CHARLESTON, S.C. - Four years ago, one of the hottest, most unusual political campaigns in the state played out in Goose Creek as Rep. Shirley Hinson and her estranged husband faced each other in a GOP House primary amid allegations that she had an affair James Law, then a legislator from a neighboring district.

Hinson and Law say they didn't. Then last week, the couple returned from the Bahamas fresh from saying "I do."

"We've known each other for so long, and we just decided we wanted to do this," Hinson, R-Charleston, told The Post and Courier of Charleston Monday. "Everybody deserves to be happy, and we are happy. I wish this much happiness for everybody."

"We are tickled to death about it," Law a Moncks Corner Republican said.

Two years before facing his wife in the GOP primary and runoff, Jimmy Hinson had been arrested on charges he'd made a telephone death threat to Law. Sworn court statements from a detective noted late night meetings between his wife and Law, including once in a car on a dirt road.

So news of the marriage "proves what I said all along," the former school principal said. "That there was something going on."

Shirley Hinson said again Monday that she and Law were never romantically involved before her divorce with Jimmy Hinson. "It is the truth still," she said.

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Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.charleston.net/