Kennedy, Jackson in Runoff; Dickerson Looking at Recount
BLYTHEWOOD – With a razor-thin margin of 52 votes, Derrek Pugh of Blythewood ousted 12-year Richland County Council incumbent Joyce Dickerson in an upset. Dickerson told The Voice Wednesday morning that she is unsure of the numbers and plans to look into a recount of at least some of the precincts. Pugh had 2,708 votes to Dickerson’s 2,656.
Pugh carried all Blythewood 29016 precincts handily and took big chunks out of Dickerson’s votes in her home areas in St. Andrews, also an area where Pugh did some growing up.
While constituents in Cedar Creek backed Dickerson in response to her pushing back against Fairfield County’s proposed wastewater treatment plant she lost some steam in Blythewood, specifically in Crickentree’s Kelly Mill precinct where she fought and won a two-year zoning battle with residents.
Without providing documentation guaranteeing a promised 250-foot buffer between Crickentree residents and an undetermined number of homes proposed on the adjoining former Golf Course of South Carolina, Dickerson led the charge on third and final reading to rezone the golf course from Traditional Recreational Open Space (TROS) zoning to Low Density Residential (RS-LD) zoning. More than a hundred Crickentree and area residents attending the meeting.
Blythewood is represented by three different Richland County Council representatives. Here are the results of the other two contests.
In County Council District 7, Incumbent Gwendolyn Kennedy, with 2,758 votes (41.58%), was forced into a runoff with Gretchen Barron who took 2,420 votes (36.48%). Richard Brown finished with 1,455 (21.94%).
District 9 incumbent Calvin ‘Chip’ Jackson, with 2,503 votes (49.67%) will be in a runoff with Jonieka Farr who had 1,218 votes (24.17%). Angela Addison took 937 votes and Blythewood’s Jerry Rega received 381.
The runoff elections will be held June 23.
