Greenville Republicans have already started doing 2010 gubernatorial straw polls … as have talk radio stations and other websites.
Do any of them count? Of course not.
Everything at this early stage of the race is insider chatter, and even legitimate public opinion polls tell us nothing except how many people have heard of a certain candidate.
Nonetheless, Brent Nelsen (wait … who?) put out a press release earlier this week touting his second-place finish in a WORD radio straw poll in the Upstate – a poll that had fewer respondents than our fake GOP poll from last month and was probably stacked with sympathetic students.
And yet in spite of all that, Brent Nelsen (again … who?) has succeeded in his quest – getting us to print his name. Twice even.
Anyway, here are the eight Republicans who are either running (*) or considering a run at the governors’ mansion in 2010 …
*Gresham Barrett – Third District U.S. Congressman, former State Representative (Westminster)
Andre Bauer – S.C. Lt. Governor, former State Senator (Columbia)
Chip Campsen – State Senator (Charleston)
Tom Davis – State Senator, former Chief-of-Staff to Gov. Mark Sanford (Beaufort)
Larry Grooms – State Senator (Berkeley)
Nikki Haley – State Representative (Lexington)
Henry McMaster – S.C. Attorney General, former SCGOP Chairman (Columbia)
*Brent Nelsen – Furman University Political Science Professor (Greenville)
Our guess is that we’ll end up with a six-person field, and that one of the three establishment candidates (Barrett, Bauer or McMaster) will end up in a runoff with a reform candidate (Davis? Grooms? Haley?).
Obviously, we’re still a year away from a primary – which means that anything can happen. But given the financial resources that will be necessary to compete, people are going to have to start making their intentions (and positions) known.
In the meantime, we can have some fun with the speculation game, too …
To the poll!
If the GOP Gubernatorial Primary was held today, who would you vote for?
- Nikki Haley (20%, 68 Votes)
- Brent Nelsen (19%, 65 Votes)
- Gresham Barrett (19%, 64 Votes)
- Henry McMaster (16%, 53 Votes)
- Tom Davis (11%, 36 Votes)
- Andre Bauer (6%, 20 Votes)
- Larry Grooms (6%, 19 Votes)
- Chip Campsen (3%, 12 Votes)
Total Voters: 337
Loading ...
By scguy123 April 30, 2009 at 9:31 am
look like barretts staff is up this morning
By hammerheadSC April 30, 2009 at 10:09 am
Yea i was wonduring the same thing.
By To my thinking April 30, 2009 at 10:20 am
Nikki Haley’s, too.
By Alex Hampton April 30, 2009 at 10:23 am
Of course Nikki Haley is in second place and probably will win this poll. SIC wants her to win and he has control over this site.
By Peas in a Pod April 30, 2009 at 10:39 am
Interesting…in the reddest of the red states…and on the most conservative of blogs…the two leaders in your poll are the only candidates who are the record as voting for the stimulus. Barrett voted to give it, and Haley voted to take it.
By The Silent Baker April 30, 2009 at 10:55 am
and the furman kids
By Alex Hampton April 30, 2009 at 11:07 am
It looks like Nelsen is gathering steam. You might have to rewrite your article to include him as a serious contender.
By Taylor April 30, 2009 at 11:16 am
Brent Nelsen’s name is spelled with an “e,” not an “o”
By hammerheadSC April 30, 2009 at 11:43 am
Sic lets see a piece on Davis, Campsen, Haley, you’ve wrote about grooms and Three stooges already. Whether or not they are officially in, let the opinions role.
By Frank Long April 30, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Why is the voting shut down? I just saw this post and wanted to vote for Nelsen. I heard him speak at the Greenville County Republican Convention and he is very impressive. You should really go hear him speak.
By fitsnews April 30, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Frank,
The voting is not shut down. It’s only shut down if you’re trying to vote twice.
-FITS
By Alex Hampton April 30, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Frank,
If you are at Furman you can not vote. The Furman network will not let more than 1 person vote on this because all the computers at Furman share the same IP address, or so I have been told. I encountered similar problems when I tried to vote earlier.
By Nate April 30, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Yeah Will I’m with hammerheadSC, write a piece on Nikki Haley. And could you use that picture of her standing in front of a Mosque wearing those sweet Arabic threads? I think the voters of SC would think she looks very cut out to be our governor.
By PalmettoPulse April 30, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Sic – only one vote per IP addresses. For offices, this is prohibitive. HELP!
By FITS Gals April 30, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Ok, we tried modifying the poll widget to allow students from a single IP address, you guys having problems, can you vote now?
By Pugsley April 30, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Does anyone else see a striking resemblance between Nelsen and Lurch?
Compare: http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper1002/stills/a76y2ok2.jpg
With:http://michaelcarnell.palmettobug.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/lurch1.jpg
By Andy April 30, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Hey Nate you racist d-bag,
Nikki Haley is Indian-American from a family of Sikhs, not Muslims. And before you ask, I’m not connected to her or even supporting her but I just hate to see dumbasses like you muddy the water by bringing in (inaccurate) info about her being a Muslim.
If you are going to try to be incendiary at least be accurate / clever about it.
By James the Foot Soldier April 30, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Sweet – I put Nikki on top (of the poll gutter-heads)!
:)
By Charleston Conservative April 30, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I’m neither a Furman grad nor a Greenville resident, and I support Brent Nelsen. He’s intelligent, moral, and a staunch conservative–just the fresh voice that this stagnant state needs in Columbia.
By Lily May 1, 2009 at 12:33 am
Nate, surely Bobby Harrell or Dan Coooper – or at least one of those idiots you work for at the Caucus — told you to be more subtle with nasty racial slurs against people who disagree with them. Those guys are professional morons, to be sure. But goodness, Nate — stop working so hard to prove that, sweetie! That’s just not what they pay you for.
By mynameefang May 1, 2009 at 1:17 am
Whatever. This poll has been ruined by the Nelsonators…just like the Ronulans, they get on here and flood the comments and actually believe their guy has a chance…
NEXT.
By FITS Gals May 1, 2009 at 7:14 am
Actually, so far, the IPs are unique for the poll…So, that’s pretty good!
By hammerheadSC May 1, 2009 at 10:40 am
Yea your poll is working better than most sites. Seems pretty fair.
By timc944 May 7, 2009 at 9:43 am
Larry Grooms is an awesome Senator and will be great Governor. We need someone young, energetic, and focused on family values.