COLUMBIA, S.C. - There will be some new faces in the Statehouse next year after several incumbents lost their seats to challengers during Republican runoffs Tuesday.

Several runoffs for state legislative seats turned nasty and negative, and many incumbents, whether they decided to go negative or not, are going home.

In the Lowcountry, challenger Chip Campsen, a former aide to Gov. Mark Sanford, was able to oust Sen. John Kuhn in a Republican runoff. In unofficial results with 100 percent of precincts reporting, Campsen had 57 percent and Kuhn had 43 percent.

In other races:

_ Longtime Rep. Larry Koon, R-Lexington, accused challenger Nikki Haley of smear tactics, but Haley said Koon didn't do enough to reach out to voters. She may have been right. Haley defeated Koon with 55 percent of the vote to Koon's 45 percent, according to unofficial results.

_ Incumbent Sen. Bill Branton, R-Summerville, lost to Dorchester County Council Chairman Randy Scott, who garnered 67 percent of the vote compared with Branton's 33 percent.

Branton and Kuhn finished second in three-way primaries on June 8 but advanced to runoffs because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote.

Neither could make up the difference. Haley and Scott don't have opponents for November, but Campsen faces Democrat Constance Anastopoulo.

Kuhn's race was interesting even before the runoff because the senator had a spat with Sanford's wife, Jenny, outside the governor's office. The first lady made a donation to Campsen's campaign, which upset Kuhn. The confrontation became heated, but it was unclear how much effect it had on the outcome.

"I just think he outcampaigned us, period. He did a better job at it than we did," said Kuhn, who called to congratulate Campsen and tell him he had his support. He also disputed what his opponent called a negative campaign.

"We just reported the facts," Kuhn said. "Reporting the facts on my opponent's sweetheart deal from the federal government is not negative. It is what it is."

Kuhn was referring to when Sanford, as a congressman, pushed legislation to work out disputed fines with Campsen's family business.

Kuhn wouldn't talk about the dustup with the first lady after his loss.

Alan DiCarlo, a 72-year-old retired engineer from Mount Pleasant, said the incident argument didn't matter much.

"I'm thinking probably that Kuhn was probably correct in his position on that," DiCarlo said. "I think for his (Sanford's) wife to do that kind of thing and be so open about it - and I love Sanford - I don't think that was the thing to do."

Jane Johnson, 59, of Mount Pleasant said she voted for Campsen but was surprised to get a recorded phone call from Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer on Kuhn's behalf. Bauer also serves as the state Senate's president.

"I thought it was interesting last night that Andre Bauer called and was supporting Kuhn. I thought there may be a little friction" between Bauer and Sanford," the retired school teacher said. "That was the first thing that crossed my mind."

In the Midlands, Haley said voters were telling her Koon wasn't in touch with them. "Many have never met him," she said. "A lot don't know what he looks like."

That may have hurt Koon.

Koon, who has served in the House since 1975, said instead of spending a lot of time campaigning, he was working on the state budget in one of the toughest spending years he's ever seen. He also noted that the legislative session ended just days before the primary.

"I only had two weeks to get a campaign together," Koon said.

An interesting local race Tuesday was for Spartanburg County sheriff.

The 23-year-old son of Sheriff Bill Coffey admitted to taking down campaign signs of his father's opponent in the middle of the night just days before the runoff. The young man told a deputy he had removed signs, but he was not issued a ticket because the officer didn't see enough to even write an incident report, Coffey said.

Coffey's opponent, Chuck Wright, said he wasn't mad at the sheriff's son. "I'm disappointed. I forgive him. Let's move forward and stick to the issues," he said.

The incident could have backfired. Coffey lost to Wright in a runoff that saw more voters than the primary June 8, the (Spartanburg) Herald-Journal reported.