South Carolina Primary: Mitt Romney Opens Up Big Lead In The Palmetto State

(Adds quotes, details, background)

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has opened a wide lead over his rivals in the South Carolina primary election race, trouncing Newt Gingrich and gaining momentum in his march toward the party's nomination, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, could all but quash his rivals' presidential aspirations with a victory in South Carolina on Jan. 21 after winning the first state-by-state nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Voters in South Carolina - who have favored Republicans in nine of the last 10 presidential elections - appear to have shrugged off attacks on Romney by rivals who accuse him of killing jobs as a private equity executive for Bain Capital in the 1990s.

The poll showed 37 percent of South Carolina Republican voters back Romney. Congressman Ron Paul and former Senator Rick Santorum tied for second place with 16 percent support.

Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, has fallen far back after holding a strong lead in South Carolina in December. He was in fourth place at 12 percent in the Reuters/Ipsos poll.

"In primary races things can change quickly but it does look like Romney is in position to win South Carolina, and if he wins ... that's sort of the end of the road for most of his challengers," Ipsos pollster Chris Jackson said.


MITT VS NEWT FEUD

Romney is clearly winning a feud with Gingrich that began in December before the Iowa caucuses and has become the most bitter fight in the selection of a Republican challenger to Democratic President Barack Obama in November's general election.

In a question asked of Republicans and Democrats, the poll found South Carolina voters would favor Romney over Obama by 46 percent to 40 percent.

Asked who they would choose if the nomination contest were solely between Romney and Gingrich, 62 percent of Republicans picked Romney and 30 percent went for Gingrich.

Senior Republican figures and business executives have berated Gingrich for painting multi-millionaire Romney as a ruthless corporate raider. Many Republican voters are also turned off by the attacks, highlighted in a video documentary produced by a funding group that backs Gingrich.

"I think those attacks are misguided. The process of any economy has long been one of creative destruction. Some things grow and some things disappear," said Steve Matthews, a lawyer from Columbia, South Carolina, who plans to vote for Romney.

Romney argues that many more jobs were created by Bain than were lost in his time there.

Santorum, who surged into second place in the Iowa caucuses before fading in New Hampshire, got a boost on Saturday when Christian conservative leaders meeting in Texas endorsed him.

After Gingrich, Texas Governor Rick Perry placed next in the Reuters/Ipsos poll with 6 percent support. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who was third in the New Hampshire primary, came in the lowest in the South Carolina poll with 3 percent support.

"Even if Romney loses South Carolina by a point or two, he's got the organization, he's got the financial backing to do the long battle of attrition that other challengers really don't," said Jackson of Ipsos.

Romney's campaign announced this week it raised $24 million in the last three months of 2011, while Paul raised $13 million and Gingrich raised $9 million. Obama is way ahead of the Republicans in fundraising.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online from Jan. 10-13 with a sample of 995 South Carolina registered voters. It included 398 Republicans and 380 Democrats.

Statistical margins of error are not applicable to online surveys but this poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 5 percentage points for Republicans and 3.4 percentage points for all voters. (Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan in South Carolina, Editing by Alistair Bell and John O'Callaghan)

Comments

[Jett7]

06:43 PM on 01/16/2012

The republican party seems to think it's Mitt's turn. Yes, it is, to fail.

[smburwick]

06:17 PM on 01/16/2012

Romney is a great man to fix the Pelosi-Reid-Obama mess. Just think,who has made out the best with BO? Unions, serial protestors, and the middle class is taking the hit for illegals on the dole, welfare recipients like Auntie Zenuti in Boston.

[smburwick]

05:08 PM on 01/16/2012

America1st: don't try to pin the healthcare on Romeny and the Deval do over for illegals who are legal in this state. If you poll most people in this state, especially those on the dole, they like it, and abuse it. Romney has stated that if he were in office once it was implemented, they would have fine tooned it. However, Deval Patrick fine tooned it the Obama way.

[smburwick]

05:04 PM on 01/16/2012

Why is Michelle Obama's face on this page, Huff? I thought she was going to run in 2016?

[peacespy]

03:05 PM on 01/16/2012

I would only vote from Romney on the condition that he legalizes polygamy and outlaws viagra. BUT this time around it is the women who get multiple husbands. AND with wages stagnating, everyone knows that it will take several breadwinners to support a family. So for modern times, this IS the answer! Fewer children per household, more workers supporting that one household.

[smburwick]

05:05 PM on 01/16/2012

Oh why don't you ask Harry Reid? He is a morman.

