Howard Duvall
Y’all remember several months ago when I interviewed Tige Watts, who was running against Cameron Runyan in this year’s election for at-large Columbia City Council member?
Well, if you’ll recall, a couple of months later Tige dropped out, to be replaced by his political ally Howard Duvall, whom most folks know as the longtime director of the South Carolina municipal association, now retired.
Well, here’s how all that happened, according to Howard, whom I interviewed this morning:
Howard and Tige are both involved with a group that concerns itself with good local government as they see it, along with Kit Smith, Candy Waites, Ginny Grose and several others.
Back last November, they decided to do a poll to examine the feasibility of one of them challenging Cameron Runyan for his at-large seat on City Council. This was close to the time when the incumbent was taking his lonesome stance against benefits for same-sex partners of city employees. And sure, there was a good bit of bitterness out there on account of his having been elected with gay community help, before his big conversion experience.
But Howard says that was not the impetus. The members of his Good Government Group were united in opposing him because he supported the deal for the baseball park at the Bull Street development. The Triple-G had thought he was on their side after they had presented him with facts and figures that they thought made an overwhelming case against the deal, and when he voted the other way, giving the proposal a 4-3 victory, they decided they had had enough of Cameron Runyan.
They did ask a question on their poll as to whether voters could support an openly gay candidate, and 70 percent responded affirmatively. That and the rest of the poll persuaded Tige Watts, a political consultant, that he should be the one to run. The rest of the group agreed, and he started talking up his candidacy.
But as time passed, others in the group began to have their doubts. They were worried that Tige wasn’t raising enough money, and that he was having trouble balancing his work with the time that such a candidacy demanded. Other members of the group got together and decided that Mr. Duvall, who is retired, would be able to commit the kind of time and effort that success would demand.
So he approached Mr. Watts, who initially responded by proposing that both run, and promise each other that if either got into a runoff, the other would endorse him. That was on a Monday. By Friday, he had thought better of that, and said he would drop out and endorse Howard.
Since then, the Duvall campaign has been fairly active, with the candidate spending several hours a day on the phone either raising money (he’s shooting for $100,000) or seeking other forms of support. And yet the campaign hasn’t been officially launched. That is set to happen on September 9. Tonight, one of the Republican members of Duvall’s backer group is hosting him at a reception at which about 100 Republicans — not the usual allies for him, or for Kit or Candy — are expected.
With Duvall, you have a great believer in professionalism in local government, and someone who could reasonably claim to be as well qualified as anyone you can imagine. He was a several-term councilman and then mayor of Cheraw, his hometown, before he become head of the Municipal Association in 1987. He also holds a master’s degree in public administration from USC.
In other words, he’s a pretty logical replacement for Tige Watts, who is a national leader in neighborhood associations.
I have a lot of respect for Howard, and for the folks in his group, even though they were the cabal behind defeating the strong-mayor initiative, with Howard being the guy who managed to get the vote separated from the mayoral election, which is what did the proposal in.
See, that’s what Howard means by professionalism in government — that it should be run by an unelected, professional manager instead of an elected mayor.
I’m not going to get into all the reasons he’s wrong about that at the moment. For now, I’ll just say that his long experience and dedication to municipal government in this state makes him a very strong candidate.
He’s running on a platform of improving public safety and updating infrastructure, by which he means water and sewer.
Meanwhile it appears that Runyan is still in it, based on an email I got today inviting me to this Rally.org page.
And I believe John Adams, son of ex-mayor Patton, is still in it as well — although I haven’t heard anything about it since March, which was back before Tige Watts dropped out.
I guess I’ll need to run him down next.
Meanwhile, dig Howard’s wild campaign poster and logo. He says it’s Ginny Grose’s design. The little triangle in the D is supposed to look like a fast-forward button, he says. Some GOP allies thought it looked too much like the arrow in Hillary Clinton’s logo, but they went with it anyway.
It looks to me like a title page for a cartoon — more like Howard the Duck (who, you will recall, ran for office on the ticket of the All-Night Party in 1976 — campaign slogan, “Get Down, America!”) than Howard the Duvall. But I’ve got to say, it’s distinctive.
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It just looks like a sports drink is running for office.
It looks like a comic book.
I admire many of the people who are in the group, but it reminds me of the old Shandon Mafia. It will probably come down to who will do the least harm.
The Shandon Mafia, as you call them, did a decent job, for the most part. Mayor Bob’s “boondoggles” pale in comparison to the Bull Street projects.
He’s sort of responsible for this one, too, no? Or at least a key player in the deal that shafted the city…
I do hope that his health is improving though.
I know Howard personally, and he is truly one of the kindest persons I know. But I am gonna tease him about that campaign sign.
Good Governance requires an empowered, accountable executive leader. If someone doesn’t understand that, than they really aren’t what they say they are. Maybe they should call themselves The Protectors of the Status Quo? After all, that’s really what they are.
Leadership – the drive forward – is something very different.
You are RIGHT, sir!
I believe Howard Duvall has more credentials than anyone else reading this blog to determine whether a strong mayor is a good idea or not. I agree with him.
Then make the compelling argument. Rigging the election to thwart a meaningful vote is, once again, not good governance.
Leadership is not cynical, insider manipulation. We are all credentialed to comment on that score.
I asked Howard for some more info on the Good Government Group. He provided that, plus a clarification — Rusty DePass has been involved with the group on previous issues, but is not involved in this campaign (so I’ve removed his name above). Here’s what Howard said:
A little more news: John Adams, son of former Mayor Patton, is still a candidate. I spoke with him briefly today, and I’ll be sitting down for an interview with him week after next.
The reason I was uncertain was that I had seen no news reports about his candidacy since March (when Tige was still in it), and he had not posted anything on his campaign blog since then.
But he says he’s in.
There were also reports back around that time that Preach Jacobs, a local hip-hop artist, was looking at a run. Haven’t heard anything more on that. I’ll try to run him down.