Reitz beats Rodman for Beaufort County Council. He wasn’t the only incumbent who lost
Newcomer Tom Reitz outsted longtime incumbent Stu Rodman in the race for District 11 on the Beaufort County Council in Tuesday’s Republican primary — and incumbent Paul Sommerville of Beaufort also was defeated in the District 2 contest, based on unofficial results.
With 99% of the precints counted countywide, Reitz had 1,785 votes, or 66%, compared with 900 votes, or 34%, for Rodman, according to results provided by the Beaufort County Board of Registration and Elections.
The election results for Beaufort County were released at 1 a.m. Wednesday and included 96 of the county’s 98 precincts.
Jean Felix, who heads the county’s Board of Voter Registration and Elections, said the two precincts that were not included in the results probably will not affect the outcome of any races but the county won’t know for sure until Thursday when it canvasses the votes. Also, the county still needs to count provisional ballots.
The results were delayed for hours as the county grappled with problems due to the countywide redistricting that caused several names to be omitted from the ballot.
The Rodman-Reitz clash was one of six County Council races on the Republican ballot but none figures to affect the power structure of the council more than Rodman’s District 11, which encompasses the southern section of Hilton Head Island as well as the Atlantic coastline from Port Royal on the north to South Beach.
During the campaign, Rodman, running for a fifth four-year term, touted high-profile endorsements and his leadership roles and accomplishments such as a $27.5 million runway extension project at Hilton Head Airport in 2017 that he says he helped broker.
But in recent years, Rodman’s tenure had been marked by controversies including his role in a botched county manager search and the short, turbulent tenure of Ashley Jacobs that followed, and a string of well-publicized missteps that raised concerns about how he wields his influence and connections with little regard to his obligations as a public official.
In March 2020, the 77-year-old businessman from Sea Pines resigned as chairman of the County Council after his fellow council members threatened to remove him form the post.
Reitz, 60, a business development manager running for the County Council for the first time, ran on a platform of change and argued Rodman had lost touch with his constituents.
Reitz will face Democrat Cathy McClellan in the November general election.
Here are the results for the other contested races:
District 2
Incumbent Paul Sommerville, a management consultant, faced attorney David Bartholomew, both of Beaufort. The district includes Beaufort, Lady’s Island, Fripp Island and the Marine Corps Air Station.
With 100 percent of the votes counted, Bartholomew had 1,404 votes, or 51.2%, compared with 1,336 votes, or 48.8% for Sommerville.
District 4
Incumbent Alice Howard, a retired natural resources and environmental director at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, faced a challenge from Josh Scallate, a firefighter and Realtor, in the district representing Beaufort, the Town of Port Royal, Shell Point and Parris Island.
With 100% of the precincts counted, Howard had 1,174 votes compared with 1,030 votes for Scallate.
District 6
Businessman Mike Covert ran against Anna Maria “Tab” Tabernik, a retired educator. The district includes Sun City, Okatie and Pinckney Colony.
With 100% of the votes counted, Tabernik had 1,435 votes compared with 1,129 votes for Covert.
District 8
John Vincent Zmarzly, a Bluffton businessman, and Paula Brown, squared off in District 8. The district includes portions of Hilton Head Island and Bluffton.
With 100% of the precincts counted, Brown had 1,115 votes compared with 908 votes for Zmarzly.
District 9
Incumbent Mark Lawson and Shellie West Hodges, both of Bluffton, faced each other in the Republican primary representing Bluffton, Pritchardville and Daufuskie Island.
With 100% of the precincts counted, Lawson had 956 votes compared with 472 votes for West Hodges.
Names missing from ballots
A hiccup occurred in some precincts late in the process when the names of several County Council candidates did not appear on the ballot for people who were voting early. The Beaufort County Board of Registrations and Elections said the problem was not widespread and affected only about 70 ballots. The problem occurred, the office said, because changes brought about by recent redistricting were not synced with voting information.
Covert, in District 5, first brought the issue to the attention to election officials when he was casting his ballot during the early voting period and found his name was not there. The name of his opponent, Tabernik, wasn’t on it either.
Later, West Hodges, in District 9, said she was informed by some residents of her district that there were issues there, too. Covert and West Hodges late Friday filed for a temporary injunction asking a judge to stop the South Carolina State Election Commission and Board of Voter Registration and Elections of Beaufort County from continuing the voting process. They argued that some early who did not have the chance to vote for the candidates and were denied their constitutional right to vote. And that this could impact the final results.
Felix said the county had not been served a paper copy of the complaint and that the election was proceeding as usual.
This story was originally published June 14, 2022 at 10:59 PM.
