also on the line.
City Council races could provide leverage for whoever makes it to the mayoral runoff, as the runners-off could seek valuable support from newly elected councilmembers.