I'm having trouble sleeping tonight and we're one week away from the election. I've made no secret of the fact I plan to vote straight party Democrat for the first time (or as I joking say, gay party) but I'm not going to be foolish about it. I know many races are still unopposed republicans or have no democrat, so I'm still going through my ballot for the other races. For years I've had to write-in family and friends, fortunately this year I don't have to do it for state house, but there's still going to be cause to write-in some races.
I'll start with Comptroller General. Far be it for me to judge someone's personal life, but there was a scandal over our current Comptroller sending racey emails to a then female Candidate for Superintendent of Education, and Richard Eckstrom just won't get my vote. I'm casting a write-in vote for my father Dan Patten, Jr ; a former CPA.
Due to the Democratic candidate for Superintendent of Education being disqualified from the ballot, it's an unopposed republican, and since I'm writing in my father, I'll write in my mother, Jean Patten, a retired public school guidance counselor.
While we're on the subject of education, the ballot question this year is whether to elect our superintendent as in the past and present, or make it an appointed position. This is the one issue I disagree with our democratic candidate for Governor. Currently, if you're elected to a four year term and not doing your job, it's very hard to get rid of you. If it's appointed, however, and you're not up to snuff, the governor could get rid of you. And there should be consistency, even if it is a republican administration.
One Republican I may vote for is our Commissioner of Agriculture, Hugh Weathers. I LOVE the "Certified SC Grown" campaign, and when I was doing my research on him, I found and article from 2016 on how he supports immigration reform and he recognizes the contribution immigrants, legal and illegal, make to our states agriculture industry. It may be an election day decision, however, as there is a green party candidate, who I could find little information on. There's also a United Citizens Party candidate, but I can find no info on him.
There's a petition candidate for circuit solicitor 13, Lucas C. Marchant, who has the support of my new democratic friends.
I'm writing myself in for Auditor against Scott Case, who is responsible for passing our counties "anti-gay ordinance" in 1996. Basically an individual was upset at the Olympic committee for supporting gay rights, so they faxed an ordinance to upstate counties where the torch run was coming through in order to disrupt it. Spartanburg county council passed it, but then realized what they had done and repealed it the next day. Greenville county council then got their teeth into it, and after both sides and made their speeches for and against, Scott Case basically said " I'm tired of this taking up council time" and it passed. In case you're wondering, even though I'm not really interested in or qualified for the job, I submitted my name as a write-in candidate and a vote for me should count. (That's Daniel Patten...note the -en not -on, although I specified both should be acceptable.)
County treasurer is an unopposed republican, and my youngest sister, Caroline Wylupek has an MBA from Clemson.
There's a non partisan race for soil and water commission, and Mike Stewart is the only person I can find any info on. He's a high-rankung member of the green party here in the upstate, and he is very active on Twitter. He's a huge soccer fan and seems to follow most sports except college football, which I'm willing to overlook. The only thing I know about the other two candidates is they are the incumbents. That leaves one spot open. My first thought was my friend David Phillips, who my late friend David Morris and a bunch of us got elected as a write-in candidate one year when only one name was on the ballot, but since the rest of my family are getting write-in votes, I can't leave out my sister Katie Batson, who has a degree in science (I think biology) from the University of South Carolina.
So 5 write-ins, all family, 1 petition and one either republican or green. Every other race, Democrats get my vote.
