A forum scheduled for tonight in North Charleston will feature all of the current contenders for the S.C. Senate District 42 seat except Democratic runoff challenger Marlon Kimpson. The forum, hosted by Capitol Consulting Strategies, will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. at North Charleston City Hall (2500 City Hall Lane).
The three candidates present will be Republican candidate Billy Shuman, Libertarian candidate Alex Thornton, and Maurice Washington, who will face Kimpson in a primary runoff for the Democratic nomination on Aug. 27. Krystel Reid, principal at Capitol Consulting Strategies, says Kimpson was invited to the forum. “All of the candidates were sent the invitation three weeks ago. Mr. Kimpson missed the deadline and as such is unable to attend,” Reid says.
Reid was previously the campaign manager for Alvin Greene, the out-of-nowhere Democratic nominee who opposed Jim DeMint in a 2010 Senate race.
Kimpson campaign worker Ayinde Waring says the campaign received an invitation to the forum about three weeks ago. “At the time, we just didn’t feel comfortable accepting it because we didn’t even know if we were going to make the runoff,” Waring says. “So Marlon’s thing was that we would just focus more on our constituents and getting the voters out.”
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