It is surely not lost on Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride that if one of his two re-election opponents had withdrawn in favor of the other, he might have been voted out of office Tuesday. But opponents John Rhodes and Judy Rodman stayed in the race to the end, allowing the incumbent to outpoll both of them.

As things turned out Tuesday, McBride won 1,654 votes, Rhodes 1,471 and Rodman 1,360. McBride's problem is that his total fell well short of 50 percent of the votes cast, meaning that he and Rhodes will square off in a runoff election Nov. 15.

The disappointed Rodman immediately threw her support to Rhodes on Tuesday. This was no surprise. Like her, Rhodes wants to restore calm and decorum to City Council meetings and develop a team approach among council members for working through city problems. A majority of voters Tuesday wanted that, too.

None of this is to predict, however, that Rhodes will roundly defeat McBride in the runoff. There's no guarantee that the same pool of voters will return to the polls week after next. There's no guarantee that if they do, they'll vote the same way they did Tuesday.

Moreover, many eligible city voters didn't vote Tuesday but still could vote in the runoff - if someone can entice them to turn out. The candidate who works hardest to attract these wild-card voters well might be the city's next mayor.

Both gentlemen deserve congratulations for surviving the first cut Tuesday - giving voters a clear choice between McBride's reactionary populist and Rhodes' businesslike approach to running City Council and addressing city affairs. It will be interesting to see which approach the majority of voters prefers Nov. 15.