Is it All in Vain?

Posted by Mike Gehrke on May 15, 2007 at 12:32 PM

Mitt Romney is running close to last in South Carolina:

There are two interesting things about the most recent poll out of South Carolina, done by Ayres McHenry & Associates: 1) Mitt Romney is in a weak fifth place, despite a massive effort in the state (though he is still ahead of Lindsay Lohan), and 2) Rudy Giuliani is in a strong second place, despite an ugly last couple months.

First things first. The Romney folks always blame his weak showing nationally on his low name ID. He does have weak name ID, but not in South Carolina. There, at least 69% of likely Republican primary voters know enough about him to have an opinion (his fav-unfav is: 54%-15%), and only 13% claim not to have heard of him. Meanwhile, 30% of likely Republican primary voters haven't heard of Fred Thompson, yet he comes in third with 16% of the vote.

Mr. Romney's been running ads, he's been having robo-calls go out with the popular Sen. DeMint's voice, and he's been doing other on-the-ground work. Yet Mr. Thompson beats him by 8 points, Mr. Giuliani beats him by 12 points, and Mr. McCain beats him by 17.

As the Republicans prepare to debate tonight in South Carolina (9 p.m. EDT), you can get information about Mitt Romney and the rest of the candidates at our Resource Center.

Comments (1) «

GOP looking for standout to emerge from debate


The contest here is, among other things, a test of the influence of evangelical Christians. This is one of the states where the Christian Coalition and other Christian conservative organizations rose to prominence in state and national Republican politics in the 1980s and 1990s.

Many Republicans, though, believe the influence of the so called religious right is waning -- a contention that will be tested by at least one leading candidate, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who supports abortion rights.

It also is a test of the power of the state's GOP establishment, which has largely rallied around the candidacy of Arizona Senator John McCain. There is considerable irony here: McCain won the New Hampshire primary back in 2000; but then Texas Governor George W. Bush rode his deep establishment support here to a South Carolina victory that was the beginning of the end for McCain.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/14/king.sc.debate/index.html
1
PamB on May 15, 2007 at 02:11 PM


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