The South Carolina Primary is today. Here are the 10 things you need to know.
- Romney’s schedule: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will start out the day revving up campaign volunteers in Greenville, SC, then travel the state during the day and end the night at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia for an election night party.
- McDonnell endorses Romney, will campaign through primary: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell just endorsed Romney for President, and will be spending primary day in South Carolina with the former Massachusetts Gov. campaigning. He’ll join Romney in a visit to Romney for President headquarters in Greenville tonight.
- Network primary coverage schedule: MSNBC will have coverage of the South Carolina primary starting at 6pm, anchored by Rachel Maddow. It will also have Chris Matthews, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz, Lawrence O’Donnell and Republican strategist Steve Schmidt standing by for comments. Fox will also start at 6 and features Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly. CNN will start 7 pm and be anchored by Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett, John King and Soledad O’Brien.
- Polls run 7 to 7 in SC, while early voting starts in FL tomorrow The polls will be open from 7 am to 7 pm in South Carolina. The state doesn’t have early voting — it has an absentee balloting procedure but only allows traditional ballot casting on primary day itself. In Florida however, voters can start casting ballots ahead of the official January 31st primary date.
- Latino pols cast early ballots for Romney: Speaking of early voting in Florida, Romney’s campaign is using tomorrow’s start as a way to show the backing of some Latino supporters in the Sunshine state, as City of Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez will cast his ballot for Romney tomorrow morning at a press event. Former Florida Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R) will also be in attendance.
- Romney will head to Florida the day after the SC results: Romney himself will be heading to All-Star Building Materials in Ormond Beach, Florida for a “grassroots rally” on jobs and the economy at 5:30 pm on Sunday.
- Gingrich proposes a ‘Commission on Gold’: In a fairly transparent attempt to corral the more libertarian bloc of the GOP, Newt Gingrich announced via press release his intention to create a “Commission on Gold” should he become president. If elected, Gingrich intends to appoint Lew Lehrman and Jim Grant to the commission. “They are both distinguished students of monetary policy and long-time advocates of a return to hard money–a dollar as good as gold,” Gingrich said via the relsease. “Mr. Lehrman served on President Reagan’s Gold Commission in the 1980s and is author of the 2011 book, The True Gold Standard: A Monetary Reform Plan Without Official Reserve Currencies. Mr. Grant is editor of the respected Wall Street investment letter Grant’s Interest Rate Observer and was recently named by Congressman Ron Paul as his first choice for Chairman of the Federal Reserve.”
- Pro-walker rally in Wisconsin: In non-presidential news, there will be a pro-Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) rally tomorrow in Wauwatosa, a suburb of Milwaukee, supporting the Governor ahead of an expected recall election. TPM readers will remember that Walker will likely face the recall after Democrats turned in one million signatures supporting the election in 2012 after the Gov. supported anti-union legislation during the winter that sparked massive protests. The rally starts at 1 PM and organizers expect about 1,000 people.
- AFSCME takes on Romney in Florida: As the conversation shifts to the next stop in the primary process after South Carolina, pro-Democratic forces in the state are trying to define Romney as he tries to write his own narrative — new ads from the public employee union AFSCME will appear in the state that attempt to tie Romney to unpopular Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) The spot’s narrator claims, “”While Romney was a director of the Damon Corporation, the company was defrauding Medicare of millions.”
- Chuck Norris endorses Newt: Finally, Chuck Norris has made his decision. After careful consideration, he’s endorsing Newt Gingrich for president. “..he is the best man left on the battlefield who is able to outwit, outplay and outlast Obama and his campaign machine,” Norris said in a column.
