Wide-ranging topics include marital woes, poetry, gunshots … and mud

By ROBERT BEHRE
Printed in its entirety from The Post and Courier

Photo: MELISSA HANELINE/STAFF
Republican incumbent Wallace Scarborough (left) and Democratic challenger Eugene Platt (right) take questions in the studio with Richard Todd during “ The Morning Buzz” at WTMA studios Wednesday. Scarborough and Platt are running for the District 115 seat in the S.C. House of Representatives.

The sign on the door said this radio studio was an “Indecency Free Zone.”

But that didn’t keep incumbent Wallace Scarborough and challenger
Eugene Platt from clashing over everything from Platt’s erotic poetry
to Scarborough’s marital woes to gunshots he fired near utility
workers in July to who was slinging the most mud.

Thanks to this kind of bickering, the race seems certain to go down as
one of the more unusual state House races in Charleston’s recent
history.

Scarborough, a Republican seeking a fourth two-year term in District
115, spent almost 90 minutes Wednesday morning debating Platt, a
Democrat and member of the James Island Public Service Commission,
during Richard Todd’s morning show on WTMA-1250.

“Talk radio is like a box of chocolates,” Todd told the candidates off
the air just moments before the debate began. “You never know what
you’re going to get.”

The show began with Platt criticizing a campaign mailing from South
Carolinians for Responsible Government. Platt said the nonprofit
group’s mailing suggested he had an incestuous relationship with his
daughter, whose enlarged photograph he brought into the studio.

The mailing referred to “Summer Days with Daughter,” a book of more
than 100 of Platt’s poems, several of which have sexual content. Platt
said its title comes from a single poem that was inspired by his
daughter, and that poem is not racy.

“I would challenge my opponent, here in the presence of God and, by
extension, your listening audience, to condemn this mailing as one of
the most dastardly acts in the history of South Carolina politics,” he
said.

Scarborough replied that he would consider doing so if Platt would
denounce his campaign Web site, which has had links to detailed
stories about Scarborough’s pending divorce and his alleged affair
with state Rep. Catherine Ceips, R-Beaufort.

Todd and a few callers asked Scarborough if he had an affair with
Ceips and whether it reflected on his integrity.

“Am I having a personal crisis in my life? Absolutely,” Scarborough
said, later adding, “I don’t know what my personal life has anything
to do with building roads on

James Island or fighting for the governor’s income tax plan, which I
am for and my opponent is against.”

One caller criticized Scarborough for his handling of a case this
summer in which he was charged with assault with intent to kill for
firing a pistol near S.C. Electric & Gas linemen in a West Ashley
backyard. Scarborough called it “a very unfortunate incident,” and
added, “I think the charges being dropped speaks for itself.”

The candidates also managed to squeeze in discussion about the
upcoming marriage referendum (both for), a statewide smoking ban (both
against) and school choice (Scarborough for more strongly than Platt).

The candidates are expected to face off again in a to-date unscheduled
televised debate on Comcast Channel 2 and at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 at James
Island High School.

Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771 or at rbehre@postandcourier.com.