14 candidates file for 5 seats on Surfside Beach Town Council

The race for mayor and four open council seats has heated up in Surfside Beach where one councilman has filed to run against the mayor and three other council incumbents will face off with nine political challengers in the April election.

A general election for the mayoral seat and three council positions will be held April 5. There will also be a special election to fill an unexpired term left behind by the late Councilman Ralph Magliette. Filing for the mayor’s seat and council ended Jan. 14.

Mayor Doug Samples is seeking his fourth term on the council and his second term as mayor. He has opposition in councilman Bob Childs.

Samples retired as a department director with the Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments and formerly served as a volunteer member of the town’s stormwater committee. He has served on Surfside Beach Town Council for 14 years.

Childs was elected to the council in 2008 and chaired the town’s 50^th anniversary celebration committee. He lost a bid for reelection in 2012 before regaining a seat on the board two years later.

If Childs wins the mayor’s seat, Surfside Beach would need to conduct another election in August to fill his vacated council term, set to expire in 2018.

Incumbent council members Mark Johnson, Mary Beth Mabry and Randle Stevens have all filed to keep their seats that expire in May. But also joining them on the ballot are former Councilwoman Vicki Blair, Surfside Beach Board of Zoning Appeals Chairman Ron Ott and his fellow board member Holly Ann Watson, senior citizens committee chairwoman Wanda Spannuth and political newcomer Stanley Wrobel.

Blair and Wrobel have also filed for election to fill the open seat left behind by Magliette.

Joining them in the special election are Board of Zoning Appeals member Tim Courtney and senior citizens committee member Steve Shore. That term is set to expire in 2018.

Polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. for the nonpartisan election on April 5.

This story was originally published February 1, 2016 at 6:01 PM with the headline "14 candidates file for 5 seats on Surfside Beach Town Council."