COLUMBIA, SC — The polls show Mitt Romney has the support of women here, while Newt Gingrich can’t count more on the backing of men. One can assume that Gingrich’s notorious martial fidelity problem could be behind the disparity.
But for one female voter I talked to at the Dreher High School polling place here, Mitt Romney’s still-hidden tax returns were more important than Gingrich’s behavior. She voted Newt.
“I’m scorned woman,” said the voter, who only wanted me to report her first name, Beth, because she just changed her last name after her divorce became final. Beth said her ex-husband did to her what Gingrich has done to two wives in the past — and yet she pulled the lever for Gingrich anyway.
“It’s a 10 year-old deal,” Beth said of Marianne Gingrich’s latest allegations about her ex-husband. “Move on and get over it.”
Beth’s vote for Gingrich was as much a vote against Mitt Romney as it it was a vote for getting over old stories of infidelity however. Had Romney released his tax returns, he would have had her vote Saturday.
“I didn’t know who I was going to vote for until I watched the last debate,” Beth told me. “Mitt just stuttered and stammered over [the tax returns.]”
