Former city councilman Mike Sutton running for mayor of Beaufort
BEAUFORT, Sc. (WTOC) - Two candidates are running in a December special election after Beaufort’s former mayor resigned with about a year left in his term.
While the election is still a ways out, the filing period is over and candidates are finalized.
Former city councilman Mike Sutton wants Beaufortonians to ‘push the Sutton Button’ in December, hoping to build upon former mayor Stephen Murray’s legacy.
“We had a great mayor who resigned after three years. He set in motion some very significant pieces of work that need to continue. That’s one thing that’ll happen if I get elected. But the reason I ran is to fill those needs for the next 11 months and see if the Beaufort people can gain the trust in me to take them for another four-year period,” said Sutton.
One of Murray’s decisions he agrees with is removing the Historic Beaufort Foundation’s recommendation for a member of the Historic District Review Board. Sutton is actually the vice chair of that board.
“There is no reason for a nonprofit to have a permanently assigned seat on any board or commission in the City of Beaufort. HBF is a great organization. Could be doing a lot of great work, related to preservation, but has seldom stepped up to the plate to actually work with the folks owning the homes and actually doing the preservation work,” said Sutton.
To Sutton… historic preservation is important, but it’s not everything, focusing heavily on development and infrastructure.
“But look, we’re not killing history, and we’re not going to let it be harmed. This is a national landmark district. It has protections in place. As the mayor I’ll make sure those are priority one on the historic district but like I said earlier, there’s more to Beaufort than just the national landmark district. We have a city of 14,000 people, and we need to pay attention to all citizens’ needs,” said Sutton.
The special election is on December 12. Since the term is only until November 2024, Sutton hopes to run for reelection.
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