South Carolina really soured on Republicans in general in the 3rd quarter, donating a total of $50,000 less than they did in the 2nd quarter, while Democratic fund-raising numbers in total came in $100,000 higher in the 3rd quarter than the 2nd quarter.
(How the Greenville News could not make this lead and headline, I'll never understand... Okay, yeah. I do. It's the Greenville News!)
The totals were $399,362 for Rep. candidates, and $362,648 for Democrats. Getting close to even money-wise, which is amazing in this state.
On the Democratic side, Edwards raised $103,000, compared to what is to me, a really suprising number from Bill Richardson, $87,600. No idea where that came from. I don't think I've seen the first sign or bumper sticker for Richardson in Greenville. I haven't heard of anybody in the state getting behind him in a big way. I'm not seeing news coverage of him, so this is bizarre to me.
Obama brought in $76,000, Hillary $63,000, which is the complete opposite of the support they have in opinion polls. I've said all along I couldn't see Hillary having such strong support here, either, and I think the money trail shows the same. People know her name, they may still have fond feelings for Bill, and they really don't know the other candidates for president. If you ask, they'll say they support Hillary right now. (JMHO. I don't hate Hillary. I don't love her. I don't have strong feelings about any of the Democrats right now. I just never believed the polls that showed her firmly ahead in South Carolina.) Opinion polls in the state are firmly for Hillary, then Obama, then Edwards.
Giuliani out-raised every other candidate, bringing in nearly $160,000. (It's hard for me to believe Giuliani would appeal to voters in SC like this, but... there are the numbers.)
Here are the totals for each party for the 3rd quarter:
Giuliani, $160,000
Fred Thompson, $66,000
John McCain, $66,000
Mitt Romney, 51,000
John Edwards, $103,000
Bill Richardson, $87,600
Barack Obama, $76,000
Hillary Clinton, $63,000
Full story from the Greenville News: http://greenvilleonline.com/...
Other news this week from the upstate:
The Greenville News made a really surprising turn-around on S-CHIP , after first saying rich people would be taking advantage of the program and getting free insurance, is now saying we need to do... the C-word. Compromise! (I'm not sure if I've heard that word from them in years related to anything political, but they said it this week.) They think it's time to compromise on S-CHIP!
Republicans must be taking serious shit on the S-CHIP vote for the Greenville News to bring up the C-word.
On the same day, they ran a long guest editorial from a former soldier in Iraq, saying that basically all the screw-ups in Iraq were Rumsfeld's fault, that he remembers the guys in his unit breaking out in a cheer when they heard Rumsfeld was out, that he'd stubbornly stuck to the same strategy for three years when it clearly wasn't working. (No word of Bush being stubborn, just Rumsfeld.) But now... wait for it... the surge is working!
Okay, it's still a concession of sorts, another C-word not put into use often by the Greenville News.
We've also had real blow-back from Bob Jones III's endorsement of Romney, with some Bob Jones-ers (what we call anyone who graduated from Bob Jones) being irate that the head of the university would ever endorse a Mormon. The university even issued a statement saying it doesn't support any individual candidate.
I think the Religious Wrong is in serious melt-down all over the place (as we read here on the front page). How awful to have no candidate who meets their standards. Maybe they'll just stay home this election.