Mount Pleasant Magazine Jan/Feb2016

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“There was no official slate. It was just four guys with
similar ideas, and Save Shem Creek recognized that,”
Brimmer said.
Bustos, who served on the Council from 2000 until
2009, was quick to point out that his campaign didn’t
receive any money from Save Shem Creek, while Bagwell,
a councilman from 1975 to 1980
and again from 1981 until 1988,
said “not one cent was given to
anyone or spent on a campaign.”
“Save Shem Creek is not a
political action committee and
there was not a slate, but, as
individuals, our members expressed
a personal opinion as to who
should be elected,” Bagwell said.
The three former councilmen
disagreed with Bagwell’s assessment
of the situation, each of them
insisting that Save Shem Creek was
well-organized and armed with an
efficient battle plan.
“If you look at the votes, the
people who backed them were
very consistent in voting for all of
them,” said Nickels, who served
on the Council for four years. “There wasn’t a large
discrepancy in their vote totals.”
“We learned about the power of social media,” he
added. “Things can go out on social media and spread
quickly, whether they are factually correct or not.”
“Their ground game was more substantial than I had
given them credit for,” Glasson, a Council member for
nine years, said. “People aren’t going to do research.
They’re going to believe what they hear.”
All three incumbent councilmen cited a long list of
accomplishments during the past four years, including:
road work on Highway 17, Johnnie Dodds Boulevard
and Hungry Neck Boulevard; the beginning of phase 2 at
Shem Creek Park; new restrooms at the farmers market
in front of Moultrie Middle School; construction starting
on the new Town Hall; extended hours and free parking
at Memorial Waterfront Park; body cameras for Mount
Pleasant police officers; improvements in the town’s
recreation program; the establishment of a $30-million
reserve fund; the town’s contribution to the Medal of
Honor Museum at Patriots Point; and a program that
dedicates funds for infrastructure issues every year.
They also pointed to the town’s excellent rating from
both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, which reduces
Chris Nickels and Chris O’Neal simply crushed by
the wave of anti-incumbent sentiment that seemingly
has swept the nation at every level during an especially
contentious political season?
The answer to these questions depends on who you
ask, of course, as does the issue of whether former
Councilman Joe Bustos and political newcomers Will
Haney, Jim Owens and Bob Brimmer were part of a slate
supported by Save Shem Creek, an organization launched
in 2014 by “people who felt the voice of the people
wasn’t being heard,” according to founding member
Jimmy Bagwell.
What is not open to conjecture is that by the time the
votes were counted in the ensuing runoff, it was obvious
that the makeup of the Council was about to change in a
drastic way. Glasson, Nickels and O’Neal were gone, along
with Thomasena Stokes-Marshall, who did not seek re-
election, replaced by four candidates who received, at the
very least, tacit approval from the Save Shem Creek board
of directors.
According to Brimmer, a former member of the town
Planning Commission, there was little the incumbents
could have done to save their seats on the Council.
“It wasn’t about them. They got caught up in an anti-
incumbent wave,” Brimmer said. “People were concerned
about the direction of the town, and they took it out on
the incumbents. That concern was hard to overcome.”
Brimmer, Bustos, Haney and Owens all denied that
there was a Save Shem Creek slate, though the incumbents
disagreed.
Jimmy Bagwell, a former member of the
Mount Pleasant Town Council, was a
founding member of Save Shem Creek.
Photo by Brian Sherman.