Walter Hundley
The special election to fill the state Senate seat of Charleston’s Glenn McConnell came down to 14 votes. The long-serving senator gave up his District 41 seat to become lieutenant governor when Ken Ard suddenly stepped down amidst campaign law violations.
Charleston Attorney, Republican Walter Hundley won with an official count of 3,119 votes to Democrat Paul Tinkler’s 3,105 – different totals, but again a 14-vote margin. The State Election Commission will have to certify the recount later today, but Tinkler has already congratulated the man who is likely to hold the seat he is running for in November.
If you are confused, that is typical for this election cycle. Hundley will serve until the regular election replaces him, unless, he says, there are more turnovers in the race for this seat.
“If something happens to the Republican candidate, then I’ve also filed petitions to run in the fall,” Hundley said. “The Democrats are taking Paul Thurmond to court to try to knock him off the ballot. They took me to court the day before the election to try to knock me off the ballot. A judge did dismiss that claim but if something happens to Paul’s case on August 13, I hope I am ready willing and able to run as a petition candidate because I don’t think elections should be decided in the courtroom; they should be decided in the ballot box.”
Hundley is not new to the workings of the SC Statehouse. He worked for Gov. Carroll Campbell and has been appointed to boards and commissions.
He said though he might not appear in Senate chambers, he has plenty of legislative work to do.
“The Charleston legislative delegation is currently Republican. They would have gone Democrat had I lost. There is a fair amount of legislative pre-file drafting going on right now and the delegation does appoint almost all the boards and commissions in Charleston County,” said Hundley.
