Julie Farby - AHN News Writer Washington, DC (AHN)-Several polls leading into Saturday's South Carolina Republican primary elections show Sen. John McCain enjoying a narrow lead over his rivals, including Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.
McCain, who lost South Carolina in 2000 to President Bush, is hoping this time around will prove to be different from the last election. A win for McCain would be a key boost to his campaign after narrow losses to Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney in Iowa and Michigan, respectively.
According to a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll, with 27% of the vote McCain holds a slim lead over his rival GOP candidates. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee trails McCain with 25%, followed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, 15%, Fred Thompson, 13%, Ron Paul, 6%, and Rudy Giuliani, 5%.
In a separate poll, conducted by Zogby International, the numbers were slightly different but the outcome similar. In the Zogby poll of 814 likely GOP primary voters, McCain remained in front of the GOP pack with 27% of the vote, followed by Huckabee, 22%; Romney, 15%; Thompson, 13%; Paul, 4%; and Giuliani, 2%.
While both Nevada and South Carolina are holding their primaries on the same day, South Carolina is considered the more pivotal state of the two, with candidates focusing much of their campaign time and energy on winning the important southern state.
"South Carolina is the much, much bigger deal of the two," says Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "South Carolina epitomizes the Sun Belt. South Carolina is one of the most Republican states in the country," he adds.
Poster Comment:
for what's it's worth