Leventis and Schultz set for Sumter school board Area 8 runoff

It will be Phil Leventis and Keith Schultz in a runoff after the two garnered the most votes in Tuesday's special election for the Area 8 seat on Sumter's school board.

With four candidates in the race and no one receiving more than 50% plus one vote of the total votes, the runoff required for a candidate to get a majority of votes, and it will be on Tuesday, Feb. 25. Leventis won 43.72% of the vote - which included early voting and absentee mail votes - while Schultz took 19.4%.

A former member of Sumter School District's Board of Trustees, Schultz edged political newcomer Tom Montgomery by two votes for second place. Montgomery finished third with 18.85% of the vote.

Foxy Rae Campbell placed fourth with 18.03% of the vote.

According to Sumter County Voter Registration and Elections Office, there are 7,762 registered voters in Sumter School District's Area 8, and 366 voted in the special election. That is a voter turnout rate of 4.72%. Of the five precincts, Wilson Hall had the largest turnout at 8.6% and 165 voters, and Leventis won 56.4% of that vote.

The Ebenezer 2 precinct at Ebenezer Middle School, not far from Dalzell, had just two voters for less than 1% turnout.

A former state senator for 32 years from 1980 to 2012, Leventis took 160 of the 366 total votes. He would have needed 24 additional votes in the race, or 184 total, to avoid a runoff.

The open seat on the nine-member school board will be a shortened, two-year term. The person elected will serve the remaining two years of Jeff Zell's term, who had to resign after he ran for and won the state Senate District 36 seat in the November 2024 general election.

School board seats are nonpartisan races in Sumter County.

Sumter County Voter Registration and Elections Director Pat Jefferson said results were certified Thursday with no changes and are now official.

Regarding voter turnout, Sumter County has not had another special election in at least the last four years - dating back to November 2020 - to compare the turnout rate of 4.72%, according to Jefferson.

She added that turnout for a special election is always slim after a November general election.

"They (candidates) must get out and beat the bushes, knock on doors and ask for voters' support," Jefferson said.

MORE FROM THE CANDIDATES - LEVENTIS AND SCHULTZ

In the November 2022 Sumter school board Area 8 race, Leventis also advanced to a runoff from a four-candidate race and said he expected to do well again in the special election. He added on Wednesday that his campaign is not over.

"It's just back to work now because I still believe strongly in the success of the school district and continued improvements," Leventis said. "I am already making contacts and plans to try to make it as public as possible that there is a runoff, and it does matter."

Schultz said he is "extremely pleased" to make the runoff - even by the slimmest of margins over Montgomery - and especially with such a low voter turnout.

He added he wanted to thank his fellow candidates for running clean campaigns, and he is happy with that.

Like Leventis, Schultz said his work will continue.

"I am going to continue barnstorming, door knocking, politicking, try to greet everybody who I can greet and try to reach as many of the 7,800 registered voters that there are in Area 8 over the next two weeks and see where that goes," he said. "That is my plan."

In the upcoming runoff, any registered voter in Area 8 is eligible to vote, whether they voted in the special election or not, Jefferson added.

SCHULTZ WANTS A DEBATE

On Wednesday - the day after the election - Schultz said he wants to debate Leventis before the Feb. 25 runoff on who is more qualified to serve in the Area 8 seat under any forum available.

"I think the Area 8 voters - now that we are down to two candidates - deserve to be able to see us outside and in the public and speak. And I would be prepared to debate him."

After speaking with Schultz, The Sumter Item called Leventis about the debate challenge.

The former legislator said he would need to think more on the matter and that he is unsure if the idea has value.

"Keith was in office for many years, and there is a record that he has to defend," Leventis said. "I have been in office for many years, and I don't know if that is anything but an effort to see if he can get more name recognition because the vote last night was not broad, but those who did go out spoke.

"I don't know if that would be of any particular value because Keith goes to school board meetings all the time and makes comments, and that's fine. But the responsibility of being on the board when he was there led to someone else being elected. So, I have got to think that over and give that some thought."

Leventis added he thinks Schultz's debate challenge is "a clever approach to free publicity."

"Neither Keith nor I are youngsters," he said. "Each of us has a work history and a history in public office. That should speak for itself. Just saying 'Let's talk about it now' can't change that, and so I think that it's important to ask people to look at what we've done and how we've done it. That could be more important than what we are trying to say now that we think might be viewed in different ways."