We had a lot of fun with climate change deniers this winter about snowmageddon, because we knew this was going to happen — the blazing heat of a Columbia summer. A four or five-block walk, and things might be getting a little swampy, not to mention sitting still in the shade.

Even people used to dealing with the summer heat have been talking about how this season has been different.

Distance runners often train at the crack of dawn in the summer to avoid the heat. That did no good this summer.

“Even when I did just a short run, two or three miles, I literally had sweat dripping off my fingertips,” said Jeanna Moffet, who has been running in Columbia for 25 years. “My running friends and I have talked about how when we run we feel so sluggish, like we’re out of shape.

“I went out the other day (in the morning) and it felt like I could drink the air.”

The dog days of summer have been worse than normal, even for the dogs. Jeff Brandenburg takes his Weimaraners running with him in the mornings. This summer, the usually rugged dogs have given out after about 30 minutes, prompting him to take them back home and finish his training runs on his own.

The funny thing is that it was the temperature when the sun goes down that made the difference in the averages. This year, low temperatures were closer to 80 than 70. So really, the great outdoors was just an oven fluctuating between 80 and 100. Beyond that, there have been some happenings that go beyond our rather rudimentary knowledge of meteorology.

The more complicated question is why the air didn’t cool at night. Mark Malsick at the State Climate Office joked that a doctoral student could write a dissertation on it.

Malsick and Greg Carbone at the USC geography department offered some likely meteorological explanations.

In general, the Bermuda high that so often impacts our summer weather set up this summer and stayed put, steering moist air our way off the Gulf of Mexico.

Moister air and greater nighttime cloud cover keeps warm air from rising at night. In a more typical summer, the warm air rises after dark and is replaced by slightly cooler air at the surface.

Of course, the sick joke is that the heat probably won’t let up until, say, November.

We’re shocked — shocked! — that Carolina football players received discounted rates and/or didn’t pay for their rooms at all. The news of this situation has led USC coach Steve Spurrier to say the players in question will be suspended. We’re thinking that the NCAA will want a tougher penalty.

Some South Carolina football players owed the Whitney Hotel several thousand dollars after receiving reduced room rates during extended stays at the hotel that have come under NCAA scrutiny, a source close to the situation told The State on Wednesday.

Multiple sources said some players had been living at the Whitney since the spring while paying a rate of $450 per month. But officials determined players should have been paying about $1,200 a month, and players were told by school officials to pay the difference to the hotel.

For at least two players who had not made any payments, the resolution meant they owed the hotel close to $5,000, according to one of the sources.

The Chicken Curse strikes again.

In a big win for historic preservation and keeping the character of one of Columbia’s signature neighborhoods, the City Council gave preliminary approval to zoning restrictions in Shandon, according to a story in the Free Times. For more than a while, developers have decided that adding to the city’s suburban sprawl hasn’t been good enough. They seem to not care about great neighborhoods with houses built before 1995.

Under the restrictions — which have been in effect on a temporary basis for the last 19 months — no structure more than 50 years old can be torn down unless the city’s Design/Development Review Commission gives its approval.

The rules also restrict the size and placement of buildings on newly subdivided lots — a move intended to prevent existing lots from being split up and new homes crowded in.

It’s good to know that somehow, somewhere, the McMansionification of Columbia can be stopped, especially downtown.

Being the most conspicuous member of the attendees, and even the motley crew of bloggers at the S.C. Republican Party Silver Elephant Dinner has its advantages and disadvantages. But, the evening has been interesting so far.

First — open bar. We don’t think we’ve ever seen that at a Democratic event, and it’s a nice touch, especially since we didn’t have to spend bank to get here like everyone else in the room. Also, the food was great. The green beans could have been a little better, but the chicken, mashed potatoes and mushrooms were tight. The catering people really did their jobs.

Second — seeing all these candidates, consultants and people I only know from their donations on disclosure reports has been quite interesting. (Hey, hey, Gov. Mark Sanford just walked past blogger row. No eye contact.)

