Will Bigger, the Democrat Joe Cox defeated to claim his York County Council seat, has come out in support of Cox. Bigger, who has plans to campaign in the county for Cox, sent me an e-mail last week detailing his reasons:

“In 2006, I ran for County Council District Three and secured the Democratic nomination. The general election race was civil; the debate was issue-oriented and spirited. Neither then-Mayor Joe Cox nor I saw the race as a race against each other but rather we ran campaigns that focused on the issues for the betterment of the district.

A friend asked me over the weekend if I am surprised by the reaction to Tim Russert’s death.

Not at all. To me, Russert’s life and, ultimately, his untimely passing are bound up in what Americans have always appreciated most in our public figures, and our heroes.

Russert was like a familiar friend who showed up in your living room for a chat every week. When I was growing up and my grandparents would visit, they would ask on Sunday mornings, “What channel is Russert?” Then they would proceed to turn the volume to full blast so they could hear who was on the show that week.

A few random bits on yesterday's election:

- As I drove in to work this morning, I passed one of Alex Haefele's giant signs reminding people to vote for him in the County Council race. Haefele appeared to have invested a ton of time and money on his bid to oust council chairman Buddy Motz, but came up a few votes short. I've never run for office, but I can imagine it must be difficult to get up today and collect all those signs after falling just short.

A long and often contentious primary season draws to an end on Tuesday, sending one slate of candidates onward and dashing the hopes of all the others.

In the final week, complaints over trickery and alleged hijinks have ratcheted to a new level. It's the kind of stuff that happens often in local races, but many candidates and activists have told me this is as intense as they've seen it in quite some time.

The Herald’s editorial board endorsement of Joe Cox for York County Council’s District 3 seat in the Republican primary election in today’s paper reminded me of another endorser of Cox — his Democratic opponent in 2006.

Will Bigger, who was defeated by Cox in the general election for the council seat in 2006, called to say he backs Cox.

I’ve been playing phone tag with him since, so I can’t share his reasons yet. Stay tuned.

State House challenger Kyle Boyd picked up an endorsement this week from the Club for Growth, a conservative tax-cut group with a very active chapter in South Carolina.

With the hotly contested June 10 primaries just weeks away, heraldonline has created a special section with full coverage, including elections FAQ, links to candidate Web sites, archived stories and more.

Check it out here.

Most of the sparks in the Young Republicans' first-ever town hall debate exploded in the days leading up to it. Thursday night's affair was low-key because two of the four invited candidates didn't attend.

Chairman Greg Rogers kicked off the evening on an upbeat note, telling an audience of about 60 people that Republicans need to stay positive this year if they are to overcome the enthusiasm being generated by Barack Obama.

Rogers thanked the party activists who enabled the Young Republicans to get started.

The top of their party’s ticket remains unsettled, but Democrats in York County say they feel energized by their prospects this fall. That in itself is news around these parts, because Republicans hold most positions of power and usually take up much of the limelight around election time.

The buzz was evident at the annual Spring Forward fundraiser last Friday, where Democrats chatted around the indoor pool at the White Homestead and candidates gave brief speeches outlining their campaigns.

Story here.

The online political publication Politico has an article on our own John Spratt, speculating about why he has remained neutral in the Democratic presidential race.

The Republican candidates are gone, but the locals who accompanied them around South Carolina over the past several weeks are still here -- and probably contemplating how their own political fortunes were affected. Here's my look at how some of them fared.

WINNERS

Mike Huckabee made his South Carolina debut some eight months ago, visiting a part of the state that has never been viewed as a center of power in Palmetto State political circles. But as we now know, his stop in York County marked the first of a flood of candidate visits over the ensuing months.

In an interview shot for an upcoming documentary on Lee Atwater, Boogie Man, Tucker Eskew talks about the smears of McCain in S.C. in 2000:

All the details here.

I’ve been asking the McCain people to let me ride on the bus, and sure enough, they invited me for the trip to T-Bones in Lake Wylie. I never thought I’d be the only reporter there — or that I’d need to think of enough questions to fill 45 minutes.

Turns out that when you’re with McCain and his traveling party, the time passes pretty quickly.

It's McCain's to lose, he says. Story here.

The poll has the Arizona senator at 29 percent, with the former Arkansas governor at 22 percent. Mitt Romney comes in third with 13 percent.

Details here.

Story here.

Bob Johnson added his perspective to the Democratic presidential race this past weekend, and in doing so, he unwittingly managed to trigger a round of media coverage that you might call the political three-step.

Step one: Make comment of questionable taste about your candidate’s opponent.

Step two: Draw rebuke from opponent’s campaign.

Step three: Put out hastily written statement clarifying yourself while also saying that your first comment was taken out of context.

Story here.

This relates the Wayne Dumond case. Story here.

As part our effort to bring you expanded Web coverage of the upcoming primaries, Matt is conducting audio interviews. Today, we present interviews with a local Clinton and a local McCain supporter who talk about their candidates in the wake of the New Hampshire primary.

The interviews can be heard here.

Not that we've seen any of them around here. Story here.

In 2002 I am told there was some commotion when Winthrop students were denied the right to register to vote in Rock Hill. I am trying to find out if this problem has been solved, but without the names of individual Winthrop students who have registered to vote in Rock Hill, this has proven difficult.

If you or someone you know attends Winthrop and registered/tried to register to vote in Rock Hill, please e-mail or call me to tell me about your experience. I would love to hear about it.

Arlecia Simmons, a graduate of the Mass. Comm. Department at Winthrop, was a caucuser in Iowa. Via Winthrop prof Larry Timbs, here's her first person account.

Story here.

Huffington Post says it's possible.

Don Fowler is about the biggest FOB (Friend of Bill) you can find in South Carolina. If the good ship Clinton is going down in this election, you can bet he’ll make like the band on the Titanic and play his violin until water is lapping at the strings.

At this point, John Edwards’ path to the Democratic nomination is difficult, if not impossible, to envision. But I think when Democrats look back on this election, they will credit Edwards for running a pretty strong race.

Consider that the guy earned 30 percent of the vote in Iowa, despite running against his party’s dominant political machine over the past decade (the Clintons) and a once-in-a-generation candidate who draws comparisons to JFK (Obama).