Free Republic

A special good morning to my liberal friends who thought they might win in SC-01, but lost. Now, I know you are in high dudgeons today about the GOP and family values and Mark Sanford. But let's just start with a reality check — Mark Sanford may have cheated on his wife, but your hero Teddy Kennedy killed a lady. Good morning! Mark Sanford has won the special election in South Carolina’s first congressional district. He was abandoned by much of the South Carolina congressional delegation. He was abandoned by the NRCC and its fundraising. The Democrats outspent him by...

Mark Sanford (R) vs. Elizabeth Colbert Busch (D). The special election is for the seat occupied by Tim Scott, who was appointed to the Senate to fill Jim DeMint's seat. South Carolina State Electoral Commission

No live thread yet, so I'm starting one. Voted at 2:30 p.m. in Mt Pleasant 19. No line. Poll worker reported 28.3% turnout so far in a precinct that had a 66% turnout in the last major election. Results should be here after the polls close.

Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, the Democratic nominee for the South Carolina First Congressional District special election, is listed twice on today's ballot. Colbert-Busch is also the nominee of the Working Families party. "She's been nominated by both parties. There's no prohibition in South Carolina against that," explains Chris Whitmire, director of public information and training at the South Carolina State Election Commission. All votes for Colbert-Busch "go to Colbert-Busch," regardless of whether the voter selects the Democratic Busch or the Working Families Busch. But tonight, when the votes are counted, Busch's votes will be separated by party, even if it's the cumulative...

PPP's final poll of the special election in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District finds a race that's too close to call, with Republican Mark Sanford leading Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch 47-46. The 1 point lead for Sanford represents a 10 point reversal from PPP's poll of the race two weeks ago, when Colbert Busch led by 9 points at 50-41. Sanford has gotten back into the race by nationalizing it and painting Colbert Busch as a liberal. A plurality of voters in the district- 47%- say they think Colbert Busch is a liberal compared to 43% who characterize her as...

For what it’s worth: “Less than a week before the contentious special election between Mark Sanford (R) and Elizabeth Colbert-Busch (D), a RRH/PMI automated survey of 650 likely voters in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District finds the race as close as can be, with both candidates taking 46 percent of the vote and 7 percent undecided. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 5 percent.”

Elizabeth Colbert Busch seeks to distance herself from national Democrats “It’s cutting into Medicare benefits and it’s having companies lay off their employees because they are worried about the cost of it,” she said at a debate. Colbert Busch, who is running in a special election against former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford for South Carolina's 1st congressional district, noted while there are some good parts of the health care law, she was troubled by it's cost and the burden it could put on employers. "Obamacare is extremely problematic, it is expensive, it is a $500 billion cost than we...

We need help in SC-01. Mark Sanford is running slightly behind Democrat Elizabeth Colbert-Busch thanks to a ton of Nancy Pelosi's money. Now we could debate whether Sanford was the best candidate or not for Republicans but it is what it is. The 2nd place guy, Curtis Bostic, has many supporters pledging to write in his name. Even Bostic's son is encouraging it on his Twitter account. We need to encourage Bostic to do the right thing and discourage his supporters from writing in any name and encourage them to vote for Mark Sanford (even if it's not an "endorsement"...

According to Public Policy Polling, anyway. Granted, polling is especially with a special election, because it’s difficult to really gauge what turnout is going to look like … but it’s kind of starting to look like, if any Republican could somehow possibly manage to lose this deeply crimson seat, Sanford could. PPP’s newest poll on the special election in South Carolina finds Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch expanding her lead to 9 points over Mark Sanford at 50/41. Green Party candidate Eugene Platt polls at 3%.Colbert Busch’s lead is on the rise for several reasons. She has a 51/35 advantage with...

Elizabeth COLBERT Busch, who if you must know is like OMG Becky she’s Stephen Colbert’s sister!!!!!!!!!!!!!, is taking money from groups who are opposed to Boeing making the 787 in South Carolina. That’s not playing well. She tried to deflect it by pointing out Mark Sanford got contributions from the same unions. Except . . . well . . . it was actually Sanford Bishop of Georgia and not Mark Sanford. She’s also basically hiding behind her brother instead of actually campaigning because, OMG her brother is famous!!!!!!! And now she’s doing what every candidate who’s all hat and no...

Name one thing Elizabeth Busch stands for Yesterday, a person asked me what I thought of "Stephen Colbert's sister's" chances of winning "that congressional seat she is running for." I responded that they were decent because her likely opponent (former Gov. Mark Sanford had yet to win his runoff) has a lot of baggage. I paused, then asked why this person cared. "Because I like Stephen Colbert and dislike people that cheat on their wives." Fair enough, I suppose. But as I reflected on the comment, it dawned on me that despite the fact that following politics is literally my...

With less than a month to go until a high profile special election to fill a vacant congressional seat in South Carolina, things are heating up. Democratic nominee Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of satirist and Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert, Tuesday released her first ad of the general election campaign. Her Republican opponent, former Gov. Mark Sanford, whose political career was sidetracked back in 2009 thanks to a well-publicized affair, was quick to respond and criticize Colbert Busch, and he also accepted invitations to four debates between now and the May 7 contest. "I'm Elizabeth Colbert Busch, and as...

Disgraced former Governor Mark Sanford easily won the runoff election for the Republican nomination in South Carolina's First Congressional District. He will face Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of comedian Steve Colbert, in the special election next month. From The Hill: The former governor's runoff win seemed likely as of two weeks ago, when he finished more than 20 percentage points ahead of Bostic in the first round of voting. Bostic got off to a slow start in the two-week primary runoff, hampered by a lack of funds, and while he secured some high-profile endorsements, including from former Sen. Rick...