Mark Sanford well positioned to win South Carolina GOP runoff

It’s been nearly two weeks since Mark Sanford placed first in South
Carolina’s 1st district Republican primary and kicked off a runoff
campaign as the heavy favorite to win his party’s nomination.

Little has changed since that time.

With Election Day coming up again on Tuesday, the former governor is the
clear front-runner to defeat former Charleston County councilor Curtis
Bostic.

There haven’t been any “earth-shattering kabooms” during the runoff
campaign, said South Carolina Republican strategist Luke Byars, who is
neutral. He added: “As a result, I think Sanford’s still favored by a
great margin.”

Richard Quinn, a second neutral GOP strategist, said: “My guess is
Sanford will win comfortably.”

Sanford won 37 percent of the vote March 19, while Bostic won just 13
percent, barely good enough to edge out the third-place finisher in the
race. What followed was a fairly quiet and pretty one-sided runoff campaign.

Sanford, who is much better-known and better-funded, has been difficult
to catch. The former governor has stuck to a steady message. He’s
running as a fiscal conservative, pointing to his record on spending as
governor, and before that, as the 1st district representative.

“We’re going to continue working right up to the wire getting our
supporters out to vote and spreading the word about the governor’s
record of cutting spending and debt,” said Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer.

The Republican fell from grace dramatically in 2009, when, as governor,
he disappeared from the state, then admitted to an extramarital affair.
Voters in the 1st district are very familiar with the matter, and it
hasn’t been a dominant focal point in the Bostic-Sanford back-and-forth.

The issue came up most prominently during a televised debate last week,
only after the moderator raised it. Sanford admitted fault, and argued
that the 2009 episode brought him humility that would serve him well on
Capitol Hill. Without directly mentioning the matter, Bostic called
Sanford a “compromised candidate.”


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Ahh, South Carolina...taking over from Mississippi as the dumbest state.