SWANSEA, S.C. — In less than two weeks, local elections will be taking place all across the Midlands, including a contest for mayor in the Town of Swansea.
The town is currently under the leadership of a pro-tem mayor after their previous leader was indicted on charges of embezzlement and suspended by Governor McMaster.
The new candidates are looking to put all of that behind the town. News19 got a change to catch up with them this week.
Hunter Hackett, Michael Luongo, Viola McDaniel and Ray Spires -- those are the four candidates running to be mayor of Swansea.
“Coming up on the election season, I was like, 'You know what, I’m going to throw my hat in the ring,'" says youngest of the group, Hunter Hackett.
Hackett tells us he owns a land and aquatic management company called Hackett Management Solutions and also grew up in Swansea. He says he’s tired of people moving away. “For the highest tax rates in Lexington County, it’s sad that we can’t offer them more. And there’s been a stigma for a long time of ‘There’s nothing in Swansea, nothing’s ever going to be in Swansea and I’m just like, it’s time for us to change that. It’s time for us to stop talking about all of the bad things and focus on the positive and start moving forward with things.”
Michael Luongo is a current councilman for Swansea who has owned and operated a small business for over 30 years. Although he didn’t grow up in Swansea, he learned to love the small town through his wife, who did.
“If I’m able to win their vote, as their mayor, a couple things first is we want to make sure that our council, which is a strong council-weak mayor form of government, is put back into place," Luongo says.“That’s why I put my name in the hat for mayor is to hopefully continue what I’ve been doing for the last four years.”
Viola McDaniel wants to bring Swansea together. She grew up in town and raised her own family in town and, now that she’s retired from over 30 years of service with DHEC, she wants to serve as mayor.
“I’ve always been involved with the town and everything, and I noticed how the council itself was separated and they weren’t getting much done," McDaniel said. "So, I want to get in there and be a unifier, and try to bring the town together where we can get things done as a team because if they follow the articles of the strong council-weak mayor system, it’s a team work, team effort.
Former mayor Ray Spires is looking to run again after losing in an election against the previous Swansea Mayor Jerald Sanders. He says he has called Swansea home for his whole life and wants to continue doing good work for the people.
“Well, I had been mayor in Swansea for 17 years," Spires says. "I left office in 2017, and I’ve had so many citizens come to me, business owners asking me to reconsider. They appreciate what I had done and they wanted to see some more good things happening and right now, they weren’t seeing it.” Spires said. “We’re a small town. We don’t have a lot of money so we have to pinch every penny. We’ve got so the main thing is trying to find some extra revenue out there to help not only the town, but to help the business owners.”
All four candidates are encouraging all town residents to come out on November 2nd to elect who they think is the right fit.