Tally in South Carolina Straw Poll Resumes, McCain Even with Giuliani, Hunter

The State (South Carolina) ^ | Posted on Fri, Mar. 02, 2007 | staff report

[meg88]

Tally in SC straw poll resumes; McCain even with Giuliani, Hunter

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Sen. John McCain pulled even with two of his Republican rivals when counting resumed Friday morning in a presidential straw poll in conservative Spartanburg County.

Though most of the roughly 800 votes were counted on Thursday night, ballots tallied Friday morning weighed heavily in McCain's favor, said GOP county chairman Rick Beltram.

The updated count put McCain in a dead heat with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and California Rep. Duncan Hunter. Beltram would not release any specific numbers and said a final tally would be known Friday afternoon.

The count was suspended because of severe weather that swept across South Carolina.

With 81 of 92 precincts reporting Thursday night, Giuliani garnered 158 votes. Hunter was a close second with 152 votes and McCain was third with 116 votes, according to county GOP officials.

Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback had 83 votes, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 80 votes and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee rounded out the front-runners with 21 votes.

Beltram blamed the low turnout on the weather.

[TommyDale]

I guess it took several hours for the McCain people to come up with the additional ballots.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1793947/posts

Later results then yours and McCain not close, why?

[JRochelle]

Well that totally sucks!

As long as Hunter stays within the top 2, I'll be happy.

[meg88]

It's still a big victory for Duncan, ABC News is following him now.

[Basheva]

When you consider that everyone on the list - Guiliani, Romney and McCain - have national name recognition - for Hunter to be second is truly amazing.

GO HUNTER - MY CONGRESSMAN!

[areafiftyone]

WOW!! Amazing! Thanks for the update!

[areafiftyone]

((((PING)))

[areafiftyone]

((((((PING)))))

[TomGuy]

This is starting to reek.

They stop counting last night when Hunter is closing in on Giuliani and McCain is in the middle of the numbers.

Now, miraculously, this morning, McCain is running even with frontrunners Giuliani and Hunter?


This straw poll is starting to smell of another barnyard substance.

[VRWCTexan]

On Fox News they reported that Hunter's brother and other campaign staff had come and basically camped out for the past couple of weeks - working to turn out supporters...

While Rudy did almost nothing along those lines

While I like Hunter and would like to see him come to the top, IMO you cannot really gage broad Rep voter support based on these types of "straw polls"

[FairOpinion]

The article you are referring to is NOT more recent, in fact it's from much earlier, those were the first results,then there was an update last night and the article meg88 posted this morning IS the latest.

"Sen. John McCain pulled even with two of his Republican rivals when counting resumed Friday morning in a presidential straw poll in conservative Spartanburg County."

[gov_bean_ counter]

Duncan Hunter...

Big spending isolationist. Doesn't sound like a Conservative to me. /s

[FairOpinion]

"roughly 800 votes "

Sort of Rudy ping (?)

[OldFriend]

Starting to smell a lot like Iowa.

[From One - Many]

I have been continuing to look for something / anything to not agree with concerning remarks and actions made by Mr. Hunter, but of all the candidates (I have come to the conclusion) he is only conservative in the race for nomination.

[areafiftyone]

Nah it's only Spartenburg. It really doesn't mean much in the whole scheme of things. People could just be showing up today because of the weather. This is not a whole state poll only a small town.

[areafiftyone]

Did McCain even go to Spartenburg? I heard the Hunter team camped out there for the poll. Rudy had made one stop at a firehouse and that was it. What did McCain do?

[DKNY]

I understand suspending the count last night, but that kind of support for McCain surprises me.

[areafiftyone]

Me too. I heard from someone that McCain did something in Spartenburg but they didn't go into details. I wonder what? Rudy sent out mailings, Hunter's group camped out and I don't know WHAT McCain did.