The divide in Beaufort city politics is reaching new heights just a few weeks before the election in which three seats — including the mayor’s job — are hotly contested.
The situation boiled over last Tuesday when City Manager Scott Marshall, who typically stays above the political fray, unleashed an emotional and unprecedented 7-minute speech in which he lamented the state of misinformation in the city and defended his character after what he called more than a year of personal attacks.
The target of the city manager’s frustration was Graham Trask, a property owner and developer, and Carrie Chappell, editor of the Beaufort Insider, an online blog that was launched in June promising to deliver “accurate news that empowers citizens.”
Marshall, however, said he could no longer keep silent about what he describes as inaccurate information being used in ways to deceive the public, discredit him and drive a wedge between him and the City Council. His voice choked with emotion as he began to speak during his city manager’s report, a time usually set aside for lighter tidbits like upcoming city events and updates on various issues.
The city manager called out Trask, calling him, “a person, to my knowledge, who hasn’t lived in the Lowcountry since he was a teenager. A person, as far as I know, who has no experience in serving others. A person who, by my observation, is blessed with financial resources and time and uses the same in an attempt to bully others by spreading half-truths and misinformation. And who is apparently using a surrogate blog now to do the same.”
Trask’s influence has magnified a clear divide between the six candidates running for mayor and two council seats.
In the election, Mayor Phil Cromer is facing a challenge from councilman Josh Scallate, while incumbent council members Mitch Mitchell and Neil Lipsitz are opposed by Josh Gibson and Julia Crenshaw.
Trask, who has roots in Beaufort but has residences in New York and Switzerland, routinely challenges the city on a variety of issues, from spending on local parks to investment in its commerce park to construction of buildings in the city’s historic downtown to an incorrectly approved lease the city has with Safe Harbor Marinas to manage the city’s venerable marina for the next 40 years.
Chappell, who carries the title of editor of the online blog Beaufort Insider, is managing the campaign Facebook pages of Cromer, Gibson and Crenshaw, and Trask has taken out advertisements criticizing the candidacies of their opponents, Scallate, Mitchell and Lipsitz. Trask often comments on city issues via the Beautiful Beaufort Alliance, a not-for-profit community organization that bills itself as focused on ensuring that the city grows in a way that preserves its unique historic character. But he has ties to the Beaufort Insider as well. The websites of both organizations contain the same address and the Beautiful Beaufort Alliance website says those who sign up for its newsletter consent to receiving marketing materials from the Beaufort Insider.
Despite its advocacy, the Insider tried to put together a candidate’s forum for this week. The Insider posted a note this week saying it was canceled because “candidates wouldn’t participate.”
In the wake of Marshall’s comments, Trask fired off a letter to City Council members in which he again attacked Marshall as having a “fatal flaw” and accused him of being “unhinged” by his “fact-based allegations and lawsuits that he and the city are dealing with as a result of my public participation in our local government.”
Trask and Chappell told the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet that they stand by their assertions and stories. “Clearly, I’m under his skin,” Trask said. “Clearly he’s taking this personally. I stand by all the assertions I’ve made as fact.”
Chappell says she feels as if she is being personally attacked by Marshall. “I have never been trying to make this personal,” Chappell said. “So I don’t really want to respond to his personal attacks.”
The back and forth has even drawn in former Mayor Stephen Murray, who left local politics when he resigned in September 2023 after clashes with Trask and others over development in the city’s historic downtown. Murray was replaced by Cromer, who won a special election to finish his term and is now running for a full four-year term.
At a meeting last week, Murray criticized Cromer over his leadership during the most recent tropical storm. Cromer said the criticism seemed designed to get him out of office, but Murray insisted he just wanted Cromer to do his job.
Without directly naming Trask, however, Murray complained on his Facebook page that Trask was being supported by a number of “prominent Beaufortonians that hide behind him and encourage his bad behavior, including our current mayor.”
Mayor Cromer denied having ties to Trask, calling him a “lightning rod” who he has kept at arm’s length.
“This whole campaign is getting ugly,” Cromer said. “I don’t like it. I’m trying to stay as far away from it as I possibly can. All it does is keep this community divided.”
The tenor of the hostility in Beaufort is worrisome to many, including Alan Dechovitz, who once served on the City Redevelopment Commission and the Planning Commission. He says he’s never seen “anything that would produce a city manager’s report like that.”
“Our public employees should not be subjected to this kind of abuse from a member of the public,” Dechovitz wrote on Facebook. “We have already lost mayor Stephen Murray … We should not lose an effective city manager as well.”
