By JAN TUTEN
Camden Bureau

CAMDEN

Incumbent Steve Kelly Jr. and A. T. “Hammy” Moak were the apparent winners of Kershaw County council seats, defeating incumbent. Don Nelson and Charlie Peebles.

Kelly and Moak, both Republicans, received 8,480 and 7,673 votes respectively. The two Democrats were eliminated with all 29 precincts reporting.

Nelson received 4,949 votes and Peebles got 4,423.

Moak an Elgin restaurant owner, attributed his win to a strong turnout for him in the area west of the Wateree River, which had no resident council member on the at-large council.

“It makes you feel real good when people close to you put you in office,” said Moak, who served on council from 1978 to 1980.

He said fiscal responsibility and accountability is his goal and “to make sure we get a dollar’s worth of work for a dollar’s worth of tax money.”

Kelly, a construction firm owner who served on council 12 years as a Democrat, cast his lot with the GOP this year, saying the “Republican philosophy of government is more attuned to my thinking.” He won his fourth four-year term.

Nelson, a Democrat who was seeking his third four-year term, won a party nomination for a seat with 2,778 votes cast during a June 14 primary.

In a primary runoff, Peebles out distanced a political newcomer Carla Parker 661 to 317 in a bid for the second seat.

Also running unopposed in a bid for clerk of court was Democrat Tillie Goodson. She received 7,830 votes.