Hutto ousts Scarborough
Democrat claims victory with 205-vote margin
JAMES ISLAND — Democrat Anne Peterson Hutto pushed ahead in the House District 115 race Wednesday and appeared to have knocked four-term Republican incumbent Wallace Scarborough out of office.
With all precincts reporting and the absentee ballots counted, unofficial tabulations showed Hutto leading Scarborough by 50.48 percent to 49.33 percent, a margin of about 205 votes, with 34 write-ins.
A recount is not automatic because the difference is more than 1 percent.
"I'm ready to start work tomorrow," Peterson Hutto said Wednesday night in declaring victory and thanking voters for their support.
A Hutto win marks a significant pick-up for Democrats as Scarborough was seeking his fifth term in Columbia. Hutto, an attorney and mother, is making her first bid for office.
Democrats considered the seat, which also covers parts of Folly Beach, among the two or three in the House they could pick up with a high voter turnout.
The race was hotly contested, and Hutto even revisited the 2006 incident in which Scarborough was arrested after accidently firing a handgun at the ground when two South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. workers wandered onto his parents' property.
The assault with intent to kill charges eventually were dropped, but Hutto used the incident in a controversial campaign flier that questioned Scarborough's character.
Scarborough on Tuesday assumed he had a victory after the polls had closed for the night. But his optimism came early and before all the ballots had been added in Wednesday night.
Earlier in the day Wednesday, Scarborough said he was not ready to concede the race, and referred to unspecified irregularities in Tuesday's vote.
The results for all the local races will be certified Friday by Charleston County election officials.