Big mayors' races getting jammed with candidates

A news analysis | November’s nonpartisan contests for mayors of Charleston and North Charleston are getting crowded. Five candidates say they’re running against incumbent Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg. Seven say they’re running to fill the seat occupied by longtime but retiring North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey.

The races, however, are dramatically different due to the structure of each election.

In Charleston, a winner has to get an outright majority. A greater number of candidates in the race makes it harder for a single candidate to get 50% plus one.

In 2019, for example, Tecklenburg faced five challengers. He nabbed 12,556 votes in the general election, but fell just short of a majority with 47.8%, which forced a runoff with City Councilman Mike Seekings. Two weeks later in the runoff, Tecklenburg got almost the same number of votes — 12,530 — to capture 61.2% of runoff voters. Seekings got 7,947 votes, or 39% of the vote.

But in North Charleston, there was no runoff despite the fact that Summey got less than half of the votes. Why? Because the candidate with the most votes — regardless of a majority — wins. In a race against five challengers, Summey nabbed 5,614 votes (46.7%) of 12,033 votes cast.

In Charleston, the majority-wins form of election tends to favor incumbents because they have the ability to run on their record, boost name recognition by being in the press often and raise money based on incumbency. But well-funded challengers can peel off an incumbent’s base of support and build coalitions to try to come out ahead.

In North Charleston when there’s an incumbent, there’s an even bigger advantage to incumbency because with more candidates in the race, the incumbent effectively can get a smaller share of the total vote to win. In a vote split five ways, for example, an incumbent really needs about 25% to win — if all of the other candidates get less than 20%.

But when there is no incumbent in this top vote-winner style election, the race becomes more about building a solid base of friends than it does building coalitions. In other words, it’s a much narrower race that favors candidates with lots of name recognition and familiarity in the community. Money helps, but friends help more.

Charleston candidates

Whether all of the candidates who say they’re running will actually run won’t be known until August when the filing period ends.

Here’s a list of currently announced candidates running to be mayor of Charleston (in alphabetical order):

William Cogswell. A former Republican member of the S.C. House of Representatives, Cogswell is a developer with a “reputation for structuring collaborative and innovative projects,” according to his bio. As of March 31, Cogswell had $188,425 on hand in campaign cash according to reports filed with the State Ethics Commission.

Tamika Gadsden. A local social media influencer, Gadsden leads the Charleston Activist Network. As of March 31, she had $5,216 campaign cash on hand.

Debra Gammons. A visiting professor and director of the office of Diversity Initiatives at the Charleston School of Law, Gammons announced her candidacy this month. She has not yet had to file campaign financial reports.

Clay Middleton. A former senior staff member for U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., Middleton is a veteran and an experienced public affairs professional. He had $114,462 in campaign cash on hand as of March 31.

Peter Shahid. A downtown lawyer, Shahid is a current member of Charleston City Council who represents part of West Ashley. Shahid had $112,228 in campaign cash on hand as of March 31.

John Tecklenburg. The current mayor, Tecklenburg first won election in 2015 to fill the seat of longtime Mayor Joe Riley, who retired. Tecklenburg had $422,722 in campaign cash on hand as of the end of March.

North Charleston candidates

Here a list of North Charleston residents who say they are running to be mayor:

Reggie Burgess. The outgoing chief of police of North Charleston, Burgess announced he was running for mayor in March. As of March 31, he had $33,088 on hand in his campaign account, according to State Ethics Commission reports.

Russell Coletti. A veteran who recently retired after working 30 years for FedEx Express, Coletti announced his bid for mayor this week. He ran unsuccessfully for city council in 2015. No campaign financial data is yet available.

Rhonda Jerome. First elected to North Charleston City Council in 2003, Jerome announced her mayoral candidacy in March. She had $3,488 on hand in her mayoral campaign account as of March 31.

Teddie Pryor. A project manager with the city of North Charleston, Pryor is a current member of Charleston County Council and its former chairman. Because he announced his long-expected candidacy this week, there are no financial reports yet related to the mayor’s race. He does, however, have $46,961 on hand in his county council election account.

John Singletary. A North Charleston native and businessman, Singletary is a Citadel graduate who ran for the seat in 2019. He had $2,837 on hand in campaign funds as of March 31.

Brandon Trollinger. A 25-year-old who says he has started two nonprofits, Trollinger works in local schools. No campaign finance data was yet available on Trollinger, who announced his candidacy at the end of March.

Other mayoral races

Five other Charleston County communities have mayor’s races this year: James Island, McClellanville, Ravenel, Rockville and Seabrook Island.