Third — the Columbia Convention Center is jumping tonight. Not only is Silver Elephant going on, but the S.C. Democratic Party‘s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner (oops — forgot it’s always before Ye Olde Fish Fry, but the SCDP convention was earlier today), and it appears that there’s a prom going on downstairs. The Vista is clearly the place to be. Also, hearing Karl Rove sharing anecdotes about Lee Atwater is pretty entertaining.

We’ll see what happens as the night goes on, and if we can make it home without our enemies (frienemies?) throwing us in the back of a van, a la “Thank You for Smoking.”

Runoffs — the ugly byproduct of close, multi-candidate elections.

The races for Columbia mayor and District Four councilman will be decided in runoffs, as no candidate in either of those races reached the 50 percent-plus-one threshold for winning the election. Joe Azar (bested by fellow Harden Street businessman Aaron Johnson for fourth place) said in a recent one of his famous newsletters that because no candidate was trumpeting polling numbers, the race was likely to be a toss-up. It was, for the top three.

With 76 of 78 precincts reporting, Steve Benjamin was at 35.5 percent (6,067), Councilman Kirkman Finlay III at 32.1 percent (5,485) and Steve Morrison coming in at 29.5 percent (5,053). That’s pretty tight, considering conventional wisdom last year had it that Benjamin was going to run away with the election. With Morrison out of the way, expected thinking would be that Benjamin would consolidate the city’s Democrats and win in the runoff. But, that’s not necessarily so.

Consider that District Four, Finlay’s old seat, will be going up on the same day. Former city manager Leona Plough (32.3 percent, 1,831) will face off against Tony Mizzell (31.4 percent, 1,782). That would mean a bump in people who would normally vote for Finlay, as opposed to if the mayoral election was alone on the ballot.

Then take both these examples and throw them out. Runoffs come down to organization and getting your people out. Whomever has the tightest, best ground game will win the day. The WR betting line is Benjamin, -7.

In the only other competitive race, Grant Robertson mounted an unexpectedly strong challenge to Councilwoman Tameika Issac-Devine, losing 57-41.9 percent.

This week, with the filing period opening for state candidates starting, candidates are beginning to roll out advertisements on an increasing level. Just now, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson went on TV, and Columbia mayoral candidate Kirkman Finlay III began running a new ad, as well. Wilson is in a tough race with Democratic challenger Rob Miller, a campaign that will likely be one of the most expensive Congressional races in the country. Finlay is in a barnburner of a race as well, facing a large slate of candidates for the open seat.

Wilson:

Finlay:

We’ve found ourselves perplexed over the recent months regarding the interesting political flexing going on by Steve Benjamin‘s campaign for mayor of Columbia. The man ran as the Democratic nominee for attorney general in 2002, and counts among his strongest supporters top Midlands Democrats. And yet, it’s not a cut-and-dry situation.

Benjamin hired the local political consulting firm Richard Quinn and Associated to run his campaign. This is the same firm who ran Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster‘s race against Benjamin in 2002, and is running McMaster’s gubernatorial campaign. Naturally, that’s giving Benjamin a free pass on RQ&A’s in-house blog, The Palmetto Scoop. Really — Wheels McGee has been at every Benjamin event we’ve ever attended, which is a tad odd for a GOP political consultant and blogger.

In the meantime, he’s also hired several people who were a part of President Barack Obama‘s campaign during South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary (Craig Schirmer and Laurin Manning, among others). Early Thursday morning, Benjamin’s campaign announced it would start running a radio ad playing up his Obama connections in the Democratic-leaning capital city.

COLUMBIA, SC – Steve Benjamin’s Mayoral Campaign broke onto the airwaves this week with a radio ad featuring a 2007 voicemail left by then Senator Barack Obama.

“I’ve saved this voicemail for well over two years now,” Benjamin explains. “It has been a personal inspiration for me because I still believe in what we can do when we work together. I still believe in hope.”

The radio spot, Benjamin’s first, went into rotation this week and can be heard on radio stations all across Columbia and at www.stevebenjamin.com.

This takes an extraordinary amount of hubris, considering that his consultants ran U.S. Sen. John McCain‘s Republican presidential primary campaigns in this state not once, but twice. Quinn Sr. was a close, unpaid advisor on McCain’s campaign for president in 2008. Then there’s something else.

