South Carolina's primary and general election races began to gel Thursday as the two-week filing period for candidates got under way with a flurry.

First to file at state party headquarters in Lexington were Republican candidate for lieutenant governor Mike Campbell and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, both at 12:01 p.m., one minute after the books opened.

Democrats were a tad slower off the mark, with 3rd Circuit Solicitor Kelly Jackson filing for re-election at 12:12 p.m. Tyre Lee filed for 6th Circuit solicitor at 12:21.

Eight minutes later, Tommy Moore, a state senator from Clearwater and candidate for governor, became the first Democrat to file for a constitutional office, followed by Robert Barber of Charleston, who is running for lieutenant governor.

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They were the only Democrats to file.

All nine constitutional offices, from governor to agriculture commissioner, will be on the ballot along with all 124 state House seats, the six U.S. House seats and numerous county-level offices.

Filing will end at noon on March 30.

Neither Republican Gov. Mark Sanford nor his announced primary challenger, Oscar Lovelace, a Prosperity physician, filed Thursday.

Jason Miller, Sanford's campaign manager, said the governor would file next week.

Moore, signing the filing document after a Statehouse rally, asked rhetorically, "Can you imagine that someone from a small mill village in the Horse Creek Valley of Aiken County is putting his name on the ballot for the Democratic nomination for governor?"

The 25-year state senator said his goals are "a first class public education system, a first class economic system and an effective and efficient government that spends no more than necessary to provide real service and real value, but also a government that is willing to invest in human development."

His announced opponent, Florence Mayor Frank Willis, will file next week, said his spokesman, Joe Werner.

Campbell, 36, a Greenville native and son of the late Gov. Carroll Campbell Jr., filed with his wife, Ruffin, daughter Riley, brother Carroll III and mother and former First Lady Iris Campbell looking on.

Five-year-old son Rhodes opted for a pre-school field trip.

Campbell is challenging Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer who did not file Thursday.

Karen Floyd, a Spartanburg lawyer-businesswoman and one of several announced GOP candidates for state superintendent of education, formally opened her campaign headquarters in her hometown, then headed to state Republican headquarters where she officially became a candidate.

Although Floyd faces a potential five-way primary, the top tier of the Republican establishment has endorsed her, including Gov. Mark Sanford, U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson.

Democratic Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum isn't running for a third term.

Other Republican filers were Jeff Willis, an Easley businessman running for state treasurer, Secretary of State Mark Hammond, Adjutant General Stan Spears and Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom.

In Greenville, five of 12 County Council seats will be on the ballot this year, with two of them vacated by departing Republicans.

District 28 Representative Eric Bedingfield is leaving his southern county seat to run for the state House district of retiring Rep. Dan Tripp, R-Mauldin.

Mark Kingsbury has said he won't run for the western county seat he has held since 1994. Joe Dill, Judy Gilstrap and Xanthene Norris are defending their seats.

One other state House member is retiring, Rep. Lewis Vaughn, R-Taylors, the chairman of the Greenville legislative delegation. Republican activist Phil Shoopman has said he will seek the vacancy.

The day's lone surprise was a non-candidacy.

Eleven-term House veteran Ronny Townsend, R-Anderson, announced hours before the books opened that he would not seek re-election, touching off scrambling for an Abbeville-Anderson District 7 seat that hasn't been open for more than two decades.

Townsend, chairman of the House Education Committee since 1994, said, "It is time for me to step down."