Four Democrats and two Republicans will compete in separate primary races June 28 leading up to the special election Aug. 16 to replace Rep. Walter Lloyd, D-Walterboro, who died in April.
District 121 comprises more than 14,000 registered voters in Beaufort and Colleton counties, with 62 percent in northern Beaufort County, including Yemassee and Sheldon, part of Burton, all of Pigeon Point and downtown Beaufort north of North Street and west of Charles Street.
Republican Brad Dralle of Lobeco and Colleton County Democrats the Rev. Kenneth Hodges, Bobby Mayes and Reaves McLeod spoke Monday at the monthly meeting of the Pigeon Point Neighborhood Watch.
Republican candidate Jennifer Bailey of Beaufort and Democrat Ja-Don Buckner of Colleton did not attend the meeting.
Dralle said schools can improve by getting priorities in order, first focusing on education and then on extracurricular activities.
"First we need the books and then the football fields," he said.
Calling for increased spending to attract and keep young teachers, Hodges said an African proverb should lead school spending.
"How are the children?" he asked. "That needs to be our first question."
Regarding new business, Hodges and Mayes highlighted the potential of the ACE Basin to draw Beaufort tourists up the rivers. The basin is a collection of wildlife and natural preserves that includes portions of the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers.
"It's like an egg sitting there waiting to be hatched," Mayes said.
McLeod said new infrastructure paid for through a combination of state and local dollars could provide some of District 121 with needed jobs and improve substandard residential septic and water systems.
"Sewer and water isn't a luxury," he said. "It's a quality-of-life issue."
Although work needs to be done to attract new business, Hodges said fostering existing business should also be a priority.
"We overlook the fact we can do things to strengthen already existing businesses," he said.
For residents concerned about tax increases and overspending in Columbia, Mayes said new taxes must stop.
"They raise taxes and they raise their pay," he said. "They've got plenty of money already."
But McLeod said the answer isn't always "no new taxes" if the project is worthy and alternatives are exhausted.
"Nobody wants to make the tough decisions anymore," he said.
With a property tax bill that increased 700 percent after the 1998 reassessment, Dralle said he knows something needs to be done to protect property owners from tax hikes.
"I don't know anyone that could afford that type of increase," he said.
The neighborhood watch hosted the event to introduce the candidates to residents and highlight the community as a voting block in the district, said group President Roger Blocker.
"We feel like we've been way out there on the wing, out there being left off," he said.
The candidates seeking the Republican nomination, Bailey and Dralle, are scheduled to appear at 8 p.m. Thursday on "Coastline," WJWJ's call-in show.