Yes, congratulations to Mike Ward for winning this election to Irmo Town Council. And as I have said in the past elections, and in this campaign, integrity is always of upmost importance, to me, and I believe most voters.
Unfortunately, I do not believe integrity matters to some candidates, some voters, nor some elected officials, current or past. But I will agree based on the 2024 presidential election not everyone has accepted the results of that progress with Grace either.
First, let me say I was not removed from office in 2019, I lost that election after serving eight years as Mayor and 6 as a council member, to councilman Walker. Who four years later was removed, as he calls it, and I will add for good reasons as well.
Not sure if Mr. Walker has the position to talk about stirring division since that is what he pretty much did the entire time I served on Irmo Town Council with him. His past as well is marked by many racially insensitive statements made, including during the discussion regarding the purchase of the land for the community park. He made a comment during the council meeting that he thought he should be the one talking to the seller of the property because he could do a better job of “jewing the seller down in price“. I did hear from constituents living in town that are of Jewish descent how offensive that was. At another meeting discussing the video poker machines that were in convenience stores owned by “Indians” as he stated, when asked by another council member what he was referring to, he pointed to his forehead and said something to the effect of Oh you know, those Indians. Mr. Walker evidently does not know the difference between racially insensitive, politically correctness, and faith based speech, but I am not surprised. Nor should he live in a glass house.
Voters did make their choice for mayor in 2019, and again in 2023 where they voted Mayor Walker out of office after 1 term and voted for Bill Danielson to be the next Mayor of Irmo.
It is now years later. I was actively involved in the last two Irmo elections. Putting my opinion out there about candidates running and the facts regarding whether those candidates actually lived in town at that time. They were not personal attacks. I provided factual information directly from county records as to where those candidates lived, at the time of filing, to run for Irmo town council. Integrity is never an old issue and just as important as Walker stated above, now, more than ever.
I never attempted to smear George Frazier. My purpose in those letters to the editor was to remind the people of Irmo about Mr. Frazier filing to run for Irmo town council and using an address of a home that he had not lived in for years. At the time of signing the paperwork, that all the information he provided was true, he was living outside of the town of Irmo. Where Mr. Frazier lives today has nothing to do with where he lived years ago when he filed the paperwork to run in that election. The bait and switch by Mr. Walker is a hilarious attempt to deceive, but it won’t catch fish here. To call using a previous address as your current address and to sign a document stating everything is true when signing it, a “minor clerical error “ is what is disingenuous, to me, and laughable by many.
As for casting doubt on candidates filing to run on the last day of filing , it is as I stated in my previous post. Yes it is perfectly legal to file on the last date prior to the deadline, never said it wasn’t, and that wasn’t the point, nor do I believe it is widely practiced, that is very subjective. I will also state there have been individuals considering running for office, made up their mind to run based on their desire, prayer and consideration with whom ever that may be, then go file as soon as they can. In my opinion, anyone who waits till the last day, it’s because of some strategy, good or bad, to see who else may be running, can’t decide based on communication with another possible candidate, in deciding which of the two will file, or some strategy such as that. They may not want to run based on who else jumps in the race or waiting on someone else’s approval. All those reasons have nothing to do with sincerity of that candidate wanting to run because they want to run. I never suggested in my article May 20th, 2025 “ that timing equates to lack of commitment or weak character“. I did suggest that it had to do with indecisiveness and multiple other reasons, some mentioned above. Weak character would be what Mr. Walker is exercising here when he attempts to falsify statements in order to meet his distractions from the truth of this matter. Filing early does in my opinion mean one is more decisive and a better decision maker. Not dependent upon others whims. I have been involved in many elections for myself and in discussions with many others over the years about running for office. And when people tell me they want to run, I tell them what I know, what I think they should do and not do and when they come to that decision, go file and run. Anyone who has ever told me they were gonna wait, that decision was always based on waiting to see who else was going to run, etc. My advice has always been the same, make up your mind and go do it. You want to run, don’t let anyone talk you out of it or into it, they have a motive and it isn’t about you.
To set the record straight I ran for office 2003 and lost, Kathy Condom won that year and Harvey Hoots was reelected. I ran again in a special election in April 2004. I lost that election as well. Barry Walker won that year and that was his fourth campaign. I ran again in 2005 Barry won reelection and I was elected that year. I ran again in 2009 came in first and Barry came in second, we were both reelected. Barry ran against Mayor Gibbons in 2007 and lost. I ran for Mayor in 2011 against Kathy and Barry and I won. Barry came in third. In 2015 I ran again for mayor and won my second term. I ran again in 2019 for mayor after speaking with others about running for mayor instead of me and couldn’t convince others, because of Mr. Strife Maker, so I ran again when I had really had enough of serving with him. I really did not believe that he needed to be mayor or a council member for that matter , so I ran again. My heart was not in it and the idea of serving four more years with councilman Walker, being who he is, was not something I looked forward to. I had multiple people tell me that he had told them during the campaign that he wanted to be mayor before he died. Guess it worked for that election.
And to be “honest here”, God told me it didn’t matter if I was mayor or Barry was mayor, God is still in control and to trust in him, so I did and I backed off the campaigning as hard as I had in the past. Plus all the other political BS that was going on at the time in regards to the senior apartments and parking in the yard issues, and multiple other factors, used by others to get Barry elected and me unelected was a major battle that time and energy to overcome was not what I wanted to do. They used Barry to unelect me and then they unelected him four years later. Yes I was beat in 2019 after 8 years as Mayor -fair and square, as he stated and so was he in 2023 after only 4 years. I have no bitterness and in fact was very relieved when I found out I was losing and expressed that to my wife in a conversation on the phone going from polling place to polling place. And expressed that relief and joy that night with my wife as I went to bed. And still happy today.
I do believe Mr. Walker may be guilty of nursing old grudges. I have none towards him and in fact, do pray for him weekly for his salvation and his medical condition.
Yes, this last election was never about my feelings, not even sure what that means or what he is referencing. As far as it being about truth, transparency, and trust, it is very hard to determine what truth he is referring to since he has not been truthful with his article about me, nor has he or Mr. Frazier been truthful or transparent about the fact that Mr. Frazier did not live in the home that he used as his address when he filed his paperwork. Not sure how Mr. Walker, or Mr. Frazier in those last elections being deceitful to the people of Irmo is how you build trust with people.
And just to keep the record straight, when Mr. Walker was sworn in 2023, in his speech he gave that night as his vision for Irmo, was plagiarized from three or four different sources. That was, “let’s be honest”, not truthful, that was not transparent, that brought shame to Irmo, but as they said, that’s just Barry.
So yes, let’s move forward. In the future, let’s support candidates who are honest, about where they live, transparent about answering those tough questions, because they will be asked and we deserve to know those answers. Nor listening to others making excuses or condoning that behavior as a “ minor clerical error “. Let’s support those that put the needs of the people of Irmo above their personal desires and egos.
Hardy King
Since Truth Matters
