Rhodes: Nothing etched in stone for runoff

By: Thema Ponton | SCNOW
Published: November 04, 2009

Myrtle Beach mayor John Rhodes said Tuesday’s election results were not a surprise.

"Everybody has predicted it was going to be a runoff because of the five candidates in the mayor's race and everybody predicted it was going to be between McBride and myself, so it will be a basically a rematch of 2005 and we'll see how it goes from there, but I’m just very excited to have the support that I’ve received."

Rhodes and his supporters watched the election results come in at the Ted C. Collins Law Enforcement center on Mr. Joe White Avenue. Rhodes and his supporters anxiously watched the votes come in as precinct captains walked in with their cases.

As the precinct numbers showed up on the projector, Rhodes spent a lot of his time on the phone reciting the numbers. He and his wife Teri sat just behind the first row with a clear view of the tally. Mrs. Rhodes spent most of her time writing as the numbers came in and whispering in her husband's ear. At one point, she kissed him on the cheek and put her arm around his should and said, “We’re going to be all right.”

And as the last two precincts were reported, the crowd sitting around Rhodes cheered.

After seeing he did not get the percentage needed to avoid a runoff, Mrs. Rhodes said, “150 votes shy.”

Unofficially, Rhodes was 154 votes short of the 2, 694 he needed to avoid a run-off.

But, he said he's happy to have the votes and support he did get. “Well I think we were doing a little celebrating because we were very happy with the votes we received, to have 48% of the vote when there’s five candidates running for a position is, is pretty strong and I was very, very proud to have that kind of support of people in our city that feel like the job I’ve done is what they want to continue with.”

Rhodes said the next step is to come up with a plan to beat Mark McBride, his opponent in the run off and former mayor of Myrtle Beach.

“Well we’ll get together and we’ll map out a plan and see how we can get more votes to the polls in our favor, first I’d like to ask the people that supported the candidates that were not going to be in the run-off to reconsider and hopefully they would look at me as being the candidate that they want to come and support.”

Rhodes said it will take a couple of days to map out a plan that will be effective and ads, “there’s nothing etched in stone.”