Signs of the times: SC neighborhoods divided by candidates, issues and geography

Southern homes in two different neighborhoods both exemplify rich Palmetto State architecture adorned for Halloween; large porches, rocking chairs, brown bricks and white pillars covered in fake cobwebs and purple and orange lights, inflatable spiders and witches next to skeletons draped on lawns. The past month, however, houses in a Shandon neighborhood and Lake Katherine have striking differences — red and black signs vs. blue and white signs.

Shandon and Lake Katherine are divided by politics. Presumably, they always has been, residents say, but it’s much more obvious as the Nov. 5 election nears, and they’ll decide one of the most competitive races in the South Carolina State House.

Incumbent Rep. Heather Bauer, a Democrat, and former Rep. Kirkman Finlay, a Republican, are running to win the seat in District 75. Bauer defeated Finlay by 235 votes in 2022, a win not many saw coming. Her strategy was door knocking, and she hasn’t stopped.

The State talked to voters with Bauer or Finlay campaign signs in their yards in two District 75 neighborhoods and a few houses between them.

Bauer supporters describe her as sincere, hard-working, honest and trustworthy. They often mentioned her stance on abortion and her values on education. Finlay backers said he was dependable and reliable, had strong pro-business values and was smart with money.

Neither candidate’s supporters had many negative comments about the opposition. Bauer voters didn’t like Finlay’s policies. Finlay supporters said they just didn’t know Bauer or agree with her.

Most of Finlay supporters said Bauer didn’t, or more so, couldn’t get anything done. With the Republican super majority, having a Democrat in the House was “useless,” like a “placeholder,” some people said.

While the two neighborhoods are only 10 minutes apart, they couldn’t be more different, as one political insider said.

“I mean it’s really Lake Katherine versus Shandon,” Katon Dawson, former South Carolina Republican Party chairman said. “I call Shandon ’Little Nantucket’, and I call Lake Katherine, ’God’s country’. I mean, it’s Little Nantucket versus God’s country.”

SHANDON NEIGHBORHOOD

Glenn Matthews, 48, owner of a termite pest control company has a Finlay sign in his yard. Matthews, who has lived in the area for the 20 years, is in a business club with Finlay and said he had been a good friend.

“He came from a family with money, so he can’t really be bought like a lot of politicians can and he’s kind of no nonsense,” Matthews said. “He’s got a common sense approach … and I kind of like that. He’s also pro business, which I’m a business owner, so I try to be pro business as well.”

Matthews was one of a few houses in the Shandon neighborhood near Five Points with a Finlay sign. The rest were stacked with Bauer signs.

Matthews doesn’t know Bauer, but he is a Republican and she’s a Democrat. It is as straightforward as that, he said.

Matthews, like many of his neighbors, doesn’t talk politics with them.

“No, I don’t think anybody’s ever said anything to me one way or the other,” Matthews said. “I’ve learned don’t talk religion, politics or football if you don’t want to get in a heated argument, you know?”

Matthews said he wants Finlay to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer money, as he was as a representative. He said he hopes Finlay would continue to bring people and businesses to the area.

Janete Lockhart, who had lived in Shandon since 2003, has a Bauer sign.

Finlay was too ready to do what anything developers or business people wanted, she said. “I just thought he was too cozy with that,” Lockhart said.

“Abortion rights isn’t really my big issue, but she’s certainly strong on that and then the gun violence she has strong positions on that,” Lockhart said about Bauer.

She hasn’t noticed political talk among neighbors, even though she has a “sense” of where some of them are at politically.

“They haven’t specifically said and I haven’t specifically asked which side they’re on. So, I mean, you know, obviously those that have signs, but yeah, just a general sense that, you know this is not a pleasant election,” Lockhart said.

Lockhart said it’s concerning to see the South Carolina legislature so “lopsided.”

“I would tend to vote Democratic, just to bring some more balance to it,” Lockhart said, saying the Republican-led legislature makes it hard to make changes.

She wishes the legislature, and both candidates in House District 75, would spend more time focusing on things that really matter, Lockhart added.

“We spend so much time just on issues that, to me, are not the most important things,” Lockhart said. “I mean, you know, the whole abortion thing is… it just gets waved around as a red flag. It’s important, but it’s not. There’s a lot of things that you know are more basic. That stuff just doesn’t come up a lot.”

Ann Elliott has a Bauer sign and said she supports her because she is a woman with integrity and courage.

“She’s been standing up for things that are important to me, like the right for a woman to have control over her own reproductive health, and she’s been instrumental,” Elliot said.

She recently took action to try and help Bauer get re-elected.

“I think there’s an awful lot at stake. And so instead of being in anguish and clutching my pearls, I decided I would do something,” Elliot said.

Elliot invited women in her different networks to her house to see what they could do. She formed the group, Save Our Democracy, a few months ago that has been campaigning for Bauer and others. She doesn’t know what the group will do after the election, but it’s nice to bring women together, she said.

“I have three granddaughters, and when they say, ‘Grammy, what did you do to save democracy?’ I want them to know I did something.”

Elliot said they knock on doors, make phone calls, put out signs and contribute money. Bauer is also part of the group.

“A lot of people just don’t answer the door, so you leave material,” Elliot said of door knocking for Bauer. “So did I change anybody’s mind? I can’t say that I did.”

It takes courage to do what Bauer’s doing, Elliot said, especially after what happened with three GOP women Senators being ousted in the June primaries.

