Duffie Stone re-elected to solicitor’s post

Through jabs at his character and opposition from his former deputy solicitor, Angela McCall-Tanner, Duffie Stone was elected to his third full term as 14th Circuit Solicitor on Tuesday night.

Stone won 69 percent of the votes across Allendale, Colleton, Hampton, Jasper and Beaufort counties, beating McCall-Tanner in the Republican primary. She received 31 percent, according to the unofficial results.

Stone won all five counties individually, with Beaufort County also reporting 69 percent in favor of Stone and 31 percent for McCall-Tanner, according to the county’s Board of Voter Registration and Elections.

With all 92 precincts reporting in Beaufort County, roughly 8,495 voters cast their ballots.

“It has been a good experience,” Stone said of his campaign. “I’ve enjoyed getting out and talking to people and meeting new people, but I’m looking forward to going back to the job.”

Defeating McCall-Tanner all but guarantees Stone the position, as no Democratic candidate challenges him in the November general election.

Stone celebrated at The Lodge restaurant on Hilton Head Island, where he awaited election results with family, friends and supporters.

“(During) our whole campaign, we stayed on our topics and stayed positive,” Stone said. “I think the voters reacted well to that.”

The 2016 race for solicitor is the first where Stone, the incumbent, was challenged since he was appointed to the position in 2006 and successfully ran for two additional terms in 2008 and 2012.

McCall-Tanner worked as Stone’s deputy solicitor from 2006 to 2010 and headed his Career Criminal Team when it was created in 2009.

She began working for the Solicitor’s Office in 1999 before she entered private practice in 2011, started working for the Bluffton Police Department as chief of staff in 2012 and was sworn in as a magistrate judge in Beaufort County in 2014.

McCall-Tanner heard the news of Stone’s win surrounded by friends and family at Old South Golf Links in Bluffton.

“It was absolutely overwhelming and humbling to have the support I got, and I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to bring about the changes that they want to see made. ... I have no regrets,” McCall-Tanner said.

She could not comment on whether or not she will campaign again for the position in four years and was unsure of what her next step would be following the loss.

The race was a heated one as not just the two candidates participated in swaying voters.

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner — McCall-Tanner’s husband — accused Stone of covering up a theft investigation in the Solicitor’s Office in 2013 out of fear of bad press following a May 2 debate between candidates at Rose Hill.

“There was a reason I ran,” McCall-Tanner said. “There was a call for change from the people within the (law enforcement) system, and I hope he will listen.”

Stone accused Tanner of politics geared at getting his wife elected and said McCall-Tanner’s time as solicitor could be plagued by a conflicts of interest.

When asked by the paper what the future looked like for a relationship between the Sheriff’s Office and the Solicitor’s Office, Stone said he will continue to work professionally with law enforcement.

“We have a good relationship with the Sheriff’s Office,” Stone said. “There are Sheriff’s Office investigators in our office every day.”

On his relationship with Tanner, Stone said he was unsure of how the pair can clear the air after the difficult campaign.

“I don’t know,” Stone said when asked by the paper about sitting down with Tanner to discuss their differences. “We just have to see how it goes. But like I said, we have a professional relationship, and it has been constant. So I don’t think there is going to be a problem.”

Tanner declined to speak to the paper as he awaited election results.

In his next term, Stone said he plans to use the $650,000 in state funding to reduce caseloads for prosecutors and get cases to trial faster. The funding will be awarded to the circuit in July.

“I’m proud of what we have done for the past 10 years,” Stone said. “I hope we have earned the voters’ respect and trust. I think the (results) show that we have.”

This story was originally published June 14, 2016 at 10:18 PM with the headline "Duffie Stone re-elected to solicitor’s post."