Bailey started out Tuesday as a Democratic candidate who had filed papers and written a check confirming his intent to run again.

With only minutes to go before the filing period closed, Bailey telephoned a friend and asked him to enter his name in the Republican primary by using GOP paperwork Bailey had filled out and signed the day before, he said.

The move left Bailey as the only candidate in the June 8 primary for House District 97 who filed to represent either party. The move has so infuriated state and local Democrats that they are looking at ways to disqualify him.

"It's the most bizarre thing I've ever encountered in Dorchester County politics, and that's saying a lot," said William McIntosh, filing officer for the Dorchester County Democratic Party. "It's fundamentally deceitful and dishonest."

McIntosh said it was especially underhanded because Bailey's real estate and construction office in St. George was the official filing center for all Democratic office-seekers in the county.

That gave Bailey inside information on whether he'd have faced opposition in the primary for a seat that leans overwhelmingly Democratic, McIntosh said.

According to McIntosh, after the filing period closed Tuesday, Bailey invited him and several other Dorchester County leaders who were watching the end of filing, into his office. It was 12:05 p.m. — about five minutes after the filing had officially closed, he said.

" 'You guys are going to want to kick my ass for this,' " McIntosh quoted Bailey as saying. " 'I've got something I need to get off my chest.' "

That's when Bailey told them he had also filed as a Republican, McIntosh said, too late for Democrats to find a substitute candidate. Reached Tuesday in Columbia, Bailey declined to comment about that meeting but said he saw nothing improper in his decision to file under two parties at the same time.

"Over the past few years I have not agreed with the policies of the Democrats," he said. "I'm pro-business. I'm conservative, and in the end I just had to come to the determination of what would be best for my district."

"I didn't wake up off the turnip truck," he also said. "I know they are upset. I guess if I did that to the Republicans they'd be upset, too." His earlier filing papers are still in the possession of the Democratic Party.

The legal recourse Democrats have to keep him off the ballot is unclear.

Truett Nettles, a Democrat and former member of the Charleston County Election Commission, said Bailey may have broken the candidacy pledge he was required to sign when he filed originally with the Democratic Party.

The pledge says candidates promise to abide by primary results and affiliate themselves with the Democratic Party.

Nettles, who is not representing the Dorchester Democratic Party, said the harm in allowing such a move to stand is that if taken to the extreme, filing day ambushes could emerge in elections around the state as candidates try to thwart the chance of having opposition. "It's having your chance at political office stopped or just zeroed out," he said.

House Democratic Minority Leader James Smith of Columbia issued a statement about Bailey's actions late Tuesday saying the party "will do everything within our power to protect the right of Dorchester County voters and to ensure a fair election for their state House seat."

Also switching during the filing period was Hemingway Rep. John "Bubber" Snow. With the addition of Snow and Bailey to the ranks of Republicans, the GOP would have control of 75 of the 124 seats in the House of Representatives.

As filing closed around the state Tuesday, several primary battles were finalized. Among the key races this June:

Six Republicans and two Democrats are vying for the nomination to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings. The Republicans include former Gov. David Beasley, former Attorney General Charlie Condon, Bluffton resident Orly Benny Davis, U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint of Greenville, Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride, and Charleston developer Thomas Ravenel.

Democrats in the race include little-known Ben Frasier of Wadmalaw Island, and the party favorite state Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum. Camden native Marcus Belk did not file for the seat after announcing a bid earlier.

Charleston's two seats in Congress also have duels. In the 1st Congressional District, two-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Henry Brown of Hanahan faces Republican primary opposition from Myrtle Beach resident Bob Batchelder, who has run for the office at least twice before. No Democrat filed for the seat, meaning the winner of the primary is practically assured the seat in the November election.

In the 6th Congressional District, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn faces no opposition in the primary. But two Republicans will face off for the party nomination and the right to take him on in the fall: Gary McLeod of Manning and Michael Reino of Florence.

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