USA: South Carolina residents consider their votes as Republican primary day nears

Record ID: 346469

  • Title: USA: South Carolina residents consider their votes as Republican primary day nears
  • Date: 19th January 2012
  • Summary: JAMES ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 18, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS NEWSPAPER BOXES AND HEADLINES
  • Embargoed: 3rd February 2012 12:00
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  • Location: Usa, Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA23YKM8F50US31XOFV0LV1OZHW
  • Story Text: As political advertisements filled the airwaves and campaign signs decorated Charleston streets, residents of the coastal South Carolina city on Wednesday (January 18) prepared to cast their votes three days ahead of Saturday's "First in the South" Republican presidential primary.
    In the city's historic waterside neighborhood known as the Battery, placards outside of antebellum houses showed residents' support for their chosen candidates, while on James Island, a town outside of downtown Charleston, campaign volunteers clustered signs on major roadways in hopes of attracting undecided voters.
    Jeri Cabot, a political science professor at the College of Charleston, said residents have been inundated with campaign messages in this last week leading up to the Palmetto State contest.
    "I think voters are beginning to really make up their minds about now. They have been bombarded with ads, media, candidates' spin, everything, and I think the polls are taking a pretty accurate read of the South Carolina primary electorate with Romney in a slight lead and Newt Gingrich right behind him," Cabot said.
    Since 1980, every winner of the South Carolina Republican presidential primary has gone on to win the party nomination.
    Marie Fitzwilliam, a 21-year resident of Charleston who tends to vote Democrat, said she plans to participate in Saturday's primary and will vote for Mitt Romney, the candidate she predicted will win the Republican nomination.
    "I think Mitt Romney is going to win. I think that all of the polls show him ahead, though it is not as easy as it was when he was in New Hampshire, but I think Romney seems to be the front-runner and he is gaining a lot of momentum," she said.
    Newspaper headlines in the Post and Courier, "the South's oldest newspaper," read "Romney's foes are low on time," on Wednesday (January 18). But, despite the former Governor of Massachusetts' front-runner status, the other Republican candidates continued their final push for votes.
    Restauranteur Tommy Condon, a 64-year-old Charleston resident, said he remained undecided how he will vote.
    "I haven't decided yet. I like Romney and Newt Gingrich - haven't decided. Hopefully I will decide in the next day or two," Condon said. He identified himself as an independent who voted for Barack Obama in 2008, but said he will vote Republican in 2012 because of the state of the economy.
    "I definitely am not going to go the way I did last time because we need some help," he added.
    But some voters said their vote three days ahead of the primary was not up for grabs.
    "I am going to vote for Ron Paul and it is more than anything a protest vote against a lot of - I don't think the field is very strong. Most of them don't represent what I feel or where we should be going," 31-year-old Republican Nate Justiss, a product designer living in Charleston, said.
    The southern state has gone for Republican candidates in nine out of the last ten presidential elections.
    Cabot said no matter who wins the South Carolina primary, the results will serve as an indicator of the Republican electorate.
    "South Carolina does represent a good cross-section of Republican voters, but whether it will be the end for other candidates, that is unclear. I think some have vowed to move on and they really should. There are still a lot of delegates out there to collect."
    In the latest CNN/Time/ORC International poll released Wednesday, Romney maintained the lead of likely South Carolina Republican primary voters at 33 percent support, while Newt Gingrich garnered 23 percent. Romney's 10 point lead over Gingrich was down from a 19 point lead when the same poll was taken two weeks ago. According to the poll, Rick Santorum is at 16 percent, Representative Ron Paul at 13 percent and Governor Rick Perry at 6 percent support.
    The poll, conducted for CNN and Time magazine by ORC International from January 13-17, surveyed 505 voters with an sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
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