COLUMBIA, S.C. - Almost all the candidates are in, and at least one statewide incumbent will have an easy re-election.

No Republicans or Democrats had signed up or even said they had intentions of running against Republican Attorney General Henry McMaster.

"We won't know until noon," Lachlan McIntosh, the state Democratic Party's executive director, said of whether Democrats will field someone for McMaster's job.

But, any candidates who haven't at least started raising money and building a base will face a tough battle in June's primaries.

Florence Mayor Frank Willis, for example, waited until Wednesday to file his paperwork with the state Democratic Party seeking the gubernatorial nomination. But Willis has been "running" for almost a year.

Willis will face state Sen. Tommy Moore of Clearwater in the Democratic primary. Gov. Mark Sanford faces Prosperity physician Oscar Lovelace in the June 13 Republican primary.

Willis was the last of the announced gubernatorial candidates to file before Thursday's deadline.

There were some late entrants in other races as former state Education Board member Henry Jordan filed to run for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor.

Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer faced questions Tuesday and Wednesday about reports that he had been stopped twice since December for speeding - most recently more than 100 mph in a 70 mph zone - without being ticketed by the Highway Patrol. Bauer was expected to file for re-election late Wednesday.

Rock Hill activist Kathy Bingham says people are recruiting her to run for the No. 2 statewide position.

Bauer already faced Republican Mike Campbell, a son of the late Gov. Carroll Campbell, in the primary and Democrat Robert Barber also is in the race.

The noon deadline, however, likely will pass without a Democratic candidate coming forward to run against McMaster.

McIntosh said it is not unusual for Democrats to have one office without a candidate. He and his counterpart at the state Republican Party, Katon Dawson, agreed that incumbent attorneys general frequently are unopposed.

Even with the hole in the Democratic ballot, "it's looking like we're going to have the most candidates filing for statewide and congressional offices that we have had in a decade," McIntosh said. "I don't remember the last time we had a candidate in every congressional race."

Most of those candidates, however, won't be tested in primaries.

"In some ways, that's a good thing," McIntosh said. "It means they can spend the spring raising funds and doing thing they ought to be doing."

While unopposed Democrats won't spend cash on primaries, they'll miss the opportunity of getting voters thinking about them before the November elections, Dawson said.

"It motivates our base to go vote in the primary," he said.