3:30 p.m. This one’s easy. Bill Banning, who was a prime advocate for regional cooperation when he served on Lexington County Council, came in and gave us reasons why he should get the seat back from Joe Owens, who refused to do so.
An interesting postscript occurred after our endorsement ran. Our publisher got a phone call, which he passed on to me. It was interesting because it illustrated an attitude that we ran into a good deal on the Lexington Medical Center controversy — the terrible political divide that the river constitutes.
Here’s a portion of what the caller had to say about Mr. Banning (which frankly, reinforced our impression that Mr. Banning is a bridge-builder):
"The whole time he was on county council he did nothing but marry up with the major of Columbia and said the heck with West Columbia. And how dare you let a neighbor of Bill Banning’s put an editorial in here attacking Joe Owens? So you can take your State newspaper and stick it somewhere."
That neighbor would be me. Turns out Mr. Banning lives somewhere in the same subdivision where I do — although I don’t know where exactly. As for what that’s worth, the caller could ask Bill Riser, who lives across the street from me.
And "attacking Joe Owens?" Read the endorsement. If Mr. Owens had wanted to tell us some reasons we should endorse him, he had the opportunity.
Related Posts