[waterdragon8]

02:38 PM on 01/16/2012

Next headline after "Romney Opens Up Wide Lead in South Carolina" should read, "And Stephen Colbert Drives a Massive Truck Right Through It".
Vr-o-o-o-o-o-o-m Vr-o-o-o-o-o-o-om!

[bouwob]

11:43 AM on 01/16/2012

Im not sure this is the case yet. If everyone but paul drops out after SC, mitt will start losing in big numbers. Parry and mitt should be gone after SC, so that will leave santorum and paul. They will split the other 70% of the vote and when santoum drops out, paul will get 70% of the vote and mitt 30%. Its going to be a long race

[RestoreUSmfg]

12:55 AM on 01/16/2012

We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Let's guess why?

Oh an that's right, tariff is a dirty word.

I guess we should keep letting Corp Boards, Wall Street and CEOs promote sending US jobs to countries where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. How's that been working for us? The so-called “Global Market Place” is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by doing this, but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world’s customer base out of work. I’m not a lefty or member of any union. I run a business that employs over 20 people and produces products that are purchased by customers that do manufacturing and packaging. I’m just an average Joe, but I've been saying this for more than 10 years now. If I can see it, so can our so-called leaders (political leaders) who are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.

[kidcat24]

01:40 AM on 01/16/2012

Element Electronics. Televisions being manufactured in the U.S.A. again. Production begins in March.

[RestoreUSmfg]

01:48 AM on 01/16/2012

That's great - We need more of that.

[MrSavage]

10:57 AM on 01/16/2012

Tariffs are counter productive. All you end up doing is redirecting resources away from those things we are best at towards those things we don't do as well. If a Chineese worker prefers to work for $1/day in a factory rather than $0.20/day in the fields that's good for him because he can now feed his family and it's good for us because we now have more money left over after buying that chinese computer to buy other goods. It's also good for us because chances are the factory he works in bought some of their equipment from the U.S.

[peacespy]

02:48 PM on 01/16/2012

People in other countries don't want to starve either. Many of those jobs, which went overseas, were sadly jobs whose processes pollute. As 3rd world countries realize they also can't live with dirty air and water, their regulations will get tougher too. Americans have a hard time dealing with the fact that one under-educated worker can't support a family of seven--mother, father and five kids--on the wages that an under-educated worker can make these days. Is that fair? Ask the Chinese worker who ancestors faced starvation on a regular basis.

[RestoreUSmfg]

03:31 PM on 01/16/2012

If we don't have jobs we won't be able to buy their cheap goods.

Our government, who is supposed to represent the American people, has to help even the playing field by adding tariffs that are proportionate to the inequities in wages and regulations in the country where the goods were produced and or where we're importing them from. We could then use the money raised by these tariffs to help companies build state of the art manufacturing plants here in the USA, which would create more jobs here at home for US citizens, which would then in turn increase our income tax revenue. We also need to bring customer support services back to the United States of America and staff them with employees who are US Citizens. (All preferably, non-union)

We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens, but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.

[nerak kneeling]

11:06 PM on 01/15/2012

that Masshole is a cockroach.

[smburwick]

04:49 PM on 01/16/2012

Your comment is disgusting.

[nerak kneeling]

05:10 PM on 01/16/2012

i am glad you liked it .

[nerak kneeling]

03:25 AM on 01/17/2012

I am glad you liked it . lol lmao

[Tracy Fortune]

10:31 PM on 01/15/2012

Palmettos- favourite nesting place for cockroaches (palmetto bugs)...

[American 1st]

10:16 PM on 01/15/2012

NEWSMAX article today:

Political observers were quick to anoint Mitt Romney as the prohibitive favorite in the Republican presidential race after his wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, and to predict that a Romney win in South Carolina will effectively end the GOP campaign.

Not so fast, say two elections experts.

“There is a group mentality after every election that something is decisive. And the reality is, it’s not,” said Michael McDonald, director of the elections project at George Mason University.

In fact, an InsiderAdvantage poll completed on Wednesday showed that Newt Gingrich has now surged to a statistical tie with Romney in South Carolina.

Only 368,495 people have taken part in the GOP caucuses in Iowa and the New Hampshire primary. McCain received nearly 60 million votes in the 2008 White House election, so only .61% of the number who cast ballots for McCain have had a chance to vote for Romney.

“It’s remarkable how the political community tries to shut down the nominating process after just a couple of unrepresentative small states have voted,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

To illustrate how these 2 early states are unrepresentative of the nation as a whole, Washington Whispers pointed out that just 1% of New Hampshire residents are black and 3% are Hispanic, while nationally 12% are black and 16% Hispanic.

