PAWLEYS ISLAND — Steel union chapter President James Sanderson will no longer serve on the Georgetown County Board of Elections and Voter Registration, pending the governor’s approval of his successor.
That was the main result of a heated county legislative delegation meeting among the County’s four state representatives and senators that stretched well over an hour at the county chamber of commerce’s legislative breakfast on Jan. 27. If approved, Georgetown resident Harold Jean Brown-Williams will succeed Sanderson on the elections board after Sanderson’s term expired Dec. 1.
The unanimous vote to appoint Brown-Williams follows a December accusation by the Georgetown County GOP that Sanderson took part in political activity that violated state law.
The county GOP called for Sanderson’s removal citing a May statement that he gave to Georgetown Times, which the county party chair claims endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mia McLeod, and political contributions to Georgetown candidates from the United Steelworkers district office.
“Right now, from all I understand, she is very much the person that working people should consider for governor,” Sanderson told the Times when McLeod visited Liberty Steel Georgetown on May 16. He also said that as chair of the county elections board, he could not formally endorse a candidate.
Sanderson has been the president of United Steelworkers Local 7898 in Georgetown since 1988.
“I don’t need to wait for some investigation to conclude, I’m just going to take it from Mr. Sanderson’s mouth that he’s a partisan,” state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, a Murrells Inlet Republican, said Jan. 27. “Not only is he a partisan, he’s a partisan that’s given open endorsement in The Post and Courier for a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, which creates not only doubt, but angst.”
Sanderson denied any wrongdoing last month, reiterating that his statement was not an endorsement and saying that he had nothing to do with political contributions made by the district office in Alabama.
State Rep. Carl Anderson, a Georgetown Democrat, and state Sen. Ronnie Sabb, a Greeleyville Democrat, both defended Sanderson in the aftermath of the call for his removal. Sabb called Sanderson “an upstanding citizen” and claimed the county GOP had weaponized the governor’s office in asking Gov. Henry McMaster to remove Sanderson.
Sanderson said he wishes the board only the best and thanked Sabb and Anderson for giving him the opportunity to serve on the board by voting for his appointment.
“It was very much a rewarding experience, and I think that we as a board made a great deal of progress working together,” Sanderson said.
Nearly 20 minutes of conversation followed after Anderson asked that the delegation adjourn and take up elections board appointments at its next meeting. Goldfinch countered that the delegation should finish its agenda.
Discourse devolved from there, with Goldfinch at one point asking Anderson if he intended to walk out of the meeting.
Brown-Williams’ name was ultimately put forward by Sabb after state Rep. Lee Hewitt, a Murrells Inlet Republican, agreed to withdraw his nomination of Leigh Ann Musiol of Pawleys Island.
A similarly tense discussion resulted over the appointment of Georgetown Mayor Carol Jayroe to the board of directors for the Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments, an agency that fosters governmental cooperation among Georgetown, Horry and Williamsburg counties.
Jayroe, the city’s first Republican mayor, was appointed unanimously, though not before a motion to table nominations to the council was overruled by the votes of Hewitt and Goldfinch, whose votes overruled those of Anderson and Sabb by population weight.
Goldfinch felt the delegation should move forward with council appointments. Anderson said he wanted to wait until a later date to ensure compliance with the required balance of elected and nonelected officials on the board.
After the motion to table failed, Anderson said the use of weighted votes on the four-member delegation to rule against or for a candidate sets a bad precedent for future delegations.
“This is procedural stuff,” Anderson said. “I don’t want anybody to feel like we are against the mayor. That’s not it. It’s just where we’re headed as a delegation. And it makes us look bad in front of the press that is here that will be putting this out, but it also makes us look worse in front of you who stayed to be a part of this meeting today.”
