Copyright Charleston Post and Courier
Voting does matter. That lesson was learned again Nov. 4 as Aiken County voters headed to the polls for municipal elections across the county. Three seats on Aiken City Council were contested, and the prevailing thought was that the Republicans in those races had the upper hand. After all, the districts lean GOP and Aiken itself is mostly Republican. Democrat Lessie Price was running unopposed and was reelected. Pete Messina and Barbara Morgan won their respective races, but the upset of the night belonged to Braylen Waldo. The political newcomer, a Democrat, beat Republican Kent Cubbage by just 12 votes. Waldo is 27 and is reportedly the youngest person elected to Aiken City Council. Now city council has three Democrats, joining Price and Gail Diggs, for the first time since Odell Weeks was mayor. It's also the first time that three African-Americans have served together on that body. But the city council will still be led by women with seats occupied by Milner, Morgan, Diggs, Price and Kay Brohl. A total of 2,725 votes were cast in the city, a turnout of about 17 percent of eligible voters in the contested districts. Waldo garnered 362 votes to Cubbage’s 350. Frankly, that turnout is pathetic. For all the moaning and complaining about city issues, I expected more folks to show up at the polls. But they didn’t. In 2023, incumbent Mayor Rick Osbon lost in the primary to Teddy Milner by just 14 votes but the turnout was more robust. Showing up does matter. With early voting for two weeks before election day, there aren’t many good excuses to not cast a ballot. Now the city must move forward with three new faces on city council. There are important issues ahead, namely Hotel Aiken and related downtown issues. Remembering Rob I never worked with Rob Novit, but I wish I did. The longtime journalist died Nov. 4. He was 76. Novit touched the lives of many around Aiken County during his time as a reporter at the Aiken Standard from 2001-16. He primarily covered education, and many local teachers and administrators still fondly remember him. Bill Bengtson wrote a nice tribute in Thursday’s paper. We call them “news obits,” and Bengtson has a flair for writing them. When a story is long, he likes to say they are “Rob Novit” in length because the former reporter was known for writing long on his subjects. I told Bengtson he went “Rob Novit” on the Rob Novit obituary. The highest compliment a journalist can get is that he/she is fair and unbiased. That’s what one of the folks said about Novit. The family asked for donations be made to Gentiva Hospice, the Special Olympics or a charity of one’s choice. News Editor Shana Donahue suggested that Novit would approve of our investigative and public service journalism fund, and that’s what some of us are going to do. World Series I don’t want to say I told you so. But I told you so. In my column a couple of weeks ago, I suggested that we could be in for some heroic home runs in the World Series pitting the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Toronto Blue Jays. Turns out there were several historic, and heroic, homers in that epic World Series that went the full seven games. The Dodgers are my favorite professional team, and I was feeling good after they went up 2-1 with Freddie Freeman’s home run that ended the marathon 18-inning game in Game 3. Then the Blue Jays won the next two games and only needed to win one game at home to clinch their first championship since 1993. The Dodgers won Game 6 thanks to an outstanding defensive play by my wife’s favorite player, Kike Hernandez. That set the stage for a memorable Game 7. The Blue Jays took a 3-1 lead and were up 4-3 going into the ninth inning. But light-hitting Dodger infielder Miguel Rojas tied it with a rare home run, and then the fun really began. The Blue Jays loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but Rojas made a solid play to force the second out at home plate. Then Ernie Clement hit what looked to be a game-winner, a drive deep into left center field. But Andy Pages, fresh in the game as a defensive replacement, made a spectacular catch as he pushed Hernandez out of the way. Neither team could score in the 10th, but Will Smith hit a solo home run in the top of the 11th to give the Dodgers a 5-4 lead. Los Angeles pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who came in relief in the ninth a day after being the starting pitcher in Game 6, got out of another jam in the bottom of the 11th by inducing a double-play grounder to end the game. This game ranks up there with the greatest of all-time, even the wild Game 6 from the 1975 World Series. I thought the Dodgers had lost it on about three different occasions. But they didn’t, and I’m still celebrating. Thanks for reading.
