The four candidates vying FOR the Republican nomination for governor of South Carolina have been airing a variety of interesting TV ads recently, hitting familiar themes — bread and butter GOP issues like health care illegal immigration and the Tea Party movement, plus the quintessentially Southern theme of “states rights.” And, of course, there’s Sarah Palin.
Four candidates are vying the Republican nomination for governor of South Carolina, to succeed the term-limited (and scandal-plagued) GOP Gov. Mark Sanford. And all four of them have some great ads.
The candidates will meet on the ballot for the first time this Tuesday, June 8. A candidate will need to win more than 50% of the vote in order to be nominated outright. And with the polls showing all of them attracting significant support, the most likely outcome is that the the top two will meet again in a runoff on June 22. The TPM Poll average gives state Rep. Nikki Haley 28.7%, state Attorney General Henry McMaster 17.2%, Lt. Gov. André Bauer 16.7%, and Rep. Gresham Barrett 15.0%.
State Rep. Nikki Haley of course has a new ad that prominently features her husband, and an acknowledgement by her that she has seen the “dark side” of the state’s politics — a reference to recent accusations that she had an extramarital affair. But Haley has also had another ad featuring her most prominent national endorser: Sarah Palin, who came to South Carolina to headline a Haley rally.
Lt. Gov. André Bauer has an ad featuring former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who came in a very close second to John McCain in the state’s 2008 presidential primary and remains a favorite of many religious conservatives. “André was Tea Party before there was a Tea Party,” says Huckabee.
State Attorney General Henry McMaster is kicking it old-school with his ad about an overgrown federal government. “South Carolina’s sovereignty is under attack by politicians preying on our freedoms,” the announcer says, likening the Obama agenda to vultures circling around South Carolinians, and promising that McMaster is “standing tall for states’ rights.”
Rep. Gresham Barrett has an ad that plays up his Army background, with him visiting “campaign boot camp.” The drill sergeant exclaims that Barrett will “kick some…illegal immigrants out of the state.”