Sabato says the rush to judgment after the very early votes “is par for the course every four years.”

[johnottr28]

10:10 PM on 01/15/2012

So the conservatives are on the cusp of nominating a liberal billionaire from, of all places, Massachusetts. You cant make this stuff up!

[flossophy]

11:37 PM on 01/15/2012

I think Romney's time in the sun is coming to an end. 

He has way too many vulnerabilities that will become a liability in the general election. 

[smburwick]

04:51 PM on 01/16/2012

I think Obama's time is coming to an end. One sign is Harry Reid the demonizer. Between him and Debbie the big mouth, who doesn't wash her hair, the left is all over everything.

[tkernhickory]

03:38 PM on 01/16/2012

Yes but its easier to take than to follow a Chicago political machine socialist

[jrleftfoot]

04:24 PM on 01/16/2012

Keep reciting the same tired stupidities.It seems to suit you.

[American 1st]

08:32 PM on 01/15/2012

I saw a good headline on another site:

Let's NEWTRALIZE Obama

Romney is too much like Obama.

[nerak kneeling]

11:09 PM on 01/15/2012

lizards don't eat snakes , it is the other way around.

[smburwick]

04:56 PM on 01/16/2012

This administration is what you described.

[flossophy]

11:38 PM on 01/15/2012

Exactly. 

Romney won't be able to draw a clear enough contrast between a Massachusetts moderate and a Liberal Democrat... especially when 0bamacare is borrowed directly from Romneycare.

[keezze]

07:54 PM on 01/15/2012

We need a unifyer as our commander and chief not a divider.

[peacespy]

02:53 PM on 01/16/2012

WOW - and exactly who would that be in this day and age. Even Jesus himself was NOT a unifier. President Obama is doing his best to govern from the middle and no matter what our President does, he is crucified but some fool thinking he could do a better job! Why don't the contenders just come out and say it: "I won't necessarily do a better job but I sure would appreciate the opportunity to give it a go!"

[smburwick]

04:07 PM on 01/16/2012

What are you smoking? You answered me that Obama came from meager background? What. He went to private schools. Oh, and he was a foreign student at Occidental---does that make him American? His Mother milked the system and his grandmother worked in the SS administration in Hawaii. Hardly destitute. Do you have a paper showing how difficult his upbringing was? All of his records are sealed or destroyed by Axelrod.

[wisemom3990]

07:00 PM on 01/16/2012

From the middle? Mr. Class Warfare himself?

[smburwick]

04:04 PM on 01/16/2012

At least Romney loves this country. Obama is an oportunist.

[jrleftfoot]

04:29 PM on 01/16/2012

Romney loves money.In fact ,he worships it, like all good rightwingers.Like you do,most likely.

[johnottr28]

07:15 PM on 01/15/2012

So the conservatives are on the cusp of nominating a liberal billionaire from Massachusetts no less. Im telling you, you cant make this stuff up!

[onsiteval]

08:22 PM on 01/15/2012

It's so sad, as much as I want to see BO gone, I will not go to the polls (first time since 70) to vote for Mitt...we need real change and more of the same like we have now won't cut it...Re-Elect No-one...maybe after 4,5 or 6 voting cycles they'd get the mess. they are to serve the people's best interest, not special interest which reverts back to criminal politicians getting tons of $$ for their freakin campaigns.. HP will probably not post this as most of my other rants,,,,LOL

[johnottr28]

08:46 PM on 01/15/2012

I am not sure why you do not want President Obama reelected! Whenever I ask someone that question they really dont have a very good answer. If they say Health Care I remind them that every President since FDR was trying to get that done and they shut up. If they say how he handles foreign affairs I remind them that he has killed more terrorists including Bin Laden then any other President and they shut up. If they bring up illegal immigration, I remind them that he has deported more people than Bush and they shut up. If they mention the direction of the economy I remind them that things are improving every month and they shut up.

[jrleftfoot]

04:30 PM on 01/16/2012

Vote for Colbert.

[smburwick]

05:02 PM on 01/16/2012

First of all, Romney lived in Utah, NH, and Massachusetts. He was governor for 4 years. In Mass. having a Republican in office is rare. Ed Brooke was a senator, Scott Brown now a senator, and Romney, Weld, and that's it. This is a far left state, so left we touch Putin's backyard.

[johnottr28]

05:15 PM on 01/16/2012

Yep and Mass. is one of the most sucessful and productive states in the country. Mass is ranked 12th in GDP and sixth in per capita GDP. The top three GDP states are California, Texas and New York. The bottom three per capita GDP states are Idaho, West Virginai and S. Carolina.