Bestler | No one to vote for in McClellanville

I'm not exactly disenfranchised, but on many election days I have no one to vote for.

The problem is that I'm a voting member of the Town of McClellanville and again last Tuesday, just like some voting days in the past, there was no election. The same old mayor and the same old council will just keep going for another two-year term.

How does that work? Charleston County, which sets the rules for our elections, determined that there was no opposition to the incumbents and also that no one signed up as a write-in. So enjoy your day, McClellanville. Just sit back and watch Charleston and Georgetown and Myrtle Beach slug it out at the ballot box.

It's been that way pretty much since Rut Leland became mayor of McClellanville. That would be, according to his best recollection, either 1975 or 1976. Leland, then mayor pro tem, actually took the office when the mayor at the time died.

Now that Charleston's long-time mayor, Joe Riley, is leaving office, the 72-year-old Leland will become the longest serving mayor in South Carolina.

“I guess in another year or two I'll have served longer than anyone,” he said. “Joe Riley was elected about a year ahead of me.”

Leland has mostly run unopposed, although he could recall a year when a woman in the village ran hard against him, even putting up signs around town.

“I think she got about 75 votes and I got about 125,” he said.

What it all tells me is that we in McClellanville are very satisfied with our way of life. Give us our post office, our boating dock, our Dollar General, our T.W. Graham's and we'll stay happy.

It helps that Leland is simply a nice guy. He's come to my rescue from time to time. Once, when he made a simple adjustment to my water pump, he noted that, well, you're from the city.

It also helps that McClellanville does not have any big, divisive issues. Most every question that comes up is discussed and settled by consensus by the Town Council.

Leland is one of five votes on the council - just about the extent of his official mayoral duties - and he could not recall a single negative vote in council chambers.

“There may have been one or two over the years, but I can't remember them,” he said.

He didn't say it, but that could change in some future day when developers discover McClellanville and start looking for ways to bring to our town water and sewer and other modern conveniences.

Thing is, we're pretty darn used to our water pumps and septics. Y'all can keep on goin'.

Contact Bob Bestler at bestler6@tds.net.

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Bestler | No one to vote for in McClellanville."