High-stakes race: Hilton Head’s Ward 4, not mayoral seat, drawing the most contributions

In the race for Hilton Head Town Council in Ward 4, the two candidates for the seat — incumbent Tamara Becker and former councilwoman Kim Likins — have together raised nearly $50,000.

That far outpaces the three-way race for Hilton Head mayor, where candidates have raised around $10,000 total.

The Ward 4 Town Council race has emerged as the cycle’s veritable financial slugfest, with the candidates’ fundraising combined rising to nearly three-times more than the next closest local race, Ward 2.

Likins received $29,118 this election cycle, while Becker brought in $19,020 according to the South Carolina Ethics Commission.

The Island Packet reached out to Becker and Likins, but neither candidate could be immediately contacted for comment about their fundraising efforts.

Both candidates received nearly all of their contributions from individuals. Under South Carolina law, candidates are limited to accepting $1,000 in contributions from individuals and $1,000 from corporations during a single campaign cycle.

Both candidates received contributions from current officeholders across Beaufort County, the reports show.

Becker received:

▪ $300 from outgoing Hilton Head Mayor John McCann.

▪ $200 from outgoing Ward 5 Councilman Tom Lennox.

Neither McCann nor Lennox could not be reached for interviews about their support for Becker’s campaign.

Likins received:

▪ $500 from embattled County Councilman Stu Rodman. Rodman declined an interview on his support for Likins’ campaign.

$1,000 from Sea Turtle LLC, a company registered under Martin Gleason in the South Carolina Secretary of State’s records. The company is listed under a local address on Man O’War.

▪ Martin Gleason individually contributed $1,000 to Likins, as did Anthony Gleason. Both contributions list them as retired.

▪ $1,000 each from a Suwanee, Georgia, mailing address for Ernest and Susan Leffler, and a Mason, Ohio, address for Bradley Leffler.

While Likins sports the fundraising edge, Becker has so far spent more on her campaign. She reported $12,094 in expenditures to Likins’ $7,156. About $5,736 of Becker’s expenditures have been paid to AEI Marketing, a firm based in Bluffton.

Full finance reports for each candidate are available on the South Carolina Ethics Commission’s website.

Mayoral fundraising comparatively low

The island’s three mayoral candidates, by comparison, have a stark funding gap.

Alan Perry has outraised JoAnn Orischak, $6,987 to $2,900, respectively. Among Perry’s notable supporters are Mary Ann Peeples, wife of former Hilton Head Mayor Tom Peeples.

Michael Santomauro has not raised money this election cycle, according to the ethics commission website.

The fundraising divide illustrates spending differences as well — Perry has spent just under $4,467 on his campaign, $2,500 of which was paid to Heather Rath Consulting services. Orischak has used $293 total on printing campaign materials, according to the ethics commission reports.

Perry and Orischak both said their fundraising and spending efforts haven’t been changed by what their opponents are doing. Perry estimated he’d end up raising around the same $14,000 he earned in the 2018 election.

“There’s no intention not to raise or not to spend,” Perry said. “Maybe (the funding difference) is because Ward 4 is more contentious, and people have stronger beliefs there, but I don’t know.”

Ward 4 is notably the only race featuring an incumbent in Becker defending their seat, and Likins is a unique challenger as someone who’s previously held the office for two terms.

The funding divide could also be explained simply through Likins’ candidacy in the Ward 4 election and absence in this year’s mayoral race. When Likins ran for mayor in 2018, she was the second-highest fundraiser, with $59,785 reported in her final filing.

A fundraising gap was even more likely to emerge with Orischak’s entry into the mayoral election. Orischak said she’s always tried to avoid donations from large groups or businesses in previous school board elections, and has maintained that strategy in her mayoral race.

“I have really put limitations on my fundraising by accepting no PAC contributions certainly, and no contributions from businesses, to avoid the appearance down the road of conflicts of interest,” Orischak said. “And perhaps I’m just a terrible fundraiser, I haven’t been overly aggressive in reaching out. For the most part the contributions I’ve received have been unsolicited.”

Other races

All numbers reflect totals for the entire election cycle, according to their latest campaign finance reports:

Ward 2

Stephen Arnold

Contributions: $2,777

Loans: $5,047

Expenditures: $4,851

Patsy Brison

Contributions: $6,470

Loans: $2,621

Expenditures: $4,477

Ward 5

Stephen Alfred

Contributions: $5,443

Loans: $4,600

Expenditures: $7,505

Chuck Dowd (withdrawn)

Contributions: $1,500 personal / $550 cash / $997 in-kind

Loans: $35

Expenditures: $2,482