Results: Gardner and Lazarus headed to run-off in Horry County Council Chair race
It’s official: Johnny Gardner and Mark Lazarus are headed to a run-off election.
The contest for Horry County Chairman will continue for two more weeks after Tuesday’s Republican primary, and will be an exact rematch of 2018, with Lazarus, the former county chairman, winning 38.7% of the vote and Gardner, the incumbent, winning 25.4% of the vote.
Because none of the four candidates for council chair won more than 50% of the vote, a run-off election will be held June 28. Challengers Johnny Vaught, a county council member, and Katrina Morrison, a Little River resident, won 22.4% of the vote and 13.5% of the vote, respectively.
Unofficial results Tuesday showed Gardner performing well in western, rural Horry County and Lazarus performing well along the more-populated coast.
In many ways the run-off rematch in two weeks will be a referendum on how the rapidly-growing county government should handle development and new building as thousands of new residents move here every year.
Gardner, despite producing a rocky tenure, managed to push forward some of the strictest regulations to the growth including impact fees, a charge on new building that helps pay for infrastructure. Lazarus meanwhile, who was backed by several high-profile developers, criticized Gardner for moving too fast on such regulations and said he would have approached impact fees differently, which three-quarters of Horry County voters supported in a 2017 ballot referendum.
Some voters on Tuesday said they liked the way Gardner had handled the growth during his time in office while others hearkened back to the days Lazarus held the seat and said they wanted to put him back in office.
That’s how Myrtle Beach voter Bill Pollack felt.
“(Lazarus had) done a great job the last time he was chairman. I don’t feel like the guy that’s in there now has done anything,” he said. “The crime rate’s up (and) they’re only fixing roads in front of these hotels while residents are driving on roads that are falling apart.”
Others though, like William Riechling, said they were satisfied with Gardner’s leadership.
“Speaking to people, they like him so I like him,” Riechling said.
Both Gardner and Lazarus did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday night.
The primary election results will be unofficial until Thursday, the deadline for counties to certify their results and report them to the South Carolina Election Commission. The state will then certify election results on Friday.
Any hand-count audits of county-level results must happen on Wednesday. In the event of a candidate not receiving 50% plus-one votes, they will head to a run-off election. Those will be held June 28, and polls will be open all day.
Horry County Council election results
The race for Vaught’s council seat, which he had to give up to run for chair, will also head to a run-off election in two weeks. In that contest, Planning Commission member Mikey “Mash” Masciarelli will face Brandon Skipper.
Masciarelli won 33.8% of the vote while Skipper won 27.7%.
In the contested race for the Conway-area seat, incumbent council member Orton Bellamy, the only Black member of council, lost to former Conway City Council member Tom Anderson. Anderson won a majority of the vote so there will be no run off.
And Jenna Dukes, a Cherry Grove pharmacist, ousted longtime incumbent council member Harold Worley for the North Myrtle Beach-area seat. Dukes won 59.2% of the vote while Worley won 40.9% of the vote.
Who is Horry County Council Chairman Johnny Gardner?
Gardner, who was brand-new to politics when he ran for chairman in 2018, won an upset victory over Lazarus, the incumbent and a former county council member, by fewer than 200 votes. In the final days of that campaign, Lazarus walked out of a candidate forum after Chad Caton — a former county firefighter who is now an Horry County political activist — questioned him about low pay for county employees. He referred to Caton and others at the time as “union thugs” and said he wouldn’t “get abused” by them.
But Gardner went on to a rocky start to his first term as chairman. Before he even took office, news broke that former County Administrator Chris Eldridge had referred Gardner to the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) for investigation after he listened to a recording of a meeting Gardner and political associate Luke Barefoot had with Sandy Davis of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation.
Some county officials, including Eldridge, interpreted Barefoot’s comments at the meeting as an attempt to extort the MBREDC.
SLED ultimately cleared Gardner of any wrongdoing, but Eldridge’s referral led to a months-long battle on council on whether or not to remove him from his position. The council split on firing him, and Eldridge resigned after negotiating a settlement with Gardner.
Gardner’s term turned productive after that, but was still marred by occasional controversy. Between taking office in 2019 and 2021, Gardner led an effort to pull the county out of a contract with the South Carolina Department of Transportation to build Interstate 73, and settle a lawsuit between the county and the cities over funding the project with the hospitality fee.
The plan to spend hospitality fee collections from around the county on I-73 was one of Lazarus’ final acts as chairman. The municipalities settled the lawsuit last year and Horry County, Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach have since voted to dedicate part of that funding to I-73.
And last year, Gardner sparred with fellow council members over an effort by Aynor-area council member Al Allen to make county spending on outside law firms public. Some council members feared Gardner would use the information, if it was made public, as a pretext to force the county administrator of county attorney out of office. Others blamed Gardner for not preventing a public fight over a minor internal disagreement.
But Gardner has scored several major victories during his time in office. He helped last year to lead efforts on the council to increase building standards for new construction in flood zones and implement impact fees — a one-time charge on new development that helps pay for infrastructure. Developers opposed both measures. Gardner also lent his support to rezoning moratoriums on S.C. 57 in the North Myrtle Beach area and S.C. 90 outside of Conway, as well as adjustments to county zoning that reduced developer leverage when they seek rezonings.
And this year, Gardner helped craft a county budget that will give employees the highest raises they’ve seen in at least a decade, something he and other budget writers managed to do without raising taxes.
Gardner primarily self-funded his campaign with a personal loan, reporting a total $145,939 raised.
Who is Mark Lazarus?
Tuesday night represented a rematch for Lazarus, the former council chairman ousted by Gardner in 2018.
Lazarus previously served one term on county council representing the Myrtle Beach area from 2002 to 2006 and ascended to the chairmanship after U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, the former chairman, decamped for Washington, D.C. in 2013.
While chairman, Lazarus pushed forward I-73 which he’s said is important to the county’s growth. His move to funnel hospitality fee money into the project, though, drew a years-long lawsuit from the municipalities who objected to the county spending a portion of the funds on county police, funds they though they should control.
At his campaign launch in March, Lazarus said he would work with developers on their various building projects and would keep naysayers at bay.
“There’s a group out there ... they want to shut down development,” Lazarus said in March. “That’s not going to happen. That’s not going to happen because it would put people out of jobs.”
He also criticized Gardner for the way he implemented impact fees, saying he would have worked with state lawmakers to expand the law to allow the money to go to a broader ranger of projects. Lazarus also said he would form a council of county employees to advise on pay and workplace issues.
Lazarus’ campaign was primarily supported by developers and other business leaders. He raised the most out of all four candidates, at $198,975.
This story was originally published June 14, 2022 at 5:15 PM.
