A candidate for mayor of Charleston, South Carolina was arrested over the weekend and charged with driving under the influence (DUI).
Debra Gammons, 63, was arrested by officers of the Mount Pleasant, S.C. police department and booked at the sheriff Al Cannon detention center at approximately 1:15 a.m. EDT on Saturday (August 19, 2022). Charged with first offense driving under the influence, she was released roughly thirteen hours later.
A magistrate released Gammons from custody on a $992 persona recognizance bond, according to jail records. She is scheduled to make her first court appearance on September 6, 2023.
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Gammons is an “attorney, educator, mediator, public speaker, mother, Lowcountry native and wife,” according to her campaign website. Her mayoral bid seeks to “strengthen equality in our city and within city government” as well as “improve public transportation, reduce traffic congestion and support residents and local businesses.”
According to her bio, Gammons has “an impressive background in leadership and academics.” A graduate of the College of Charleston and visiting professor at the Charleston School of Law, she is a former employee of the S.C. ninth circuit solicitor’s office. Prior to that, she was assistant city attorney in Greenville, S.C. for eleven years.
Gammons is one of six candidates who filed for mayor – including incumbent John Tecklenburg, who has held the office since January of 2016. Another is former state representative William Cogswell – who is believed by many to be the frontrunner in the race.
“From crime and growth to affordability, infrastructure, and flooding, we must address the issues we face in innovative ways,” Cogswell wrote on his campaign website. “To do this, Charleston needs a strong and proactive leader to move our city forward.”
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Far left activist and social media provocateur Mika Gadsden is also running, as is Clay Middleton – a public affairs executive and former aide to U.S. congressman Jim Clyburn. Attorney and city councilman Peter Shahid rounds out this crowded field.
A seventh candidate – 24-year-old Presbyterian College alumnus Julia Marsh – declined to file, indicating she planned to endorse one of the other candidates in the race.
Marsh did not immediately say which of the other candidates she planned to support.
Charleston’s mayoral election is scheduled for Tuesday November 7, 2023. The last day to register to vote is October 8, 2023. Of interest? The municipal election requires the winner to receive a majority of the ballots cast, meaning if no candidate gets more than fifty percent of the vote in the initial round of balloting, a runoff race between the top two candidates would be held two weeks later – on November 21, 2023.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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8 comments
No mug shots? Clearly she’s a victim. Move along, nothing to see here.
Of course this was a set-up (if it actually happened at all). I grew up in Louisiana, and in my early life I thought the Carolinas were more progressive than states in the “deep” south like Louisiana and Mississippi. Boy, was I ever wrong about that. Both states today are worse than Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana combined when it comes to political corruption, old-boy networks, and pure, unadulterated support of racism in ALL its forms.
Damn, the only candidate I truly liked. Oh well …
That guy sounds like a real winner to me.
Buyer beware. DUI is often a symptom of bigger issues.
And then there were five??
Everyone knows you don’t d and d in Mt. Pleasant.
Ira G will throw the book at you.
Driving drunk and DUI consequences are generally far too soft. Throw the book at her. She’s touted as one with “an impressive background in leadership and academics” and served within the judicial system. This idiot is a “Do as I say, not do as I do.” And if she had any integrity, she’d drop out of the mayoral campaign.