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Date Published: November 3, 2004
Malloy defeats Arthur
By JIM FAILE
Hartsville Messenger
DARLINGTON — Democratic incumbent Sen. Gerald Malloy won
his re-election bid Tuesday night in the race for the South Carolina
Senate District 29 seat.
With 75 percent of precincts
reporting district-wide, Malloy held a 54 percent to 46 percent lead
over his Republican opponent, former state Rep. Warren
Arthur.
In Darlington County, which makes up the bulk of
District 29 and is home to both men, Malloy led narrowly with 11,212
votes, about 51 percent, to Arthur's 10,727, or about 49 percent,
with all precincts reporting.
Malloy also held leads in Lee,
Chesterfield and Marlboro counties, portions of which also lie in
District 29. In Lee County, Malloy led with 3,770 votes to Arthur's
1,106.
The Darlington County vote count went back and forth
through much of the evening.
Malloy's strongest showing in
the county came in the predominantly black Hartsville Precinct 6,
where he claimed 855 votes to just 38 for Arthur.
Arthur's
largest tally came in Darlington Precinct 3 where he captured 882
votes to Malloy's 486.
"First of all I would like to thank
all of the citizens of this district for the confidence they placed
in us to allow us to continue representing them in District 29,"
Malloy said. "I said from the beginning that I honored the
responsibility of the office and hold the office in trust for the
people. We are very proud that we ran a very positive campaign; we
focused on the issues, and we are looking forward to the opportunity
that we can offer each other, that we can take advantage of them by
working together.
"I think it's a great testament that we
ran well in all counties and improved from where we were before. I
think the fact that the citizens in Lee County, the citizens in
Chesterfield County, the citizens in Marlboro County and the
citizens in Darlington County allowed us to win each county shows
that we are trying to represent the entire district in placing
emphasis on every aspect of the district.
Malloy was also
conciliatory toward Arthur.
"I appreciate the fact that he
ran a hard race," he said. "We will reach out to his supporters at
this particular time and to make sure that they know that we plan on
representing them as well, that this is an effort that we intend to
try and bring the entire counties together, the entire district. And
everyone is welcome, because I think that's what the new day
represents. It's a time for us to build consensus. We're looking
forward to four years, a full term, and we're looking forward to
just continuing to working — it's all about service; that's what we
enjoy doing."
Repeated attempts to reach Arthur for comment
were unsuccessful.
Malloy is finishing up two years of the
unfinished term of the late Sen. Ed Saleeby, who died in 2004. He
defeated Arthur in a special election to serve out Saleeby's
unexpired term in 2002 and will now serve a full four-year
term.
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November 8, 2004 
