A Cayce commissioner said Columbia doesn’t need a ‘colored’ mayor. He’ll stay in office
A city of Cayce museum commissioner said neighboring Columbia “did not need another colored person as mayor” and referenced the ethnicity of other capital city candidates, according to a statement read aloud at Cayce City Council’s Nov. 9 meeting.
The Cayce council voted 3-2 to keep the commissioner in office.
The comments were attributed to Marion Hutson, who serves on the Cayce Historical Museum Commission.
While at a polling place on Nov. 2 in support of Hunter Sox, who was running for the Cayce City Council, Hutson made the statements to a Cayce staffer, according to an email from the staffer sent to council members and read at the Nov. 9 meeting.
The staffer, who was not named when the email was read Nov. 9, told Hutson that she hoped to get to the polls in Columbia where she was registered to vote for mayor.
Hutson said in the statement attributed to him that he hoped the staffer ”would vote for Daniel Rickenmann. (Hutson) stated that Columbia did not need another colored person as mayor. (Hutson) stated that there were three colored people, and that one was an Arab, running for the mayor. (Hutson) then stated that in the past more than one white person had run for the mayor which split the vote causing Mayor Benjamin to win.”
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, the city’s first Black mayor, is not seeking reelection this year. In the Nov. 2 election, Rickenmann finished first and Tameika Isaac Devine finished second to advance to the Tuesday, Nov. 16, runoff. Both are current Columbia City Council members. They defeated Sam Johnson, a former aid to Benjamin, and former Columbia City Council member Moe Baddourah. Devine and Johnson are Black, and Baddourah is a native of Lebanon.
Contacted by phone Wednesday, Hutson said he didn’t know council had considered removing him from the commission and that he did not have anything to say about the comments attributed to him.
The State followed up on a council agenda item and asked for a recording of the meeting in reporting for this story.
During the meeting, Mayor Pro Tem James “Skip” Jenkins read the emailed statement attributed to Hutson and called the words disturbing.
The vote to remove Hutson was called for by Jenkins and supported by Mayor Elise Partin. Council members Phil Carter, Tim James and Sox voted to let Hutson keep his position.
Despite their vote to keep Hutson, James and Sox both said Hutson’s statement was “deplorable” and not tolerated by the city. Sox and James asked for an “immediate investigation” into the matter in hopes that more people might have heard Hutson’s alleged statements.
“I do not condone” Hutson’s statements, Sox said. “I hate that he was out there saying things like that and campaigning on my behalf.”
Before the vote, Partin said to James, Sox and Carter that “by kicking the can down the road you are tolerating it.”
She and Jenkins were “willing to take action and stand up against these words and not let this person continue to represent our city,” Partin said.
The Cayce Historical Museum Commission is in charge of the city’s museum at 1800 12th St. The museum “Studies and preserves the history of the area and acquires and exhibits historically significant works,” the city’s website says.
This is a breaking news story that will be updated. Check back.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 4:49 PM.