Millwood wins with large margins, Upstate shows Republican stripe
Published 11:34 am Friday, November 7, 2008
Republican Joey Millwood of Landrum easily won election to the S.C. State House of Representatives District 38 seat Tuesday evening.
Millwood, a reporter for the Tryon Daily Bulletin, won 8,043 votes, 60 percent of the 13,263 votes cast, and took all 11 precincts in District 38 ranged across northern Spartanburg County.
Democrat Mark Chambers won 28 percent of the vote in the heavily Republican district, with 3,732 votes.
A write-in campaign for Bob Walker, the incumbent representative who was beaten in the Republican primary last spring, garnered the majority of 1,488 write-in votes, or 11 percent of the total.
&dquo;I&squo;m thrilled and I&squo;m ready to get out and work for House District 38,&dquo; Millwood said Wednesday. &dquo;I worked hard and stuck to my plan and it all worked out in the end.&dquo;
Millwood said his plan all along had been to make as many personal contacts with voters in the district as possible. He estimated that, since last March, he had knocked on 2,000 doors and made personal contact with between 3,500 and 4,000 people.
&dquo;I think my true conservative message also registered with voters,&dquo; he said.
Millwood had his best showing in the Bowen precinct, where he won 1,302 votes, and in the precincts of Cherokee Springs B, 984, and New Prospect, 943.
In Landrum, Millwood won 730 votes, to 326 for Chambers and 477 write-in votes.
In Campobello, Millwood won 738 votes, to 326 for Chambers and 210 write-ins.
In a measure of the Republican nature of the Upstate, the McCain/Palin ticket took 60 percent of the vote in Spartanburg County, and 61 percent of the vote in Greenville County. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham took 58 percent of Spartanburg votes and 60.5 percent of Greenville votes.
Nearly all voters voted straight party tickets in Spartanburg County, 53.5 percent of those being Republican voters. In Greenville County, 56.3 percent voted straight Republican.
In the Landrum precinct, 519 voters, or 71 percent of all voters chose a Republican straight ticket, and nearly 73 percent voted for McCain/Palin.
In the Campobello precinct, 465 voters, or 75 percent of all voters chose the straight Republican ticket, and 76.3 percent of voters chose McCain/Palin.
In the Gowensville precinct, 419 voters, or 79.2 percent of all voters chose the straight Republican ticket, and 77 percent of voters cast ballots for McCain/Palin.