Surfside elects Julie Samples in runoff for council seat

Julie Samples has won a seat on Surfside Beach Town Council in a runoff election against Wanda Spannuth.

Samples, wife of former Surfside Mayor Doug Samples, will fill the seat left by Bob Childs when he became Mayor this spring. The term expires in 2018.

“I’m thrilled. Hard work paid off,” Samples said. “The town really rallied and came out, and I’m pleased with that.”

Samples received 414 votes to Spannuth’s 281 on Tuesday. The Town of Surfside has just over 3,000 registered voters, and a total of 695 voted Tuesday and absentee beforehand. A similar number voted in the original three-way race between Julie Samples, Spannuth and former Councilwoman Mary Beth Mabry on Aug. 9.

Spannuth, who said she was “disappointed” with the results, said she is done with Surfside politics.

“What I heard from two campaigns is people want change, and that’s not how the vote turned out,” she said.

On Tuesday night, Julie Samples said she was ready to take her seat. The runoff was the fourth election for Surfside town council this year.

“I’m ready to get to work,” Julie Samples said. “It’s time we had a full council.”

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 8:35 PM with the headline "Surfside elects Julie Samples in runoff for council seat."