South Carolina gubernatorial election, 2006

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The 2006 South Carolina gubernatorial election took place on November 7, 2006. Incumbent Republican Governor Mark Sanford was running for re-election against Democratic State Senator Tommy Moore and has become only the second Republican governor in South Carolina to win a second term. Sanford started the campaign with a double-digit edge over Moore and had maintained that lead, although the race tightened as election day neared. As of September 2006, Sanford's approval rating was 63%.[1]

Contents 1 Democratic Primary 2 Republican Primary 3 Campaign 4 Election results 5 Polling 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Democratic Primary

Tommy Moore, a State Senator from western South Carolina, emerged with Florence Mayor Frank Willis as the major candidates in the Democratic primary election for governor. Rumors circulated that Superintendent of Education and former U.S. Senate candidate, Inez Tenenbaum, might enter the race, but she ultimately chose not to run for governor nor seek re-election to her position. Kenneth Holland, a former U.S. Representative from the 5th congressional district, briefly entered the race, but dropped out a month later after failing to raise enough financial contributions.

Moore and Willis have traded barbs over campaign contributions made by Willis and his wife to prominent Republicans, including President George W. Bush and Senator Lindsay Graham. Attorney C. Dennis Aughtry, who entered the campaign at the eleventh hour, floated the idea of legalizing casinos statewide to raise money for public schools. Moore garnered more than 50% of the vote in the Democratic primary held on June 13 and thus avoided a runoff election.

Democratic Primary
Candidate	Votes	%
Tommy Moore	88,092	63.7
Frank E. Willis	42,317	30.6
C. Dennis Aughtry	7,934	5.7

[edit] Republican Primary

Portending a sign of trouble, incumbent Governor Mark Sanford faced a primary challenge from Oscar Lovelace, a physician from the Midlands. When former Governor David Beasley ran for re-election in 1998, he faced a primary challenge and went on to lose the general election to Jim Hodges. Sanford's veto of a heart center for Lexington County and theatrics such as bringing pigs to the Statehouse to show his displeasure of pork barrel spending by the General Assembly angered and annoyed many Republicans. However, Sanford's strategy of avoiding Lovelace and refusal to debate worked as the governor scored a decisive victory in the primary on June 13.

Republican Primary
Candidate	Votes	%
Mark Sanford	160,238	64.8
Oscar Lovelace	87,043	35.2

On July 7, several weeks after the primary election, Lexington County State Senator Jake Knotts launched a last minute effort to place his name on the ballot as a petition candidate for governor. He had feuded with Governor Sanford over a number of issues, including the heart center for Lexington County, and supported Lovelace in the Republican primary. In order to be on the ballot in November, Knotts needed to collect 10,000 signatures of registered voters by July 17, which he failed to do. Knotts's political consultant publicly stated that he could not have raised enough money to have run a successful candidacy. It was generally believed that had Knotts entered the race, it would have split the Republican vote and helped elect Tommy Moore. However, some polling suggests that a Knotts candidacy may have in fact done more damage to Moore than Sanford.

[edit] Campaign

Governor Mark Sanford has proposed three major issues he will campaign on for re-election, chief among them being the restructuring of state government. He would like to reduce the number of statewide elected officials from nine to three and to eliminate the state's Budget and Control Board. The governor insists that these measures would reduce the number of redundant positions and make state government both more efficient and less costly. Sanford's three major issues for the campaign are:

• Restructuring state government.
• School choice through tuition tax credits.
• Tax cuts and spending restraint.

State Senator Tommy Moore is running as a good manager of state government. He is socially conservative and fiscally moderate, which puts him squarely at odds with the libertarian incumbent. Moore also disagrees with what he believes is Sanford's condescending and combative approach of dealing with the General Assembly. The senator also believes that Sanford lacks leadership skills, and that lack of leadership has brought South Carolina to a standstill over the past four years. The main policy proposals that he has developed are:

• A rural infrastructure bank to help undeveloped counties.
• A governor's office that actively recruits new businesses to the state.
• A 30 cent tax increase on cigarettes to offset small business tax credits for employee health insurance.

[edit] Election results

2006 gubernatorial election, South Carolina
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Mark Sanford (incumbent)	601,871	55.1	+2.2
	Democratic	Tommy Moore	489,084	44.8	-2.2
	No party	Write-Ins	1,008	0.1	0.0
Majority			112,787	10.3	+4.4
Turnout			1,091,963	44.5	-10.1
	Republican hold

[edit] Polling

Source	Date	Moore (D)	Sanford (R)
Survey USA	November 5, 2006	40%	57%
Palmetto Poll	October 26, 2006	31%	58%
Rasmussen	October 25, 2006	34%	57%
Survey USA	October 17, 2006	41%	56%
Survey USA	September 28, 2006	46%	50%
Survey USA	September 20, 2006	41%	54%
Rasmussen	September 10, 2006	38%	51%
Rasmussen	August 4, 2006	38%	47%
Rasmussen	June 23, 2006	39%	51%
Rasmussen	May 10, 2006	33%	52%
Rasmussen	February 17, 2006	36%	49%

[edit] See also

• U.S. gubernatorial elections, 2006
• Governor of South Carolina
• List of Governors of South Carolina
• South Carolina gubernatorial elections
• South Carolina state elections, 2006

[edit] External links

• Mark Sanford Re-election Campaign Site
• Oscar Lovelace 2006 Gubernatorial Campaign Site
• Frank Willis 2006 Gubernatorial Campaign Site
• Tommy Moore 2006 Gubernatorial Campaign Site
• Dennis Aughtry 2006 Gubernatorial Campaign Site
• The State article about Knotts' petition drive

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