Duvall, Smith in runoff; Runyan out

Longtime municipal adviser Howard Duvall led his closest competitor for a citywide Columbia City Council seat by 1,100 vote, but still is in a runoff.

Final but uncertified results from Tuesday’s election show Duvall got 3,440 votes or just more than 38.5 percent. His Nov. 17 runoff challenger, Andy Smith, received 2,313 votes or 26 percent.

The runoff will pit the 72-year-old veteran of municipal government against a 36-year-old political newcomer, who is director of the Nickelodeon theater.

Incumbent Cameron Runyan is losing his one-term seat after pulling in 1,832 votes, or 20.6 percent, figures from Columbia and Richland County elections offices show.

The Rev. Ed McDowell Jr., edged out Richland 1 school board member Aaron Bishop.

McDowell, who is backed by onetime political powerhouse E.W. Cromartie, garnered 668 votes in the open District 2 seat that Cromartie held for years. That means McDowell received just shy of 38 percent of the vote.

Bishop pulled in 611 votes, or about 34.5 percent.

Election results are to be certified Thursday morning, said Columbia city clerk Erika Moore.

Runyan, 38, was challenged by five candidates in what is likely the most highly disputed campaign of a sitting incumbent in recent memory.

Duvall said the ouster of Runyan resulted from so many candidates filing to oppose him. “You could look at it as a gang tackle,” Duvall said. If he and McDowell are elected, council will have “independent people” on it, Duvall said.

Should Duvall and McDowell be elected, their presence “might put the brakes on the undebated projects that the mayor brings up,” Duvall said.

Smith said he’s confident that his momentum will carry him to victory in two weeks. “We entered the race late – just 12 weeks ago,” he said. He positioned himself as the voice of Columbia’s future.

Runyan called his four years on council “a great season of life. It was wonderful to learn about the city from the inside.” He said he had no regrets about decisions he made and votes he cast despite fierce opposition that rose up about midway into his term.

Runyan was caught up in a whirl of voter blowback fueled by what the incumbent has described as a moment of moral clarity in 2011 that changed his world view and his politics.

Runyan had said he staked his re-election on a strong turnout by the city’s faith community, particularly from African-American churches.

He angered much of Columbia’s gay rights community with votes against extending health benefits to same-sex city employees and his objection to creating a commission to protect employees against discrimination.

His push to crack down on the homeless population in the city center, which garnered national media attention, also was criticized as harsh, lacking in compassion and possibly unconstitutional. He counters that council’s attention to the situation helped move about 1,400 homeless adults into programs designed to help them restart their lives.

Duvall returns to elective politics after a three-decade layoff. In 1986, he finished a term as mayor of Cheraw, in the Pee Dee, after serving as a town council member there. He was director of the Municipal Association of South Carolina for years before retiring in 2008. Duvall ran on the expertise he said he could bring to the capital city as it seeks to recover from the Oct. 4 floods.

Smith had the backing of much of Columbia’s arts community and Benjamin, who just four years before championed Runyan.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 9:12 PM with the headline "Duvall, Smith in runoff; Runyan out."