Interestingly, the child, who seems fit to consider the majority of Republicans in the General Assembly as socialists, has been slurping Benjamin since the very outset. Baldy ran a line of smack against former Speaker of the House David Wilkins, writing, “Anyway, given how ferociously Wilkins promotes (and protects) his reputation as a “Republican,” we were a bit surprised to see him hosting a fundraiser earlier this week for uber-liberal trial lawyer Steve Morrison, who is running for mayor of Columbia, S.C. on the Leftist Lying Bastard ticket (j/k … it’s a non-partisan election).”

Mind you, he never says things like this about the Quinn firm and its relationship with Benjamin, even while assailing RQ&A when it comes to Innovista. It’s often said that a man is judged by the friends he keeps. Another old bromide is “actions speak louder than words.” Benjamin’s words try to play up his connection to Obama. But his actions in regard to people like the Quinns, Folks and Fogle say so much more.

And at this point, we’ve been totally soured on Benjamin, Morrison and City Councilman Kirkman Finlay III. Somebody put a call in to Aaron Johnson.

The biggest story in Columbia right now is the guilty plea and resignation by E.W. Cromartie from the Columbia City Council. Local attorney Matthew Richardson was given authority to handle Cromartie’s open accounts at the former councilman’s law firm, and a significant group of candidates have already lined up for the seat that’s been held by Mr. Cro for 27 years.

The issue was thousands of dollars of unpaid taxes and conscious actions to avoid IRS reporting regulations as it comes to deposits and withdrawals. It turns out that Cromartie isn’t the only person around city government with tax problems. Mayoral candidate Gary Myers Jr. also isn’t right with the Feds right now.

Some of our friends are obsessed with minor candidates. We like them because they often do things that well-handled candidates won’t even attempt.

Myers contemplated withdrawing from the race today after The State newspaper questioned a 2004 bankruptcy in which court papers said he owed $74,466 in back taxes to the IRS.

Myers, who is not considered a frontrunner in the race, first said he would drop out if the story was written. About an hour later, he said he was consulting with family and friends who encouraged him to run for office. But by 4:30 p.m., Myers said he was sticking with his campaign.

“God knows if this is an opportunity for my city to move forward I can’t run (away) now,” he said. “This has nothing to do with me running the city.”

There’s a lot of celebrating going on in Columbia right now, as City Councilman E.W. Cromartie will be resigning his position in light of a tax evasion scandal that broke on Monday morning. Cromartie, who has been in office since for about as long as we’ve been alive, has appeared to come to the end of his political road.

Few people we’ve run into that have had to deal with the City Council have good things to say about Cromartie, as rumors were traded among insiders about this action or that deal wasn’t on the up-and-up. To us, he seemed like one of those municipal elected officials that you find in mid-size cities that nobody really likes but who never gets a serious challenge.

In 2008, we surmised that the only thing that would knock Mr. Cro out would be a crime, not an election challenge. It’s come to pass, with the Feds getting him on non-payment of $25,000 in taxes from 2006, and creatively doing deposits and withdrawals to not get flagged by IRS reporting rules. According to the AP, Cromartie will plead guilty and serve 366 days in prison.

Many Columbians’ unsatisfied desire to raise chickens in an urban setting just got that much closer to becoming a reality. Wednesday morning, the CIty Council gave approval on the first vote on a measure that would allow people to raise chickens — in a coop — in the city. Of course, being that they’re chickens in Columbia, they would probably just be mediocre and produce eggs that are just big enough to be acceptable, even though you wanted better (here ends the absurd allegory).

According to the ordinance, you would not be allowed to have roosters and would be required to maintain the coop so it doesn’t emit a foul smell or attract flies. That’s all well and good, but where’s the push for backyard chickens? Has the organic food movement and other related culinary crazes gone so far that people are clamoring to raise and slaughter their own chickens? Or is it just about the eggs? Is Publix that bad?

Even Mayor Bob thinks it’s funny.

[Councilman E.W. Cromartie's] arguments did not deter Mayor Bob Coble, who voted for the ordinance by saying “Go ‘Cocks.”