PPP continues to confirm that Governor Nikki Haley (R) is vulnerable and one of the least popular governors in the country:
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/...
In 2010 Nikki Haley was elected Governor of South Carolina by a 51/47 margin, an uninspiring performance given the red hue of the state and what a strong year it was for Republicans nationally. Since then Haley has proven to be an unpopular Governor, and the national political climate has gotten far better for Democrats. As a result Haley now trails her 2010 Democratic opponent, Vincent Sheheen, 46/44 in a hypothetical rematch.
Sheheen is able to overcome South Carolina's GOP lean for two key reasons. He has a 51/35 advantage over Haley with independents, and he's picking up 15% of the Republican vote while losing only 10% of Democrats. Sheheen leads Haley despite having relatively low name recognition- only 45% of voters are familiar enough with him to have an opinion, suggesting some of the profile he built up in 2010 has already receded. - PPP, 12/11/12
So the South Carolina governorship is looking like a real Democratic pick up opportunity for 2014. Haley still has a decent standing with her party. 53% of Republicans want her to be the nominee again in 2014 to 37% who would prefer someone else. Still though, this could be a great pick up opportunity. I've always said how much I enjoy beating Republicans on their home turf.
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R. SC) has seen his standing with his party greatly improve:
In January of 2011 we found that only 37% of GOP voters would support him in a primary, compared to 52% who preferred a more conservative alternative to Graham. Since then Graham has improved a net 26 points on that measure and now leads a generic 'more conservative' foe 51/40. Graham's approval rating with Republican primary voters is a relatively healthy 66/26 spread.
When pitted against actual potential primary opponents Graham, like Haley, does even better than he does versus generic ones. He leads Tim Scott 54-32, Trey Gowdy 57-29, Mark Sanford 64-26, Mick Mulvaney 64-20, and Tom Davis 67-17. - PPP, 12/11/12
I never thought that the Graham's seat would be a pick up opportunity for us but with Graham's colleague, Tea Party favorite Senator Jim DeMint (R. SC), abruptly deciding to retire, I wonder if the Club For Growth with still make Graham a target. My guess is the Club For Growth will get greedy and want both seats to be filled with Tea Party extremists. We shall have to wait and see. Here's another interesting highligh from this poll:
-South Carolina's position on legal rights for same sex couples mirrors what we saw in Georgia last week. Only 27% of voters think same sex marriage should be allowed, but 54% favor either marriage rights or civil unions for gay couples. It's the term 'marriage' that's more of an obstacle for many voters in the south than actually granting same sex couples more rights. - PPP, 12/11/12
PPP surveyed 520 South Carolina voters and an oversample of 506 Republican primary
voters from December 7th to 9th. The margin of error for the overall survey is +
-4.3%
and +-4.4% for the Republican primary survey.