The new Columbia City Council, from left: Sam Davis (District 1), Leona Plaugh (District 4), Brian DeQuincey Newman (District 2), Tameika Isaac Devine (at large) and Steve Benjamin (mayor). Not pictured: Belinda Gergel (District 3) and Daniel Rickenmann (at large).

Columbia City Council is back to full strength after District 2 City Councilman Brian DeQuincey Newman was sworn in last night to fulfill the remaining two years of former Councilman E.W. Cromartie’s term.

Cromartie, as I’m sure most of you know, was forced to resign in March after he agreed to plead guilty to federal tax evasion charges. He has not been sentenced yet.

Newman was sworn in by his father, Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman. Judge Newman said it was 10 years and one month ago that his son held the Bible for him as he was sworn in as a judge. It was a nice moment.

During his speech, Newman called Cromartie the “most effective councilman in our history,” which earned a few “that’s right” from people in the audience, made up of mostly longtime District 2 residents. His comment got at least one opposite response from a Twitter user, showing that Cromartie is still a divisive figure in city politics.

Newman ended his speech this way:

“The election was the easy part. The hard work begins now.”

His first council meeting will be Wednesday at 9 a.m. An agenda has not been released yet.

Howard is spending most of the day in Ward 7, where he received 105 of the 195 votes cast in the July 17 special election (Newman received 19). Newman is spending most of the day in the Edgewood precinct, where he received 80 of the 205 votes cast on July 17. (Howard received 38).

Even their election night parties are the same. Newman will be at the Sheraton rooftop bar on Main Street, while Howard will be at BJ’s Cafe next to Palmetto Health Richland hospital.

But if neighborhood ties mean anything, Howard might have an advantage.

As The State’s Noelle Phillips pointed out in her Saturday story, District 2 candidates Emma Myers and Alex Furgess live across the street from each other and are engaged in what could be described as a polite feud.

Another thing Phillips pointed out is that  Howard, the second-place finisher in Tuesday’s election, lives in the Jones McDonald Neighborhood — the same neighborhood as Myers and Furgess.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that the people who supported for Myers and Furgess would support Howard. After all, he lives in their neighborhood.

Ward 7

Together, Furgess and Emma Myers got 319 votes, or 21 percent of the vote total. That’s two more votes than Howard got. Furgess’ best showing was in Ward 7, where she received 43 of  195 votes cast. Howard got 105 of the 195 votes cast in Ward 7, whereas Brian Newman, the front-runner, received only 19 votes.

But you know what they say about “assume.”

In the mayoral runoff  election, everyone worried about Shandon, which was where third-place finisher Steve Morrison had the strongest support. Kirkman Finlay spent a lot of time there, and he won those precincts on election day. But Benjamin spent all of his time in north and east Columbia, which had an overwhelming turnout and negated all of Finlay’s gains in Shandon.

Benjamin had tons of money and an impressive campaign organization that made that happen. Newman also has tons of money (compared to Howard), and many of the people who got Benjamin elected now work for Newman, including:

• Josepher Oppermann (Benjamin’s field director)
• Kendall Corely (Benjamin’s political director)
• Michael Wukela (Benjamin’s communications director)

Here are the precinct results:

• Ward 1, Capital Senior Center, 1650 Park Circle
• Ward 2, Marion Street Apartments, 1930 Marion St.
• Ward 4, Park Street Baptist Church, 2204 Park St.
• Ward 5/Olympia, Pacific Memorial Park, 200 Wayne St.
• Ward 7, W.A. Perry Middle School, 2600 Barhamville Road
• Ward 8, David H. Swinton Campus Center, 1616 Oak St.
• Ward 9, Prince Hall Masonic Lodge, 2324 Gervais St.
• Ward 18, Old Watkins School, 2612 Covenant Road
• Ward 19, Latimer Manor Community Center, 100 Lorick Circle
• Ward 30, Arsenal Hill Park, 1800 Lincoln St.
• Ward 32, Drew Wellness Center 2101 Walker Solomon Way
• Ward 33, Martin Luther King Memorial Park, 2300 Green St.
• Edgewood, Burton-Pack Elementary, 111 Garden Drive
• Keenanm W.G. Sanders Middle School, 3455 Pine Belt Road
• St. Andrews/Riverside/Westminster, St. Andrews Middle, 1231 Bluefield Road
• Skyland, Skyland Drive Bible Church, 901 Skyland Drive

Here are the standings:

If money means anything, clearly Brian Newman has the lead.

Here’s how much the candidates have left to spend, which is important because there will likely be a runoff:

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Gary Myers raised $3,860.89 and has $3,321.78 left? Yes, that’s because he has only spent $539.11 during the entire campaign. He spent $208.65 on fliers. That’s it. His other expenditures include money for computer support, his filing fee, something called the “petty cash fund” and $127.10 for “computer support.”

In addition to being the big fundraiser,  Newman has also been the big spender. He has paid for t-shirts, mailers, lapel stickers, a phone system and a list of registered voters as compiled by the S.C. Democratic Party. Newman’s closest fundraising competitor, Puff Howard, has i invested his money in post cards, campaign signs and catering.

Antonio Williams is not listed, because he has still not filed his report.

Here’s a look at all of the candidates:

NOTE: The candidates participated in a forum last night at Saint John Baptist Church. I was out of town and could not attend, but The State’s John Monk was there and wrote about it in today’s newspaper.

Myers was one of six candidates for the District 2 Columbia City Council seat who is being fined $100 for missing the June 28 filing deadline. It appears Myers is the first of the six candidates to file the report.

“It was the right thing to do,” Myers said Thursday afternoon. “If you are an incumbent in political office this is standard operating procedure. When all eight of us are newbies, it’s interesting  that only 25 percent, not even 25 percent, 15 percent knew what to do.”

Candidates Gary Myers and Alex Furgess filed their reports on time. The other candidates (Brian Newman, Catherine Bruce, Josh Stroman, Puff Howard, Emma Myers and Antonio Williams) did not.

The forum will be moderated by local radio host Don Frierson and Frank McBride and is being sponsored by the Columbia Council of Neighborhoods.

For more coverage of the District 2 City Council race, click here.

So far, District 2 voters have voted in:

• April 6 mayor’s election
• April 20 mayor’s runoff election
• June 8 primary
• June 22 runoff primary

So how have the voters turned out? It’s difficult to tell. I know the precincts that make up District 2, but some of them are split precincts, meaning the precinct is split between two districts or, in some cases, split between city voters and county voters.

But here are the numbers I do know:

NOTE: I removed the River Springs and Westminster precincts. While they do include District 2 voters, no one from those precincts voted in either the mayoral election or the mayoral runoff. Lots of folks in those precincts voted in the primaries, however, which tells me most of those voters live in the county, not District 2.

Yes, those are the same eight candidates who filed to run in the April 6 election. Yes, they only had a week to file for that race. Yes, they had 30 days to file for this race. Yes, no new candidates filed.