Candidate forum produces more barbs than firm policies for Columbia’s future

Campaign platforms remained rooted as they have for months during Wednesday’s forum in next week’s runoff for two Columbia City Council seats, but jabs from the candidates flew.

Neither citywide candidates Howard Duvall or Andy Smith, nor District 2 contenders Aaron Bishop or Ed McDowell Jr., laid out significant new proposals for 75 minutes before a packed and animated crowd at the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce building.

But digs about political coalitions and whether the new council members would be beholden to either Mayor Steve Benjamin or disgraced, former longtime Councilman E.W. Cromartie consumed much of the conversation at the forum organized by the Columbia Community Relations Council.

“Mayor Benjamin has no more control of my campaign than Cromartie has over his,” Smith, who’s been endorsed by the mayor, said of Duvall. Last week, Benjamin coined the phrase “a Duvall-Cromartie coalition” in responding to Duvall characterizing himself and McDowell as councilmen who would question some of Benjamin’s proposals.

Smith on Wednesday to about 100 people dismissed “these conspiracy theories about the powerful Mayor Benjamin.” Citing his opposition to publicly funding Columbia’s new baseball stadium, Smith said he and Bishop are independent thinkers. Benjamin also is championing Bishop in the District 2 race.

“That is being a little naive and that is showing his 36 years,” Duvall shot back, stressing the political newcomer’s lack of experience compared to the 72-year-old Duvall’s decades of work in municipal government.

Duvall repeated that he is not running against Benjamin. Yet Duvall was one of the leaders in a successful 2013 referendum that effectively stopped Benjamin from becoming the capital city’s first executive mayor with far more power than any Columbia mayor has held.

Duvall denied he was handpicked by what a political blogger called “a rich, white Democrat.” He acknowledged his ties to former Richland County Councilwoman Kit Smith, but said, “Kit Smith does not boss me around.”

Smith said Duvall was younger than he is when Duvall first was elected to Cheraw town council in South Carolina’s Pee Dee region. “I would hope his supporters were not quite as patronizing,” Smith said of newcomer status.

Bishop and McDowell threw elbows over Cromartie’s influence in the election, including the Nov. 17 runoff.

“If we elect Mr. McDowell, we are going to deal with E.W. Cromartie all over again,” the Richland 1 school board member said.

McDowell cited Cromartie’s accomplishments during more than two decades on council. McDowell said Cromartie, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion and other charges in 2010, is a backer and an adviser only. Voters should believe in redemption, the retired pastor said.

But McDowell fired back at Bishop, whose home was annexed into the district just as Bishop was about to announce his campaign this summer. “You moved into the district seven months ago. I’ve been in the district years.”

John Adams, who finished a distant fourth in last week’s at-large voting and is a son of former mayor Patton Adams, has endorsed Duvall. Defeated incumbent Cameron Runyan has said he will not endorse either of the remaining candidates.

The certified results of last week’s election show that Duvall had a large lead over Smith in the citywide race.

Duvall received 3,454 votes or about 38.5 percent of the 10,027 votes cast. Smith had 2,321 votes or about 26 percent of the ballots.

McDowell polled 679 of the 1,791 votes cast in the District 2 race. That means he got just shy of 38 percent of the vote. Bishop received 616 votes, or just less than 34.5 percent in the sprawling district that stretches through the city center into neighborhoods from St. Andrews to Edgewood to Dentsville, touching Five Points and running south to Olympia.

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 12:32 AM with the headline "Candidate forum produces more barbs than firm policies for Columbia’s future."