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Beasley looks for strong finish in U.S. Senate primary election JENNIFER HOLLAND THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Former Gov. David Beasley looked for a political comeback with a first-place finish in Tuesday’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate, and his rivals all but conceded that was likely to hap pen. However, the crowded field of six candidates vying for retiring Sen. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings’ seat made it likely the top vote-getter would face a runoff in two weeks. Real estate developer Thomas Ravenel, a Charleston millionaire who financed his own campaign, hoped to knock U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint out of the running. Ravenel looked forward to a matchup with Beasley—who beat Ravenel’s father, state senator and former Congressman Arthur Ravenel, a decade ago in the GOP gubernatorial primary. “That’s the goal, get into the runoff with David,” Thomas Ravenel said after he voted in his home precinct in the historic dis trict on the Charleston peninsula. “If I win, I’ll be ecstatic. If we lose, I’ll still be happy.” State Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum was the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination. She faced Ben Frasier, a former police offi cer who has run unsuccessfully for the 6th Congressional District seat nine times. The Republicans used pricey television ads to tout their con servative agendas, stressing their antiabortion stances and their support for President Bush — a good bet in the home state of Christian Coalition president Roberta Combs and where 58 per cent of the vote went to Bush in 2000. Voter turnout was not expect ed to match the record 385,000 voters who lined up at the polls in June 2002. With such a tight race, GOP candidates cam paigned for last-minute votes in the days leading up to Tuesday’s primary. The candidates focused on the Republican-rich Upstate, which has been DeMint’s turf in Congress for three terms. Another battleground was the Lowcountry, where Ravenel and his rival Charlie Condon, a former state at torney general, live. Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride and Bluffton business woman Orly Benny Davis also competed for the GOP nomination but were considered long shots. Beasley’s political career came to a screeching halt when ho sought a second term as governor and lost to Democrat Jim Hodges in 1998. Beasley hoped to win back vot ers who abandoned him after he had called for the removal of the Confederate flag from atop the State House dome and attacked the state’s video gambling indus try. The flag eventually came down and video poker was out lawed but only after Beasley lost. Those issues were still on the minds of some voters Tuesday. Charles Williams, 70, of Simpsonville cast his vote for Beasley. “He took a lot of unde served heat” when he was gover nor, Williams said. Archie Maddox Jr., 41, a youth commissioner for the city of Columbia, said he voted for Condon. “It was a tough decision be tween Beasley and Condon,” said Maddox, who believes Condon had a stronger backbone and a better chance of beating Tenenbaum. Wellness center CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 should be finished by fall 2005. In the Blatt P.E. Center, Campus Recreation just added a maple wood floor — the same kind used in the Strom — to the basketball courts. In addition, the center’s tennis and racquet ball courts will undergo much needed renovations. Some of the racquetball courts have been in place since the P.E. center was built in 1972. The fields next to the P.E. center will also be reno vated, with new turf and im proved irrigation systems. tt c aiwa^a warn lu taw uuwlc, Camp said, especially about se curing more space for playing fields. Schools like Clemson and Mississippi State have as much as 10 times more developable land and field space than USC, which has been steadily ex panding toward the Congaree River. Other urban schools like Georgia State in Atlanta and the College of Charleston have solved the problem of finding open space by developing fields off campus. Camp said USC might one day do the same. “We’d love to develop a site a couple of miles down BlufFRoad,” he said. However, Carolina won’t look off campus for intramural field space in the near future, Camp said. He noted that prelim inary plans for the Strom were laid out as early as 1989. The additions to the Strom will be funded by a wellness fee that averages out to $105 per stu dent each semester. Faculty and staff members also pay $30 a month to use the Strom. The Blatt, on the other hand, is fund ed by state allocations. A n rvrvn iricU Strom each day during the reg ular school year. During sum mer session, the Wellness and Fitness Center has been averag ing about 900 visits daily. Last year, 295,000 people went to the Blatt, while 433,000 visited the Strom. Camp said the strength and conditioning areas are the most popular attractions at the Wellness and Fitness Center, which celebrated its one-year anniversary in March. Camp said he anticipates the additions and renovations will be met with enthusiasm. “If I were a student at South Carolina, I’d be excited about it,” Camp said. “The Thurmond Center, you can’t find anything like it anywhere else.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu _ ^ °rtAyy. 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