Posted on 06/10/2010 7:12:20 AM PDT by Palmetto Patriot
Conventional political wisdom says Gresham Barrett has too steep of a hill to climb to overtake Nikki Haley for the Republican gubernatorial nomination June 22.
Barring any additional scandal, pundits say, Haley should walk away with the win in the runoff election and earn the right to face Democratic state Sen. Vincent Sheheen in the general election Nov. 2.
But Barrett remained upbeat Wednesday despite unofficial results showing the congressman from Westminster losing to the Lexington state lawmaker by a 2-1 margin in Tuesday's primary.
"I guess up in Oconee, they do call it a butt-whupping," he said. "It was a huge margin, but you know what the neat thing is? That's why you play the second half."
Haley campaign manager Tim Pearson said Wednesday that she will return to the Lowcountry soon to campaign.
"Our three best counties in the state were Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester," he said. "We're looking forward to the next two weeks."
Barrett said he will tweak his message, but he won't attack Haley.
"This is about my integrity. This is my name on the line," he said. "There's been a lot of talk over the last couple of weeks over things that just don't matter."
(Excerpt) Read more at postandcourier.com ...
If Gresham Barrett had any decency and respect in his egotistical body, he would withdraw from the race against Nikki Haley. The voters of South Carolina will see Barrett for what he is, a loser, and he will have no more electoral oppotunities in the future. Ms. Haley will wipe him out in the run-off. Mr. Barrett, if he is wise and wants a political future will respectfully withdraw, get totally behind Ms. Haley and, most important live to fight another day. Wise up, Mr. Barrett!!!
Instead, he'll just do the fashionable thing and go "Independent," a la Crist.
Saw Nikki for the first time on Hannity last night - she looks impressive....her command was good. And she acknowledged the Palin Effect.
Could you please clarify one thing for me. He’s giving up his Congressional seat, yes...?
Not a viable option in SC, where the Republican brand is huge. The fire resulting from the bridges he would burn would rival Sherman's treatment of our state capital at the end of the Civil War.
Yes. There is a runoff for the GOP nomination for that seat between Richard Cash and Jeff Duncan.
Thanks...
You’re Welcome.
Dont forget that over half of the state voted against her in the primary. Maybe Barrett is betting that he can clean up those votes.
If two people make the runoff, then let them race.
Unlikely.
From the full article:
"A Public Policy Polling survey over the weekend found that most McMaster and Bauer supporters will break toward Barrett, but not by a large enough margin to give him the lead, director Tom Jensen said."
Understatement of the year?
Haley got 48.9% of the vote. So she only needs a tad more than two per cent of the combined McMaster/Bauer vote to pull off a win.
If Oconee's good ole boy Barrett stays in the race, he must be smokin' some kinda very strong weed. Or he's spent too much time across the Georgia line, imbibing their famous mountain dew!
Crossover primary voting gave us Queeg.
It’s bad practice.
I’m sure there is some argument for it.
Exactly.
Sure is. Plenty of mischief possible.
You mean a tad more than 1%, don’t you? :)
Even better!
>> You mean a tad more than 1%, don’t you? <<
Nope.
Total votes cast in the race were about 420K, of which she got ca. 205K. The opponents together got about 215K.
If the same voters all turn out on June 22, Haley will need at least 210K votes “plus one” — which means she needs to increase her total by about 5,000 votes.
And 5,000 is approximately two per cent of 215K. In other words, she’ll need to pull in about two per cent of the opposing vote in order to win — which would seem to be a trivially easy task.
Ok. I guess it’s what base you’re calculating your percentage off of. I would have thought total vote was the way to go.
I musta misread your original post.
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