Colbert Busch Leads Sanford In S.Carolina

A year ago, no one would have given the Democrats much chance of winning the House seat in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District. It was considered to be one of the safest Republican seats in the country. But that was before the Republicans nominated former governor Mark Sanford for the seat -- which will be filled in a special election in a couple of weeks. It now looks like the disgraced former governor (who "hiked the Appalachian Trail" all the way to Argentina to visit his secret mistress) could well lose the election -- a seat that he once held for three terms.

That is what the latest poll is showing. Public Policy Polling (one of the top polling organizations in the last election) conducted a survey of the district between April 19th and 21st of 796 voters in that district (with a polling margin of error of 3.5 points). Their survey found that Elizabeth Colbert Busch has now staked out a significant lead in the race. Here are the numbers:

IF THE ELECTION WAS TODAY, WHO WOULD YOU VOTE FOR?
Elizabeth Colbert Busch (Democrat)...............50%
Mark Sanford (Republican)...............41%
Eugene Platt (Green)...............3%
Undecided...............5%

And this is a district that does not have a favorable opinion of President Obama -- giving him a 10 point higher unfavorable rating than favorable (41% favorable to 51% unfavorable). But they have an even more unfavorable view of Sanford than they do the president. Here are the poll's favorability numbers for both Sanford and Colbert Busch:

MARK SANFORD
favorable...............38%
unfavorable...............56%
not sure...............7%

ELIZABETH COLBERT BUSCH
favorable...............56%
unfavorable...............31%
not sure...............13%

There are still a couple of weeks to go, but it looks like Sanford has a very hard row to hoe. The district's voters may like Sanford's Republican positions, but they don't think much of him as a person -- and voters tend not to vote for people they don't like.