A clerk of court candidate is questioning why the incumbent, Elizabeth M. Smith, knowingly hired a temporary, part-time employee who has pending drug charges. (More)

The South Carolina Federation of Republican Women elected Sen. Catherine Ceips as the winner of the 2008 Strom Thurmond Award for Excellence in Public Service and Government at its recent quarterly meeting. (More)

State Senate candidate Tom Davis is outspending his opponent by 3-to-1, according to documents filed with the S.C. Ethics Commission this week. But that doesn't include thousands of dollars that the S.C. Senate Republican Caucus is funneling into Sen. Catherine Ceips' campaign to pay for television spots and a Web site. (More)

The Lady's Island Business and Professional Association, along with the Beaufort Regional Chamber, will sponsor a "Meet the Candidate" social event at the Sheriff's Camp on Chowan Creek Bluff from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday. (More)

The Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with The Beaufort Gazette, the Lady's Island Business and Professional Association and the Lowcountry Young Professionals, will host a primary candidates' forum on Thursday, June 5 at 6 p.m. at the Technical College of the Lowcountry's building 12. (More)

Residents who wish to vote by absentee ballot in the June 10 local and state primaries have two weeks to cast their ballots. (More)

The board of directors of the Beaufort County Association of Realtors last week decided it would endorse Tom Davis in the race for Senate District 46. (More)

When only 30 or so people showed up to $5 Lowcountry boil in Beaufort on Friday sponsored at cost by Sen. Lindsey Graham's campaign, attendees chalked it up to the weather. (More)

HILTON HEAD ISLAND -- Starletta Hairston, a GOP challenger for the S.C. House seat representing Hilton Head Island, is up in arms after two pricey campaign signs were uprooted from patches of state-owned lawn on either side of the J. Wilton Graves Bridge. (More)

State Sen. Catherine Ceips and the Conservation Voters of South Carolina make for odd bedfellows. The nonpartisan conservation group endorsed Ceips this week, about 12 months after it endorsed her opponent in the hard-fought special election that landed her in the Senate. (More)

At a sparsely attended campaign event in Beaufort on Friday, Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham promised he would work to solve the nation's immigration problems if reelected and pooh-poohed speculation that Arizona Sen. John McCain would tap him as a presidential running mate. (More)

In a press release Wednesday, Gov. Mark Sanford criticized state Sen. Catherine Ceips for abstaining from a "key vote" Tuesday for restructuring state government, called on her constituents to pipe up in favor of the effort and threw in a jab referencing her early departure from a Lady's Island campaign event. (More)

State Sen. Catherine Ceips and Republican primary challenger Tom Davisboth spoke at a forum that the Lady's Island Business and Professional Association hosted Tuesday morning, though the rhetorical advantage was clearly in Davis' corner -- because Ceips left. (More)

The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce has endorsed Republican state Rep. Richard Chalk of Hilton Head Island for re-election. Chalk represents District 123 and is seeking his third term. (More)

Republican Rep. Shannon Erickson has a big lead in her re-election bid to House District 124 on her only opponent, Democrat and Beaufort lawyer Jim Brown. (More)

BLUFFTON -- Against the Wild West backdrop of Montana's Grizzly Bar, state Sen. Catherine Ceips and her challenger got into a shootout over whether she has delayed a local developer's appointment to the state Ports Authority for political reasons. (More)

The S.C. Club for Growth, an organization that calls itself the leading fiscal conservative advocacy group in the state, has endorsed Tom Davis for Senate District 46. (More)

Disappointed by what they call a lack of support for issues that would help Lowcountry residents, some Beaufort County officials are backing challengers rather than the area's two incumbent GOP state legislators. (More)

BLUFFTON -- Disappointed by what they call a lack of support for issues that would help Lowcountry residents, some Beaufort County officials are backing challengers rather than the area's two incumbent GOP state legislators. (More)

Thanks to contributions from a group of Republican state senators, businesses and political action committees, incumbent state Sen. Catherine Ceips has a huge campaign cash lead on her opponent, fellow Republican and former governor's chief of staff Tom Davis, according to campaign finance records filed April 10. (More)

A representative from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's office will meet with residents from Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton and Colleton counties from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday in Port Royal's Town Hall, 700 Paris Ave. (More)

The Beaufort Area Republican Club will hold its annual meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at St. Peter's Hall on Lady's Island. (More)

Republican Gov. Mark Sanford on Monday endorsed his former chief of staff Tom Davis in his run for Senate District 46, the second time in as many years that he has gone to bat in the district's elections and that Catherine Ceips, the incumbent senator this time and a rising representative the last time, has been the opposition. (More)

Gov. Mark Sanford and state Senate candidate Tom Davis will be at Blackstone's restaurant in downtown Beaufort at 2 p.m. today to hold a question-and-answer session about issues facing the community. (More)

Local officials and at least three legislators from the area are at odds again, this time over a plan to pay for capital projects that's being sold as an alternative to impact fees. (More)