Gilland’s shot at senator falls short
Filed Under Caucus, Rankin, Top News
Four-term state Sen. Luke Rankin crushed Horry County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland more than two to one in complete but unofficial returns to hold onto his place for nomination for the Republican slate on the November ballot.
“I am relieved and gratified,” Rankin said. “I’m looking forward to going back to work.”
After vote totals were in, Gilland said: “I just got shellacked.”
Later Rankin said: “The margin of victory certainly indicated that it was a well-crafted campaign.”
Howard Bond, who filed to run, did not campaign, so the race came down to which of the two well-known politicians voters thought could best could serve Horry County and the district in the Senate.
Rankin will face Democrat Jara Uzenda in the November election. In 2004, he beat Uzenda more than three to one.
Gilland said she is a woman of faith and she took the message to mean that she is supposed to go back to work at her job as leader of the county council.
“He ran a great campaign; he outspent me 10 to one,” she said.
Gilland ran low-budget campaigns for her county office, and the Senate race was no different. As of the May 26 required pre-election report, she had spent about $2,000 and had $14,000 on hand.
Rankin, however, had spent $94,000 and had $207,000 still in the bank.
“I’ll just put my nose back to the grindstone and do my job,” she said.
Gilland said that Rankin did little for Horry County during his tenure, participating in budget approvals that continued to add to state mandates that county governments have to pay for, or which denied money to the county that should have been allocated.
Rankin said he has done much for the county in his 16 years, including helping to form the state Infrastructure Bank that provided backing for the road-building program, and helping to prevent the state-owned electric provider Santee Cooper from being privatized.
In his campaign ads, he criticized Gilland for taking trips to Japan and Hawaii. She said the Japan trip was for economic development and the Hawaii trip was the annual National Association of Counties.
State Senate District 33 Republican primary
(100 percent of precincts reporting)
Howard Bond | 3.6 percent
Liz Gilland | 27.7 percent
Luke Rankin, (i) | 68.6 percent
What it means | Sen. Luke Rankin holds the Republican party nomination to face Democrat Jara Uzenda in the general election. He beat the same candidate handily four years ago.
The Sun News
By Zane Wilson
June 11, 2008
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