Saturday, January 21, 2012
After losing to Newt Gingrich in the S.C. primary, Romney says it's on to Florida.
The favorite to sweep into South Carolina and win by double-digits over all-comers a week ago, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was forced to concede the state to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich after a thorough defeat. "This is a hard fight because there's so much worth fighting for," Romney said after congratulating Gingrich. Romney also thanked supporters — Gov. Nikki Haley, Treasurer Curtis Loftis and S.C. Rep. Nathan Ballentine — before delivering his stump speech focused on beating President Barack Obama. In the few days before the primary, Gingrich started closing the gap on Romney in the polls after some disappointing debate performances for Romney. Voters who watched the GOP deabte in Charleston Thursday said they weren…
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Wilkins, who had endorsed Perry earlier in the campaign season, said that he would now back former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
TAYLORS-WADE HAMPTON, SC- Just hours after Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he withdraw as a candidate for the GOP nomination as president, one of his biggest supporters in the Upstate announced that he would support his rival, Mitt Romney. Perry, in his announcement, threw support to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. But a campaign announcement this evening confirmed that former United States Ambassador to Canada and former Speaker of the House David Wilkins of Greenville would support Mitt Romney for president. Wilkins endorsed Perry in August in front of voters at Tommy's Ham House in Greenville in August. During the introduction, Wilkins said, "Gov. (Rick) Perry is one of us. He is someone we can relate to, he is someone we can …
Join us at 7 p.m. tonight for the final debate before Saturday's GOP primary.
Campaign supporters, political watchers and a half-dozen Patch editors from across the state will take part in our live blog tonight for the CNN GOP Debate from Charleston.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Gingrich second, but Romney's lead still large.
SPRING VALLEY, SC- A new CNN/Time/ORC poll shows former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney maintained a strong lead over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich this week despite Monday's debate performance. The poll shows Romney with 33 percent support, with Gingrich 10 points behind at 23 percent. The rest of the field remains significantly behind, as Sen. Rick Santorum stands at 16 percent, Rep. Ron Paul stands at 13 percent and Texas Gov. Rick Perry earned 6 percent support. As in other polls, Gingrich leads among Tea Party members, but cannot capture Romney's lead among the entire electorate. Romney holds a 30-point lead among those who oppose or feel neutral about the Tea Party.
Monmouth and Rasmussen polls both show solid leads.
SPRING VALLEY, SC- South Carolina polls have been a rollercoasterthroughout the campaign, but as Primary day inches closer, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney may be able to coast to a victory. Two new polls show Romney with more than 10-point leads on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. One new poll, from Monmouth University, shows Romney with an 11-point lead on his nearest competition. Romney earned 33 percent support among likely Republican primary voters, while Gingrich earned 22 percent. Sen. Rick Santorum and Rep. Ron Paul both dropped to the third tier, with Santorum earning 14 percent support and Paul getting 12 percent. Texas Gov. Rick Perry earned 6 percent support and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who left the race Sunday, earned 4…
Monday, January 16, 2012
In the area of multimillion-dollar air wars, do grip-and-grins and retail politics matter as much as they used to? If so, Rick Santorum would be surging.
While GOP presidential candidates can be counted on to wage a fierce air war in the South Carolina primary, many of the six remaining candidates in the race also seem to believe that waging good old-fashioned war on the ground here is still vital. But is it? If pounding the shoe leather and building a wide grassroots organization is the ticket to winning the state, then former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum should be surging. But he's not. Despite several dozen visits to the state (the most of any candidate by far) and a strong grassroots infrastructure in nearly all the state's 46 counties, Santorum is looking up at the frontrunner (former Gov. Mitt Romney) and dropping in the polls, according to a Public Policy poll released Friday. …
Pappy Yokum
10:57 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Since Willard Romney's ceiling seems to be about a third of Republican voters, and his main theme for his campaign is "it is my turn to be the nominee: resistance is futile," will he consider a third party run? Dole and McCain got the party nomination the same way and went down in flames in November. Surely Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan will continue to support him if he ran on the Big Bank … more ›