“There were women in the State House, who, because they took a courageous stand, are no longer there. Yeah, so it takes courage to do what she’s doing. I think we need a more representative group. Women make up more than 50% of the state,” Elliot said.

“If we don’t support women, and put them like Heather Bauer in the place to make decisions on our behalf, then we’re going to perpetuate this patriarchy and this imbalance, and people generations down the line will think, oh, this is normal. This is how you do things,” Elliot said.

Blair and Dennis Wiehl, who had lived in the Shandon neighborhood 26 years, also have a Bauer sign in their yard.

Dennis serves on the Shandon neighborhood council. Bauer came to a lot of the meetings to let people know what was going on at the state house, he said. Dennis said her visits weren’t just about what she was doing, but to inform the neighborhood council on what was going on.

Both Dennis and Blair liked that Bauer was a candidate who cares about education, was pro-choice and showed up locally. They had also seen ads and heard Finlay didn’t show up to vote when he was a representative in the house.

Shandon is a pretty Democratic area because of its relationship and proximity to the university, Dennis said. Despite Finlay’s family ties, the “liberal stronghold,” in Shandon and greater Columbia would pull through for Bauer, he believed.

BETWEEN GOD’S COUNTRY VS. LITTLE NANTUCKET

In between Shandon and Lake Katherine neighborhoods, houses with Bauer or Finlay signs area scattered in cul-de-sacs and intersecting streets.

One of the Finlay houses in that stretch belongs to Dawson, the former South Carolina Republican Party chair.

“It’s a really tight race,” Dawson said, adding the remainder is going to be “kind of ugly and snotty, and we expect that, and you’re used to that.”

Dawson said Bauer did a good job of door knocking, and has good TV commercials. He added that Finlay’s commercials were also good, and said one of them was funny, and that’s unusual for Finlay, because he’s a “real serious guy.”

“Kirkman’s conservative ... he is one of those members who’s not a go-along, get-along guy. He reads everything, he studies everything, and he built a constituency up there. He was really able to get a lot of things for the city of Columbia. Heather is taking credit for most of them,” Dawson said.

“To Heather’s credit, she’s very likable,” Dawson said. “Kirkman is a frank guy. He’s just frank. That’s the best way to say it, I mean, there’s no fluff to Kirkman Finlay, there’s a lot of fluff to Heather Bauer. She wasn’t supposed to win, she worked like hell.”

But Bauer can’t make any policy, Dawson said. There’s not enough Democrats in the House to be able to do anything.

“We do need a two-party system, it’s just not there,” Dawson said.

“That’s what they are, the Shandonistas,” Dawson said of the voters in that Shandon neighborhood. “I was so embarrassed. My son bought a house in Shandon. I said, ‘son, you have moved in with the communists.’ ”

“My signs usually win more than theirs do,” Dawson said about his neighbors, who had Bauer signs in their yards.

LAKE KATHERINE

Just across the lake in the Lake Katherine neighborhood, one of the only houses with a Bauer and Harris/Walz sign sits in a cul-de-sac in a sea of at least 50 Finlay signs.

Laurie Bessinger has lived in the neighborhood for 54 years, and he did notice a difference in attitudes from his neighbors as the election nears.

“From their standpoint, it is, from my standpoint, it’s not,” Bessinger said. “They’re reluctant to speak, and basically, that started in 2016. I mean, lines were drawn. Actually, the lines were drawn when Obama ran. The division started back then, and it’s gotten worse.”

Bessinger said he remembers his mother voting for Obama, and being so proud, especially that an older woman who had grown up in the South her whole life voted for America’s first Black president.

But from there, he noticed a shift in how people interacted with each other concerning politics.

“There’s a lot of when you walk up, conversations stop, and you know why they stop? I mean, here again, I’m the only one on the street with Heather’s sign out there. I feel sorry for them.”

Bessinger said he knew Finlay’s father well. He said he has tried to view Finlay in a positive light, and really didn’t dislike him. But Finlay was more against things than for them, he said.

“I think Heather has done a good job in the two years she’s been there. She pulled off the biggest upset in Richland County two years ago. There was no way that anyone thought that she stood a chance much less to win, and she has held herself out to be a good representative and stood for the right things at the state house in the face of being in the minority. I mean, let’s face it, this is a red state … and she’s held her ground.”

Ellen Barron had a Trump flag, Trump/Vance sign and Finlay sign in her yard. There was also an inflatable Make America Great Again Trump figure in their side yard.

Barron said she was voting for Finlay because she knew him and his family. She grew up in Forest Acres and has always supported the family and their values, she added.

Deans Fawcett was born and raised in the Lake Katherine neighborhood, living there for over 61 years. Just down the road, her daughter and grandchildren settled in the neighborhood, too. Her mother was just right around the corner, she added.

Fawcett has known Finlay and his family almost all her life, as she recalled how his father was a wonderful mayor. They all go “way back,” she said.

“Kirkman is one of my really good friends. I am a huge supporter of Kirkman, and mostly because he aligns with a better way to benefit the city of Columbia,” Fawcett said.

Fawcett emphasized Finlay doesn’t need to run for office or be a representative, he has a successful life on his own. He has no ulterior motive, she added, he’s only trying to make the state better.

She said the neighborhood is a “third generation,” area, meaning most people in the Lake Katherine area were born and raised, as she had been, and grew up with Finlay and his family. She said the neighborhood has always voted primarily Republican.

Fawcett said Finlay is “fabulous,” and she really wanted him to win. She plans to hand out candy bars on Halloween with personalized “vote for Kirkman Finlay” wrapping on them.