South Carolina Miscellaneous...

-South Carolina voters are pretty evenly divided on Nikki Haley's performance as Governor so far but she has one definite thing going for her...voters would still pick her if they went to the polls again today.

42% of voters approve of Haley while 41% disapprove and 17% are on the fence. When PPP polled on Haley after her first month in office 36% of voters gave her good marks and 24% thought she was doing a poor job, so the number of South Carolinians unhappy with her is growing at a much faster rate than ones who think she's doing well. Democrats (68%) disapprove of her to a greater extent than Republicans (63%) think she's doing a good job but with the state's Republican advantage she's still able to break even.

Despite her declining popularity Haley still leads 2010 opponent Vincent Sheehen 48-42 in a hypothetical rematch. Haley joins Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval as the only new Republican Governor we've found who would still win if there was a redo of their election- we've found new chief executives in Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Georgia all losing those.

-Absence does not make the heart grow fonder, at least when it comes to Mark Sanford. Only 27% of voters in the state now have a favorable opinion of him to 56% with a negative one. Most notably he's now under water even with Republicans at a 36/46 spread. The ship sailed with Democrats (17/67) and independents (26/59) a long time ago.

-70% of voters in the state think interracial marriage should be legal to only 16% who think it should be illegal- those are actually stronger numbers in favor of it than North Carolina, Georgia, or Mississippi. There's a little more division on the Civil War though- 46% of voters are glad the North won to 24% who wish the South had. And among Republicans there's nearly an even divide with 36% favoring the Union to 30% still wishing the Confederacy had emerged victorious.

-Lindsey Graham continues to get pretty mixed reviews from voters in the state. 40% approve of him to 38% who disapprove. Per usual he has unusually weak numbers with Republicans (only 48% approval) but unusually strong numbers with Democrats (30% approval). He's at 41% with very liberal voters, but just 31% with very conservative voters. Not a lot of Republican Senators for whom that's the case.

Full results here

Comments

[Steve]

In furtherance of my earlier remarks, Im keen to see how Obama fairs in SC. I live in the Greenville area and he doesnt seem too popular here. Hes also taken a real hit over the Boeing issue and looks like a 4-star jerk over that.

[NRH]

Anon 3:24 - Probably the teaching some very odd things one, sadly. SC is one of those places where they call it the war of northern aggression and write abolitionist heroes out of the history books.

[Anonymous]

Um, 18% of African American respondents wish the South had won the Civil War? And a further 28% of African-Americans are undecided?Either the poll is flawed, the public schools in SC are teaching some very odd things about the Civil War, or Blacks in SC have it so bad that even slavery looks like at least a viable alternative to 46% of them.

[Anonymous]

It looks as if South Carolina has become much more like the rest of America than it used to be. Nobody is going to win election there by showing the Confederate flag. ... Nikki Haley may have barely won re-election. She might not be much help to Republican candidates, but she won;t be trouble.

[Steve]

While I find this poll interesting, I was disappointed to see that you fell into the stereotyping of southerners by asking the interacial marriage question rather than the same-sex marriage question. You would probably find about 10% of New Yorkers or Calfornians would oppose interacial marraige too but what good is a question like this today? I think same-sex marriage would have been a much more appropriate question.

[Inkan1969]

She has that high a disapproval? I live in SC, and to tell the truth, I havent really heard any big news about Haley. I dont think shes yet attempted any big policy like what Walker and Kasich have attempted (and Im not sure such policies would be unpopular in SC). Shes, well, shes just been there.What worries me now as an SC Dem is this lawsuit over the planned Boeing plant in Charleston. Im worried that the lawsuit will inspire a severe anti-union streak and anti-Obama streak among SC voters.